Transforming the Rivergate apartment building into View 34, a new destination for upscale living in New York City, required a lot of work – not the least of which involved replacing nearly 3,900 windows and 400 doors.

Graham Architectural Products (GAP) fulfilled that part of the mission, overcoming some significant hurdles along the way.

The job was already out on the street and had been bid when Ecker Window Corp., New York’s largest and oldest window company and a longtime GAP partner, got word and wrangled a meeting with UDR, Inc.(United Dominion Reality Trust, Inc.), the building’s owner/developer.

It was a big opportunity: UDR is one of the nation's largest owners and managers of residential apartment communities, and its $443 million purchase of the Rivergate was the nation’s largest apartment deal in 2011, according to Multi-Housing News.

Ecker, teaming with GAP, was granted the opportunity to quote the job – not an easy task, given there was no architect or consultant involved at the time of bid. So they based their bid on Ecker’s field measurements of a few locations and photographs.

Also, while the building had 2- and 3-lite sliders, the owner wanted to replace them with tilt-turn windows.

The Ecker/GAP team countered with a proposal involving Graham’s GT6200 in-swing window, which, according to Maurice Benor, GAP’s New York regional sales manager, “is identical to our tilt-turn window except for the hardware.” Plus, he added, “The GT6200 has outstanding thermal performance and, like everything we do, has excellent acoustic properties to help reduce noise transmission.”

UDR accepted the proposal. The contract was executed in the summer of 2012, and by November Graham was releasing its first full shipment.GAP ended up replacing nearly 114,000 SF of windows, with Ecker installing 3,899 units (GAP’s GT 6200 and GT7700) into 2,412 total masonry openings.

So how did the Ecker/GAP team land the job? Benor laughed and said, “Remember SySyms, the old clothing retailer? He’d always say, ‘An educated consumer is our best customer.’ And that’s how it is in the window business too: The more knowledge a customer has about windows, the better off we are at Graham.

“Customers tend to think a window’s a window, but a window is not a window. A window is engineering. It’s manufacturing. It’s the history of the company. It’s like they say about marriage, you don’t just marry the wife, you marry the whole family. Same thing here: When you buy a window, you buy a company.”

Robert Ecker, president of Ecker Windows, told the owner’s representative, that Graham windows were “distinguished from the competition” in a number of ways, including higher thermal performance, maximizing savings on heating and cooling systems and monthly operating expenses, outstanding 20-year glass warranty, and superior construction that features a one-piece welded gasket system to prevent air, water and sound infiltration for the life of the window.

And while all of those distinguishing characteristics are no doubt appreciated by all involved, the reduction in noise transmission probably pleases residents most. With NYU Medical Center on one side, construction on another, the constant drone of traffic on 34th Street and the nearby FDR, and a helipad just beyond the FDR, GAP noise-reduction engineering is truly appreciated.

A sometimes overlooked feature of these Graham windows is their split finish – a 50 percent Kynar® finish on the exterior and a 2603 baked enamel finish on the interior. The Kynar® finish does a better job of resisting the outdoor elements, while the baked enamel resists scratching, which can be commonplace on the indoor surfaces. Splitting the finish not only increases durability; it can reduce the overall cost, as the harder 2603 interior finish is actually less costly than the more durable 2604 exterior finish.

“Most manufacturers aren't able to provide a split finish like this,” said Benor.

Concluded Benor, “We were the underdog going in, but we represented ourselves as a professional, highly engineered company that gives the owner the most for his money. The owner was really sold on our engineering capabilities and our technical capabilities … our understanding of the industry and their needs. Once they realized what they could get from us, it opened their eyes.”

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