Architectural Glazing for Bronze Systems
Precision glazing,
designed to disappear
Glass is the most important part of our bronze systems, which you’ll never see.
Precision engineering and specialist glazing expertise ensure our windows, doors, and enclosures excel in durability, thermal performance, and beauty.
Partnering with
glass pioneers
Our partnership with AGNORA/West Coast Glass puts Renaissance systems at the forefront of glazing innovation.
By uniting manufacturing, assembly, and finishing technologies across world-renowned brands, we are able to precision-tailor glazing specifications that align seamlessly with architectural intent – ensuring the quality and performance of our glazing matches the integrity of our bronze systems.
Handmade in Texas
Our solid bronze frames are wet-glazed by hand in our San Antonio workshop and delivered fully assembled to site. This approach maximizes the structural integrity and performance of our windows and enclosures, while significantly reducing complexity and risk during installation.
Standard
glazing options
Our exterior windows and doors are glazed using Guardian 62/27 glass as standard, while interior doors, wine enclosures and shower doors use tempered glass.
Our glazing exceeds all requirements for residential applications and every piece is tested at source, to ensure strict compliance with our own specifications as follows:
Exceptional clarity
Distortion-free
Flawless reflections
Speciality
glazing options
Whether the considerations are aesthetic, architectural, or environmental, we offer a range of specialty glazing upgrades enabling architects to achieve their design vision without compromise.
For unparalleled color fidelity, we offer Starphire Ultra-Clear® glass – widely regarded as the clearest glass in the world – as our best-in-class low-iron upgrade.
Low-iron glass delivers superior color neutrality that maximizes visual light transmission (VLT) for crisp, vivid views.
When exposed edges and corners come into play, low-iron becomes even more important. Increased VLT means that more light is transmitted through the thickest cross-section of the glass, ensuring edges look vibrant and energized, not dull and dark.
Delivering 87% less green tint than standard clear glass, with a VLT of 90-91%, Starphire® Glass is designed to be virtually invisible, with unmatched surface clarity and crystalline edge profiles.
Coated or laminated glazing may be specified for a variety of reasons, ranging from safety and code requirement through to thermal efficiency and environmental concerns. We go to extraordinary lengths to ensure coatings have minimal impact on appearance and visual clarity. Options include:
• Low-E
• UV/wine safe glass
• Anti-reflective glass
• Bird-friendly & turtle glass
• Hurricane glass
All of our glazing units are manufactured using the revolutionary Swisspacer system from Saint Gobain.
Engineered with glass-fiber–reinforced composite and high-tech sealed foil, Swisspacer replaces conventional metal spacer bars, radically reducing thermal conductivity and edge heat loss.
This system has a number of key advantages that closely align with the Renaissance ethos:
Thermal efficiency
By further enhancing U-value and energy efficiency, Swisspacer maximizes the performance of our thermally-broken bronze frames.
Narrow sightlines
Swisspacer’s slim profile and seamless joining system preserve the extremely narrow sightlines of our bronze systems – razor-sharp corners mean not a single millimetre of your view is obstructed.
Visual refinement
Conventional spacer bars are typically made from shiny aluminum that calls attention to itself. We use Swisspacer in matte black, making it virtually invisible – paired with a bronze patina finish, it simply disappears into the frame for an ultra-refined look.
Step into our world
Every glazing specification is customized around architectural intent. Whether you’re just curious, or you’ve got a project in mind, book a Bronze Discovery Session to find out what’s possible.
What our architects say
FAQs
The primary role of glazing is to allow light into building interiors while keeping the elements out.
The earliest windows were very simple structures with monolithic (single) glazing. They brought in light, but made buildings cold and drafty because they had no insulation. As window technology evolved, thermal performance improved – but windows became a lot more bulky, and lacked the visual simplicity of earlier designs.
Modern-day glazing is different from traditional glazing because we now have the technology to deliver superior energy-efficiency and waterproofing without compromising thickness and clarity. Specialist glass manufacturing techniques and coatings, combined with advanced frame engineering, allows you to achieve the minimalist simplicity of heritage windows, alongside contemporary performance standards.
