The Criterion at The Beacon, Jersey City, NJ — Window & Door Work in an Award-Winning Historic Adaptive Reuse

Services of window and door installation were performed by AAWD Inc. at The Criterion which is 271 unit luxury residence tower located in the development known as The Beacon. This adaptive reuse project is located at the former Jersey City Medical Center campus site in Jersey City. The Criterion won the NJ Historic Preservation Award for its excellent work and conversion. As such, this project shows the immense effort involved in the conversion process of an Art Deco building, originally meant as a hospital, into a luxury residence without compromising the historic features that earned the site a listing in the National Register.Renovation of an 18-story multi-family apartment complex. Supplied and installed (2,605) Aluminum Double Hung Windows and (26) Terrace Doors.

The Criterion Project at a Glance

The Building: The Criterion and Its Place in The Beacon

The Beacon has been one of the most important and well-received projects ever to be adaptive reused in the state of New Jersey – the multi-stage renovation of the old Jersey City Medical Center, which occupies 14 acres of land on Bergen Hill overlooking New York Harbor into an estimated 1,200 luxury residential units in several Art Deco towers.
Within The Beacon complex, there exists one of the most important residential towers, The Criterion, which is an example of conversion of a historic medical structure into a luxury residential unit. This particular building is the recipient of the NJ Historic Preservation Award due to the high-quality conversion process it went through.
That is important, since the NJ Historic Preservation Award is among the most prestigious awards given out to a building renovation project in New Jersey. It is awarded to those projects that showcase excellence in terms of restoration, rehabilitation and adaptive reuse of historic resources by the New Jersey Historic Trust. The Criterion receiving this award along with another sister building, The Hague, is testament to the extent of care and craftsmanship involved in the conversion of these buildings – not just from an architectural standpoint, but also the choice of contractors and trades who understood the historic significance of the project.
The involvement of AAWD within the trades working at The Criterion represents the exact level of project this is. Window and door replacement on a building listed in the National Register of Historic Places, converted into luxury residential use under the supervision of SHPO and the adherence to landmark guidelines requires a fenestration contractor that matches this exact standard.

The Challenge: 271 Units of Luxury Residential Fenestration in a Historic Art Deco Tower

Characterization of Art Deco Fenestration

Art Deco architecture is unique in that it has a distinct relationship with its fenestration. Its large areas of glazing, the horizontal banding connecting rows of windows along the façade, the spandrel panels separating each floor, and the ratio of glass to frame width are all factors that define these structures.
In terms of the National Register-listed structure, the standards set out by the State Historic Preservation Office will govern the changes made to the historic fenestration of the structure. For the project of installing new windows at The Criterion, where it was imperative for residents to receive the desired level of energy efficiency and residential functionality in a luxury apartment, proper selection of a product would be necessary.
The challenge in historic renovation fenestration lies in the fact that, for a particular structure, there are certain visual aspects of fenestration that are expected from it, while it must meet the energy criteria set out by the code and provide residents with the required functionality and acoustics.

What The Criterion Project Demonstrates About AAWD’s Historic Adaptive Reuse Capability

• National Register Historic Fenestration Installation
  By installing fenestration at The Criterion, AAWD proves that it can successfully deliver fenestration in a building subjected to the entire historic preservation review under the National Register criteria, where the SHPO approval process is necessary, where the choice of the products used is based on meeting preservation requirements, and where the fenestration installation process involves every single detail of an architecturally significant building.
• Installation for 271-Unit Luxury Residential Building
  Installation in 271 units of The Criterion proves the capability of AAWD to deliver residential fenestration installation of such scale while maintaining consistently high quality of installation.
• Art Deco Institutional Building Transformation
  The specific issues of Art Deco institutional building transformation, including the characteristics of fenestration installation, the needs for energy compliance, and the luxury residential quality standards that have to be met are some of the problems that AAWD is able to solve thanks to its experience at The Criterion and other buildings of The Beacon campus.