Nauru Tower - 1330 Ala Moana Blvd Honolulu, HI 96814

The building

Nauru Tower stands on Ala Moana Boulevard in Kakaako, between the harbour and Ala Moana Beach Park — a residential tower whose units are glazed on every side for the view that made them worth buying.

Height changes the problem

At ground level something is usually in the way: a tree, a neighboring roof, a ridge, a wall. Above about the tenth floor nothing is. A west-facing pane high on an Ala Moana tower sees the sun from the middle of the morning until it goes into the ocean, with no interruption at all, and the makai elevation takes the reflected component off the water on top of the direct beam.

Condominium living then removes most of the remedies. External shading is not permitted, because the elevation has to stay uniform. The lanai depth is whatever the architect drew. The air conditioning in each unit was sized for the unit, not for a wall of glass at three in the afternoon, and it is the owner's to run. The usual outcome is that residents close the drapes on the view they paid a premium for, and run the system harder anyway.

Inside, the sun lands on hardwood floors, rugs, furniture and art. Direct sun on a timber floor in a high-rise unit will mark out the shape of the window within a couple of years, and the line does not come out.

What window film does about it

The film goes on the interior surface of the glass, so nothing about the building envelope changes and nothing is visible from the street. A spectrally selective film rejects most of the near-infrared while keeping visible transmission high, so the living space stops overheating in the afternoon and the ocean is still there. Better than ninety-nine per cent of the ultraviolet is removed, which is the main lever on fading.

Because one specification can be used across every unit, the tower keeps a single appearance from outside — which is normally the condition an association attaches to approving anything at all.

Two practical points before anyone orders film for a condo. Check the house rules and whether the association has already approved a particular product and reflectance; boards in Honolulu commonly mandate one so the building does not end up looking patched. And the film has to be matched to the existing glass — units that are already tinted, insulated or annealed have a thermal stress limit, and a strongly absorbing film on the wrong pane can crack it.

What owners notice first is not the temperature reading but the run time. A split system in a glazed unit spends the afternoon at full output because the load never lets up; take a large part of the solar gain away and it starts cycling instead of running continuously, which is quieter, cheaper and easier on the equipment. The second thing they notice is that the drapes stay open.

We film individual units and whole buildings across Kakaako and Ala Moana. See our residential work or request a quote.