Now here's a problem waiting for an ingenious solution. I've always held --
in my inimitably lofty way -- that anyone wanting to put in aluminum
replacement windows should provide -- at no additional charge -- a partial
lower sash to close the gap between the meeting rail and the top of any
air-conditioner as well as blocking and a shelf to support same of the
bottom of the window and out the window. If this were law, the companies
that fabricate and install these windows wouldnt' disappear every six
months. And, the real beauty would lie in the built-in beam across the lower
rail of the partial sash, which wouldn't deflect under the load of the A/C
or the accidental impact of a hanging scaffold.

Failing enactment of such legislation in Chicagoland, you could follow the
lead of MetHist -- who surely can find a precedent for his protected and
patented system in the many public archives of this fine city (NYC) -- and
devise an aluminum frame and platform with custom cut acrylic panels.

Sign me,

S. Mel Epits

-----Original Message-----
From: Anne Sullivan [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Friday, February 18, 2000 8:04 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Air Conditioner holders


This is a very mundane question, but has alot to do with the ultimate
condition of exterior walls and windows.  Is there such a thing as an air
conditioner holder -- a brace which fits in the window, serving as a
platform
for the A/C, which is braced on the sill.  I'm talking large scale -- large
apartment building with 3600 windows --- I"d like to create a standard for
the building.

I have located a brace-type leg which extends out the window, then bends
down
and back toward the exterior wall beneath the window sill.  I'd rather not
have anything braced against the wall.

You know, you go through this big restoration of exterior walls, windows,
finishes, etc., and then those god-awful things get plunked in there, and
forevermore drip down on your masterpiece of masonry restoration work...

any bright ideas for how to support small A/C condensing units hanging out
of
apartment windows (other than attaching the thing on a platform to the
exterior wall adjacent to the window)? How do New Yorkers deal with this?