CRL's History
It was in the early 1950’s when a young recently decommissioned second lieutenant, supply officer, from the U.S. Navy, Alexander A. Sakhnovsky (Sak), found himself teaching Undergraduate Chemistry at the University of Miami (UM).
A member of America’s “Greatest Generation”, having received a war time commission and serving his country in the Pacific theater, he had completed his Graduate Degree in Chemistry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on the G.I Bill. Besides teaching, “Sak” being the low man on the UM Chemistry Department’s Totem Pole where he found himself in charge of the “paint field” where painted sheets of plywood and sheet metal were placed out in the sun to weather. His job was literally to watch paint dry and record the change over time from the effects of sun, wind and rain.
When hurricanes began to reveal deficiencies in windows
being installed in South Florida the Jalousie Window Association teamed up with the University of Miami (UM) providing funding to develop a Wind Generator and a Water Spray System to mimic hurricane force wind and rain. By 1954 Sak was testing windows with the new equipment. Thus, the University of Miami Chemistry Department’s “paint field” evolved into the Housing Research Laboratory, in 1955, with A. A. Sakhnovsky, named as director. In this role, Sak was the principal creator of the equipment and procedures for the new facility. Simultaneously, post War America was growing fast, and buildings were growing bigger and taller than ever before. Curtain Wall technology was in a period of rapid growth and development utilizing glass and aluminum like never before, as the need for testing of curtain walls became apparent. Sak and the University of Miami had already developed test procedures that were then applied to these early testing efforts on Curtain Walls. Soon the demand for curtain wall testing was displacing all the other functions of UM’s Housing Research Laboratory.
In that light, the University of Miami’s Chemistry Department which was still the controlling agent for the Housing Research Laboratory began to feel that their mission did not include testing of this nature and sought to disentangle themselves from it. That was 1968, when Sak bought the laboratory equipment from UM and took over the lease of their test facility at the decommissioned Richmond Air Field located in South Dade (Now the location of “Zoo Miami”). Sak renamed the facility, Construction Research Laboratory and continued the development of the science of curtain wall testing and performance.
Sak a lifetime member of the American Society of Testing and Materials was instrumental in writing ASTM E 283, E 330 & E 331 in the late 1960’s which remain virtually unchanged to this day and while also a member of the Architectural Aluminum Manufacturers’ Association, Sak was a principal contributor to AAMA 501 testing standards for Curtain Walls.
By 1975, Sak had been testing curtain walls for twenty years and was already recognized as an industry giant (Sak received the “Charles Martin Hall Award” for meritorious achievement in service and leadership to the Architectural Aluminum Manufacturers’ Association in 1974).
In the early 70’s, the lease at the original testing facility, located on Federal lands was not going to be renewed and Sak was obliged to move the facility to a new location. Thus, when relocating and building the new CRL facility to its present location, Sak built the first purpose-built Curtain Wall Testing Facility in the world. It became the largest facility of this type with over 40 test chambers, half of which are 35 ft. high or taller, several over 50 ft. tall.
In addition, CRL possess two 2,650-HP Pratt & Whitney R 2800 aircraft engine “Wind Generators” to simulate hurricane force winds and two large “thermal chambers” for enclosing curtain wall mockups while controlling their exterior environment through temperature changes ranging from as low as -40°F (-40°C) to as high as 200°F (93°C).
By the time that Sak passed away in the Spring of 2011, his career had spanned almost six decades, he had supervised the testing of over 4000 curtain wall mockups, thousands of windows, doors, roofs and other products at the CRL facility and traveled around the world on hundreds of field tests in virtually every corner of the civilized world (every continent except Antarctica) and spoken on many occasions at Universities, trade conventions and industry groups about curtain wall testing worldwide.
While deserving much praise for his accomplishments and work, Sak was a simple man not seeking the limelight and fame, but just happy to serve his fellow man.
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