The newly constructed and opened Zeta Inwood Charter School provides new learning facilities and some colorful entrance doors. Gamco Corp. supplied the new school building with 1,230 square feet of custom fenestration: commercial doors, a curtain wall entrance and vestibule space, and interior office doors and glass walls. The new Zeta Charter School is located at 401 West 218th Street in the Inwood section of northern Manhattan. Maximizing infill urban construction potential by creating a “vertical school,” the Zeta Inwood School is an eight-story 121,473-square-foot building situated on a half-acre lot.
“Procuring and installing all the special safety and operation items and custom paint color for the school doors were great opportunities for Gamco to demonstrate its robust capabilities,” says Melora Chang, vice president, Gamco. “Gamco delivered the curtain wall, storefront and doors with numerous options, according to the project schedule, which was tight in order to meet the school opening deadline.”
A feature of the Gamco exterior doors is the custom blue color specified to engage the students. Gamco finished the doors and surrounding framing with Duranar “Blue Lilac” Kynar paint. The interior office doors and accompanying framing was finished in a traditional “Pigeon Gray” Kynar paint.
Gamco products used
For the project, Gamco supplied seven single- and four-pair versions of its D500 commercial door. The doors were used in both exterior and interior applications at the building’s main entrance, the accompanying entrance vestibule, to access a rooftop playground, and with the school’s main office. The Gamco D500 is a wide-stile door tested structurally to 82.5 pounds per square foot, with 5-inch vertical stiles, 5-inch top rails, custom 5-inch or 10-inch mid-rails, and 10-inch bottom rails.
The office doors differed by having no mid-rails and double-stacked, 10-inch bottom rails. All the exterior and vestibule doors were fitted with 18-inch offset pull handles while the interior office doors used keyed lever handle locksets.
The project specification called for an extensive number of door safety-related option components and custom hardware, which Gamco supplied and factory installed. All the exterior doors were equipped with fail-secure, electric-strike, magnetic locks as well as traditional key locks. Touch bar exit-only devices were also specified. For ADA-compliant access, some of the exterior and vestibule doors were outfitted with electric-powered automatic door operators and hard-wired wall mounted actuators.
The building’s main entrance and vestibule boasts two sets of Gamco pair doors flanked by four single doors all finished in the custom shade of blue. Surrounding the exterior entrance and vestibule doors and also in the custom blue is Gamco’s CW250 curtain wall system.
Gamco’s aluminum FG451 and FG450 storefront glass framing system was used for two rooftop playground entranceways and the interior office space. These systems have also been tested and meet AAMA and NFRC standards. This Gamco product also has a ½-inch tall ADA-compliant saddle at door openings.
Used for the two playground entrances, the Gamco FG451 storefront system features 2-inch by 4-½-inch framing.
Glass components
Gamco also sourced the glass and fabricated insulated glass units for the doors, curtain wall and storefront. The main entrance, vestibule, and playground doors and glass systems all were outfitted with double-pane, 1-inch insulating glass units using Vitro Solarban 60 low-emissivity coated tempered and laminated glass. For the interior office doors and glass, ¼-inch clear tempered or ¼-inch clear laminated single-pane glass was used.
Who else was involved and building details
GF55 was the project architect. The Gamco products were installed by Vista Skywall Systems of Flushing, New York.
Zeta provides education from pre-K through 6th grade. The “vertical school” interior spaces include 33 classrooms, cafeteria, offices, special instruction rooms and a gymnasium. The building also features an outdoor 10,000-square-foot rooftop playground, and for younger students, a smaller outdoor playground atop the setback on the second floor.
