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This article is about the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense. For the geometric figure, see Pentagon. For other uses, see Pentagon (disambiguation). The Pentagon

The Pentagon in January 2008

Location in the Washington, D.C. area

Pentagon Office Building Complex

The Pentagon is the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, located in Arlington County, Virginia, across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. As a symbol of the U.S. military, The Pentagon is often used metonymically to refer to the U.S. Department of Defense.

The Pentagon was designed by American architect George Bergstrom (18761955), and built by general contractor John McShain of Philadelphia. Ground was broken for construction on September 11, 1941, and the building was dedicated on January 15, 1943. General Brehon Somervell provided the major motive power behind the project;[4] Colonel Leslie Groves was responsible for overseeing the project for the U.S. Army.

The Pentagon is one of the world's largest office buildings, with about 6,500,000sqft (600,000m2), of which 3,700,000sqft (340,000m2) are used as offices.[5][6] Approximately 23,000 military and civilian employees[6] and about 3,000 non-defense support personnel work in the Pentagon. It has five sides, five floors above ground, two basement levels, and five ring corridors per floor with a total of 17.5mi (28.2km)[6] of corridors. The Pentagon includes a five-acre (20,000m2) central plaza, which is shaped like a pentagon and informally known as "ground zero," a nickname originating during the Cold War on the presumption that it would be targeted by the Soviet Union at the outbreak of nuclear war.[7]

On September 11, 2001, exactly 60 years after the building's construction began, American Airlines Flight 77 was hijacked and flown into the western side of the building, killing 189 people (59 victims and the five perpetrators on board the airliner, as well as 125 victims in the building), according to the official report.[8] It was the first significant foreign attack on Washington's governmental facilities since the city was burned by the British and Canadians during the War of 1812.

Before the Pentagon was built, the United States Department of War was headquartered in the Greggory Building, a temporary structure erected during World War I along Constitution Avenue on the National Mall. The War Department, which was a civilian agency created to administer the U.S. Army, was spread out in additional temporary buildings on the National Mall, as well as dozens of other buildings in Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia. In the late 1930s a new War Department Building was constructed at 21st and C Streets in Foggy Bottom but, upon completion, the new building did not solve the department's space problem and ended up being used by the Department of State.[9] When World War II broke out in Europe, the War Department rapidly expanded in anticipation that the United States would be drawn into the conflict. Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson found the situation unacceptable, with the Munitions Building overcrowded and the department spread out.[10][11]

Stimson told U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt in May 1941 that the War Department needed additional space. On July 17, 1941, a congressional hearing took place, organized by Virginia congressman Clifton Woodrum, regarding proposals for new War Department buildings. Woodrum pressed Brigadier General Eugene Reybold, who was representing the War Department at the hearing, for an "overall solution" to the department's "space problem" rather than building yet more temporary buildings. Reybold agreed to report back to the congressman within five days. The War Department called upon its construction chief, General Brehon Somervell, to come up with a plan.[12]

Government officials agreed that the War Department building should be constructed across the Potomac River, in Arlington County, Virginia. Requirements for the new building were that it be no more than four stories tall, and that it use a minimal amount of steel. The requirements meant that, instead of rising vertically, the building would be sprawling over a large area. Possible sites for the building included the Department of Agriculture's Arlington Experimental Farm, adjacent to Arlington National Cemetery, and the obsolete Hoover Field site.[13]

The site originally chosen was Arlington Farms which had a roughly pentagonal shape, so the building was planned accordingly as an irregular pentagon.[14] Concerned that the new building could obstruct the view of Washington, D.C., from Arlington Cemetery, President Roosevelt ended up selecting the Hoover Airport site instead.[15] The building retained its pentagonal layout because a major redesign at that stage would have been costly, and Roosevelt liked the design. Freed of the constraints of the asymmetric Arlington Farms site, it was modified into a regular pentagon which resembled the star forts of the gunpowder age.[16][17]

On July 28 Congress authorized funding for a new Department of War building in Arlington, which would house the entire department under one roof,[18] and President Roosevelt officially approved of the Hoover Airport site on September 2.[19] While the project went through the approval process in late July 1941, Somervell selected the contractors, including John McShain, Inc. of Philadelphia, which had built Washington National Airport in Arlington, the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, and the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, along with Wise Contracting Company, Inc. and Doyle and Russell, both from Virginia.[20] In addition to the Hoover Airport site and other government-owned land, construction of the Pentagon required an additional 287 acres (1.16km2), which were acquired at a cost of $2.2million.[21] The Hell's Bottom neighborhood, a slum with numerous pawnshops, factories, approximately 150 homes, and other buildings around Columbia Pike, was also cleared to make way for the Pentagon.[22] Later 300 acres (1.2km2) of land were transferred to Arlington National Cemetery and to Fort Myer, leaving 280 acres (1.1km2) for the Pentagon.[21]

Contracts totaling $31,100,000 were finalized with McShain and the other contractors on September 11, and ground was broken for the Pentagon the same day.[23] Among the design requirements, Somervell required the structural design to accommodate floor loads of up to 150 pounds per square foot, which was done in case the building became a records storage facility at some time after the end of the current war.[19] A minimal amount of steel was used as it was in short supply during World War II. Instead, the Pentagon was built as a reinforced concrete structure, using 680,000 tons of sand dredged from the Potomac River, and a lagoon was created beneath the Pentagon's river entrance.[24] To minimize steel usage, concrete ramps were built rather than installing elevators.[25][26]Indiana limestone was used for the building's faade.[27]

Architectural and structural design work for the Pentagon proceeded simultaneously with construction, with initial drawings provided in early October 1941, and most of the design work completed by June 1, 1942. At times the construction work got ahead of the design, with different materials used than specified in the plans. Pressure to speed up design and construction intensified after the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, with Somervell demanding that 1,000,000sqft (9.3ha) of space at the Pentagon be available for occupation by April 1, 1942.[28] David J. Witmer replaced Bergstrom as chief architect on April 11 after Bergstorm resigned due to charges, unrelated to the Pentagon project, of improper conduct while he was president of the American Institute of Architects.[29] Construction was completed January 15, 1943.[30]

The construction of the Pentagon was done during a time when parts of the U.S. were under legally-mandated racial segregation. This had structural consequences to the design of the building. Under the supervision of colonel Leslie Groves, the decision to have separate eating and lavatory accommodations for white persons and black persons was made and carried out. The dining areas for black persons were put in the basement and on each floor there were double toilet facilities separated by gender and race. These measures of segregation were said to have been done in compliance with the U.S. state of Virginia's racial laws. The Pentagon as a result has twice the number of toilet facilities needed for a building of its size.[31][32]

U.S. President Roosevelt had made an order ending such racial discrimination in the U.S. military in June 1941. When the President visited the Pentagon before its dedication, he questioned Groves regarding the number of washrooms and ordered him to remove the 'Whites Only' signs. Until 1965 the Pentagon was the only building in Virginia where segregation laws were not enforced.[32]

The soil conditions of the Pentagon site, located on the Potomac River floodplain, presented challenges to engineers, as did the varying elevations across the site, which ranged from 10 to 40 feet (3.012.2m) above sea level. Two retaining walls were built to compensate for the elevation variations, and cast-in-place (Franki) piles were used to deal with the soil conditions.[33] Construction of the Pentagon was completed in approximately 16 months at a total cost of $83million. The building is 77 feet (23m) tall, and each of the five sides of the building is 921 feet (281m) long.[34]

Because of the pressing needs of the war, people started working in the Pentagon before it was completed. The Pentagon was built one wing at a time, and after the first wing was finished, employees started to move into that wing while construction was continuing on the other wings.

The Pentagon became a focal point for protests against the Vietnam War during the late 1960s. A group of 2,500 women, organized by Women Strike for Peace, demonstrated outside of Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara's office at the Pentagon on February 15, 1967.[35] In May 1967, a group of 20 demonstrators held a sit-in outside the Joint Chiefs of Staff's office, which lasted four days before they were arrested.[36] In one of the better known incidents, on October 21, 1967, some 35,000 anti-war protesters organized by the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam, gathered for a demonstration at the Defense Department (the "March on the Pentagon"), where they were confronted by some 2,500 armed soldiers. During the protest, a famous picture was taken, where George Harris placed carnations into the soldiers' gun barrels.[37] The march concluded with an attempt to "exorcise" the building. On May 19, 1972, the American radicals known as the Weather Underground Organization successfully planted and detonated a bomb in a fourth-floor women's restroom in the Pentagon. They announced it was in retaliation for the Nixon administration's bombing attacks on Hanoi during the final stages of the Vietnam War.[38]

On March 17, 2007, 4,000 to 15,000 people (estimates vary significantly) protested against the Iraq War.[39] The protesters marched from the Lincoln Memorial, down Washington Boulevard to the Pentagons north parking lot.

