When Granoff Architects, a full-service design firm in Greenwich CT, decided it was time to relocate from their cramped location into a much larger facility, they selected a unique, historic 1928 former utility company building located at 330 Railroad Avenue. The building, listed in the Connecticut Register of Historic Places was very “tired looking”, had dropped ceilings and was used by Connecticut Light & Power (CLP, now Eversource Energy) to repair transformers. Yet the President of the firm, Rich Granoff, knew that the property was very appealing and fit in perfectly with his firm’s concept of a “respect for the past and excitement about the future”.
Granoff’s Andreas Stresemann was the architect of record for the renovation. “The concept was to enhance the industrial look, with high ceilings, lots of glass, and up to today’s standards. It was a big undertaking, but the potential was great and very appealing” said Stresemann. Among many other projects, windows and entry doors all had to be replaced to be true to the original design and be historically correct. CLP had replaced the original steel-framed single-pane windows with unbefitting run-of the mill replacement windows that had blank-out panels to accommodate the dropped ceilings. “In order to restore this building to its former glory, while modernizing it at the same time, we needed windows that encompassed the entire original masonry openings in order to flood the building with natural light” said Stresemann.
After investigating and visiting five different window brands, The Window People were chosen to supply high-end Universal Historical Series, dark bronze anodized aluminum windows and Solar Innovations aluminum entry doors. Stresemann concludes by saying “The Window People were very responsive and great communicators. Both product and price were correct. I have nothing but “good things” to say about The Window People”!