Commercial Dormitory Windows for The Linsly School’s New Simmons Hall in Wheeling, WV

Simmons Hall is the newest residence hall at The Linsly School in Wheeling, West Virginia, and it opened for the 2026–27 school year. The building replaces Weiss Hall, which had housed the school’s boarding students since 1958. 

Founded in 1814 by Noah Linsly, the school describes itself as the oldest preparatory school west of the Alleghenies. It started as the Lancastrian Academy, later became Linsly Military Institute and today operates as a coeducational college-preparatory day and boarding school for grades 5–12. Of its 417 students this year, 107 live on campus, and the student body comes from 24 countries and seven U.S. states. 

For the new hall, the school asked for windows with better energy efficiency and long-term durability. Pella Impervia windows were specified for every window opening in the building. 

Simmons Hall is a two-story building with a series of shingled gables, set below a wooded hillside on the Linsly campus. Red brick, board-and-batten siding and horizontal lap siding share the exterior. Brick wraps the base of the siding walls and clads several full-height bays, including a center gable with a second-floor balcony over a covered patio. At the main entry, a standing-seam metal canopy sits on tapered columns over brick piers. 

The windows follow that traditional character. Grilles-between-the-glass in a traditional pattern appear on every unit, giving the hall a consistent divided-lite look across all its elevations. On the siding walls, the windows sit inside wide trim surrounds, while openings in the brick bays are finished with lintels above and brick sills below. 

The window package uses two fiberglass product types. Single-hung windows serve as the operable units, with a lower sash that opens for ventilation. Picture windows fill the openings that only need glass, including a group of tall, fixed units that stand taller than any of the single-hung windows on the project. 

Many of the larger operable openings use two single-hung windows mulled together at the factory, so each pair arrives on site as one assembly. The single-hung units are finished with cam-action locks and InView™ half screens, and both window types share the same grille profile so operable and fixed units match from the outside. 

Several details in the window schedule reflect the building’s use as student housing. The larger single-hung units are documented as meeting minimum clear opening requirements for egress, with the order noting that egress should be confirmed against local building code. A small number of windows were ordered with tempered glass, and a set of square picture windows received obscure glass for privacy. 

Sound ratings are listed for every window on the order. The tallest picture windows carry the highest ratings on the project, at STC 31 and OITC 25. 

Energy efficiency and durability were the two goals the school named for the windows. Every unit uses Advanced Low-E insulating glass with argon fill, and the picture windows use dual Low-E glass. The picture windows are rated at a U-factor of 0.27, with the single-hung windows at 0.30. 

Impervia frames are made from Pella’s Duracast® material. The picture windows carry CW Performance Class ratings up to PG 50, and the single-hung windows carry LC ratings up to PG 50. With every window drawn from the Pella Impervia line, the residence hall’s openings share one frame material and one grille style across the entire building.