FENESTRATIONNIZATION:

It should never be confused with defenestration, which is the forceful act of throwing someone through and or from a window.

354A Prospect Avenue Streetscape   Constructing a new 1 family residence. DOB LINK.

 Today's IMBY Architectural Voyeurism post is made possible by a generous grant from the Northeastern American ExhibitionistGlaziers Society of Park Slope South Brooklyn.


Fenestration, architecturally speaking, refers to the orifices in a building's skin.  It's where the outside comes in and the inside comes out. Where the private meets the public and the public meets you in your boxers. Windows, doors, skylights and such provide endless opportunities to observe your exhibitionist neighbors nefarious acts of interior design from a safe and concealed position, especially at night, while walking the dog, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. 

                                    HAUSSMANNOMANIA!  

Napoleon the III hired his friend Baron Georges-Eugene Haussmann to oversee the modernization of Paris.  The Baron believed that buildings with a uniform neoclassical style and very specific window arrangements across their facades would be most appropriate.  Haussmann had no architectural training yet accomplished really fantastic things, really fantastic, wonderful things, the best wonderful things anyone has ever seen, until he was thrown under the bus by Napoleon and fired for going way over budget. But still huge, really huge fantastic things he did.

Final thoughts on Fenestration... The thing we here at IMBY find problematic about window replacements for older homes is that the window openings are smaller than the originals because they don't remove the old frames like they can do in new construction.  You end up with an extra wide moulding at each side especially with double sash windows. The cheaper replacement look worse with all that flashing surrounding the glass.  Brick to brick is the way to go.  If you see newly installed windows in an old building that are brick to brick you can be sure that the room/house has been gut renovated.