Scope of Work
A new building on 31st Street in Queens, with a ground floor finished in split-face gray stone under metal panels. Alex GC supplied and installed the glazing at street level: a commercial storefront with its own door, the residential lobby entrance, and a separate entrance door beside it. All of it is aluminum storefront framing in a custom gray, glazed with laminated sound-control glass.
Why the Glass Is Laminated: The OER Requirement
Many development sites in New York City carry an environmental designation on the lot, and the Mayor’s Office of Environmental Remediation (OER) reviews how the building deals with it. For noise, that means the windows, doors and walls facing the street must reduce outside sound by a stated amount before the building can be signed off.
This street is a noisy one, and the glass was specified for it. Laminated glass is two lites bonded to a plastic interlayer. The interlayer damps vibration, so the glass passes less sound than a single lite of the same thickness, and far less of the low rumble of traffic and trains. It is also safety glass: if it breaks, it stays in the frame. See acoustic glass and our comparison of laminated and triple glass for sound.
Glass is only part of a sound rating. The frame, the gaskets and the seal between the frame and the wall have to be continuous, because sound gets through any gap that air can. The perimeter of each opening here is sealed to the stone on all sides.
Three Openings, One System
The storefront bay has a single door with a full-height pull, a narrow sidelite, a large fixed lite and transoms above, set back between two stone piers. The lobby entrance is a single door with a transom over it and a second door inside, forming a small vestibule. The third opening is a door with a transom of its own. Using one framing system, one glass and one color across all three makes the base of the building read as a single design.
For how doors like these are chosen, see commercial door design: stile, pulls and closers and building entrance doors.
A Custom Gray
Standard storefront finishes are clear anodized, bronze anodized and black. This project called for a warm gray chosen to sit between the stone and the metal panels above, so the aluminum was finished to that color. A custom color adds time to an order, because the metal is finished for the job, and it has to be decided before fabrication starts.
Photographs
Photographed while the building was in its final fit-out, with construction notices still posted in the storefront.
Similar Work and Related Specifications
Storefront doors · Building entrance doors · Acoustic glass · Laminated glass · Queens · Lobby storefront, 711 Franklin Avenue · Soundproof window, Amsterdam Avenue
Planning Something Similar?
For a storefront or lobby entrance that has to meet a noise requirement, send us the drawings with the required rating, or a photograph of the opening with its width and height. We will propose the glass and framing and quote it supplied and installed.