Once completed, UPMC Presbyterian’s new curved glass tower will be more than an architectural icon competing with the likes of the Cathedral of Learning in Oakland and PPG Place in Pittsburgh’s Downtown.

The new building continues the evolution of hospital design while sticking with an affinity for large windows popularized by Florence Nightingale and confirmed by scientific study as beneficial for places of healing.

The 900,000-square-foot, glass-covered architectural update of UPMC’s flagship hospital figures to wow patients, visitors and the Oakland community when its 636 private patient rooms open in early 2027. In addition to its state-of-the-art facilities, there will be a few subtle twists whose benefits extend beyond its patients.

UPMC and its primary architect, HGA of Minneapolis, Minn., together decided on a building that includes nature, with mini parks and a “Lifestyle Village” complete with community space for classes, farm markets and Oakland vendors. To install greenery is to invite more to the party — insects and birds at the very least.

When a Carnegie Museum of Natural History biologist was asked to consult on the project and view the designs, he thought about the thousands of birds migrating through Oakland twice a year and the resident birds, too.

Jon Rice, urban bird conservation coordinator at Carnegie Museum of Natural History, looked at the plans for the lower lobby, with its tall panes of glass and a roof garden on the parking garage that’s more robust than the typical green roof.

“I was concerned the birds would not see the glass,” he said.

At least 1 billion birds die annually nationwide from striking glass on buildings that they cannot see, according to the American Bird Conservancy.

Rice is a big fan of the raised roof garden, which is an oasis for patients to visit without leaving the hospital.

“The problem is that this raised garden is tucked into a curved wall of glass and is an ecological trap,” he said. “The garden will attract birds to refuel or to take refuge or to hide from the peregrine falcons.”

When it comes to typical window glass, the problem is that birds don’t see it and smash into it because they believe reflections of trees are actual trees.

In 2010, the Carnegie Museum’s Powdermill Avian Research Center worked with the American Bird Conservancy to evaluate glass efficiency for the purpose of bird safety.

Powdermill researchers conducted experiments using telemetry to track birds as they flew through a customized tunnel to understand their perception of glass to reduce collisions.

Researchers could control the light in the tunnel and worked with a large selection of commercially available window treatments for the flight trials. They added netting to protect the birds from hitting the glass. 

The more glass on a building, the more likely the collisions, Rice said. For example, there aren’t a lot of bird collisions at the Cathedral of Learning because it is mostly stone.

The second factor increasing bird strikes is vegetation. Migrating birds in spring and fall are drawn to any city because of the lights. 

They refuel in the morning, moving from tree to tree. They see a reflection of trees in the glass and fly to it with the surety and speed of flying to the next tree.

“Pittsburgh is very green and we have good refueling locations for birds,” Rice said. “It’s a balancing act providing green spaces like Frick and Schenley parks and Hays Woods. They are really wonderful for wildlife and migratory birds.

“While we provide that green space, we also want safe spaces for birds to interact.”

The majority of collisions occur at low-rise buildings and on the first three floors of taller buildings, Rice said.

“The reality is 46% of collisions occur in suburbia at people’s homes.” 

When UPMC worked with the architects, they knew about the bird strikes, said John Krolicki, UPMC’s vice president for facilities and support services.

When bird strikes occur at existing buildings, a film or patterns are added later.

“Think about being in a hospital and a bird breaks its neck and falls in front of you. It’s not good for patients or anybody or Oakland,” Krolicki said.

There are going to be many firsts with the hospital and bird-safe glass is one small element of them, he said.

“It’s a concept of health and wellness and technology in a built environment and making sure we are environmentally friendly.”

Contractors have installed about 75% of the building glass so far in the new UPMC tower, said Mike Schesler, UPMC’s director of construction.

The special bird-safe glass – about 35,000 square feet of it – comprises 12% of the building’s 290,000 square feet of glass. It’s installed on the first three floors from street level and another three stories facing the parking garage roof garden, he said.

The energy-efficient glass is made bird-friendly with faint vertical gray lines spaced 4 inches apart. The lines are applied as a screen or digital print on the glass and sandwiched between two panes of glass.

Visitors can see the lines, but they are not distracting.

“It’s no different from looking through sports netting during a hockey game,” Schesler said.

Installing bird glass is becoming more prevalent, although it is not required, said Leslie Montgomery, vice president of education and communications at the Green Building Alliance.

The Pittsburgh-based nonprofit makes recommendations for green building practices to a host of building projects, including the new UPMC Presby tower.

“I know a lot of bird champions don’t think the building industry is doing as much on this,” she said.

“My sense is that there are so many priorities in what makes a building green and this is absolutely one of them. We can also do more. Building awareness among project teams is important.”

The use of bird-safe glass is increasing due to locally ready solutions and examples, she said.

The Frick Environmental Center and the National Aviary are just two examples of local buildings that utilize specialty avian glass. There’s a producer of bird safety glass, Vitro Architectural Glass, located in Harmar.

It’s an example of just one of the ways the Green Building Alliance tries to align the built environment with the natural one.

“When you are inside a building, you want to be connected to nature,” Montgomery said. “You want to look at trees and have natural components indoors like plants and wood.

“The challenge is to design buildings that don’t negatively affect biodiversity and habitat and align with bird safety.”

First Published: March 20, 2025, 9:30 a.m.
Updated: March 21, 2025, 12:02 p.m.