Searching for name of odd style of window on historic building

September 9, 2016 10:28 AM

We have a presentation coming up, the Owner would be impressed if we knew this. More after the fold.

Does anyone know what this style of window is called?
The top sash slides down and acts like an awning window, the bottom sash slides up and acts like a hopper window. If they could also operate like a normal double hung I do not know...

posted by rudd135 to Home & Garden (3 answers total)

Best answer: Looks like either austral or projecting windows to me (more the former than the latter). This National Park Service preservation brief has more about both as well as images:

The Repair and Thermal Upgrading of Historic Steel Windows

Austral windows were also a product of the 1920s. They combined the appearance of the double-hung window with the increased ventilation and ease of operation of the projected window. (When fully opened, they provided 70070 ventilation as compared to 50% ventilation for doublehung windows.) Austral windows were often used in schools, libraries and other public buildings.

Projecting windows, sometimes called awning or hopper windows, were perfected in the 1920s for industrial and institutional buildings. They were often used in "combination" windows, in which upper panels opened out and lower panels opened in. Since each movable panel projected to one side of the frame only, unlike pivot windows, for example, screens could be introduced.
posted by longdaysjourney at 11:13 AM on September 9, 2016 [1 favorite]

Austral windows look like a visual fit. Also makes me think of louvered windows, just with two panes.
posted by late afternoon dreaming hotel at 11:35 AM on September 9, 2016

Yes, if they had half a dozen little unframed panes I would have gone with jalousies.
posted by tilde at 4:32 PM on September 10, 2016