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Rebecca McAlpin for The New York Times
A large one-bedroom at 456 West 19th Street has new steel casement windows.
By JONATHAN VATNER
Published: November 24, 2010
FOR a long time, mullioned steel casement windows, the gridded
kind that swing out like a door, had fallen out of fashion. They
leaked badly, and a stiff wind could blow out their panes or knock
their hinges askew. Over the years they have been replaced in many
buildings by single-pane aluminum casement or double-hung
windows.
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But now those classic casements are
appearing on new apartment
buildings with startling regularity,
especially in West Chelsea and the
West Village, as part of an architectural style that pays
tribute to prewar buildings.
In large part, New York has Cary Tamarkin to thank for
the return of casements. An architect and developer, Mr.
Tamarkin is sometimes referred to as “the window guy,”
because of the distinctive casement windows in his New
York City buildings, including 140 Perry Street, 495 West
Street, 397 West 12th Street and, most recently, 456 West
19th Street, a 22-unit 11-story all-duplex building with 5
apartments still for sale, starting at $2.2 million.
As to the reason for using old-fashioned casements,
which are typically more expensive than conventional
windows, Mr. Tamarkin said, “It’s a kind of commitment
to a classic Modernism which is rooted in traditions of
authenticity.” Most of his projects are in neighborhoods
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Casement Windows Are the Architects’ New Darling - NYTimes.com
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http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/28/realestate/28posting.html?_r=1&em...
rich with warehouse buildings, he said, so he designed
them to “live comfortably amid their settings.”
Mr. Tamarkin says he uses pricey steel casement windows
— as opposed to aluminum — because the mullions are
slim (“I don’t like fat-mullioned windows,” he says) and
because the metal shows pockmarks and other signs of
use, lending them an old-fashioned character.
Rebecca McAlpin for The New York Times
The facade of 456 West 19th Street.
Enlarge This Image
His windows are also made the old-fashioned way.
“You’ve got actual little panes of glass that are
painstakingly put in one by one,” he said. “They’re very
subtle details, but the people buying in our buildings are
sensitive to the design. Either you don’t get it and it’s
meaningless to you, or you can’t live without it.”
Jaime Roth is one of those sensitive buyers. She had been
looking for an apartment in the West Village when her
brother suggested she look at 456 West 19th Street. When
she saw the windows, she decided to buy a three-bedroom
unit.
Benjamin Norman for The New York Times
Old-fashioned French casement
windows grace 367 and 369 Bleecker
Street.
Enlarge This Image
Suzanne DeChillo/The New York Times.
Those who can’t afford their added
expense can experience casement
windows at the Crosby Street Hotel.
“The windows were really the reason why I bought that
apartment,” she said. “I like that it’s new construction but
it feels kind of old. That’s what the windows do.”
Casement windows are a feature at 200 11th Avenue,
where a penthouse is for sale for $17.5 million.
Sara Lopergolo, a partner at Selldorf Architects, which
designed the building (Steven Kratchman is the architect
of record), says that the casement window is of interest
today because “it breaks down the scale of a window
opening. It frames views.
“It has a resonance with people, a character that people
retain as something that belongs to an old world,” she
added. “I think that’s the icon people think of in New
York City.”
Part of the reason for the resurgence is that window technology has improved, said
Richard Kusyk, the owner of Bright Window Specialists, the New York City installer of
Hope’s Windows of Jamestown, N.Y., a well-known name in steel casements.
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“The old windows were single-pane glass, they were putty-glazed from the exterior, and
they had no weather stripping,” Mr. Kusyk said, explaining that if they leaked air it did
not much matter because their usual location was a warehouse. But now, he said,
“Hope’s has developed ways to make those windows accommodate insulating glass,
triple weather stripping and superior finishes that will last a lifetime. They never did
any of that stuff in the old days.”
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In a few instances, casements have been installed as part of a renovation. In the 1980s,
Pierre LeVec and Pierre Moulin, the founders of Pierre Deux, a company that sells
French country furnishings, installed French casement windows at 367-369 Bleecker
Street, now called La Maison Pierre.
A French casement window is hinged at the outside with no center mullion, allowing for
an unobstructed view when opened.
Beck Street Capital bought the rental-apartment property in 2004, converted it to a
condominium and then sold the apartments at prices up to about $3 million. They went
quickly.
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Casement Windows Are the Architects’ New Darling - NYTimes.com
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“Those windows were one of the main selling features for every unit purchased in that
building,” said Kevin D. Comer, the senior managing director of Beck Street Capital. “In
this kind of a market, the subtle quality distinctions become all the more important.”
Mr. Comer, a former resident of the building, said he loved the windows. “Most windows
have only the top sash or the bottom sash. You can only get that square of air. With
French casement windows, the entire window is available for airflow. Just the breeze is
incredible.”
For those who can’t afford to live in these top-tier buildings, vintage casements, and
that double dose of breeze, can be had for the price of a night at the Bowery Hotel and
the Crosby Street Hotel. Rates at the Bowery start about $425; at the Crosby about
$495.
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“I think that there’s something nice about real mullioned windows,” said Sean
MacPherson, an owner of the Bowery Hotel, which opened in 2007. “It has a certain
coziness.”
Not all buyers are fans, though, said Leonard Steinberg, a managing director of
Prudential Douglas Elliman and the director of sales for 200 11th Avenue. “I think there
are two camps out there: Some people love them and some people don’t love them.
“For some people,” he said, “it feels like a warehouse space, and it’s an absolute no-no.”
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A version of this article appeared in print on November 28, 2010, on
page RE1 of the New York edition.
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