17 Market West in downtown Philadelphia is a 17-story office-to-residential conversion project. It utilized 1,560 large, energy efficient Crystal architectural-rated windows. The combination of casement and fixed windows maintained the building’s mid-century historic appearance while providing residents with energy performance, easy operation and city views.
Project details
Located at 1701 West Market Street in the heart of Philadelphia’s Market West neighborhood, the adaptive reuse project is part of a national trend to revitalize urban cores and provide much needed housing, say company officials. The large rectangular floor plates of the restored building now feature 305,000 square feet of one- and two-bedroom apartments. The 297 apartments on 13 floors plus a penthouse floor sit atop ground floor retail and 4 floors of enclosed parking.
“Crystal window products are extremely well suited for office-to-residential building conversions, here in Philadelphia and around the nation,” says Kevin Lechwar, Crystal’s Mid-Atlantic regional sales manager. “With our broad product line of stylish, thermally efficient, architectural windows and extensive selection of installation accessories, Crystal is ready for any project.”
Originally an 18-story high-rise modernist style office tower built in 1957, the renovation of the building’s exterior has paid homage to its heritage. The façade was totally re-skinned during the renovation, but it still sports a limestone and metal framed glass envelope. However, the new façade has limestone spandrel panels cut down to reduce height, allowing the introduction of taller window combinations arranged in 390 identical bays.
Crystal products used
The Crystal windows for 17 Market West used a repetitive symmetrical pattern throughout the building. Each façade features 4 combination windows in a horizontal bay spanning a 21 foot wide by 7.5 foot tall opening between vertical columns. East and west facades have 11 bays per floor, and the north and south facades have 4 bays per floor.
The two window models used for the project were the Crystal Series 8520 Project-Out Awning and the Series 8510 Fixed/Picture. The 8520 and 8510 sashes were all arranged in 7.5 foot tall vertical combinations using common master frames and impost mullions. Combinations consisted of either fixed-over-fixed or awning-over-fixed stacks. All the top windows were specified with two horizontal exterior applied grids. When viewed, the grids and the horizontal mullions between top and bottom sashes divide each tall combination window into 4 equal portions.
The Crystal Series 8520 heavy commercial project-out awning model has a 2-⅝-inch jamb depth and an architectural rating of AW-PG80. For ease of operation and weather resistance, the windows feature 4-bar HS/SS friction hinges and double-bulb weatherstripping. While most of the project’s Series 8520 window sashes used the standard cam handle operator, those windows installed in ADA compliant apartments were ordered with the optional rotary operator handle as well as 8-inch extended handle locks. For resident safety, all operating units were outfitted with 4-inch sash opening limit stops.
All the Crystal window panels used 1-inch insulated glass units (IGUs) which were fitted using a special glazing bead into the optional 1-¼-inch glazing pocket window frames. The larger glazing pockets and special glazing were needed to accommodate the applied exterior ⅞-inch wide horizontal window grids. The IGUs were specified with Vitro Solarban 70 low-E coated glass for vision panels. For a handful of spandrel units, OpaciCoat 300 medium gray 3-0586 coated glass was used in the IGUs.
All of the window frames, sills, and visible sustainable accessories were finished in an AAMA 2604 custom Mystic Bronze powder coat paint.
A variety of Crystal’s fabricated accessories were used to facilitate installation of the combination windows. Three-piece mullions were used to arrange groups of combination units horizontally. Subsills, receptors, and strap anchor accessories simplified and speeded window installations in building openings. Clip and snap trim tastefully finished off window interiors.