Garibaldi Glass [2021] ★ Genuine

In an era of mass production and disposable decor, true craftsmanship has become a rare and precious commodity. Nestled in the shadow of the Coast Mountain range—within sight of the legendary peak for which it is named— Garibaldi Glass has spent decades defying industrial trends. What began as a small studio workshop has evolved into one of Canada’s most respected names in architectural and decorative glass, yet it has never lost its soul: a deep reverence for light, landscape, and the human hand.

As one tour guest wrote in the logbook: “I came thinking glass was a surface. I left knowing glass is a depth.” In 2023, Garibaldi Glass announced a partnership with a university materials lab to develop photovoltaic kiln-formed glass —solar cells embedded between fused glass layers without visible wiring. Prototypes are already lighting the studio’s own sign. The company has also begun training Indigenous apprentices from the Squamish Nation, incorporating traditional Coast Salish formline designs into limited-edition slumped panels, with proceeds supporting language revitalization. garibaldi glass

Yet for all its innovation, the soul of Garibaldi remains unchanged. On a clear day, Eric Pfeiffer—now retired but still a frequent visitor—likes to stand in the annealing bay as a kiln finishes its cycle. He places a palm against the warm steel door. Inside, a new piece of glass—half liquid, half solid—is becoming something that never existed before. Like the mountain outside, it will outlast its makers. In an era of mass production and disposable

What started as a one-man operation in a converted barn—fusing small art panels for local galleries—quickly gained a reputation for technical daring. By the mid-1980s, Pfeiffer had built his first custom kiln capable of slumping and fusing large-format architectural sheets. Garibaldi Glass was born, named as a permanent homage to the volcanic peak that watched over every firing. Unlike standard float glass or mass-produced stained glass, Garibaldi’s signature lies in kiln-forming —a process that blurs the line between craft and industrial design. Here, glass is not cut and assembled so much as sculpted with heat. As one tour guest wrote in the logbook:

This is the story of Garibaldi Glass—not just as a manufacturer, but as a guardian of an ancient material transformed by fire, gravity, and vision. The company’s roots trace back to the late 1970s in Squamish, British Columbia. Founder Eric Pfeiffer, a journeyman glazier and self-taught kiln operator, was captivated by the region’s dramatic interplay of light and stone. Watching the morning sun ignite the granite face of Mount Garibaldi, he became obsessed with capturing that transient brilliance in glass.

The company’s 4,000-square-foot studio (now expanded to a 20,000-square-foot facility in Squamish’s Oceanfront Industrial Park) houses massive programmable kilns, some large enough to accommodate sheets over 10 feet long. Each piece of Garibaldi glass begins as select raw glass—often low-iron “water-clear” or specialized colored fusible glass from Germany, Italy, and Japan.

Clients pay a premium—often $500 to $2,000 per square foot for complex kiln-formed work—because they are buying time. The 24 hours in the kiln. The 20 years of experience reading a glowing mass at 1,500°F. The mountain outside the window, reminding every crafts-person that true beauty is never perfectly flat. Garibaldi Glass is not a retail shop open daily, but the company offers by-appointment studio tours on Friday afternoons. Visitors can watch a live kiln loading, handle failed “sacrificial” pieces to understand fragility, and even try their hand at arranging frit on a small tile (fired and shipped later). The tour ends on the mezzanine overlooking the main floor—a panorama of kilns, glass racks, and the eternal granite face of Mount Garibaldi framed through a 20-foot window of the company’s own Aqua glass.