AB Hotel’s Project Manager, John Duckworth, says: “We are naturally very proud of what we have achieved here and the extremely high standard of workmanship. One of the major problems we faced involved retaining the windows but ensuring the building reached our exacting standards of energy efficiency and noise insulation, particularly to the suites at the front of the building overlooking Great Cumberland Place, which is a major central London thoroughfare. We consulted secondary glazing specialists, Selectaglaze to provide the solution. The beauty of their systems is not only the acoustic and thermal properties but the fact they are unobtrusive, all you see are the Georgian windows behind”. John goes on to say: “And, of course, rooms treated with secondary glazing perform much better than those with double glazing and are more popular with guests”.
In total, Selectaglaze treated over 40 windows to guestrooms and suites overlooking Great Cumberland Place utilising a combination of their Series 20 and 90 standard and heavy duty vertical sliders and Series 60 Tilt ‘n Slide units.
Selectaglaze’s Chairman, Meredith Childerstone, says: “We have a wealth of experience in all types of building up to Grade I listing and have worked within hotels ranging from budget to world renowned icons such as The Dorchester and Grosvenor. We design our systems using strong but lightweight aluminium sections. These normally have a permanent white paint finish but a multitude of colours and other effects are available so that the units can blend with the individual interior décor. The systems are factory assembled to allow rapid installation with minimal disruption, an important consideration when managing occupancy rates in the hotel industry.” Meredith goes on to say: “The Company was founded in 1966 and we are very proud to have been Royal Warrant holders since 2004. We are dedicated to creating sensitive designs with minimal visual impact, which is particularly important for Listed buildings. We also subject our systems to rigorous third-party testing which has resulted in high level certification covering thermal and acoustic insulation and protection against forced entry. Many of our products are accredited to Secured by Design, the ‘Police Preferred Specification’ initiative”.