Brooklyn Heights · Brooklyn Neighborhood
Glass & Glazing Services in Brooklyn Heights, NYC
Brooklyn Heights was New York’s first landmarked historic district, and that single fact shapes almost every glass job here — what can be changed on a street facade, what has to match the original, and what is far simpler to do at the rear or inside. We handle brownstone windows, stairwell skylights, garden-level doors, shower enclosures and mirrors, and the co-op approvals that come with them.
Brooklyn Heights Glass Company
Landmarked Brownstones, Stairwell Skylights & Co-op Approvals
The housing stock here is mostly nineteenth-century: brick and brownstone row houses, a handful of wood-frame survivors, carriage houses on the mews lanes, and prewar apartment buildings converted to co-ops along Hicks, Henry and Clinton. Very little of it is standard size. Parlor-floor window openings have settled out of square over a century and a half, original stairwell skylights were built as site-made assemblies rather than catalogue units, and a garden-level rear door is often a one-off width. We template rather than order from a size chart, because on these houses a stock unit does not fit and a fitted one does.
The second constraint is approval. Anything visible from the street sits inside the historic district, so the material, the profile and the sightlines matter as much as the glass, and the co-op buildings add their own alteration agreements, insurance certificates and working-hours rules on top. We can give your architect or expediter the product specifications, glass makeups and shop drawings an application needs, and we schedule the install around whatever the board or the Landmarks timeline actually permits. Rear-facade and interior work — skylights over a stair, shower enclosures, mirrors, interior partitions — usually moves much faster, and we will tell you which category your project falls into on the first call.
Brooklyn Heights Services
Glass Systems for Brooklyn Heights Houses & Co-ops
Core service groups for Brooklyn Heights row houses, carriage houses, co-op apartments and Montague Street storefronts.
Where We Work in Brooklyn Heights
Property Types We Serve
The four building types behind most of our Brooklyn Heights calls.
Brooklyn Heights Glass FAQs
Before Your Project Begins
Does Landmarks approval apply to my Brooklyn Heights windows?
If the window is visible from the street, assume yes — the whole neighborhood sits in the historic district, and facade changes go through the Landmarks Preservation Commission. Rear-facade and fully interior work is usually far simpler. We are glaziers, not expediters, so we do not file the application for you, but we provide the product specifications, glass makeups, profiles and shop drawings your architect or expediter needs, and we have supplied that documentation on plenty of houses here. Call 718-758-5515 and describe the opening and we will tell you which route your job takes.
Can you rebuild the skylight over my stairwell?
Yes, and it is one of the most common jobs we do in the Heights. Original stairwell skylights on these houses were site-built, so after a century the leaks are rarely in the glass itself — they are in the curb, the flashing and the surrounding roof detail. We replace the glazing with an insulated laminated makeup, rebuild the curb and flashing properly, and insulate the shaft where it has been left bare. Done that way the stair stops dripping and stops bleeding heat in January.
How do you get large glass into a brownstone with no loading dock?
Carefully, and measured in advance. Nothing here has a freight elevator, so panels come in by hand through the parlor or garden entrance and up a narrow stair with winders. Before we fabricate, we measure the actual path — door widths, stair turns, ceiling heights — and size the panels to what will physically make the trip, splitting a unit or going in through a rear opening when that is what it takes. A panel that fits the bathroom but not the staircase is a wasted delivery, so we check first.
Do you work with co-op alteration agreements?
Regularly. For the converted buildings here that means a certificate of insurance filed with managing agent before we arrive, work kept to the hours the building allows, common stairs and lobby floors protected on the way in, and debris carried out rather than left in a shared hallway. Send the alteration agreement to office@nycallglass.com with your drawings or photos and we will confirm what we can commit to in writing before the board meets.