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The Color of Windows

August 2, 2011 Planning & Design 16 Comments
ABOVE: New white windows at Leather Trades before being painted black

The standard color of most new windows is white, although some manufacturers do offer other choices, sometimes at the same price. Throughout the city windows have traditionally been dark in color, not white. The contrast of the above picture illustrates why dark windows work better with dark brick buildings.

The white windows jump out at you, drawing too much attention to themselves. The dark windows recede and work with the brick, rather than compete.

ABOVE: A few weeks later the construction elevator is gone and the 1st floor windows are now black

I haven’t verified this, but I think the windows on floors three and higher are black clad whereas the first and second floors have unclad wood windows that arrived onsite with white primer. If you are painting or replacing your windows give some thought to color, don’t assume white.

– Steve Patterson

 

Currently there are "16 comments" on this Article:

  1. kristinacyr says:

    At the newly renovated ParkPacific building, the windows are a pale green.  I think that was the original color of the windows and the developer was happy to return them to that color.  You are right- color on windows can really add a lot to a building.

     
  2. kristinacyr says:

    At the newly renovated ParkPacific building, the windows are a pale green.  I think that was the original color of the windows and the developer was happy to return them to that color.  You are right- color on windows can really add a lot to a building.

     
  3. samizdat says:

    Cheap and crappy vinyl windows are cheap and crappy–and probably won’t last more than 10-15 years of intense solar radiation in the uva/b wavelengths before needing repair. Kicking the can down the road. Since the efficacy of these newer windows v. cost is unproven, and amounts to mostly hype–Marketing/PR(opaganda)–it’s disappointing to see this grade of window installed. But as long as the City has little or no criteria for this sort of thing–beyond the occasional local pres. ord–this will continue as long as developers seek to maintain low cost schedules in this new “economic reality”. An economic reality, I might add created for their own benefit by the bond traders and securities brokers and their Ponzi scheme. Boom and bust, each bust taking more money from the regular working people of this country. These mobsters should be in shackles, wearing the familiar orange livery of dangerous criminals and terrorists. OT, but hey, you have to have large dreams, right?

     
  4. samizdat says:

    Cheap and crappy vinyl windows are cheap and crappy–and probably won’t last more than 10-15 years of intense solar radiation in the uva/b wavelengths before needing repair. Kicking the can down the road. Since the efficacy of these newer windows v. cost is unproven, and amounts to mostly hype–Marketing/PR(opaganda)–it’s disappointing to see this grade of window installed. But as long as the City has little or no criteria for this sort of thing–beyond the occasional local pres. ord–this will continue as long as developers seek to maintain low cost schedules in this new “economic reality”. An economic reality, I might add created for their own benefit by the bond traders and securities brokers and their Ponzi scheme. Boom and bust, each bust taking more money from the regular working people of this country. These mobsters should be in shackles, wearing the familiar orange livery of dangerous criminals and terrorists. OT, but hey, you have to have large dreams, right?

     
  5. Nancy M Hohmann says:

    Since you didn’t bother to ask before posting this, I will tell you.  They are wood windows with white primer on them.

    You could have just called the architect to find out…

     
  6. Nancy M Hohmann says:

    Since you didn’t bother to ask before posting this, I will tell you.  They are wood windows with white primer on them.

    You could have just called the architect to find out…

     
  7. The website doesn’t list who the architect is for the project.

     
  8. Anonymous says:

    I wasn’t sure if this post was meant to be a complaint or meant to be educational.  A lot of useful information is contained in the photo captions (instead of the main body), while many of the responses seem to assume that the photos ae the final answer (they’re not).  I do agree that color selection should coordinate with the other materials; “cheap and crappy” is not the exclusive province of vinyl, either.  Any material exposed to the weather has both a lifespan and requires some level of maintenance, and like anything in construction involves tradeoffs between “pay me now or pay me later”.

     
  9. JZ71 says:

    I wasn’t sure if this post was meant to be a complaint or meant to be educational.  A lot of useful information is contained in the photo captions (instead of the main body), while many of the responses seem to assume that the photos ae the final answer (they’re not).  I do agree that color selection should coordinate with the other materials; “cheap and crappy” is not the exclusive province of vinyl, either.  Any material exposed to the weather has both a lifespan and requires some level of maintenance, and like anything in construction involves tradeoffs between “pay me now or pay me later”.

     
  10. Nancy M Hohmann says:

    But the project sign does…

     
  11. I’ve yet to see a project sign. The new banners on the construction fence are visible, but they don’t mention the architect.

     
  12. samizdat says:

    I respectfully extend my mea culpas to these developers. However, my thoughts and opinions on vinyl windows and City ordinances still stands.

     

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