Platt Luggage Building façade relocation, Chicago

Berglund Construction and our strategic partners were responsible for dismantling, moving and restoring a valuable piece of Chicago’s history one brick at a time — without damaging a thing.

With meticulous attention to detail, we moved the Platt Luggage Building to make way for an expansion of the McCormick Exposition Center. Then we restored it to its original 1907 grandeur as designed by architect Howard Van Doren Shaw.

To make sure the building would be reassembled to its original state, the project team painstakingly documented the entire façade with thousands of digital photos and elevation drawings. Craftsmen then dismantled the building stone by stone and brick by brick, numbering every piece to ensure that each would be properly relaid at the new site.

The original Platt building was a load-bearing masonry structure in which the exterior façade carried all the loads. The project team wanted to make the new structure a masonry cavity wall with a steel support system, designed so the new façade mimicked the same loads carried in the original. Our team developed a hybrid solution: The base of the façade and the radial columns carry the majority of the masonry loads, while the steel structure holds the cornice and stone soffits. Masonry wings provide closure and give the appearance that the new façade was integrated with the existing pre-cast panel façade.

Throughout the project, we fostered a zero-accident culture in which protecting the public, the workers and the environment were always a priority. With more than 17,000 man hours recorded, there was only one incident in which a worker — due to some tight conditions — twisted his knee.

As a result of this high-quality project, we and our partners have preserved the architectural history of one of the most prolific architects in American history for future generations to appreciate.