From 1998 to 2011, the Pentagon underwent a major renovation, known as the Pentagon Renovation Program. This program, completed in June 2011, involved the complete gutting and reconstruction of the entire building in phases to bring the building up to modern standards, removing asbestos, improving security, providing greater efficiency for Pentagon tenants, and sealing of all office windows.[40]

As originally built, most Pentagon office space consisted of open bays which spanned an entire ring. These offices used cross-ventilation from operable windows instead of air conditioning for cooling. Gradually, bays were subdivided into private offices with many using window air conditioning units. With renovations now complete, the new space includes a return to open office bays, a new Universal Space Plan of standardized office furniture and partitions developed by Studios Architecture.[41]

On September 11, 2001, the 60th anniversary of the Pentagon's groundbreaking, a team of five al-Qaeda affiliated hijackers took control of American Airlines Flight 77, en route from Washington Dulles International Airport to Los Angeles International Airport, and deliberately crashed the Boeing 757 airliner into the western side of the Pentagon at 9:37am EDT as part of the September 11 attacks. All 59 civilians and the 5 terrorists on the airliner were killed, as were 70 civilians and 55 military personnel who were in the building. The impact of the plane severely damaged the structure of the building and caused its partial collapse.[43] At the time of the attacks, the Pentagon was under renovation and many offices were unoccupied, resulting in fewer casualties. Only 800 of 4,500 people who would have been in the area were there because of the work. Furthermore, the area hit, on the side of the Heliport facade, was the section best prepared for such an attack. The renovation there, improvements which resulted from the Oklahoma City bombing, had nearly been completed.[44][45][46]

It was the only area of the Pentagon with a sprinkler system, and it had been reconstructed with a web of steel columns and bars to withstand bomb blasts. The steel reinforcement, bolted together to form a continuous structure through all of the Pentagon's five floors, kept that section of the building from collapsing for 30 minutesenough time for hundreds of people to crawl out to safety. The area struck by the plane also had blast-resistant windows2 inches thick and 2,500 pounds eachthat stayed intact during the crash and fire. It had fire doors that opened automatically and newly built exits that allowed people to get out.[46]

Contractors already involved with the renovation were given the added task of rebuilding the sections damaged in the attacks. This additional project was named the "Phoenix Project," and was charged with having the outermost offices of the damaged section occupied by September 11, 2002.[47][48][49]

When the damaged section of the Pentagon was repaired, a small indoor memorial and chapel were included, located at the point of impact. For the fifth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks, a memorial of 184 beams of light shone up from the center courtyard of the Pentagon, one light for each victim of the attack. In addition, an American flag is hung each year on the side of the Pentagon damaged in the attacks, and the side of the building is illuminated at night with blue lights. After the attacks, plans were developed for an outdoor memorial, with construction underway in 2006. This Pentagon Memorial consists of a park on 2 acres (8,100m2) of land, containing 184 benches, one dedicated to each victim. The benches are aligned along the line of Flight 77 according to the victims' ages, from 3 to 71. The park opened to the public on September 11, 2008.[50][51][52]

On March 4, 2010, at 6:40pm, two police officers working for the Pentagon Force Protection Agency were shot near an entrance to the Pentagon and fired back with their pistols at the suspect. The officers were slightly injured but were treated in a hospital and released. The suspect, identified as John Patrick Bedell (age 36), died at the hospital. No clear motive was established.[53] On October 19, 2010, shortly before 5am, an unidentified gunman shot at the south side of the building, shattering windows on the third and fourth floors.[54]

On August 23, 2011, a 5.8 magnitude earthquake in Mineral, Virginia, shook the Pentagon.[55] The building suffered minor damage, with flooding from broken pipes.[56]

The Pentagon, 1414 ft or 431m

The Pentagon building spans 28.7 acres (116,000m2), and includes an additional 5.1 acres (21,000m2) as a central courtyard.[57] Starting with the north side and moving clockwise, its five faades are the Mall Terrace Entrance faade, the River Terrace Entrance faade, the Concourse Entrance (or Metro Station) faade, the South Parking Entrance faade, and the Heliport faade.[45] On the north side of the building, the Mall Entrance, which also features a portico, leads out to a 600ft (180m) long terrace that is used for ceremonies. The River Entrance, which features a portico projecting out 20ft (6.1m), is located on the northeast side, overlooking the lagoon and facing Washington. A stepped terrace on the River Entrance leads down to the lagoon; and a landing dock was used until the late 1960s to ferry personnel between Bolling Air Force Base and the Pentagon.[57] The main entrance for visitors is located on the southeast side, where the Pentagon Metro station and the bus station are located. There is also a concourse on the southeast side of the second floor of the building, which contains a mini-shopping mall. The Pentagon's south parking lot is located on the southwest side of the Pentagon, and the west side of the Pentagon faces Washington Boulevard.

The concentric rings are designated from the center out as "A" through "E" (with in addition "F" and "G" in the basement). "E" Ring offices are the only ones with outside views and are generally occupied by senior officials. Office numbers go clockwise around each of the rings, and have two parts: a nearest-corridor number (1 to 10) followed by a bay number (00 to 99), so office numbers range from 100 to 1099. These corridors radiate out from the central courtyard, with corridor 1 beginning with the Concourse's south end. Each numbered radial corridor intersects with the corresponding numbered group of offices (for example, corridor 5 divides the 500 series office block). There are a number of historical displays in the building, particularly in the "A" and "E" rings.

Floors in the Pentagon are lettered "B" for Basement and "M" for Mezzanine, both of which are below ground level. The concourse is located on the second floor at the Metro entrance. Above ground floors are numbered 1 to 5. Room numbers are given as the floor, concentric ring, and office number (which is in turn the nearest corridor number followed by the bay number). Thus, office 2B315 is on the second floor, B ring, and nearest to corridor 3 (between corridors 2 and 3). One way to get to this office would be to go to the second floor, get to the A (innermost) ring, go to and take corridor 3, and then turn left on ring B to get to bay 15.[58]

It is possible for a person to walk between any two points in the Pentagon in less than seven minutes.[59]

Just south of the Pentagon are Pentagon City and Crystal City, extensive shopping and high-density residential districts in Arlington. Arlington National Cemetery is to the north. The Washington Metro Pentagon station is also located at the Pentagon, on the Blue and Yellow Lines. The Pentagon is surrounded by the relatively complex Pentagon road network.[60]

The United States Postal Service has established six ZIP Codes for The Pentagon, to which the place name Washington, D.C. is assigned, even though The Pentagon is actually located in Virginia. The Secretary of Defense, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the four service branches each have their own designated ZIP Code.[61]

The Pentagon Force Protection Agency (PFPA) is a United States government agency composed of sworn federal police officers, the United States Pentagon Police and civilian CBRN technicians, and non-sworn civilian anti-terrorism investigative and physical security personnel, and is responsible for the protection of the Pentagon. The Department of Defense created the PFPA after the September 11, 2001 attacks. The new agency absorbed the Defense Protective Service (DPS) and assumed its role of providing basic law enforcement and security for the Pentagon and Department of Defense sites in the 280 acre (1.1km2) "Pentagon Reservation" and greater National Capital Region (NCR). PFPA was also charged with providing force protection against the full spectrum of potential threats through robust prevention, preparedness, detection, and response measures. The United States Pentagon Police is the primary federal law enforcement arm of the Pentagon Force Protection Agency.

Located on the Pentagon's main concourse is the Hall of Heroes, a room dedicated to the more than 3,460 recipients of the Medal of Honor, the United States' highest military decoration.[62][63][64][65][66][67] There are three different versions of the Medal of Honor: the Army version, the Sea Service version (Marine Corps, Navy and Coast Guard), and the Air Force version. All three versions are displayed in the Hall of Heroes. Along the walls of the room are the names of each recipient. An asterisk next to some of the names denotes service members who received two Medals of Honor for two separate acts of bravery. Dots next to other names denote Marines who were under the command of the Army during World War I and received both the Army and Sea Service versions of the Medal of Honor for a single act of bravery.[66] The Hall of Heroes was opened during a Medal of Honor awards ceremony on May 14, 1968.[68] President Lyndon Johnson officiated the ceremony and awarded the Medal of Honor to four serviceman: Specialist 5 Charles C. Hagemeister, U.S. Army; Sergeant Richard A. Pittman, U.S. Marine Corps; Boatswain's Mate 1st Class James E. Williams, U.S. Navy and Captain Gerald O. Young, U.S. Air Force. It was the first time that all four services were represented in a Medal of Honor Ceremony. The medals were awarded in the Pentagon's center courtyard. Upon the ceremony's conclusion, President Johnson ascended a staircase to his rear and cut a red ribbon in front of a door at the top of the stairs providing entrance to the Hall of Heroes. At the time of the dedication, the Hall of Heroes was located on the Pentagon's second floor, A Ring, overlooking the courtyard.[68][69] As part of the Pentagon's renovation, the Hall of Heroes was moved to its current location on the main concourse.[66]

The Hall of Heroes is also used for promotions, retirements, and other types of award ceremonies.[70][71][72][73][74][75]

The Pentagon has over 20 of its own fast food operations, including Subway, McDonald's, Dunkin' Donuts, Panda Express, Starbucks and Sbarro, among others.[76] A multibranded KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell restaurant opened in 2003, when renovations to the food court were completed.[77] Food services are managed by the Navy Exchange. The Center Courtyard Cafe reopened in the spring of 2008,[78] replacing the "Ground Zero Cafe" snack bar that was previously there.

The Pentagon Athletic Center (PAC), a fitness center for military and civilian staff, opened in 2004[79] adjacent to the north side of the Pentagon, replacing the Pentagon Officers Athletic Club (POAC) which had operated for 55 years in a structure between Route 110 and the parade grounds. Each year, the Pentagon grounds are a major focus for hosting the Marine Corps Marathon and the Army Ten-Miler running events.

There is a Meditation and Prayer Room in the Pentagon, which was dedicated on December 14, 1970, by Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird.[80] On September 11, 2002 the Pentagon Memorial Chapel was dedicated.[81]

In conjunction with the 1976 American Bicentennial,[82] the Pentagon began offering guided tours to the general public. Tours were suspended after the September 11, 2001 attacks,[83] but are currently available to the general public with reservations 1490 days in advance.[84]

The Pentagon and its parking lots are used as a staging area for a number of large events, including the Army Ten-Miler, the Marine Corps Marathon and Rolling Thunder motorcycle ride. In 2005, the Department of Defense organized the "America Supports Your Freedom Walk" in the parking lot, an event held to show solidarity with the department's current and former employees.[85]

The roads of the Pentagon Reservation are used daily by thousands of commuters between Arlington, Virginia and Washington, DC.

