A building's performance under attack is of utmost importance. Beyond retaining its structural integrity, it should also protect people from debris and air blast—a challenge made even greater with the prevalence of glazed curtainwalls in the current building stock. "[T]he goal is to protect the interior occupants [and] absorb that shock through the glass, into the [curtainwall] frame, and into the structural [components] of that building," says Andrew Dunlap, aia, a principal and the building technology studio leader at SmithGroup's Detroit office. Along with the following considerations, specifying an impact-resistant curtainwall requires the design team to validate the system's ability to satisfy the particular parameters and requirements of a project.
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