As a young man I lived all over Brooklyn and Manhattan. I spent three years in a Cobble Hill brownstone, four years on the Upper West Side, and 15 in a SoHo loft. Even after I moved, I went back to work in the city for six summers, sharing apartments in Downtown, West Village, and Tribeca. In each neighborhood, I spent a lot of time walking and cycling through the streets and enjoying the people, shops and restaurants of the city and, above all, its incredible buildings.
Now that I spend most of my time in the country, I miss a feature of New York buildings that just doesn’t show up in most other places: window doors. They decorate brownstones, surround air conditioners, keep children from falling off skyscrapers and, softened by bright red geraniums and green ivy, protect tens of thousands of New Yorkers from break-ins and robberies. They even add a certain elegance to the glazed white brick apartment buildings that everyone loves to hate in East Midtown.
They didn’t always hit me that way. When I first moved to the city, I perceived them as bars, not doors. The only barred windows I’d ever seen were in prisons, and they were clearly designed to keep people in, not out. I feel sorry for the people who lived behind them.
But like many attributes of the Big Apple, window doors grew on me as I began to understand why they were so popular and necessary. New York City wasn’t a very safe place in 1970 (although it was never as dangerous as most people seemed to believe), and those half-inch-square wrought-iron bars had a point. In no uncertain terms, they told would-be thieves, “Don’t even think about it.”
The point was driven even further home by some horror stories from the Times, tea News and the Mail about children falling from 10th floor apartments (so did a cat, who survived a fall from the 11th floor, as I recall).
I still wasn’t crazy about the cheap security doors made of aluminum or steel alloys that were considered essential for families with children living in skyscrapers, especially the accordion-folding doors with (illegal) padlocks that blocked access to fire escapes. . They are ugly, not particularly secure, easy to manipulate by a determined child, and not at all difficult to remove by a determined thief.
Wrought iron gate. What beauty, what quality, what style! The graceful curves accommodate flower-filled planters or serve as an elegant lining for a mundane air conditioner. A delicate fleur-de-lis softens the straight lines of a vertical door, and criss-cross iron alloys create a diamond-shaped pattern like antique LED glass. Horizontal white doors are reminiscent of Venetian blinds rather than prison bars. Even high-security doors with horizontal and vertical bars painted white can make a plain window look like one with 12 over 12 panes. To me, they are all beautiful.
They’re really a city freak, I guess because city residents feel more vulnerable to crime than most residents of suburbs and small towns. Their primary goal is to provide security, and the particular value of quality doors like those from Mr. Locks-New York locksmith company, is that they do so affordably and discreetly. In short, they are among the most sensible inventions ever designed to protect people and property. They are a phenomenon worth celebrating.
And, just like elegant doors with secure locks, well-designed window doors can also make a statement about the tastes and values of the people who live behind them, while also providing an endless feast for the eyes of others. passersby.
While prowling the internet I found photos of a wonderful old house in Cuernavaca, Mexico, of a set of Moorish arched windows set into an exterior wall. And of course I familiarized myself with the full range of Window Doors available from Mr. Locks, Inc., who has one of the most wonderful selections I have ever seen, most of them custom built to your specifications. If you need to install doors on your windows, as you should, visit Mr. Locks.
I also had what I think is a great idea. Everyone has seen the best-selling poster, “The Doors of Dublin,” or one of the many knock-offs that followed (The Doors of…Brooklyn, Chicago, London and who knows where else). Imagine a beautifully photographed, beautifully designed and printed poster, “The Windows of New York,” showcasing the incomparable window doors of the five boroughs in all their variety and beauty. I bet it would be a bestseller too.
