Scope of Work
A commercial building on Main Street in Tottenville, at the south end of Staten Island, re-fronted with a black aluminum storefront and matching windows. Alex GC supplied and installed the storefront doors, the storefront glazing and the windows above, all on Kleidco aluminum in a black finish, and sealed and weatherproofed the openings.
Black Storefront
Black aluminum has become the default for new retail fronts for a simple reason: the frame disappears and the glass and what is behind it come forward. It also hides the everyday scuffs a street-level door collects better than a light finish does. The doors here carry commercial hardware — closers, push-pull handles and locks rated for the traffic a shop takes — which is where a storefront door differs most from a residential one. See storefront doors for the options.
Windows to Match
The windows above the storefront are the same system in the same black, so the facade reads as one piece. On a small commercial building that matters more than on a large one: with only a few openings, a mismatch between the storefront and the windows above is the first thing the eye lands on.
Kleidco
Kleidco is an aluminum window and door system we fabricate to size. We used it on 228 13th Street in Brooklyn as well.
Residential Entrance and Vestibule
The building is new construction with apartments above, and the residential entrance has its own glazed front under the “217” numerals: a pair of black aluminium glass doors between two fixed sidelites, set back in the brick. Behind it, Alex GC added an interior storefront section that closes off the vestibule from the lobby, and reworked the door hardware.
Interior Storefront Section in the Vestibule
The vestibule partition is a black aluminium storefront frame running wall to wall and floor to ceiling, with a glazed door, fixed lites either side and transom lites above. It does the job a vestibule is there to do — an air lock between the street door and the lobby, and a second secured line with the mailboxes and intercom on the street side — without cutting the daylight off from the lobby. Matching the black of the entrance doors keeps the two layers of glass reading as one entrance.
Lock Modification
The lock on the door was changed after the door was made. The existing lock was taken out, the door was re-prepared for the new arrangement, and the old cut-out in the stile was closed with a black cover patch rather than left open or the leaf replaced. On an aluminium door that is the practical way to change a lock function on site.
Custom 7-Foot Offset Ladder Pulls
The main entrance doors were fitted with custom ladder pull handles seven feet long in matching black, one on each leaf. They are offset pulls: the bar stands off the stile on angled posts, so the grip sits clear of the frame and the lock cylinder stays accessible between them. A full-height pull gives a comfortable grip at any height and makes a plain pair of glass doors look like the front door of the building.
Photographs
Similar Work and Related Specifications
Storefront doors · Kleidco windows and doors · Commercial doors · Building entrance doors · Waterproofing · 228 13th Street, Brooklyn
Planning Something Similar?
For a shopfront, send us a photograph of the existing front and the width of the opening. We will tell you what door and glazing configuration fits, what hardware the use needs, and what it costs.