Architectural glazing describes the practice of considering glazed elements like windows and doors as part of the overall fabric of a building’s structure.
It’s focused on choosing the best glass for a specific architectural objective – whether that’s practical, performance-based requirements, aesthetic considerations, or more commonly, a combination of the two. Architectural glazing considers every glazed opening in your home as a brief in its own right.
Most window and door manufacturers offer standard glass. So when you meet with them or visit their showroom, they may only show you one or two options – specified to meet key requirements around safety, energy efficiency and visual clarity.
What most people don’t realise is that there are a lot more options available that can significantly enhance both the appearance and performance of windows and doors.
At Renaissance, we specify custom architectural glazing that puts all these options on the table, and help you to make the right choice for your project.
At Renaissance, there’s no such thing as ‘standard glass’. Our baseline glass specification is already better than the industry standard – it’s tested to strict standards on clarity and flatness before it leaves the factory.
We then offer a range of optional upgrades, including low-iron formulation for superior clarity and color rendering; enhanced thermal efficiency through advanced coatings and insulation methods; improved acoustics; and specialist glazing including hurricane or ballistic-rated glass and bird or turtle-safe glass. We can source specialist glass from different manufacturers, and we offer a choice of glass spacers to further enhance aesthetic and thermal performance.
In addition to this, we custom specify per window, not per project. This means if you want ultra-clear low iron glass on windows that overlook a view, and privacy or acoustic glass on windows that face a busy road, you can have both – all framed in stunning, solid bronze.
Once you go beyond standard glass, choosing the best glass for your project can feel daunting. You’re already balancing safety, durability, energy efficiency and aesthetics – so adding considerations like clarity, thickness, acoustics, coatings and colors can make things feel complicated.
That’s where we come in. Our job is to understand precisely what you want to achieve in your project, from every angle – then advise you on the best glass to realize that vision. We’ll walk you through the whole process, starting with the fundamental decisions around code compliance, energy efficiency, safety and durability – before progressing to more nuanced, design-led conversations about clarity, color neutrality, reflectiveness and noise reduction.
The conversation is open and collaborative, involving homeowners, architects, interior designers and more. Book a Bronze Discovery Session to get started.
RGSB’s glazing systems offer superior energy efficiency that is independently verified by the National Fenestration Ratings Council (NFRC) and compliant with Title 24, one of the most stringent building codes in North America.
Our systems combine insulated glass units, Low-E coatings, Swisspacer warm-edge spacers and thermally-broken bronze frames. Together, these elements enhance U-values while improving visual clarity and visible light reflectance values, balancing energy efficiency with aesthetic appeal.
Low-iron glass is used when absolute clarity and true color rendering are critical to the design.
Its unique formulation reduces the iron content in the molten glass to less than 0.01%. This significantly reduces the green tint that occurs in standard glass, increasing Visible Light Transmission and enhancing color fidelity.
Starphire Ultra-Clear® glass is one of the clearest glass products on the market. It delivers 87% less green tint than standard clear glass, with a VLT of 90-91%. For projects with beautiful views and/or exposed glass edges, it provides unmatched surface clarity and crystalline edge profiles.
Wet glazing is a factory process, used as an alternative to the more common process of dry glazing.
In dry-glazed windows, the glass is sealed into the window frame using a tight-fitting rubber gasket that stops moisture and air from seeping in around the edge. But these gaskets are prone to shrinking and becoming brittle over time, especially in exposed locations – causing problems like leaking, drafts and condensation, and reducing energy efficiency.
In our wet-glazed windows, the glass units are permanently sealed into their bronze frames using a structural DOW995 silicone. This creates a stronger, more stable bond than traditional gasket systems, improving weather resistance, durability, and long-term performance.
Wet glazing forms structural bonds between the glass and the bronze window frame, which increases the strength and load-bearing capacity of the window. This allows us to reduce the volume of both glass and bronze for thinner sightlines and lighter windows, without compromising on strength, durability or thermal performance. Our proprietary removable stop system means it’s easy to replace the glass if it becomes damaged.