curtain wall
Nonbearing wall of glass, metal, or masonry attached to a building's exterior structural frame. After World War II, low energy costs gave impetus to the concept of the tall building as a glass prism, an idea originally put forth by Le Corbusier and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe in their visionary projects of the 1920s. The UN's Secretariat Building (1949), with its green-tinted glass walls, helped set a worldwide standard for skyscrapers.
curtain wall [′kərt·ən ‚wȯl]
(civil engineering)
An external wall that is not load-bearing.
curtain wall
curtain wall, 2
1. In a tall building of steel-frame construction, an exterior wall that is non-load-bearing, having no structural function; also see metal curtain wall.
2. In ancient fortifications, an enclosing wall or rampart connecting two bastions or towers.
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