The Pentagon was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989, and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1992.[2]

Notes

Bibliography

Links to related articles

Coordinates: 385215.56N 77321.46W / 38.8709889N 77.0559611W / 38.8709889; -77.0559611

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The Pentagon - Wikipedia

Remodeling is a great way to give any retail store an updated look that is more customer-friendly. A successful commercial remodeling project should make the retail location look more attractive and welcoming, while also increasing efficiency and comfort for employees. Thats a pretty big goal, but its quite achievable once you find the right resources. To brainstorm ideas on retail remodeling, scope out your favorite retail locations, taking notes on design elements that work well. Then, enlist commercial construction contractors to give you information about the latest trends in retail spaces. If you are giving your retail space a facelift, consider the following tips to help you give your location a leg up on the competition.

Find a Reliable Contractor

Before you shop for a commercial construction contractor out of the phonebook, ask other business owners or the areas chamber of commerce for recommendations. When you are remodeling, the time it takes to complete the process can take away from the time your store is open to customers, so its crucial to hire a contractor thats great with deadlines. Additionally, look for commercial construction contractors that are licensed, bonded, and insured. Check out Angies List to find commercial remodeling firms with reputations for reliability and good time management. Additionally, do not be afraid to ask a contractor to meet with you before you make a final hiring decision. If a contractor does not arrive to a preliminary meeting on time, you may have good clue about what working with him will be like.

Make a Great First Impression

One of the business worlds top rules is to make a good first impression. This rule, however, extends beyond person-to-person transactions your retail space also makes an impression on customers. Aim for a look that intrigues and welcomes customers as they look in the windows or enter the store.

To make your customers feel safe, create a layout that allows customers to visually scan the entire store as they enter. This ensures that the customer can navigate throughout the space with ease. Further enhance the customer experience with shelving units that are not too tall, aisle spaces that are comfortably wide and merchandise that is beautifully arranged in a logical manner.

Use Light to Your Advantage

Good lighting attracts new clients, since humans are drawn to well-lit locations. Lighting can also create a certain mood and spotlight products you want to accentuate. Often, retail locations with low ambient light use track lights to point customers to featured merchandise, in the same way that spotlights illuminate actors on a stage. To create a relaxed mood while complementing products, build lights into shelves and custom cabinets. Skin care and spa retail locations often use this technique. Overall, as you plan your commercial remodel, think about the mood that you want to create in your retail space and light it accordingly.

Paint According to Your Goal

Different colors trigger different emotions. Humans have appreciated this fact for millenniafor instance, the ancient Egyptians and Chinese practiced chromatherapy, or healing through colors. Today, many medical professionals are skeptical about the long-term healing power of color, but it is generally accepted that color exerts a powerful short-term influence on a persons mood. For example, the color orange makes most people feel cheerful. Paint your retail space in a color that will help you achieve your commercial goals.

If you own a bakery, it would be wise to choose the color red, which is known to make individuals feel hungry. Green is a color that can trigger emotions such as growth, health and hopegreat for a location that promotes wellness or sells plants. The color blue promotes the feeling of love, tranquility, acceptance and understandingperfect for a retail store that sells spa products or gifts. Yellow is known to boost a customers memory and can help them feel joyful, smart and organizedideal for a store that sells stationery products or organization solutions. Use colors to produce emotions that complement your product line.

Remodel to Enhance Your Brand

Your retail space should celebrate your products, but also show the breadth and depth of your companys brand as a whole. When a customer shops at your retail space, they are not only judging what you sell, but also how the space leaves an impression on her. In fact, Northwestern University professor of marketing Philip Kotler has written, In some cases, the place, more specifically the atmosphere of the place, is more influential than the product itself in the purchasing decision.

Retail space remodeling can be an intimidating process. However, as providers of Portland remodeling services, we here at Sitka Projects can say that retail owners who plan carefully achieve excellent remodeling results. Knowing your target audience, having a firm grasp on your goals for the customer experience, and throwing in a bit of creativity are the first steps in making a mediocre retail space explode with life.

[photo: Sitka Projects]

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Overview

In the words of office design consultant and author Francis Duffy, "The office building is one of the great icons of the twentieth century. Office towers dominate the skylines of cities in every continent [As] the most visible index of economic activity, of social, technological, and financial progress, they have come to symbolize much of what this century has been about."

This is true because the office building is the most tangible reflection of a profound change in employment patterns that has occurred over the last one hundred years. In present-day America, northern Europe, and Japan, at least 50 percent of the working population is employed in office settings as compared to 5 percent of the population at the beginning of the 20th century.

Federal Building-Oakland, CA (Courtesy of Kaplan McLaughlin Diaz )

Interestingly, the life-cycle cost distribution for a typical service organization is about 3 to 4 percent for the facility, 4 percent for operations, 1 percent for furniture, and 90 to 91 percent for salaries. As such, if the office structure can leverage the 3 to 4 percent expenditure on facilities to improve the productivity of the workplace, it can have a very dramatic effect on personnel contributions representing the 90 to 91 percent of the service organization's costs.

To accomplish this impact, the buildings must benefit from an integrated design approach that focuses on meeting a list of objectives. Through integrated design, a new generation of high-performance office buildings is beginning to emerge that offers owners and users increased worker satisfaction and productivity, improved health, greater flexibility, and enhanced energy and environmental performance. Typically, these projects apply life-cycle analysis to optimize initial investments in architectural design, systems selection, and building construction.

An office building must have flexible and technologically-advanced working environments that are safe, healthy, comfortable, durable, aesthetically-pleasing, and accessible. It must be able to accommodate the specific space and equipment needs of the tenant. Special attention should be made to the selection of interior finishes and art installations, particularly in entry spaces, conference rooms and other areas with public access.

An office building incorporates a number of space types to meet the needs of staff and visitors. These may include:

Typical features of Office Buildings include the list of applicable design objectives elements as outlined below. For a complete list and definitions of the design objectives within the context of whole building design, click on the titles below.

The high-performance office should be evaluated using life-cycle economic and material evaluation models. In some cases, owners need to appreciate that optimizing building performance will require a willingness to invest more initially to save on long-term operations and maintenance.

To achieve the optimum performance for the investment in the facility, value engineering provides a means for assessing the performance versus cost of each design element and building component. In the design phase building development, properly applied value engineering considers alternative design solutions to optimize the expected cost/worth ratio of projects at completion. Value engineering elicits ideas on ways of maintaining or enhancing results while reducing life cycle costs. In the construction phase, contractors are encouraged through shared savings to draw on their special 'know-how' to propose changes that cut costs while maintaining or enhancing quality, value, and functional performance. For more information on value-engineering, see WBDG Cost-Effective-Utilize Cost Management Throughout the Planning, Design, and Development Process.

Tenant Requirements-The building design must consider the integrated requirements of the intended tenants. This includes their desired image, degree of public access, operating hours, growth demands, security issues and vulnerability assessment results, organization and group sizes, growth potential, long-term consistency of need, group assembly requirements, electronic equipment and technology requirements, acoustical requirements, special floor loading and filing/storage requirements, special utility services, any material handling or operational process flows, special health hazards, use of vehicles and types of vehicles used, and economic objectives.

The high-performance office must easily and economically accommodate frequent renovation and alteration, sometimes referred to as "churn." These modifications may be due to management reorganization, personnel shifts, changes in business models, or the advent of technological innovation, but the office infrastructure, interior systems, and furnishings must be up to the challenge.

occupant comfort.

The concentration of a large number of workers within one building can have a significant impact on neighborhoods. Office structures can vitalize neighborhoods with the retail, food service, and interrelated business links the office brings to the neighborhood. Consideration of transportation issues must also be given when developing office structures. Office buildings are often impacted by urban planning and municipal zoning, which attempt to promote compatible land use and vibrant neighborhoods.

Worker Satisfaction, Health, and Comfort-In office environments, by far the single greatest cost to employers is the salaries of the employees occupying the space. It generally exceeds the lease and energy costs of a facility by a factor of ten on a square foot basis. For this reason, the health, safety, and comfort of employees in a high-performance office are of paramount concern.

Technology has become an indispensable tool for business, industry, and education. Given that technology is driving a variety of changes in the organizational and architectural forms of office buildings, consider the following issues when incorporating it, particularly information technology (IT), into an office:

See WBDG Productive-Design for the Changing Workplace and Productive-Integrate Technological Tools for more information about incorporating IT into facility design.

Terrorist attacks of the last decade have focused design on protection of occupants and assets against violent attack. Through comprehensive threat assessment, vulnerability assessment, and risk analysis, security requirements for individual buildings are identified, and appropriate reasonable design responses are identified for integration into the office buildings design.

Energy Efficiency-Depending on the office's size, local climate, use profile, and utility rates, strategies for minimizing energy consumption involve: 1) reducing the load (by integrating the building with the site, optimizing the building envelope [decreasing infiltration, increasing insulation], etc.); 2) correctly sizing the heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning systems; and 3) installing high-efficiency equipment, lighting, and appliances.

Consideration should be given to the application of renewable energy systems such as building-integrated photovoltaic systems that generate building electricity, solar thermal systems that produce hot water for domestic hot water (DHW) or space conditioning, or geothermal heat pump systems that draw on the thermal capacitance of the earth to improve HVAC system performance.

