As the final part of a 15-building occupied makeover along the Washington Street corridor, AAWD Inc. installed 354 Commercial Double Hung windows at 1302 Washington Street – the historic Elysian Estates property in Hoboken, NJ. Windows were installed using a Flange and Trim system with a combination of STC (sound-rated), obscure, Low-E argon-filled and code-required tempered glazing. Residents stayed in place during the whole process and noticed a considerable decrease in street noise once the new windows were fitted.

Elysian Building Project Overview

Elysian Building Challenge: Creating a 15-building corridor without losing what made it work.

Washington Street is Hoboken’s main drag, a busy, noisy strip packed with old apartment buildings. The Elysian Estates property at 1302 Washington Street is one of those structures. Ownership, one of Northern New Jersey’s longest and most known apartment owners and management organizations, with 50-plus years established in Hoboken, already had been working throughout a 15-building restoration along the block. AAWD’s challenge was to finish the last two structures, including the ancient Elysian Estates property, without straying from the standard already set by the remainder of the corridor.

With the property situated right on Washington Street, window performance was not only a matter of weather sealing and energy efficiency — sound transmission from the street below, including the fire department’s early-morning alarm and equipment testing right across the street, was a real quality-of-life issue for residents. And because this was occupied housing, not an empty repair, all 354 window replacements had to be done with occupants in their homes the whole time.

The AAWD Solution For Elysian Building

1. 354 Commercial Double Hung Windows
AAWD provided and installed 354 Commercial Double Hung windows with a Flange and Trim installation technology — consistent with the method already employed on the other 13 buildings in the corridor refurbishment, so the final building blended with the rest of the block.

2. Mixed Glazing Specification for a Historic Noise Sensitive Site
With the building having various unit exposures, street facing units, interior facing units, bathrooms, and code restricted openings, AAWD specified a mix of glazing types instead of a one blanket spec: STC (Sound Transmission Class) glazing for noise sensitive units facing Washington Street, obscure glazing where privacy was needed, Low-E glass with Argon Gas Fill for thermal performance, and tempered glazing wherever building code required it.

3. Sequencing inside a Historic Property: Occupied Space
During the Elysian Estates refurbishment, tenants stayed in their flats, as they did throughout the rest of the 15-building stretch. AAWD’s crew worked unit-by-unit rather than evacuating the building, following the same occupied-space discipline applied throughout AAWD’s multifamily and affordable housing project portfolio.

Why This Project Is Important to Owners of Historic Properties Exposed to Noise

The Elysian structure project provides a special capability that is more than a typical window exchange, namely, adjusting glazing specs to actual site constraints – sound, privacy, code, and thermal efficiency – rather than placing one uniform window type on an entire structure. For owners of historic properties on busy corridors, sound transmission is typically the single biggest driver of tenant happiness following a renovation, and this project demonstrates AAWD’s ability to deal for it directly using STC-rated windows rather than treating it as an afterthought.

It also adds to AAWD’s track record of delivering multi-building, multi-phase rehabilitation contracts – coming in at the tail end of a 15-building corridor project, and matching the existing installation standard, rather than starting a partnership from a single, isolated building.