What does it take to reach 100? As part of our 100th anniversary celebration, we’re posting a piece of Berglund’s history on our blog each day for 100 days. Check in each day to learn new tidbits about our company, win prizes based on your Berglund knowledge, and, most of all, to help us celebrate.

Spotlight on Berglund’s Work: Restoration

Queen of All Saints Basilica

It’s no small feat to become a basilica, a designation granted by the pope to large, significant Catholic churches. With its modern Gothic architecture and culturally diverse congregation, Queen of All Saints Basilica in Chicago’s far north Sauganash neighborhood earned the honor shortly after its current sanctuary opened in 1960. It’s one of just a handful of basilicas in Chicago, and Berglund took special care with the structure during its façade restoration, one of several projects we’ve completed for Queen of All Saints.

Berglund spent four years completing the $10 million restoration, which was spread out over multiple years for funding purposes. We ground and tuck-pointed the entire exterior of the church and its school, self-performing 85 percent of the work to ensure the highest quality. Since the church and school remained open during construction, we carefully coordinated with the parish to keep all visitors safe. With a newly revamped exterior that stands strong against the elements, this holy site will be there for its faithful for years to come.

What does it take to reach 100? As part of our 100th anniversary celebration, we’re posting a piece of Berglund’s history on our blog each day for 100 days. Check in each day to learn new tidbits about our company, win prizes based on your Berglund knowledge, and, most of all, to help us celebrate.

Spotlight on Berglund’s Work: Restoration

Palmolive Building

From soap to scandalous pictures, the Palmolive Building’s seen a lot since it was built in 1929.

The Chicago landmark originally was home to the Palmolive Soap Co., and Playboy later moved in, hanging a huge lighted Playboy sign on the front of the building for all of Michigan Avenue to see. When a developer later converted the building into high-end condos, it tapped Berglund to restore the Art Deco building’s terra cotta and limestone exterior.

Berglund tuck-pointed and cleaned Palmolive’s façade, patching and replacing the stones as needed and applying sealant to the windows. Our restoration work won the 2006 Award of Merit for Renovation/Restoration from the Midwest Construction Review. Now restored to top form, the Palmolive’s ready for whatever comes its way next.

What does it take to reach 100? As part of our 100^th anniversary celebration, we’re posting a piece of Berglund’s history on our blog each day for 100 days. Check in each day to learn new tidbits about our company, win prizes based on your Berglund knowledge, and, most of all, to help us celebrate.

Spotlight on Berglund’s Work: Restoration

U.S. Custom House

The main lesson to learn from our restoration of Chicago’s U.S. Custom House? Investigation, perseverance and technology are the keys to preservation.

When Berglund was tapped to handle the restoration of U.S. Custom House, the General Services Administration (GSA)-owned building needed significant work. Built in 1932 and clad in limestone, aluminum, granite and glass, more than 300 of the building’s limestone panels were cracked or flaking. While the original scope of work called for replacing all the broken panels, we thought that approach was neither environmentally nor historically sound. We proposed an alternative that would save as much of the stone as possible, and got the Illinois State Historic Preservation Office’s OK on the new plan.

Careful handling and identification helped us to preserve many of the limestone panels originally destined for removal. We tested the salvaged panels to determine the components of the original grout and mortar and the quarry where the limestone had been sourced, then used identical matches in our repairs. Unsalvageable limestone was ground up for use in road construction and landscaping.

Our creative approach to U.S. Custom House’s restoration didn’t go unnoticed. The project won the GSA’s 2006 National Conservation Award and 2004 Construction Waste Management Award, as well as a certificate of construction excellence from the government agency.

What does it take to reach 100? As part of our 100^th anniversary celebration, we’re posting a piece of Berglund’s history on our blog each day for 100 days. Check in each day to learn new tidbits about our company, win prizes based on your Berglund knowledge, and, most of all, to help us celebrate.

Spotlight on Berglund’s Work: Restoration

Wilson Hall, Fermilab

Fermilab’s founding director, Robert Wilson, believed that beauty and science went hand in hand. A renowned physicist as well as an artist and sculptor, Wilson wanted visitors to the national laboratory’s Batavia, Ill., campus to marvel at its design, along with the scientific breakthroughs happening there.

Fermilab’s administrative building, built in 1972 and named after Wilson, honored its namesake’s vision. The building features distinctive symmetrical towers that curve and sweep gracefully into the air. By the late 1990s, though, the beautiful structure needed some work. Temperature shifts over the years had caused the buildings, which are tied together by post-tensioned concrete beams at the seventh through 16^th floors, to move more than the original design had anticipated. As a result, the structure’s beams were deteriorating, the exterior was chipping, the entrance plaza was cracking and the waterproofing system was failing.

The laboratory hired Berglund to restore Wilson Hall, and Berglund spent 15 months returning the building to its former glory. We repaired the crossover beams and the exterior, installed a waterproofing membrane on the balconies, and sealed the façade. Berglund performed all work at night to minimize disruptions to Fermilab, and the lab used a webcam to broadcast the renovation’s progress on its website. After completing work in 2001, we took home the 2002 Award of Excellence from the International Concrete Repair Institute. The restoration also was one of the featured government projects in Midwest Construction Review’s 2003 Illinois Showcase.