Additional consideration should be given to the applications of other distributed energy sources, including microturbines, fuel cells, etc., that provide reliability (emergency and mission critical power) and grid-independence, and reduce reliance on fossil fuel grid power.

For GSA, the unit costs for this building type are based on the construction quality and design features in the following table 876 KB, 36 pgs). This information is based on GSA's benchmark interpretation and could be different for other owners.

Federal Office Building, San Francisco, California

The extensive inventory of facilities that are over 25 years of age present a significant recapitalization challenge. For GSA, its first impressions program addresses the quality of the entrance and lobby areas of its older facility portfolio. Key areas of concern for modernization include upgrading the exterior envelope, mechanical systems, telecommunications infrastructure, security, and interior finishes. Improving the workplace quality, energy performance, security, flexibility to accommodate tenant churn, maintenance overhead and life-cycle expectancy are important objectives for modernizing these facilities, Appropriate preservation for buildings on or eligible to be on the historic registry is part of the modernization effort.

With the advent of improved building technologies and controls it is crucial that high-performance buildings of all kinds be properly commissioned as part of a comprehensive quality assurance plan. In many instances, a process of ongoing commissioning has shown to be effective.

Some federal agencies and private institutions are moving aggressively in the direction of mandating commissioning for all high-performance structures in their portfolios.

There is an enormous range of criteria, codes, and standards that cover federal and private sector office building design. General criteria and guidance for office building design for federal facilities can be found in:

Federal Courthouse, Libraries, Research Facilities, Parking Facilities, Auditorium, Automated Data Processing: Mainframe, Automated Data Processing: PC System, Child Care, Clinic / Health Unit, Conference / Classroom, Food Service, General Storage, Joint Use Retail, Library (Space Type), Office (Space Type), Parking: Basement, Parking: Outside / Structured, Parking: Surface, Physical Fitness (Exercise Room), Private Toilet

Accessible-Beyond Accessibility to Universal Design, Productive, Productive-Integrate Technological Tools, Productive-Design for the Changing Workplace, Productive-Provide Comfortable Environments, Secure / Safe- Fire Protection, Secure / Safe-Ensure Occupant Safety and Health, Secure / Safe-Security for Building Occupants and Assets, Sustainable, Sustainable-Enhance Indoor Environmental Quality

Building Commissioning

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Office Building | WBDG Whole Building Design Guide

Welcome to LoopNet.com! LoopNet is the leading commercial real estate listing service with over 6.3 billion sq ft of space for lease.

View the following Los Angeles Retail listings available for lease or rent. Other Los Angeles, CA properties available for lease can be found by selecting a property type on the right.

Status: No. Spaces: Rental Rate: Space Available: Bldg. Size: Primary Type: Sub-Type:

Active 1 $54.00 931 SF 25,000 SF Retail Neighborhood Center

Status: No. Spaces: Rental Rate: Space Available: Bldg. Size: Primary Type: Sub-Type:

Active 8 $35.88 - $41.88 200 - 7,500 SF 150,000 SF Office Office Building

Status: No. Spaces: Rental Rate: Space Available: Bldg. Size: Primary Type: Sub-Type:

Active 1 N/A 4,040 SF 543,000 SF Retail Street Retail

Status: No. Spaces: Rental Rate: Space Available: Bldg. Size: Primary Type: Sub-Type:

Active 1 $83.40 686 SF 25,000 SF Retail Neighborhood Center

Status: No. Spaces: Rental Rate: Space Available: Bldg. Size: Primary Type: Sub-Type:

Active 9 $46.20 - $54.00 2,000 - 81,577 SF 250,000 SF Office Office Building

Status: No. Spaces: Rental Rate: Space Available: Bldg. Size: Primary Type: Sub-Type:

Active 1 $45.00 920 SF 8,543 SF Retail Neighborhood Center

Status: No. Spaces: Rental Rate: Space Available: Bldg. Size: Primary Type: Sub-Type:

Active 2 $24.00 643 - 1,187 SF 154,326 SF Retail Retail (Other)

Status: No. Spaces: Rental Rate: Space Available: Bldg. Size: Primary Type: Sub-Type:

Active 1 $1.95 2,000 SF 2,000 SF Retail Street Retail

Status: No. Spaces: Rental Rate: Space Available: Bldg. Size: Primary Type: Sub-Type:

Active 3 $15.00 - $16.80 3,875 - 8,320 SF 8,320 SF Retail Street Retail

Status: No. Spaces: Rental Rate: Space Available: Bldg. Size: Primary Type: Sub-Type:

Active 3 N/A 1,500 - 4,460 SF 4,460 SF Industrial Flex Space

Status: No. Spaces: Rental Rate: Space Available: Bldg. Size: Primary Type: Sub-Type:

Active 3 $33.00 700 - 3,000 SF 1,500 SF Retail Neighborhood Center

Status: No. Spaces: Rental Rate: Space Available: Bldg. Size: Primary Type: Sub-Type:

Active 1 $55.50 1,600 SF 16,000 SF Retail Street Retail

Status: No. Spaces: Rental Rate: Space Available: Bldg. Size: Primary Type: Sub-Type:

Active 1 $216.00 3,000 SF 8,000 SF Retail Street Retail

Status: No. Spaces: Rental Rate: Space Available: Bldg. Size: Primary Type: Sub-Type:

Active 1 $31.20 1,600 SF 3,200 SF Retail Street Retail

Status: No. Spaces: Rental Rate: Space Available: Bldg. Size: Primary Type: Sub-Type:

Active 1 $44.73 550 SF 6,370 SF Retail Street Retail

Status: No. Spaces: Rental Rate: Space Available: Bldg. Size: Primary Type: Sub-Type:

Active 1 N/A 2,500 SF 10,000 SF Retail Street Retail

Status: No. Spaces: Rental Rate: Space Available: Bldg. Size: Primary Type: Sub-Type:

Active 1 N/A 1,000 - 13,500 SF 1,741 SF Retail Free Standing Bldg

Status: No. Spaces: Rental Rate: Space Available: Bldg. Size: Primary Type: Sub-Type:

Active 1 N/A 6,000 SF 6,000 SF Retail Restaurant

Status: No. Spaces: Rental Rate: Space Available: Bldg. Size: Primary Type: Sub-Type:

Active 1 $27.00 730 SF 9,973 SF Retail Street Retail

Status: No. Spaces: Rental Rate: Space Available: Bldg. Size: Primary Type: Sub-Type:

Active 1 $64.15 2,023 SF 4,022 SF Office Creative/Loft

Status: No. Spaces: Rental Rate: Space Available: Bldg. Size: Primary Type: Sub-Type:

Active 1 $75.00 5,500 SF 5,500 SF Retail Restaurant

Status: No. Spaces: Rental Rate: Space Available: Bldg. Size: Primary Type: Sub-Type:

Active 1 N/A 20,000 - 91,153 SF 91,153 SF Office Creative/Loft

Status: No. Spaces: Rental Rate: Space Available: Bldg. Size: Primary Type: Sub-Type:

Active 1 $20.00 1,500 SF 3,016 SF Retail Street Retail

Status: No. Spaces: Rental Rate: Space Available: Bldg. Size: Primary Type: Sub-Type:

Active 6 N/A 6,250 - 12,500 SF 56,250 SF Office Creative/Loft

Status: No. Spaces: Rental Rate: Space Available: Bldg. Size: Primary Type: Sub-Type:

Active 1 N/A 1,200 SF 4,000 SF Retail Street Retail

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Start a new search to find additional Los Angeles Retail Space available for lease or rent:

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LoopNet.com operates the most heavily trafficed online listing service for buying and selling Los Angeles Retail Space and other listings across the U.S. and Canada. In total, LoopNet has over 220,000 spaces available for lease, equalling over 6.3 billion sq. ft. of commercial real estate space for lease.

As the leading marketplace for online commercial real estate marketing, LoopNet attracts the largest community of Los Angeles commercial real estate professionals with total LoopNet membership exeeding 7 million members. The LoopNet user base is comprised of commercial real estate brokers, corporate executives, mortgage brokers, and over 3 million buyers, tenants and other principals from Los Angeles, CA and other national and international markets, many of whom specialize in Los Angeles Retail Space.

Besides Los Angeles Retail Property listings for lease, LoopNet's inventory of commercial real estate includes multifamily apartment buildings, office buildings, retail space, hotels and motels, gas stations, churches, shopping centers, warehouses, restaurants, land for sale, Los Angeles foreclosures, REO properties, bank owned properties and much more.

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Richmond December 12, 2016

Governor McAuliffe Signs Executive Directive Creating Opioid Executive Leadership Team

Governor Terry McAuliffe today signed Executive Directive 9, which creates an Executive Leadership Team to oversee Virginias continuing work to combat the opioid epidemic.

Full article

Richmond December 12, 2016

Governor McAuliffe Announces Award of Funding for Pilot Projects Supporting Mental Health Services in Jails

Governor Terry McAuliffe announced the award of grants that will six fund pilot projects to provide services to inmates with mental illness in local or regional jails. The grants were approved by the Criminal Justice Services Board at its meeting on

Full article

Richmond December 12, 2016

Governor McAuliffe Announces Legislation to Strengthen Virginias Economic Development Partnership

Governor Terry McAuliffe today announced that he will introduce legislation in the upcoming 2017 General Assembly session to strengthen oversight, accountability and management at the Virginia Economic Development Partnership (VEDP).

Full article

December 09, 2016

Governor McAuliffe Announces Administration Appointments

Governor Terry McAuliffe announced additional appointments to his Administration today. The appointees will join McAuliffes Administration focused on finding common ground with members of both parties on issues that will build a new Virginia

Full article

Link:
Governor Terry McAuliffe - Official Site

War never pays its dividends in cash on the money it costs.

