By ornithologists' best estimates, between 350 million and a billion birds in the U.S. die every year from colliding into the windows of buildings. Lacking good depth perception, birds are unable to distinguish reflections in glass from the real thing, causing them to fly into the window at full speed. In Philly, the growing glass skyline has meant that some species of songbird are being threatened by the city's current building boom.
Concerned by this avian crisis, writer Inga Saffron visited the Discovery Center in Philly, which bills itself as the first bird-safe building. Designed by Digsau, the Center—which houses the non-profits Audubon Pennsylvania and Outward Bound—employs a dotted glass developed by FXCollaborative for the Javits Convention Center that has cut bird deaths by 90%. Additionally, the architects figured out some low-cost hacks, such as stringing a curtain of plastic cord over the windows, to ensure a bird-friendly building. Read more here.
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