There’s a private golf club in Palm Desert hidden amongst the hilly acres of land just beyond the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains. Monumental Windows and Doors had the opportunity to work with Crescent Glass—a certified curved glass supplier—to honor some renovation plans for the gorgeous club restaurant featured on property.
The blueprint included some of our very own Vari-Slide™ doors along with the installation of three radius curved glass windows with a custom-painted finish. The restaurant’s glass windows were specifically designed to offer clear views of the golf course and the hilly desert. Our low profile Slim-Trac™ track allowed the dining space to flow seamlessly out onto the deck, bringing the outdoors inside.
Constructing curved custom made sliding glass doors calls for extremely precise engineering. There are not many manufacturers in the California area who offer these types of products because of the complicated nature of the work.
For those unfamiliar with the manufacturing process of curved glass window systems, each component of the aluminum assembly is “stretch-formed” to a precise radius. Then, because the glass is dual-paned, both pieces of glass in each panel, including the spacer, are also bent to a different radius. All of these components are combined into a smooth operating system, but the challenges don’t end there. A curved Vari-Slide installation requires the experience and expertise to fit the assembly onsite. Field technicians must fine-tune the assembly and are required to work within the tight tolerances of multiple radii in an expansive opening.
Crescent Glass doesn’t usually offer commercial services, but contractors on the project realized that they were one of the only glass suppliers who had the materials to provide the specific services needed.
What Goes Into Creating Crista Curva Bent Products?
We spoke with Crescent Glass Manager James Linnell about what it takes to deliver on special projects such as these. “We’ve been doing these particular projects for nearly 30 years. They’ve always been a part of these high-end residential designs that would come about from the architects. It’s fun,” says Linnell. “I love the challenge of high-end residential. If we were a regular window-and-door shop, we’d be doing tract work. And that’s as boring as it gets. We get a lot of challenges that come our way. Our employees and I get to sit down and brainstorm and come up with the solutions.”
Custom-Sized Glass Projects
Most of the products that Crescent Glass produces are highly specialized, unique in size, and custom-ordered. They are also one of the few specialty companies that has been doing this for as long as they have.
“Most of the curved glass windows at this particular establishment were oversized. We use a curved glass supplier out of Guadalajara, Mexico named Cristacurva. They carry the best products to allow us to make glass of this size. There are a few companies in Europe who can do the same thing, but to have them be a bit more local, closer, and accessible really helps us out,” says Linnell.
Palm Desert Windows and Doors: A Booming Business
Lately, new developments in the real estate sector only seem to be getting bigger. Monumental and Crescent Glass have been fortunate to be able to work on some really extravagant homes. Some projects even grow bigger before the contracts are complete! Linnell recalls: “We recently completed a Monumental project on a custom home. Our window and door placement contract started at $1.9 million. It then shot up to $2.3 million with all the change orders that were added to it. It once was a 26,000 square foot house but turned into 27,000 after the owners added an IMAX theater.”
Like Monumental, Crescent Glass prides themselves on relationship building, testimonials and work credibility to build customer rapport in their communities. “We do not have a website, we do not advertise at all. We do not take credit cards. People wonder how we stay in business. I say: it’s very easy. It’s all word of mouth and genuine relationships,” says Linnell.
And this relationship is one that Monumental hopes to keep building on for years to come. For more information on your options for aluminum window and door products in the Palm Desert area, visit us here.