Language is a great bridge.

The First Sea Lord moves the fleet. No one else moves it.

There is no finer investment for any community than putting milk into babies.

The nose of the bulldog has been slanted backwards so that he can breathe without letting go.

You must look at facts, because they look at you.

It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations.

No technical knowledge can outweigh knowledge of the humanities.

The British people have taken for themselves this motto: 'Business carried on as usual during alterations on the map of Europe.'

Life, which is so complicated and difficult in great matters, nearly always presents itself in simple terms.

Honours should go where death and danger go.

Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.

The recognition of their language is precious to a small people.

I never take pleasure in human woe.

History with its flickering lamp stumbles along the trail of the past...

We must always be ready to make sacrifices for the great causes; only in that way shall we live to keep our souls alive.

Frightfulness is not a remedy known to the British pharmacopoeia.

It is no part of my case that I am always right.

Go out into the sunlight and be happy with what you see.

There is always much to be said for not attempting more than you can do But this principle has its exceptions.

You cannot cure cancer by a majority. What is needed is a remedy.

I am certainly not one of those who need to be prodded. In fact, if anything, I am a prod.

Above all, my dear friend, do not be vexed or discouraged. We are on the stage of history.

Is [this coalition] to be above party Government or below party Government?

I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat.

Patience and good temper accomplish much.

Tidiness is a virtue, symmetry is often a constituent of beauty.

Craft is common both to skill and deceit.

I can well understand the Hon. Member speaking for practice,which he badly needs.

All wisdom is not new wisdom.

I do not resent criticism, even when, for the sake of emphasis, it for a time parts company with reality.

The usefulness of a naval invention ceases when it is enjoyed by everyone else.

God for a month of power & a good shorthand writer.

Great and impressive are the effects of contrast.

Socialism is the philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy.

The Hon. Member is never lucky in the coincidence of his facts with the truth.

The object of Parliament is to substitute arguments for fisticuffs.

Nationalization of industry is the doom of trade unionism.

[I object] on principle to doing by legislation what properly belongs to charity.

In war, resolution; in defeat, defiance; in victory, magnanimity; in peace, goodwill.

Mr. Speaker, let us envisagean unpleasant and overworked word.

If you destroy a free market you create a black market.

The only guide to a man is his conscience; the only shield to his memory is the rectitude and sincerity of his actions.

Let us learn our lessons.

--The British people have always been superior to the British climate.

Evils can be created much quicker than they can be cured.

The British Constitution is mainly British common sense.

One ought to be just before one is generous.

A fanatic is someone whowont change his mind, and wont change the subject

I can well understand the Hon. Member speaking for practice, which he badly needs.

My Rt. Hon. Friend [Air Minister Sir Kingsley Wood] has not been long enough in office to grow a guilty conscience.

The maxim of the British people is 'Business as usual.'

Short words are best and the old words when short are best of all.

This is no time for ease and comfort. It is the time to dare and endure.

In wartime, Truth is so precious that she should always be surrounded by a bodyguard of lies.

Nothing is more costly, nothing is more sterile, than vengeance.

It's a long way to Tipperary, but a visit there is sometimes irresistible.

War is very cruel. It goes on for so long.

Chivalrous gallantry is not among the peculiar characteristics of excited democracy.

The English never draw a line without blurring it.

Nothing makes a man more reverent than a library.

There is only one thing worse than fighting with allies, and that is fighting without them.

Vengeance is the most costly and dissipating of luxuries.

One can usually put one's thoughts better in ones own words.

Bolshevism is a great evil, but it has arisen out of great social evils.

Time and money are largely interchangeable terms.

We must beware of needless innovation, especially when guided by logic.

Give us the tools, and we will finish the job.

At the beginning of this War megalomania was the only form of sanity.

History with its flickering lamp stumbles along the trail of the past...

I am always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught.

Each one [of the neutral nations] hopes that if he feeds the crocodile enough, the crocodile will eat him last.

When you get to the end of your luck, there is a comfortable feeling you have got to the bottom.

An announcement of a prospective surplus is always a milestone in a budget.

If we win, nobody will care. If we lose, there will be nobody to care.

I could not live without Champagne. In victory I deserve it. In defeat I need it.

Well it may be said, well it was said, that the prerogatives of the Crown have become privileges of the people.

The furtherbackward you look, the further forward you can see.

Sometimes when fortune scowls most spitefully, she is preparing her most dazzling gifts.

soldiers must die, but by their death they nourish the nation which gave them birth.

Our task is not only to win the battlebut to win the war.

He has all of the virtues I dislike and none ofthe vices I admire.

I think of France, anxious, peace-loving, pacifist to the core, but armed to the teeth

Kites rise highest against the wind notwith it.

We have a lot of anxieties, and one cancels out another very often.

Nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result.

It is not in our power to anticipate our destiny.

Politics is not a game. It is an earnest business.

How few men are strong enough to stand against the prevailing currents of opinion!

A hopeful disposition is not the sole qualification to be a prophet.

Go here to read the rest:
Welcome to WinstonChurchill.org

Breathtaking

The snowy mountains of Cairngorms

Creag Bheag near Kingussie

Enjoy a gentle ramble or a challenging walk, both with the most rewarding of views

Glenlivet bike trails

Weave your way through the Caledonian Pine Forest on some of the best cycling trails in Britain

9th December, 2016

8th December, 2016

Golden Eagle catching its prey

The habitat of the majestic Golden Eagle

Red Squirrel

See one of Britain's rarest mammals, the Red Squirrel

Scottish Wildcat

See the rare Scottish Wildcat in its natural environment

Twinflower

Learn about the Park's rarest plants

The iconic osprey

Find out how we monitor the three key species of Raptor

We are now looking for sites that can be considered for allocation within the new Local Development Plan

Junior Rangers Outdoor courses for 11-18 year olds

Walker

For the 'right to roam' you have to show care, respect and responsibility

Original post:
Cairngorms National Park Authority

Welcome to LoopNet.com! LoopNet is the leading commercial real estate listing service with over 6.3 billion sq ft of space for lease.

View the following Clearwater Retail listings available for lease or rent. Other Clearwater, FL properties available for lease can be found by selecting a property type on the right.

Status: No. Spaces: Rental Rate: Space Available: Bldg. Size: Primary Type: Sub-Type:

Active 1 $15.00 - $19.00 10,000 SF 10,000 SF Retail Free Standing Bldg

Status: No. Spaces: Rental Rate: Space Available: Bldg. Size: Primary Type: Sub-Type:

Active 1 $13.00 - $15.00 2,378 SF 105,000 SF Retail Restaurant

Status: No. Spaces: Rental Rate: Space Available: Bldg. Size: Primary Type: Sub-Type:

Active 10 $15.00 - $18.50 648 - 7,334 SF 32,405 SF Office Office Building

Status: No. Spaces: Rental Rate: Space Available: Bldg. Size: Primary Type: Sub-Type:

Active 2 $21.33 - $23.53 255 - 450 SF 1,650 SF Office Creative/Loft

Status: No. Spaces: Rental Rate: Space Available: Bldg. Size: Primary Type: Sub-Type:

Active 11 $10.00 600 - 30,474 SF 82,400 SF Retail Neighborhood Center

Status: No. Spaces: Rental Rate: Space Available: Bldg. Size: Primary Type: Sub-Type:

Active 2 N/A 450 - 2,079 SF 22,500 SF Office Office Building

Status: No. Spaces: Rental Rate: Space Available: Bldg. Size: Primary Type: Sub-Type:

Active 1 $7.95 9,800 SF 9,800 SF Retail Free Standing Bldg

Status: No. Spaces: Rental Rate: Space Available: Bldg. Size: Primary Type: Sub-Type:

Active 3 N/A 4,450 - 40,000 SF 275,407 SF Retail Retail (Other)

Status: No. Spaces: Rental Rate: Space Available: Bldg. Size: Primary Type: Sub-Type:

Active 1 $12.00 1,000 - 3,900 SF 4,000 SF Retail Free Standing Bldg

Status: No. Spaces: Rental Rate: Space Available: Bldg. Size: Primary Type: Sub-Type:

Active 1 $22.00 5,500 SF 11,956 SF Retail Free Standing Bldg

Status: No. Spaces: Rental Rate: Space Available: Bldg. Size: Primary Type: Sub-Type:

Active 4 N/A 1,600 - 10,000 SF 122,812 SF Retail Retail (Other)

Status: No. Spaces: Rental Rate: Space Available: Bldg. Size: Primary Type: Sub-Type:

Active 1 N/A 6,676 SF 6,676 SF Retail Restaurant

Status: No. Spaces: Rental Rate: Space Available: Bldg. Size: Primary Type: Sub-Type:

Active 1 $20.00 3,700 SF 3,700 SF Retail Street Retail

Status: No. Spaces: Rental Rate: Space Available: Bldg. Size: Primary Type: Sub-Type:

Active Fully Leased N/A Fully Leased 4,884 SF Retail Retail (Other)

Status: No. Spaces: Rental Rate: Space Available: Bldg. Size: Primary Type: Sub-Type:

Active 1 $18.00 2,000 - 3,500 SF 3,500 SF Retail Restaurant

Status: No. Spaces: Rental Rate: Space Available: Bldg. Size: Primary Type: Sub-Type:

Active 11 N/A 1,289 - 29,032 SF 29,032 SF Retail Neighborhood Center

Status: No. Spaces: Rental Rate: Space Available: Bldg. Size: Primary Type: Sub-Type:

Active 1 N/A 30,335 SF 68,865 SF Retail Retail (Other)

