Page 24 - RE-NJ

22 MAY 2024
Steven Jayson verges on poetic when he talks about glass: the way it allows for variations
of light, color and texture that can transform the built environment, the way it reflects, refracts and refreshes a space.
“We’re all inspired by the material and how transformative and lasting it is,” said Jayson, one of three brothers at the helm of Bendheim, the New Jersey-based company that is a leader in fabricating glass and the systems to install it.
Glass has become a predominant feature of building design — from exterior cladding that makes for shimmering skylines and gleaming commercial developments to interior
space transformed by the luminescent material.
Bendheim, in Wayne, has been integral to high-profile architectural glass projects around the state
and the globe. There are futuristic- looking installations like those in the recreation center at Montclair State University and South Street Seaport’s Pier 17. The company also imports restoration glass — which mimics historic panes — that has been used at venerable sites such as Jefferson’s Monticello and The White House.
In New Jersey, the company recently provided the materials for the lobby of the new Valley Hospital campus in Paramus, while its glass will clad the exterior of a planned 60,000-square-
foot building designed to be a “statement piece” for Essex County College’s campus in West Caldwell.
Bendheim’s glass fabrication processes have led the way in the industry as architects, engineers
and builders have come to rely
more heavily on the material for
its aesthetic versatility, practicality and sustainability. The exterior of the building at Pier 17, for instance, features crenellated “channel glass” that is durable and strong — and can be backlit in different hues that have earned it its “jewel box” moniker.
The Jayson brothers — Robert, Donald and Steven — are the third- generation leaders of a business started by their grandparents on
Horatio Street in Manhattan in 1927. After another stop in Tribeca, the company moved to New Jersey in 1989.
For three decades, Bendheim leased industrial space in the old Manhattan Rubber complex off Van Houten Avenue on the Passaic-Clifton border, where it remained until purchasing the 12-acre former headquarters of Toshiba America Consumer Products in Wayne in 2019.
The company now employs more than 100 at the Totowa Road complex that features nearly 140,000 square feet of industrial and office space
in a bucolic setting across from the Preakness Valley Golf Course on Totowa Road.
GLASS MASTERS
Wayne-based Bendheim has played a key role in building design, construction for nearly a century
By Patricia Alex
From left: Said Elieh, Donald Jayson, Steven Jayson and Robert Jayson make up the leadership team at Bendheim, a third-generation glass fabrication and installation business based in Wayne
Photo by Aaron Houston for Real Estate NJ