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Gran Prix, Flatbush Avenue, Brooklyn — New Storefront and Aluminum Composite Panel Facade
Scope of Work
An automotive business on Flatbush Avenue with a tired front: a mix of old finishes above two vehicle bays and a side entrance, on an avenue where every other lot is competing for the same eye. The owner wanted one thing — a clean, dark, modern front that reads as one piece from a moving car. Alex GC replaced the storefront entrance with a black aluminum commercial door under a transom, and covered the entire street facade above and around the openings in custom aluminum composite panels, set out in even modules and fixed with structural silicone. Bays, door, fascia: one black.
The Entrance and Its Transom
The old entrance was a door in a wall. The new one is a full-height black aluminum commercial door with a glazed transom above, so the opening runs from the sidewalk to the underside of the fascia as a single glazed slot — the same height as the vehicle bays either side, which is what makes the front read as one composition rather than a door and two garage openings. Tempered glass throughout; a closer and commercial hardware for a door that a shop opens a hundred times a day. See what makes a commercial door different for why this door and not a residential one.
Aluminum Composite Panels on the Fascia
Aluminum composite material — two aluminum skins bonded to a core — is the flattest, lightest way to give an old masonry front a new face. The panels here were fabricated to a custom layout: routed and folded into trays sized to the fascia, with the joints set out so they land in a regular rhythm across the front and align with the openings below. The factory finish carries a 25-year warranty against fading, which on a south- or west-facing Brooklyn avenue is the number that matters; black is the colour most punished by sun, and a warranted finish is the difference between black and grey in year ten. See ACM panels for the system and Coney Island Avenue for the same idea done with slat cladding and granite.
Structural Silicone, Not Screws
The panel trays are attached with Seimeda structural silicone to the substructure rather than face-fastened, which is why there are no visible fixings on the front: the silicone carries the panel, the joints stay clean, and thermal movement in a black panel on a hot day is taken up in the sealant rather than around a screw hole. It is the same principle as structurally glazed curtain wall — see 24 Frost Street — applied to metal. Flashing at the head and the returns keeps water out of the wall behind.
Why It Works on an Avenue
Flatbush Avenue is judged at twenty-five miles an hour. A front that is one colour, one line, and one material reads instantly; one that is three finishes and a sign does not. Black panels with black glazing give a shop a single silhouette, and the transom over the door is the detail that keeps the entrance from breaking that line. It is a commercial storefront replacement in the plainest sense — and the facade cladding is what turns a replacement into a new building from the street.
Status
Storefront and facade complete and in service.
Photographs
Photographed from the forecourt with the business open.
Similar Work and Related Specifications
Aluminum composite panels · Storefront doors · Commercial doors · Storefront replacement · Windows, doors and glass in Brooklyn · Coney Island Avenue — storefront and full facade, Brooklyn · 2535 Frederick Douglass Boulevard — ACM panels and curtain wall, Harlem · Amherst Drive — black ACM panels on a custom house, Woodmere
Planning Something Similar?
A new storefront and a re-clad front on a commercial building in Brooklyn or anywhere in the five boroughs — ACM panels, a commercial door, one clean look. Send a photo of the front and we will propose the layout and quote it.