185 Van Dyke Street, Red Hook — Custom Arched Aluminium Windows

Location185 Van Dyke Street, Red Hook, Brooklyn, NY 11231

BuildingTwo-storey brick warehouse from the late 1800s on the Red Hook waterfront, built in stages; now multi-tenant commercial space

ScopeCustom aluminium windows made to the individual shape of each masonry opening

MeasurementEach arch measured at 2-inch intervals and drawn up as a template for fabrication

WindowsBlack thermally broken aluminium; out-swing casement sashes with fixed shaped lites above

GlassInsulated glass with low-E coating

FabricationMade to our templates by our exclusive vendor

OpeningsRebuilt by the general contractor with new sill bases before the windows went in

Scope of Work

185 Van Dyke Street is a two-storey brick warehouse on the Red Hook waterfront, begun in the late 1800s as part of the group of storehouses once known as the Merchant Stores and now let as multi-tenant commercial space. The building went up at different times, so its arched window openings do not repeat: every one has its own width, rise and curve, and some were partly bricked in long ago. Alex GC provided black aluminium out-swing casement windows made to each opening individually — thermally broken frames with low-E insulated glass, fabricated by our exclusive vendor from templates we produced on site.

Measured every two inches

An arch in a wall this old is not a radius you can call in over the phone. After a century and a half of settlement, repair and repointing the curve flattens in one place and tightens in another, and because the building was built in stages the arches were never identical to begin with. So each opening was measured at two-inch intervals along the head, and those points were turned into a template for that one opening. The windows were then fabricated to the templates, one per opening, rather than to a nominal size. See arched windows and shaped windows for more on how shaped units are specified.

A window made to the opening, not the other way round

The usual shortcut on an old warehouse is to square the opening off: set a stock rectangular window in the lower part and close the arch above with a panel, or brick it down. It is cheaper, and it is why so many arched openings in Brooklyn have a flat window with a blank lunette over it. Here the glass runs up to the underside of the arch and the brickwork still reads as an arch from the street.

The round-arched opening

The larger opening sits under a multi-ring brick arch. The window is one frame divided by a horizontal transom bar near the springline: a single arched fixed lite above, and three lites below — a wide fixed centre lite between two narrower out-swing casements, each with an insect screen on the room side. Keeping the curve in one uninterrupted piece of glass, with all the vertical divisions and the operable sashes below the bar, is what keeps the arch clean. From inside, the window frames the view across the Upper Bay.

The half-arch opening

The second opening is the harder one. At some point half of a wide arch was bricked in, and what remains has a straight jamb on one side and a quarter-round head sweeping down to the other. The frame follows the curve of the surviving brick, with a quarter-round fixed lite above the transom bar and, below it, a fixed lite beside an out-swing casement sash for ventilation.

Openings rebuilt, new sills

Before the windows went in, the general contractor rebuilt the openings and set a new sill base in each one. That gave every window a sound, level bearing at the bottom and a clean line to seal to; the measuring was done to the openings as rebuilt. On masonry this irregular the perimeter joint between frame and brick matters as much as the window itself.

Why thermally broken aluminium and low-E glass

In a solid brick wall of this age the window openings are the weak point. A thermally broken profile separates the inside and outside faces of the frame with an insulating barrier, which cuts heat loss through the metal and keeps the interior face warmer in winter, so the frames are far less prone to condensation. Low-E glass in the insulated units does the same job for the glazed area. Aluminium is also the practical material for curves: the profile can be bent to a template and still carry slim sightlines, and the black finish sits quietly against the red brick. Casement sashes that swing out keep the interior floor space clear.

Before: The Opening as We Found It

This is one of the arched openings from inside, before any work. At some point in the building’s life the arch had been closed up with concrete block, set a few inches back inside the original brick. The brick arch itself, the jambs and the old painted walls were still there behind it.

The green lines are from a laser level. Before measuring an opening like this we project a level line and a plumb line onto the wall, because nothing in a nineteenth-century warehouse is level or plumb and a tape measure needs something true to work from. The measurements are then taken from those lines to the brick, every two inches around the arch, which is how the window was made to fit the opening and not the other way round.

Before: an arched brick opening at 185 Van Dyke Street, Red Hook, closed up with concrete block, seen from inside with green laser level lines projected on the wall — Before: the arch blocked up with concrete block, with laser lines set for measuring

The finished windows are shown below.

Photographs

Exterior photographs from October 2024, shortly after installation, with the manufacturer’s labels still on the glass; the interior view is from August 2024, during installation.

Custom arched black aluminium window with an arched fixed top lite over three lower lites in a round brick arch on a 19th-century warehouse at 185 Van Dyke Street, Red Hook, Brooklyn — The round-arched opening: one arched fixed lite above the transom bar, three lites below, the frame following the brick arch

Custom half-arch black aluminium window with a quarter-round fixed top lite, a fixed lower lite and an open out-swing casement sash in a partly bricked-in arch at 185 Van Dyke Street, Red Hook — The half-arch opening close up: quarter-round fixed lite on top, fixed lite and out-swing casement (shown open) below, on the new sill

Brick warehouse facade at 185 Van Dyke Street, Red Hook, with a custom half-arch aluminium window above a roll-down gate, the bricked-in half of the original arch visible beside it — The same window in context: the outline of the original full arch is still visible in the brick, half of it filled in

Interior view of a custom arched black aluminium window at 185 Van Dyke Street, Red Hook, with a fixed arched top lite, a fixed centre lite and two open out-swing casements with insect screens, looking out over New York Harbor — From inside: the arched window with both casements open, looking over the water. Taken during installation, before the interior perimeter was finished

The operable sashes are out-swing casements: side-hinged aluminum sashes that open outward, set below a fixed lite that follows the arch of the brick opening.

Arched black aluminum window with two out-swing casement sashes open, set in the brick facade at 185 Van Dyke Street, Red Hook, Brooklyn — An arched window with both out-swing casements open

Close-up of out-swing aluminum casement sashes below a fixed arched lite at 185 Van Dyke Street, Red Hook — Close-up: the casements swing out below a fixed arched lite

Arched aluminum window with out-swing casements above a brick archway at 185 Van Dyke Street, Red Hook — Another arched opening, above the archway

Interior view of an arched aluminum window in the brick wall of the warehouse at 185 Van Dyke Street, Red Hook, with timber joists and plank floor — From inside, under the original timber joists

Similar Work and Related Specifications

Arched Windows · Shaped Windows · Casement Windows · Aluminium Windows · Low-E Glass · Window Replacement in Brooklyn · Ansonia Court, Park Slope · Somerset NJ arched windows · 126 Washington Avenue, Clinton Hill

Planning Something Similar?

Arched, half-round or irregular openings in an old brick building? Send photographs of each opening with rough sizes and we will propose a shaped aluminium window made to fit, and quote it.

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