New Orleans Hotel Gets Modern-Day Performance

In the trendy New Orleans’ Warehouse District, the transformation of the nine-story Barnett’s Furniture building, a 1928 Art Deco structure, into an Ace Hotel, featuring vintage-inspired interiors reflective of New Orleans’ unique culture and history, was no easy task. 

A total window replacement was necessary for the Ace Hotel’s renovation. The project required multiple window solutions, including hurricane resistance, historic replication, thermal performance and acoustic control from the busy street below guest rooms. Renovating the building to maintain its original style while meeting today’s performance requirements was accomplished using steel replica windows at the street level. The windows ensure the look holds up to the original Art Deco style and provided the best hurricane resistance for safety and property protection.

Replicating the historic look of turn-of-the-century buildings in coastal areas is now made easier with Winco’s new hurricane-rated version of its popular 3250 Historic Steel Replica Windows. The upper floors were outfitted with single hung Winco Series 4410 windows with vertical mullions. The former were recently enhanced to withstand up to 200-mph hurricane winds. Newly certified with Florida Product Approval number FL22628.1, Steel Replica windows are available in fixed, projected and casement styles. They are hurricane-impact tested to meet American Architectural Manufacturers Assn. Certification, Missile E/Missile D, and ASTM E1886/E1996 enhanced protection of wind zone 4 requirements for hurricane winds up to 90 psf design pressures. Due to the building’s nearly 100-year-old walls, Winco, and DeGeorge Glass Co. in New Orleans, created a new strapping system to attach to new vertical studs on the interior. This reinforcement ensured that the old walls could handle the heavy hurricane resistant laminated glass windows. The laminate also provides acoustic, solar and wind protection.