Windows aplenty, at 674 Quinnipiac Ave., which is the middle unit in this condo building on the river. Credit: Thomas Breen photo Historic District Commission Chair Trina Learned, who voted against approving the vinyl windows. Melissa Beauchemin was ready to leave her Quinnipiac Avenue condo if she couldn’t replace its 14 failing windows. Her windows, she told the city’s Historic District Commission (HDC) Wednesday night at City Hall, are unsafe. Some slam shut when opened. One came “crashing down” and smashed a fan she’d set in it. Several panes in her bedroom are cracked, the seals are dried out, and she can see outside through gaps in the frames. Her kitchen window is caulked shut — her brother wouldn’t cut it open when she moved in, she said, for fear it would fall out. “If I had small children, I wouldn’t ever feel like they would be safe close to the window,” she said. Beauchemin’s condo, at 674 Quinnipiac Ave., sits in the Quinnipiac River Local Historic District, one of three city districts where owners need the HDC’s approval for visible exterior changes. The condo complex was built in 1989, after the historic district was established, and was designed to evoke the area’s older buildings. “I’m a decent human, I try to do the right thing, and I’d rather live in a city where people matter more than what the building looks like,” she said. After a long and divided debate at Wednesday’s meeting, the commission voted 3–2 to let Beauchemin replace all 14 windows with vinyl ones — a material the commissioners said historic preservationists have long resisted — on the condition that they include exterior grids that mimic traditional divided-pane windows. Commissioners Karen Jenkins, Richard Munday, and Dylan Christopher voted in favor. Chair Trina Learned and Vice Chair Michael Waters voted against.  Asked afterward how she felt after the culmination of the approval process, Beauchemin said, “I feel like I have just given birth.” Beauchemin bought her unit in July. She said she was never told it was in a local historic district. “Price point is important to me,” she told commissioners. She chose custom vinyl windows from Window Nation. Tricia LaSasso-McNary, the company’s exterior design consultant who was in attendance for Wednesday’s meeting, argued that the river-facing windows can only be seen from a boat, the Grand Avenue Bridge, or across the river — too far away to tell vinyl from wood. LaSasso-McNary said the condo board’s president had replaced her own windows with composite windows the commission approved — and that the cost difference was “over $1,000 per window. Multiply that by 14 windows, you’re talking about a Prius of a cost difference.” The proposed windows are custom-made vinyl, double-paned, and filled with argon gas, which LaSasso-McNary said would make them more energy efficient than Connecticut’s standard requires. As proposed, their grids would sit between the panes of glass — a sticking point for commissioners, who required grids on the exterior instead, to better resemble traditional windows.  The condo association wrote to the commission supporting Beauchemin’s request and said it plans to propose window standards for the whole complex in early 2027. Several commissioners acknowledged that other owners in the complex had already replaced windows without the commission’s approval. One said that had left the buildings with “a kind of hodgepodge” of styles. Beauchemin, by contrast, applied for permission. “I try to do the right thing,” she said afterward. Commissioners split sharply. “I don’t see how we could approve vinyl windows in this case,” said Vice Chair Michael Waters, noting that the complex’s historic-style windows were a deliberate design choice when it was approved. The commission’s chair, Learned, said she was “really struggling” with the case. She noted that the commission routinely reviews houses 150 to 200 years old that still have their original windows, while this 1989 building was replacing its windows perhaps for the second time. “We know we’re talking about disposable architecture,” she said. Still, she said the lot is highly visible, and that “vinyl will never read as a material of durability and integrity.” Commissioner Dylan Christopher took the opposite view. “I think we need to embrace alternatives to wood, and I think this is an inroad to that,” he said, calling Beauchemin’s building an ideal case because of its age and distance from the street. Commissioner Richard Munday agreed. He said the complex was “built to a price,” and that “the people who buy these places need to work with a budget.” He made the motion to approve, calling the proposed windows “a commodity product consistent with what was originally constructed.” Some commissioners worried that approving one unit’s windows would set a precedent for the rest of the complex. City Plan Director Laura Brown reminded them they had to judge the application on its own merits. Beauchemin said her case had been expected on the commission’s September and October agendas before finally being heard Wednesday. “Since July, it’s been an uphill battle, and now I feel like I have won — not just myself, but for other people,” she said. LaSasso-McNary said the new windows should be installed by the second week of December. The post Condo Owner Prevails After Window Debate appeared first on New Haven Independent. ...read more read less