The Wait is Over

The Wait is Over
Alfred Jarry or Robert Austin, 2010

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Introduction


American Vestibule Inc.
American Vestibule is a family owned and operated company, founded in 1937 by "The Father of Modern Entranceways", Edward F. Austin.,  Austin began by creating antechambers for a number of churches in the New England region.  Word quickly spread that these vestibules were more than essential design elements. They were fine examples of the architectural art,  more than equal to the beautiful chapels for which they served as entrances.
Today, American Vestibule has grown into a robust, forward thinking corporation, which  designs, builds,  furnishes and i
nspects entrances for homes, offices, museums and religious structures throughout the world.  Headquartered just minutes 
from mid-town Manhattan, AVI offers custom vestibule fabrication in wood, marble, cast polymer and stainless steel.  
AVI  offers a variety of corrosion resistant and decorative finishes. Our facilities are equipped to produce one-offs and batch assemblies using your existing drawings and designs or our custom designs. 
We serve a broad spectrum of institutions and industries, extending consultation services along each step, to provide the best possible solution for every vestibular need.
In 1971 founder E.F. Austin turned over the business to his son, Robert (that's me!) who has expanded AVI, its offices and services, to countries in Asia and South America.  
A new vestibule is constructed, somewhere in the world every 17 minutes.  American Vestibule is proud to have taken on the lion’s share of this work.  We have the experience and expertise t build on almost any scale.  From a small “mud room” entranceway in the home of a Virginia horse farm, to the grand porticos, lobbies and front halls of the Vatican and Church of England.  
In March of 2010, we finished designing and building a 22,000 square foot forecourt for the Central Mosque serving The Grand Mufti of The Kingdom of Bhutan.  A redesign of the classic Egyptian antechamber, this masterpiece of ancient design and 
modern convenience was constructed entirely of our own nearly  indestructible and fireproof cast polymer, all in less than 3 months.
“The reason people build a vestibule is quite simple, really.  You never do get a second chance to make a first impression.” 
                                                                                                                             - E.F. Austin 
Men have been creating entrance spaces since the day they moved indoors.  The example (below) from Eastern Turkey is a cavalcade of vestibules designed and built in the 10th century.  Archeologists have not reached agreement as to their function.  Interestingly, the buildings that once surrounded these structures was reduced to dust centuries ago.   And, as has been the 
case through storm and quake, the sturdier vestibules survive.  In this case, as in many, leaving behind few clues as to  original purpose. 





If you're among those who think that the very notion of a vestibule is  a low tech holdover from a bygone  era, read how "Vestibule and Foyer", the industry bible, described our simple approach to "Compliance",  With the proliferation of vestibules in recent years, inspections have become an even more essential part of the company's business.  It is not surprising that many older vestibules violate  many of today's stricter construction codes. 









American Vestibule practically invented the term "compliance". Imagine a combination of RDF and Python. Our feature set is second to none, but our backward-compatible research and development and simple operation is often considered a terrific achievement. Think C2C2B. Is it more important for something to be sexy or to be next-generation? 
The convergence factor is scalable. Our functionality is unparalleled in the industry, but our back-end eyeballs and 
user-proof configuration is usually considered a remarkable achievement. We will grow our capacity to leverage without decreasing our ability to integrate. The relationships factor can be summed up in one word: client-focused. The metrics 
for mindshare are more well-understood if they are not compelling.



Here is a basic vestibule design many clients start with 
before adding their own creative touches.

































Below is an American Vestibule Portfolio of some of the 
company's work, over the past four decade.
















Built in the late 1950's, this office
vestibule is an example of what can
accomplished in older structures.



Duel antechambers for a Miami Church,
1969.



Exterior of a vestibule built for
a typical New York Brownstone.
1981



Limited space was no limitation to us in this
entranceway to a Los Angeles Restaurant,
2007




Exterior of The Billings Museum of Fine Arts,
2009.












Below is an example of a "special needs" vestibule design, built for a Chicago hospital in the early 1990's.  The plan allows comfortable access for the disabled  

UN Programme on Disability

Working for full participation and equality

[_headerthemes.htm]























Theme: Accessibility :

II. ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS

7. VESTIBULES

1. PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION

Narrow doorways and vestibules.

2. PLANNING PRINCIPLE

To provide sufficient space to manoeuvre a wheelchair between two sets of doors.

3. DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS

3.1 General
*Vestibule entrance doors can be either the sliding type or the swinging type.
*For swinging doors, the door mechanism should allow the maximum opening swing.
3.2 Layout
*The layout of two swinging doors in a series can be one of the following:
(a) Outward-swinging (fig. 1);
(b) Double-swinging (fig. 2);
(c) Swinging in the same direction  (1) (fig. 3);
(d) Inward-swinging (fig. 4).

4. EXISTING CONSTRUCTIONS

*For narrow vestibules either of the following solutions can be employed:
(a) Replace swinging doors with sliding doors;
(b) Change the direction of the door swing so that both doors can be made to swing outwards, if possible (fig. 5).
(c) Install double-swinging doors for small exit vestibules with a minimum width of 1.20 m.
(d) Remove the inside or second door.
(e) Enlarge the existing vestibule if possible (2) (fig. 6).
(1) Doors swinging in the same direction can be aligned, offset on opposite walls or offset on adjacent walls.
(2) This is recommended for vestibules that also serve as emergency exits because other solutions, such as changing the direction of the door swing, might not solve the problem.
Dimensions for outward swinging doors.
Fig. 1
Dimensions for double-swinging doors.
Fig. 2
Dimensions for doors swinging in the same direction.
Fig. 3
Dimensions for inward swinging doors.
Fig. 4
Change direction of door swing so both doors can swing outwards if possible.
Fig. 5
Enlarging existing vestibule.
Fig. 6
          
Posted by American Vestibule Inc. at 11:02 AM 0 comments 
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)













Posted by dubioiusanecdotalevidence at 5:49 PM 0 comments 
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)


















Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)