Praying for a solution to protect irreplaceable stained glass 

 

They say good things come to those who wait, or perhaps for those who operate the Cathedral Church of the Redeemer in Calgary, Alberta, it’s for those who pray. For years, the sandstone structure building has had to cover its precious and fragile stained glass windows with unsightly fire protectant screens and older protective windows. 

“It looked like an old, ramshackle type of security covering, and it wasn’t putting our best foot forward, to put it lightly,” said Chris Dowdeswell, Dean of the Cathedral Church of the Redeemer. In recent years, with increasing vandalism in Calgary’s downtown core where the church is located, window protection was getting compromised, especially from rocks thrown at the windows. With the stained-glass windows at risk of further damage, the church was presented with a solution that one could say was heaven sent – ROCKGLASS.  

An optically clear, impact and abrasion resistant product that replaces and protects traditional glass, ROCKGLASS is the ideal solution to protect the church’s “irreplaceable” stained glass windows. “I don’t know if we could have found a better solution to the problem,” praised Dowdeswell. The true value of the ROCKGLASS investment became crystal clear the moment he saw it fully installed for the first time. “It was immediately noticeable how much brighter it was in the space. You can make out the kind of scenes depicted in the stained glass from the outside of the building now, and I don’t know if you ever were able to do that. Historically, they depict biblical scenes. They also depict some historical scenes about the settling of the west and the expansion of the Anglican Church in this area. I didn’t expect to be able to see the underlying artwork so clearly.”   

Dowdeswell says ROCKGLASS was worth the investment and the process to make it happen, which the church’s key heritage partners have noted as well. “Having our stained glass well protected is very valuable, not only to us, but to our heritage partners. Since we’ve had them installed, if there have been any instances of attempted vandalism, it hasn’t done any damage.” 

The church’s volunteers worked closely with ROCKGLASS dealer, Marc Dupuis, Sales Project Manager at Proqual Construction in Edmonton, Alberta. “From start to finish, it was a six-month process,” said Dupuis. As an approved ROCKGLASS dealer, Proqual consulted with the church and the heritage organizations to ensure that the installation of ROCKGLASS over the church’s stained glass would not take away from the integrity of the vintage glass’s design and aesthetics, while covertly providing the protection ROCKGLASS is known for.  

Built in the early 1900s, the Cathedral Church of the Redeemer is designated a heritage site by the city of Calgary and the province of Alberta. Like other heritage planning departments in major cities across North America, these heritage entities work with property owners to provide information, review applications, and support  policy compliance. The church also received funding from the Calgary Foundation to cover the cost of the ROCKGLASS, new framing to support it, and installation.  

Unlike standard ROCKGLASS pane installations, Proqual had to custom cut the ROCKGLASS to fit exactly into the church’s unique window portals. Moreover, said Dupuis, we had to refurbish the frames, supported by ROCKGLASS’s framing system, all of which had to be reviewed and approved by Heritage Planning Calgary. “We had to come up with a system that was the least intrusive as possible. What we ended up doing is having these well-located screws that we put in to secure the ROCKGLASS by using unobtrusive quarter-inch holes in the frame all the way around.” 

The Cathedral Church of the Redeemer wanted to take proactive measures to secure its facility as vandalism and crime rates have increased in Calgary, and Dupuis smiles with pride that ROCKGLASS was an answer to their prayers. 

ClearSecure protects another church in western Canada 

In Winnipeg, Manitoba, a church in the city’s west end, turned to a complementing ClearSecure product to ROCKGLASS called ROCKSCREEN. After numerous incidents of vandalism where the church windows and screens were damaged beyond repair, the church’s board invested in ROCKSCREEN. “They have not had any incidents of broken glass since,” said Vince Croker, ClearSecure’s Vice President. “If someone was to throw a rock or other object now at the church’s windows, the ROCKSCREEN acts as an absorbent buffer to deflect the object away.” ROCKSCREEN is comprised of 304 woven stainless steel designed with a black powder-coated finish, which in most cases, is installed easily over existing window frames.  

Watch Now! See how ROCKSCREEN is protecting a church in Winnipeg 

To learn more about how ROCKGLASS and ROCKSCREEN can protect your church, please visit ClearSecure’s website at https://rockglass.ca/