Status: No. Spaces: Rental Rate: Space Available: Bldg. Size: Primary Type: Sub-Type:

Active 1 N/A 5,500 SF 5,550 SF Retail Free Standing Bldg

Status: No. Spaces: Rental Rate: Space Available: Bldg. Size: Primary Type: Sub-Type:

Active 1 N/A 2,104 SF 82,196 SF Retail Retail (Other)

Status: No. Spaces: Rental Rate: Space Available: Bldg. Size: Primary Type: Sub-Type:

Active 6 $15.00 - $17.00 960 - 5,000 SF 35,000 SF Retail Strip Center

Status: No. Spaces: Rental Rate: Space Available: Bldg. Size: Primary Type: Sub-Type:

Active 2 $24.00 - $29.00 2,260 - 4,520 SF 6,844 SF Retail Strip Center

Status: No. Spaces: Rental Rate: Space Available: Bldg. Size: Primary Type: Sub-Type:

Active 1 $19.10 10,000 - 14,928 SF 15,150 SF Retail Retail Pad

Status: No. Spaces: Rental Rate: Space Available: Bldg. Size: Primary Type: Sub-Type:

Active 1 $45.00 2,005 - 5,168 SF 5,168 SF Retail Retail (Other)

Status: No. Spaces: Rental Rate: Space Available: Bldg. Size: Primary Type: Sub-Type:

Active 3 $11.79 - $16.29 700 - 1,934 SF 2,634 SF Retail Strip Center

Status: No. Spaces: Rental Rate: Space Available: Bldg. Size: Primary Type: Sub-Type:

Active 1 N/A 1,200 - 9,600 SF 9,600 SF Retail Free Standing Bldg

Share this page on social networks:

Start a new search to find additional Clearwater Retail Space available for lease or rent:

Do you have commercial retail space available for lease? You can list it for FREE: Click to add your property to LoopNet.com.

LoopNet.com operates the most heavily trafficed online listing service for buying and selling Clearwater Retail Space and other listings across the U.S. and Canada. In total, LoopNet has over 220,000 spaces available for lease, equalling over 6.3 billion sq. ft. of commercial real estate space for lease.

As the leading marketplace for online commercial real estate marketing, LoopNet attracts the largest community of Clearwater commercial real estate professionals with total LoopNet membership exeeding 7 million members. The LoopNet user base is comprised of commercial real estate brokers, corporate executives, mortgage brokers, and over 3 million buyers, tenants and other principals from Clearwater, FL and other national and international markets, many of whom specialize in Clearwater Retail Space.

Besides Clearwater Retail Property listings for lease, LoopNet's inventory of commercial real estate includes multifamily apartment buildings, office buildings, retail space, hotels and motels, gas stations, churches, shopping centers, warehouses, restaurants, land for sale, Clearwater foreclosures, REO properties, bank owned properties and much more.

Register for FREE and get Access to the More LoopNet Features.

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Clearwater Retail Space For Lease - LoopNet

Glass is a non-crystalline amorphous solid that is often transparent and has widespread practical, technological, and decorative usage in, for example, window panes, tableware, and optoelectronics. Scientifically, the term "glass" is often defined in a broader sense, encompassing every solid that possesses a non-crystalline (that is, amorphous) structure at the atomic scale and that exhibits a glass transition when heated towards the liquid state.

The most familiar, and historically the oldest, types of glass are "silicate glasses" based on the chemical compound silica (silicon dioxide, or quartz), the primary constituent of sand. The term glass, in popular usage, is often used to refer only to this type of material, which is familiar from use as window glass and in glass bottles. Of the many silica-based glasses that exist, ordinary glazing and container glass is formed from a specific type called soda-lime glass, composed of approximately 75% silicon dioxide (SiO2), sodium oxide (Na2O) from sodium carbonate (Na2CO3), calcium oxide, also called lime (CaO), and several minor additives. A very clear and durable quartz glass can be made from pure silica, but the high melting point and very narrow glass transition of quartz make glassblowing and hot working difficult. In glasses like soda lime, the compounds added to quartz are used to lower the melting temperature and improve workability, at a cost in the toughness, thermal stability, and optical transmittance.

Many applications of silicate glasses derive from their optical transparency, which gives rise to one of silicate glasses' primary uses as window panes. Glass will transmit, reflect and refract light; these qualities can be enhanced by cutting and polishing to make optical lenses, prisms, fine glassware, and optical fibers for high speed data transmission by light. Glass can be colored by adding metallic salts, and can also be painted and printed with vitreous enamels. These qualities have led to the extensive use of glass in the manufacture of art objects and in particular, stained glass windows. Although brittle, silicate glass is extremely durable, and many examples of glass fragments exist from early glass-making cultures. Because glass can be formed or molded into any shape, and also because it is a sterile product, it has been traditionally used for vessels: bowls, vases, bottles, jars and drinking glasses. In its most solid forms it has also been used for paperweights, marbles, and beads. When extruded as glass fiber and matted as glass wool in a way to trap air, it becomes a thermal insulating material, and when these glass fibers are embedded into an organic polymer plastic, they are a key structural reinforcement part of the composite material fiberglass. Some objects historically were so commonly made of silicate glass that they are simply called by the name of the material, such as drinking glasses and reading glasses.

In science, porcelains and many polymer thermoplastics familiar from everyday use are glasses too. These sorts of glasses can be made of quite different kinds of materials than silica: metallic alloys, ionic melts, aqueous solutions, molecular liquids, and polymers. For many applications, like glass bottles or eyewear, polymer glasses (acrylic glass, polycarbonate or polyethylene terephthalate) are a lighter alternative than traditional glass.

Silica (the chemical compound SiO2) is a common fundamental constituent of glass. In nature, vitrification of quartz occurs when lightning strikes sand, forming hollow, branching rootlike structures called fulgurite.

Fused quartz is a glass made from chemically-pure SiO2 (silica). It has excellent thermal shock characteristics, being able to survive immersion in water while red hot. However, its high melting-temperature (1723C) and viscosity make it difficult to work with.[1] Normally, other substances are added to simplify processing. One is sodium carbonate (Na2CO3, "soda"), which lowers the glass transition temperature. The soda makes the glass water-soluble, which is usually undesirable, so lime (calcium oxide [CaO], generally obtained from limestone), some magnesium oxide (MgO) and aluminium oxide (Al2O3) are added to provide for a better chemical durability. The resulting glass contains about 70 to 74% silica by weight and is called a soda-lime glass.[2] Soda-lime glasses account for about 90% of manufactured glass.

Most common glass contains other ingredients to change its properties. Lead glass or flint glass is more 'brilliant' because the increased refractive index causes noticeably more specular reflection and increased optical dispersion. Adding barium also increases the refractive index. Thorium oxide gives glass a high refractive index and low dispersion and was formerly used in producing high-quality lenses, but due to its radioactivity has been replaced by lanthanum oxide in modern eyeglasses.[citation needed] Iron can be incorporated into glass to absorb infrared energy, for example in heat absorbing filters for movie projectors, while cerium(IV) oxide can be used for glass that absorbs UV wavelengths.[3]

The following is a list of the more common types of silicate glasses, and their ingredients, properties, and applications:

Another common glass ingredient is crushed alkali glass or "cullet" ready for recycled glass. The recycled glass saves on raw materials and energy. Impurities in the cullet can lead to product and equipment failure. Fining agents such as sodium sulfate, sodium chloride, or antimony oxide may be added to reduce the number of air bubbles in the glass mixture.[2]Glass batch calculation is the method by which the correct raw material mixture is determined to achieve the desired glass composition.

Glass is in widespread use largely due to the production of glass compositions that are transparent to visible light. In contrast, polycrystalline materials do not generally transmit visible light.[7] The individual crystallites may be transparent, but their facets (grain boundaries) reflect or scatter light resulting in diffuse reflection. Glass does not contain the internal subdivisions associated with grain boundaries in polycrystals and hence does not scatter light in the same manner as a polycrystalline material. The surface of a glass is often smooth since during glass formation the molecules of the supercooled liquid are not forced to dispose in rigid crystal geometries and can follow surface tension, which imposes a microscopically smooth surface. These properties, which give glass its clearness, can be retained even if glass is partially light-absorbingi.e., colored.[8]

Glass has the ability to refract, reflect, and transmit light following geometrical optics, without scattering it. It is used in the manufacture of lenses and windows. Common glass has a refraction index around 1.5. This may be modified by adding low-density materials such as boron, which lowers the index of refraction (see crown glass), or increased (to as much as 1.8) with high-density materials such as (classically) lead oxide (see flint glass and lead glass), or in modern uses, less toxic oxides of zirconium, titanium, or barium. These high-index glasses (inaccurately known as "crystal" when used in glass vessels) cause more chromatic dispersion of light, and are prized for their diamond-like optical properties.

According to Fresnel equations, the reflectivity of a sheet of glass is about 4% per surface (at normal incidence in air), and the transmissivity of one element (two surfaces) is about 90%. Glass with high germanium oxide content also finds application in optoelectronicse.g., for light-transmitting optical fibers.

In the process of manufacture, silicate glass can be poured, formed, extruded and molded into forms ranging from flat sheets to highly intricate shapes. The finished product is brittle and will fracture, unless laminated or specially treated, but is extremely durable under most conditions. It erodes very slowly and can withstand the action of water. It is resilient to chemical attack and is an ideal material for the manufacture of containers for foodstuffs and most chemicals.

