Ellison Provides New Durable Bronze Door for Prominent Naval Dormitory

FALCONER, NY… Ellison Bronze, Inc., the inventor of the balanced door and today’s leader in the custom balanced door industry, offers a new set of doors to the Naval Academy’s Bancroft Hall in Annapolis, MD. Completed in October 2010, this addition brings the tally to 183 Ellison installations around the Academy’s campus since 1964.

Bancroft Hall houses 4,000 midshipmen, making it the largest single dormitory in the United States. The extremely high-traffic/high-abuse nature of the facility necessitates very solid products that will not wear or break easily. As such, building product specifications for all Naval facilities are conducted by the quality-control agency known as The Naval Facility Engineering Command (NAVFAC), which has recurrently chosen Ellison to provide doors for many of the campus buildings. The doors on Bancroft Hall feature stile and rail type construction of #280 alloy muntz bronze material with a satin finish.

“It is a door system that requires only simple and straightforward service,” says Sean Moran, President of Architectural Materials, Inc, the contractor for the project. “These doors are continually chosen for the Naval Academy campus because they are the highest quality product available. Ellison’s doors stand the test of cycle and the elements. Between classes, these doors see 700 to 1000 cycles in a 15 minute period. The Academy is situated at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay and has to weather heavy storms, salt air and moisture on a regular basis.”

The construction of an Ellison door is unique in that its balanced design allows for large, heavy, and durable doors to be opened with ease. Unlike a conventional hinged door, which may only last 5-10 years, an Ellison formed-up door features a solid internal subframe, which is made of minimum .09” thick material. The external door skins are spot welded at close intervals to the

internal channel components, making an extremely durable unitized construction. Yet the inset balancing point allows for a more fluid range of motion, even in strong winds or where significant building stack pressure exists, despite the added weight of the sturdy components.

“We are very proud to provide so many doors to the men and women in the Naval Academy,” says Mark Graves, president of Ellison Bronze. “A midshipman’s life is very demanding, so they in turn are very demanding of the doors. They have little time to get from one task to the other, and therefore are not inclined to treat the doors gently. The academy uses our robust bronze doors because of the rugged balanced hardware, as well as our equally durable door construction. The aesthetic of the doors is also compatible with the historic character of the buildings on campus.”

In addition to the superior quality of an Ellison door, the company is able to provide customers with the service of detailed record-keeping. Every door produced is imprinted with an individual product number (similar to that of a car’s VIN number), to facilitate easy tracking and maintenance. This proves especially important for the Naval Academy, considering their more than 40-year relationship with Ellison.

“Ellison’s serial tracking system was very helpful and they were able to head off problems with field dimensions,” continues Moran. “They were able to easily locate the original door specifications to be sure that the new installation would be as efficient and error-free as possible. It’s a very proactive customer service approach.”

In addition to Bancroft Hall, Ellison doors can be found on the Naval Academy’s campus at the following locations: Isherwood Hall, Sampson Hall, Michelson Hall, Maury Hall, Chauvenet Hall, the Medical Center, the Chapel, and the Bookstore.