Project Overview

The Salvation Army hired Berglund as construction manager to perform a roofing and building envelope restoration project at its College for Officer Training building on the North Side of Chicago. We performed masonry repairs and upgraded the building’s mechanical and plumbing system. The building also received a new copper and slate roof to match the original. Finally, we restored the building's west terra cotta balcony.

Approach

The initial work scope did not include the restoration of the west terra cotta balcony. Mid-way through the project, however, we identified savings in other scopes of work that allowed the owner to restore this important architectural feature as well. Once the owner decided to move ahead with the terra cotta restoration, we performed an inspection to develop an order of magnitude scope and budget. We identified pieces that could be repaired and reused and pieces that were beyond repair.

Once those replacement pieces were identified, we procured competitive pricing and began the shop drawing process and fabrication of the pieces. As the pieces were fabricated in California, we self-performed the structural repairs at the balcony, including installing new structural steel and a new reinforced structural deck. Due to schedule demands, we double-pressed the 30 replacement pieces.

Outcomes

The terra cotta on the building had weathered and had previously been coated with paint to hide the distress. We had to match the rest of the building, so we fabricated new pieces that emulated distressed terra cotta and coated them to match the adjacent pieces. We worked closely with our supplier to get the pieces on site two weeks ahead of schedule. Berglund tradespeople self-performed all the terra cotta installation work.