Following the glass batch preparation and mixing, the raw materials are transported to the furnace. Soda-lime glass for mass production is melted in gas fired units. Smaller scale furnaces for specialty glasses include electric melters, pot furnaces, and day tanks.[2] After melting, homogenization and refining (removal of bubbles), the glass is formed. Flat glass for windows and similar applications is formed by the float glass process, developed between 1953 and 1957 by Sir Alastair Pilkington and Kenneth Bickerstaff of the UK's Pilkington Brothers, who created a continuous ribbon of glass using a molten tin bath on which the molten glass flows unhindered under the influence of gravity. The top surface of the glass is subjected to nitrogen under pressure to obtain a polished finish.[9]Container glass for common bottles and jars is formed by blowing and pressing methods. This glass is often slightly modified chemically (with more alumina and calcium oxide) for greater water resistance. Further glass forming techniques are summarized in the table Glass forming techniques.

Once the desired form is obtained, glass is usually annealed for the removal of stresses. Surface treatments, coatings or lamination may follow to improve the chemical durability (glass container coatings, glass container internal treatment), strength (toughened glass, bulletproof glass, windshields), or optical properties (insulated glazing, anti-reflective coating).

Impurities give the glass its color

Some of the many color possibilities of glass

Transparent and opaque examples

Glass can be blown into an infinite number of shapes

Color in glass may be obtained by addition of electrically charged ions (or color centers) that are homogeneously distributed, and by precipitation of finely dispersed particles (such as in photochromic glasses).[10] Ordinary soda-lime glass appears colorless to the naked eye when it is thin, although iron(II) oxide (FeO) impurities of up to 0.1 wt%[11] produce a green tint, which can be viewed in thick pieces or with the aid of scientific instruments. Further FeO and Cr2O3 additions may be used for the production of green bottles. Sulfur, together with carbon and iron salts, is used to form iron polysulfides and produce amber glass ranging from yellowish to almost black.[12] A glass melt can also acquire an amber color from a reducing combustion atmosphere. Manganese dioxide can be added in small amounts to remove the green tint given by iron(II) oxide. When used in art glass or studio glass is colored using closely guarded recipes that involve specific combinations of metal oxides, melting temperatures and "cook" times. Most colored glass used in the art market is manufactured in volume by vendors who serve this market, although there are some glassmakers with the ability to make their own color from raw materials.

Naturally occurring glass, especially the volcanic glass obsidian, has been used by many Stone Age societies across the globe for the production of sharp cutting tools and, due to its limited source areas, was extensively traded. But in general, archaeological evidence suggests that the first true glass was made in coastal north Syria, Mesopotamia or ancient Egypt.[13] The earliest known glass objects, of the mid third millennium BCE, were beads, perhaps initially created as accidental by-products of metal-working (slags) or during the production of faience, a pre-glass vitreous material made by a process similar to glazing.[14]

Glass remained a luxury material, and the disasters that overtook Late Bronze Age civilizations seem to have brought glass-making to a halt. Indigenous development of glass technology in South Asia may have begun in 1730 BCE.[15] In ancient China, though, glassmaking seems to have a late start, compared to ceramics and metal work. The term glass developed in the late Roman Empire. It was in the Roman glassmaking center at Trier, now in modern Germany, that the late-Latin term glesum originated, probably from a Germanic word for a transparent, lustrous substance.[16] Glass objects have been recovered across the Roman empire in domestic, industrial and funerary contexts.[citation needed]

Glass was used extensively during the Middle Ages. Anglo-Saxon glass has been found across England during archaeological excavations of both settlement and cemetery sites. Glass in the Anglo-Saxon period was used in the manufacture of a range of objects including vessels, beads, windows and was also used in jewelry. From the 10th-century onwards, glass was employed in stained glass windows of churches and cathedrals, with famous examples at Chartres Cathedral and the Basilica of Saint Denis. By the 14th-century, architects were designing buildings with walls of stained glass such as Sainte-Chapelle, Paris, (12031248)[17] and the East end of Gloucester Cathedral.[18] Stained glass had a major revival with Gothic Revival architecture in the 19th-century. With the Renaissance, and a change in architectural style, the use of large stained glass windows became less prevalent. The use of domestic stained glass increased until most substantial houses had glass windows. These were initially small panes leaded together, but with the changes in technology, glass could be manufactured relatively cheaply in increasingly larger sheets. This led to larger window panes, and, in the 20th-century, to much larger windows in ordinary domestic and commercial buildings.

In the 20th century, new types of glass such as laminated glass, reinforced glass and glass bricks have increased the use of glass as a building material and resulted in new applications of glass. Multi-storey buildings are frequently constructed with curtain walls made almost entirely of glass. Similarly, laminated glass has been widely applied to vehicles for windscreens. While glass containers have always been used for storage and are valued for their hygienic properties, glass has been utilized increasingly in industry. Optical glass for spectacles has been used since the late Middle Ages. The production of lenses has become increasingly proficient, aiding astronomers as well as having other application in medicine and science. Glass is also employed as the aperture cover in many solar energy systems.

From the 19th century, there was a revival in many ancient glass-making techniques including cameo glass, achieved for the first time since the Roman Empire and initially mostly used for pieces in a neo-classical style. The Art Nouveau movement made great use of glass, with Ren Lalique, mile Gall, and Daum of Nancy producing colored vases and similar pieces, often in cameo glass, and also using luster techniques. Louis Comfort Tiffany in America specialized in stained glass, both secular and religious, and his famous lamps. The early 20th-century saw the large-scale factory production of glass art by firms such as Waterford and Lalique. From about 1960 onwards there have been an increasing number of small studios hand-producing glass artworks, and glass artists began to class themselves as in effect sculptors working in glass, and their works as part fine arts.

In the 21st century, scientists observing the properties of ancient stained glass windows, in which suspended nanoparticles prevent UV light from causing chemical reactions that change image colors, are developing photographic techniques that use similar stained glass to capture true color images of Mars for the 2019 ESA Mars Rover mission.[19]

A building in Canterbury, England, which displays its long history in different building styles and glazing of every century from the 16th to the 20th included.

Windows in the choir of the Basilica of Saint Denis, one of the earliest uses of extensive areas of glass. (early 13th-century architecture with restored glass of the 19th-century)

Windows at sterreichische Postsparkasse, Vienna, (early 20th-century)

Westin Bonaventure Hotel, USA, show the extensive use of glass as a building material in the 20th-21st centuries

New chemical glass compositions or new treatment techniques can be initially investigated in small-scale laboratory experiments. The raw materials for laboratory-scale glass melts are often different from those used in mass production because the cost factor has a low priority. In the laboratory mostly pure chemicals are used. Care must be taken that the raw materials have not reacted with moisture or other chemicals in the environment (such as alkali or alkaline earth metal oxides and hydroxides, or boron oxide), or that the impurities are quantified (loss on ignition).[21] Evaporation losses during glass melting should be considered during the selection of the raw materials, e.g., sodium selenite may be preferred over easily evaporating SeO2. Also, more readily reacting raw materials may be preferred over relatively inert ones, such as Al(OH)3 over Al2O3. Usually, the melts are carried out in platinum crucibles to reduce contamination from the crucible material. Glass homogeneity is achieved by homogenizing the raw materials mixture (glass batch), by stirring the melt, and by crushing and re-melting the first melt. The obtained glass is usually annealed to prevent breakage during processing.[21][22]

To make glass from materials with poor glass forming tendencies, novel techniques are used to increase cooling rate, or reduce crystal nucleation triggers. Examples of these techniques include aerodynamic levitation (cooling the melt whilst it floats on a gas stream), splat quenching (pressing the melt between two metal anvils) and roller quenching (pouring the melt through rollers).

Some glasses that do not include silica as a major constituent may have physico-chemical properties useful for their application in fiber optics and other specialized technical applications. These include fluoride glasses, aluminosilicates, phosphate glasses, borate glasses, and chalcogenide glasses.

There are three classes of components for oxide glasses: network formers, intermediates, and modifiers. The network formers (silicon, boron, germanium) form a highly cross-linked network of chemical bonds. The intermediates (titanium, aluminium, zirconium, beryllium, magnesium, zinc) can act as both network formers and modifiers, according to the glass composition. The modifiers (calcium, lead, lithium, sodium, potassium) alter the network structure; they are usually present as ions, compensated by nearby non-bridging oxygen atoms, bound by one covalent bond to the glass network and holding one negative charge to compensate for the positive ion nearby. Some elements can play multiple roles; e.g. lead can act both as a network former (Pb4+ replacing Si4+), or as a modifier.

The presence of non-bridging oxygens lowers the relative number of strong bonds in the material and disrupts the network, decreasing the viscosity of the melt and lowering the melting temperature.

The alkali metal ions are small and mobile; their presence in glass allows a degree of electrical conductivity, especially in molten state or at high temperature. Their mobility decreases the chemical resistance of the glass, allowing leaching by water and facilitating corrosion. Alkaline earth ions, with their two positive charges and requirement for two non-bridging oxygen ions to compensate for their charge, are much less mobile themselves and also hinder diffusion of other ions, especially the alkalis. The most common commercial glasses contain both alkali and alkaline earth ions (usually sodium and calcium), for easier processing and satisfying corrosion resistance.[24] Corrosion resistance of glass can be achieved by dealkalization, removal of the alkali ions from the glass surface by reaction with e.g. sulfur or fluorine compounds. Presence of alkaline metal ions has also detrimental effect to the loss tangent of the glass, and to its electrical resistance; glasses for electronics (sealing, vacuum tubes, lamps...) have to take this in account.

