Don’t Make Exterior Design Elements An Afterthought

Aluminum features grace the exterior of Meriel at Marina Bay in Quincy, Massachusetts.

As developers race to bring multifamily apartment communities to market, one detail often gets relegated to the bottom of the checklist: railings.

“People tend to think of exterior design products, like railings and balconies, almost as lipstick for the building,” says Lou Filippone, vice president of sales at Fairway Aluminum Solutions. “But they’re a life safety product. You can’t get your certificate of occupancy if your building doesn’t have balcony rails.”

Fairway Aluminum Solutions designs and manufactures exterior architecture elements such as fencing, pergolas, ornamental gates, trellises and privacy dividers at its production facilities in Hamilton Township, New Jersey, and Lamar, Missouri. Its exterior design specialists advise clients to plan for a building’s exterior features early in a project’s timeline.

“Order early to pick the colors and designs you want to save yourself heartburn later,” Filippone said.

Planning ahead makes a project go more smoothly by helping to avoid supply chain holdups, for example. But Filippone said it can also give a developer or builder more options to improve a property’s curb appeal.

“What you see from the exterior is glass, glazing, masonry, paneling and railings,” Filippone said. “But today, with the high cost of money, many design aspects in multifamily get value-engineered out. That doesn’t necessarily have to be the case.”

For clients that want to maintain a certain aesthetic but are looking to trim costs, Fairway Aluminum Solutions can leverage its 30 years of experience and its all-in-one turnkey design-fabrication-installation capabilities to home in on savings without sacrificing design intent, Filippone said.

One area that can yield efficiencies is close coordination with other trades on blocking, scheduling and phasing, Filippone said.

“Savings become possible when we’re part of the conversation early enough,” Filippone said. “We realize our products are not a big enough part of the overall puzzle to determine whether an apartment project will pencil, but every dollar helps.”

Filippone cited a client who had initially envisioned custom panels at their multifamily project, but due to cost considerations that arose as construction progressed, the client was resigned to trade down to simple two-line picket rail. Picket rail is one-fourth the cost of custom panels, he explained.

“We worked with them to come up with a solution wherein they installed picket rail in the community’s courtyard, but kept the design intent on the exterior scopes, or the ‘curb appeal’ portion of the building,” Filippone said. “We were able to get the best of both worlds.”

No Upkeep Costs

Overall, aluminum offers many benefits as the raw material for railings and other exterior elements, Filippone said.

For one thing, it is easier to maintain than steel.

“There are no touch-up and upkeep costs,” Filippone said. “It doesn’t rust, and you don’t have to repaint it. The finish looks the same after 10 years as it did on the day it was installed.”

Since welds are “hidden” within a railing’s interior channels, they aren’t visible, which gives the product its sleek appearance, he said.

There is also a cost advantage over time because color is added to aluminum products during fabrication.

“When comparing the price of aluminum versus steel, folks forget to count the price of paint for steel products, the labor cost of the painter and the hassle of the clean up,” Filippone said. “The trap that everybody falls into in construction, is they look at the first-cost numbers but don’t extrapolate over the life of the building or even the investor’s five-year hold period.”

Aluminum is also safer in terms of fire risk at installation, which is not an insignificant consideration when many multifamily projects are wood-frame construction over a podium slab, Filippone said. 

“We’re anchoring with chemical anchors, wedge anchors or lag bolts,” Filippone said. “In contrast, the welding that’s required for steel railings creates sparks. It’s rare that these buildings catch fire, but it does happen.”

Getting Creative

“Aluminum also opens the door to a higher degree of customization compared to steel, and the quality of the work is higher,” Filippone said. “If you want to get creative, aluminum works well for that.”

While Fairway’s bread-and-butter product is the two-line picket, the company is able to handle design requests of much higher degrees of complexity, and demand for more sophisticated products is growing, he said.

“Give us a complex, custom AutoCAD design for a laser-cut panel infill and we can produce it,” Filippone said. “We make prefabricated balcony systems in every color and finish.”

A recent Fairway project included aqua blue balconies set off against a white façade, a bold choice that enabled the company’s client to achieve a South Beach-inspired look, Filippone said.

“Aluminum has the potential to elevate the entire look of a building, both high-end luxury and workforce housing, while being the most cost-efficient option,” Filippone said. “It’s a safety product but when done right, it can add wow factor.”

This article was produced in collaboration between Fairway Aluminum Solutions and Studio B. Bisnow news staff was not involved in the production of this content.

Studio B is Bisnow’s in-house content and design studio. To learn more about how Studio B can help your team, reach out to [email protected].