Each year, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, roughly 750 million bird deaths are caused by glass façades. (Fatal Light Awareness Program Canada has an estimated window collisions counter on its website.)
Ennead Architects’ partner Guy Maxwell, AIA, is working with members of the American Bird Conservancy, New York City Audubon, New Jersey Audubon, and the Bird Safe Glass Foundation to research design strategies and advocate for regulations that could reduce the current death rate.
The concept of bird safety is changing architecture, Maxwell says. Exceptional bird-friendly designs have been completed across the country, from the fritted glass windows of Weiss Manfredi Architects’ Brooklyn Botanic Garden Visitor Center, to AJC Architects’ Tracy Aviary Visitor Center in Salt Lake City, which is fronted by fractured metal screens that keep birds from flying into its windows. “There’s generally an awareness of this problem now,” says Maxwell. “You see architects considering this when before they had no idea it was even a problem.”
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