Addition of lead(II) oxide lowers melting point, lowers viscosity of the melt, and increases refractive index. Lead oxide also facilitates solubility of other metal oxides and is used in colored glasses. The viscosity decrease of lead glass melt is very significant (roughly 100 times in comparison with soda glasses); this allows easier removal of bubbles and working at lower temperatures, hence its frequent use as an additive in vitreous enamels and glass solders. The high ionic radius of the Pb2+ ion renders it highly immobile in the matrix and hinders the movement of other ions; lead glasses therefore have high electrical resistance, about two orders of magnitude higher than soda-lime glass (108.5 vs 106.5 Ohmcm, DC at 250C). For more details, see lead glass.[25]

Addition of fluorine lowers the dielectric constant of glass. Fluorine is highly electronegative and attracts the electrons in the lattice, lowering the polarizability of the material. Such silicon dioxide-fluoride is used in manufacture of integrated circuits as an insulator. High levels of fluorine doping lead to formation of volatile SiF2O and such glass is then thermally unstable. Stable layers were achieved with dielectric constant down to about 3.53.7.[26]

In the past, small batches of amorphous metals with high surface area configurations (ribbons, wires, films, etc.) have been produced through the implementation of extremely rapid rates of cooling. This was initially termed "splat cooling" by doctoral student W. Klement at Caltech, who showed that cooling rates on the order of millions of degrees per second is sufficient to impede the formation of crystals, and the metallic atoms become "locked into" a glassy state. Amorphous metal wires have been produced by sputtering molten metal onto a spinning metal disk. More recently a number of alloys have been produced in layers with thickness exceeding 1 millimeter. These are known as bulk metallic glasses (BMG). Liquidmetal Technologies sell a number of zirconium-based BMGs. Batches of amorphous steel have also been produced that demonstrate mechanical properties far exceeding those found in conventional steel alloys.[27][28][29]

In 2004, NIST researchers presented evidence that an isotropic non-crystalline metallic phase (dubbed "q-glass") could be grown from the melt. This phase is the first phase, or "primary phase", to form in the Al-Fe-Si system during rapid cooling. Interestingly, experimental evidence indicates that this phase forms by a first-order transition. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images show that the q-glass nucleates from the melt as discrete particles, which grow spherically with a uniform growth rate in all directions. The diffraction pattern shows it to be an isotropic glassy phase. Yet there is a nucleation barrier, which implies an interfacial discontinuity (or internal surface) between the glass and the melt.[30][31]

Electrolytes or molten salts are mixtures of different ions. In a mixture of three or more ionic species of dissimilar size and shape, crystallization can be so difficult that the liquid can easily be supercooled into a glass. The best-studied example is Ca0.4K0.6(NO3)1.4.

Some aqueous solutions can be supercooled into a glassy state, for instance LiCl:RH2O in the composition range 4

A molecular liquid is composed of molecules that do not form a covalent network but interact only through weak van der Waals forces or through transient hydrogen bonds. Many molecular liquids can be supercooled into a glass; some are excellent glass formers that normally do not crystallize.

A widely known example is sugar glass.

Under extremes of pressure and temperature solids may exhibit large structural and physical changes that can lead to polyamorphic phase transitions.[32] In 2006 Italian scientists created an amorphous phase of carbon dioxide using extreme pressure. The substance was named amorphous carbonia(a-CO2) and exhibits an atomic structure resembling that of silica.[33]

Important polymer glasses include amorphous and glassy pharmaceutical compounds. These are useful because the solubility of the compound is greatly increased when it is amorphous compared to the same crystalline composition. Many emerging pharmaceuticals are practically insoluble in their crystalline forms.[34]

Concentrated colloidal suspensions may exhibit a distinct glass transition as function of particle concentration or density.[35][36][37]

In cell biology there is recent evidence suggesting that the cytoplasm behaves like a colloidal glass approaching the liquid-glass transition.[38][39] During periods of low metabolic activity, as in dormancy, the cytoplasm vitrifies and prohibits the movement to larger cytoplasmic particles while allowing the diffusion of smaller ones throughout the cell.[38]

Glass-ceramic materials share many properties with both non-crystalline glass and crystalline ceramics. They are formed as a glass, and then partially crystallized by heat treatment. For example, the microstructure of whiteware ceramics frequently contains both amorphous and crystalline phases. Crystalline grains are often embedded within a non-crystalline intergranular phase of grain boundaries. When applied to whiteware ceramics, vitreous means the material has an extremely low permeability to liquids, often but not always water, when determined by a specified test regime.[40][41]

The term mainly refers to a mix of lithium and aluminosilicates that yields an array of materials with interesting thermomechanical properties. The most commercially important of these have the distinction of being impervious to thermal shock. Thus, glass-ceramics have become extremely useful for countertop cooking. The negative thermal expansion coefficient (CTE) of the crystalline ceramic phase can be balanced with the positive CTE of the glassy phase. At a certain point (~70% crystalline) the glass-ceramic has a net CTE near zero. This type of glass-ceramic exhibits excellent mechanical properties and can sustain repeated and quick temperature changes up to 1000C.[40][41]

As in other amorphous solids, the atomic structure of a glass lacks any long-range translational periodicity. Due to chemical bonding characteristics glasses do possess a high degree of short-range order with respect to local atomic polyhedra.[42]

In physics, the standard definition of a glass (or vitreous solid) is a solid formed by rapid melt quenching.[43][44][45][46][47] The term glass is often used to describe any amorphous solid that exhibits a glass transition temperature Tg. If the cooling is sufficiently rapid (relative to the characteristic crystallization time) then crystallization is prevented and instead the disordered atomic configuration of the supercooled liquid is frozen into the solid state at Tg. The tendency for a material to form a glass while quenched is called glass-forming ability. This ability can be predicted by the rigidity theory.[48] Generally, the structure of a glass exists in a metastable state with respect to its crystalline form, although in certain circumstances, for example in atactic polymers, there is no crystalline analogue of the amorphous phase.[49]

Some people consider glass to be a liquid due to its lack of a first-order phase transition[50][51] where certain thermodynamic variables such as volume, entropy and enthalpy are discontinuous through the glass transition range. The glass transition may be described as analogous to a second-order phase transition where the intensive thermodynamic variables such as the thermal expansivity and heat capacity are discontinuous.[44] Nonetheless, the equilibrium theory of phase transformations does not entirely hold for glass, and hence the glass transition cannot be classed as one of the classical equilibrium phase transformations in solids.[46][47]

Glass is an amorphous solid. It exhibits an atomic structure close to that observed in the supercooled liquid phase but displays all the mechanical properties of a solid.[50][52] The notion that glass flows to an appreciable extent over extended periods of time is not supported by empirical research or theoretical analysis (see viscosity of amorphous materials). Laboratory measurements of room temperature glass flow do show a motion consistent with a material viscosity on the order of 10171018 Pa s.[53]

Although the atomic structure of glass shares characteristics of the structure in a supercooled liquid, glass tends to behave as a solid below its glass transition temperature.[54] A supercooled liquid behaves as a liquid, but it is below the freezing point of the material, and in some cases will crystallize almost instantly if a crystal is added as a core. The change in heat capacity at a glass transition and a melting transition of comparable materials are typically of the same order of magnitude, indicating that the change in active degrees of freedom is comparable as well. Both in a glass and in a crystal it is mostly only the vibrational degrees of freedom that remain active, whereas rotational and translational motion is arrested. This helps to explain why both crystalline and non-crystalline solids exhibit rigidity on most experimental time scales.

The observation that old windows are sometimes found to be thicker at the bottom than at the top is often offered as supporting evidence for the view that glass flows over a timescale of centuries, the assumption being that the glass has exhibited the liquid property of flowing from one shape to another.[56] This assumption is incorrect, as once solidified, glass stops flowing. The reason for the observation is that in the past, when panes of glass were commonly made by glassblowers, the technique used was to spin molten glass so as to create a round, mostly flat and even plate (the crown glass process, described above). This plate was then cut to fit a window. The pieces were not absolutely flat; the edges of the disk became a different thickness as the glass spun. When installed in a window frame, the glass would be placed with the thicker side down both for the sake of stability and to prevent water accumulating in the lead cames at the bottom of the window.[57] Occasionally such glass has been found installed with the thicker side at the top, left or right.[58]

Mass production of glass window panes in the early twentieth century caused a similar effect. In glass factories, molten glass was poured onto a large cooling table and allowed to spread. The resulting glass is thicker at the location of the pour, located at the center of the large sheet. These sheets were cut into smaller window panes with nonuniform thickness, typically with the location of the pour centered in one of the panes (known as "bull's-eyes") for decorative effect. Modern glass intended for windows is produced as float glass and is very uniform in thickness.

Several other points can be considered that contradict the "cathedral glass flow" theory:

Ear stud, ca. 13901353 B.C.E., 48.66.30, Brooklyn Museum. The shafts of these brightly colored studs were inserted through a hole in the earlobe to display the studs' circular heads.

Phoenician glass necklace 5th6th century BC

Roman glass amphoriskoi 1st2nd century AD

Blue head flask (Roman, AD 300500, cast glass)

Lombardic glass drinking horn 6th7th century AD

Two cups cobalt blue glass with gilt floral decoration from India, Mughal, circa 17001775

Base for a water pipe, India, Mughal, circa 17001775

Venetian goblet made in Italy in the early 19th century.

Bracelets with peacocks, Delhi, enameled silver inlaid with gemstones and glass, 19th century

Jug, 1876, James Powell & Sons

Siphon bottle for seltzer water, 1922

New Martinsville Glass Hostmaster Tea Cup, cobalt blue, 1930

Murano millefiori glass vase

Detail from a glass chandelier

The using of glass dials in this "mystery watch" creates the illusion the hands move without movement

Excerpt from:
Glass - Wikipedia