Duke University has doctored the glass in a LEED-certified building that has been blamed for dozens of bird deaths every year.
In September, the towering windows in the Fitzpatrick Center at the Pratt School of Engineering on the Durham, N.C., campus were treated with a film that includes colors and patterns, turning it into “fritted glass,” so birds would be able to see it, according to a post at ConstructionDive.
The building is close to the Atlantic Flyway, a major north-south migration route, and its windows had become an avian death trap. A survey of 45 college campuses by Augustana College put buildings at Duke University at the top of the list for bird fatalities. An on-campus investigation at Duke concluded the Fitzpatrick Center was responsible for 72% of bird deaths there.
“We had a ton of data on our side as well as student support with students saying it was a problem, and they wanted the university to fix it,” graduate student Scott Winton, who led the Duke investigation, told the Duke Chronicle. “At that point, it’s really hard for the university to justify doing nothing.”
Winton said fritted glass may have another advantage–it helps reduce solar gain and thereby increases the energy efficiency of the building.
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Duke University applied a textured film to windows at a LEED-certified building on campus to reduce the number of fatal bird collisions.
