At Kaiser Permanente's Bellflower radiation oncology center, the building doesn't just treat patients — it greets them. Glasswerks fabricated the custom decorative silkscreen façade that makes that first impression possible.
A Façade That Heals Before You Walk In
Kaiser Permanente’s Bellflower facility is one of the more visually distinctive medical buildings in Southern California — and the glass envelope is the reason why. Designed to serve patients navigating one of the most challenging chapters of their lives, the building’s exterior was conceived as a welcoming gesture rather than a clinical statement.
The fritted glass façade draws its motif from the “Belle-fleur” apple tree, a nod to the city’s own name and botanical history. The result is a building that feels rooted — literally — in its community. Glasswerks fabricated the custom decorative silkscreen patterns that bring that vision to life across the building’s segmented radius curtain wall, working in close coordination with the project team to ensure the individual art files aligned seamlessly across the full mural façade.
Our Scope of Work
Delivering this level of decorative complexity required precision at every stage — and the results earned a Glass Magazine Award for Best Decorative Glass Application. Glasswerks fabricated a range of glass types across the building’s segmented radius curtain wall, working in close coordination with the project team to ensure every panel performed as well as it looked.
- Custom ceramic frit silkscreen patterns on Solarban® 70 Solarblue® vision glass — digitally fit to every unique glass size across the mural façade
- Solar Blue frit with Pilkington Energy Advantage™ Low-E inboard for spandrel areas, plus custom Opaci-Coat color matching throughout
- All units fabricated as low-e insulating glass to meet the building’s all-electric, LEED Gold energy targets
- Four-sided structural silicone butt joints — allowing the artwork to run uninterrupted, edge-to-edge across every panel
- A unitized curtain wall system required by seismic zoning — adding coordination complexity the team navigated without compromise
- A façade that shifts entirely with the light — alive in natural daylight, luminous and backlit after dark
Read more about our “Best Decorative Glass Application” Glass Magazine Award here.
“This building design offers a unique visual presence in both natural daylight and when backlit at night. This structure stands out with the innovative use of the printed glass.”
— Tara Brummet, Glass Magazine Awards Judge”
Project Team
- Owner: Kaiser Permanente
- Architect: The SLAM Collaborative
- General Contractor: Turner Construction Co.
- Glazing Contractor: Aragon Construction Inc.
- Glass Fabricator: Glasswerks
- Glass Manufacturer: Vitro Architectural Glass
- Metal System Manufacturer: Kawneer
- Glass Artwork Design: EGG Office
- Photographer: Tom Bonner Photography
