Re: Re: Irish say no to PVC windows

And the view from Canada…

New windows: A pane in the glass
The Globe and Mail

If eyes are windows into a person’s soul, then the opposite must be true for architecture: Windows are a building’s eyes, and its soul can be lost forever if the wrong kind are installed during a renovation.

That fact was driven home recently while brunching with my wife and a few friends on Front Street East. During a lull in the conversation, my gaze drifted to a couple of converted brick warehouses across the street: one built in 1877 at No. 69 and its corner neighbour, No. 65, constructed a few years earlier.

Strangely, although both were well preserved, only one seemed to have any personality. Although the glazing on No. 69 had been replaced in 1987, the original carved “rope” sashes were retained; slim, elegant and splitting into a lovely ‘Y’ shape at the top, they seem to cradle the keystone above the window while echoing the pattern etched within it.

Next door, what were once arched windows have been bricked in and smaller, single-pane rectangular windows now stare void and expressionless in their place, which brought to mind the hollow disks-for-eyes of Harold Gray’s Little Orphan Annie. Spooky.

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