More about the glass walls in the patterns & practices lab.
Yesterday I received an email from Beyhan Trock who is an architect (of buildings, not software). Beyhan was interested in learning more about the glass walls mentioned in the "Workspace of the Future" article I posted earlier. In case you missed the article it describes one of the next-generation workspaces being piloted here at Microsoft in order to facilitate Agile software development practices. Beyhan wanted to know more about the glass walls which make up that workspace because he's trying to implement something similar for another software development team.
So I got in touch with Steve Olson (SKB Architects) who worked on the p&p workspace. He was very helpful in providing some more details regarding the glass walls:
"It's great to hear the space is working so well on so many levels. The glass walls are not very complicated. The clear is 1/2" tempered glass with aluminum channels on the top and bottom.
The 'whiteboard glass' is low iron laminated glass, 2 layers 1/4" with a 'white diffused laminate' layer. This is the same type of aluminum channel on top and bottom.
There is blocking/seismic bracing above the ceiling that the channels attach to.
I have attached the typical details we use for reference. The operable glass partitions can be had from Huffcor or Dorma."
I have included Steve's PDF attachment as an attachment to this blog post. I have to admit that I don't really understand the diagram myself, but for anybody trying to construct such a workspace it may be helpful. Thanks, Steve!