In 1965, my parents moved the family from the Bronx to the new suburban frontier known as Rockland County. For me it was my “Dorothy” moment of leaving the black and white world of Kansas and bursting into the “Technicolor” wonders of Oz. I was a 7-year-old boy let loose into nature and its many wonders.
A few years later, my parents and grandparents expanded their retail presence from their store on the Grand Concourse in the Bronx and opened a store in a former bowling alley in Nanuet called Gaylins. This housewares store sold the essentials to the throngs of families leaving the big city for the prospects of the suburbs.
Through their thirty years of business one of the main product categories that was essential to the stores success was window treatments. From the 60’s through the 90’s the store was a part of many generations of shades and blinds that covered thousands of windows in Rockland County homes. As I continued the family tradition in my career, I participated in further innovations in the decades that followed.
I witnessed the rise of the woven woods in the 60’s and the birth and excitement of the 1” aluminum mini blind in the 70’s. In the 80’s the industry exploded with vertical blinds and cellular shades. The 90’s saw the innovation of sheer shades, wood blinds and shutters. Crossing over into the new millennium brought variations of many of these innovative window-covering solutions.
Today, we are witnessing the next generation in window coverings – Exterior Window Shades. I have written extensively about this exciting and revolutionary concept. With the great increase in reducing solar heat gain by installing the shades on the exterior, the trend is starting to pickup steam in this country. In fact, my company InSync Solar is a leader in this exciting new category of window coverings. It is also fitting that this blog is about an installation where my family began in the window covering business over 50 years ago – in Rockland County.
Located on Lafayette Street in Suffern, New York is the new home of Aufgang Architects. Ariel Aufgang the principle of this firm, reached out to me with interest in providing exterior solar shades for his new building. When I saw the rendering of the building for the first time, I knew exactly how to treat the windows.
The brick façade with black-framed windows called for our cable guided exterior solar shade from Model System Italia the FM41. I recommended a black enclosure with a black mesh fabric. With black mullions, I wanted the hardware to blend in with the façade. The black fabric had the same intent but with an added important feature – to significantly reduce solar heat gain, glare and provide good see-through transparency. The fabric selected to provide these benefits is the Soltis 86 from Serge Ferrari. This fabric is a 14% open, which reduces solar heat gain and glare by 86% in the black color.
Along with the shade hardware is the control system, designed exclusively for the project. Installed on this south facing façade are wind and sun sensors The wind sensor is set at 30 miles per hour and will send the shades up when gusts engage the wind anemometer. The sun sensor is programmed to lower the shades at full sunlight.
So I have come full circle, from my childhood experiences of moving from the city streets to the streams and trails of the suburbs. I have participated through many innovations of the window covering business. Today my industry is part of the surge in sustainable architecture and design seen in new building technologies such as the Passive House. InSync Solar is positioned to provide great sustainable shading solutions to architects, designers, builders and owners as we move into the next generation of window coverings.