With Accoya Wood and Sunken Pine We Restored Hundreds of Windows
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The Minnesota State Capitol located in St. Paul, Minnesota was designed by Cass Gilbert and completed back in 1905. The original windows had been replaced with aluminum windows 30 years ago and something needed to be done since the replacements had exceeded their useful life.

Re-View was selected to bring the windows back to their original state with some added features.

The aluminum replacements were removed revealing the original wood window frames. Re-View restored the wood frames using restoration epoxies and replicated wood parts. We used an original complete wood window that still remained in the building as the basis of design for replicating new wood sash.

The sash were constructed from a wood called Accoya that is more durable than teak and has a 50 year warranty against wood rot. On the interior surface, Re-View laminated recovered 100+ year-old pine from the Idaho Lakes so the interior surfaces of the windows would match the existing woodwork in the building.

Re-View glazed the sash with laminated insulated glass with Low E coatings to improve the energy

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efficiency, security, and sound transmission. The sash were connected to chains and balanced on new pulleys and lead counter weights.

Since some of the individual double hung windows were six feet wide by thirteen feet tall, the sash weighed in excess of 250 pounds. Re-View incorporated a combination of historic metal and modern weather stripping in order to seal the operating windows.

Many of the installed windows were tested for air and water infiltration by an independent testing agency and it was determined that they were twice as tight as the published ratings for modern replacement windows. In the next phase of the project, Re-View will manufacture and install interior ballistic windows made of steel and ballistic glazing in high security sections of the Capitol.

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About the author
Brooks Gentleman
Brooks Gentleman has been in the wood window and architectural millwork business for the past 25 years and is currently the owner of Re-View, a manufacturer of custom wood window replicas for historic landmarks across the country based in Kansas City, MO.