Who Killed Belltown’s McGuire? The Cast of Characters
Yesterday, the news broke that a 25-story high-rise in Belltown, The McGuire, would be torn down just nine years after construction, due to “defects.” The $31-million apartment tower, at 210 Wall Street, had been clad in scaffolding for months, as the owners tried to deal with cracking and spalling of the concrete exterior, due to problems with reinforcement placement in the building’s frame.
Further investigation revealed that post-tensioned slabs–widely used in high-rises to help support and strengthen the concrete, and allow for thinner floors–contained cables that were corroding. (After it opened, The McGuire fairly quickly had troubles with water entering the building’s envelope, and then the wrong paint and grout had been used to protect the cables from water, as well.) The City of Seattle Department of Planning and Development told the owners to repair it or vacate by the end of 2010.
Given the costs of repair, the Carpenters Union Local 131 and MEPT, the Multi-Employer Property Trust, gave hundreds of residents notice to vacate. (The McGuire’s original developers were the Carpenters Union Local 131 and Harbor Properties.) Ronald Holden, Belltown’s eyes and ears, reports on his blog Cornichon that residents are being offered substantial incentives to quit the building by May 15.
Legal advisers Kennedy Associates said the owners were suing the general contractor and architects. Emporis.com and the city’s permits confirm that the general contractor on the project was the national firm McCarthy Building Companies, Inc., one of the top ten commercial builders in the U.S. Here is their differentiator:
Because we are true builders, owners get more and better options. Faster and safer execution. And a clear cost/benefit solution that yields the best final cost, every time.
Structural engineers were ABKJ, who also worked on Harbor Steps and Belltown’s Arbor Place. Architecture firm Hewitt has a long list of Seattle projects, from Harbor Steps and Belltown’s The Klee lofts and suites, to the Capitol Hill light rail station and University Village. Most recently, they are working on Belltown’s Third & Cedar project, a 17-story tower with about 200 units, funded by HB Capital.
Problems with condo construction the last decade are nothing new, as illustrated by this KUOW story from 2008, or this Seattle Times story from 2003–which specifically calls out “water damage to buildings–damage that sometimes costs as much to fix as the project cost to build.” Nor are construction defects limited to Belltown.
After a decade or more of water-damage complaints, it seems that leaving rain screen systems solely to the discretion of architects and developers isn’t working. (The McGuire, unfortunately, used stucco in its outer envelope–which can become water-logged from wind-driven rain–and did not to my knowledge employ a rain screen.) A thriving industry in rain screen system consultants and waterproofing has since grown up in the Northwest, after the condo construction between 1995 and 2001 revealed our region’s tendency to “soak in it.” Maybe it’s time to require developers and contractors to demonstrate water-resistance know-how during construction, rather than afterward.
15 thoughts on “Who Killed Belltown’s McGuire? The Cast of Characters”
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This is one really expensive lesson. Probably there needs to be better education about the use of the proper systems and methods to build rather than strict government oversight.
According to the Seattle Times:
Foxes, the hen house you’re supposed to guard is located directly to your left.
Interesting wrinkle, huh? I need to follow up with DPD about that angle.
WOW!
Yeah, I’m sure that a few continuing education courses will make these fly-by-night developers completely ignore all of the huge financial incentives to cut corners.
Honestly, a 9-year-old high-rise is on the verge of collapse, and you’re seriously suggesting that stricter government oversight wouldn’t help? I swear, I don’t understand this libertarian mindset — it’s this crazy fantasy world where enlightened self-interest solves every problem. In reality, it would eventually result in 25-story buildings collapsing into the streets, and spliced-up zombies roaming through the wreckage. (Oh, wait — that’s Bioshock. Never mind.)
If Bo and Luke Duke want to save some money by cutting a few corners when they build some apartments and then, when the evil power grabbing liberal government officials in the form of corrupt Mayor Boss Hogg and his corrupt police lieutenant Sheriff Roscoe P. Coletrain want to try and persecute these enterprising individuals who are simply trying to excersize their right to free will, then I don’t blame them one bit if they want to peel out in the General Lee and jump over your liberal regulations and rule mongering in a spectacular scene where their car soars through the air, frankly
Depends. It is not at all uncommon for the Owner to put the “quality control” (QC) responsibility totally on the Contractor, including structural inspections. After all, they are, by contract, tasked with building it correctly. This also allows owners to “lock in” these costs, since they are difficult to budget and tend to vary, especially if there are re-inspections.
Putting all the QC responsibility and cost in the construction contract is common in federal procurement work. Also, there are no “city inpectors” say, on Ft. Lewis (the state and local municipalities have no code enforcement jurisdiction on any federal property).
The City of Seattle is quite strict wrt post tensioned slabs, so all the requirements were probably met until it came time to cover up the work with the finishes….and now everybody knows how important that grout and paint are. These tasks could easily have been overlooked.
What is inexplicable is the allegation of rebar not placed properly. This is usually signed off by the inspecting firm/testing agency, and putting it in correctly is not rocket science.
I wonder if these jokers created a new llc for this project, This seems to be normal, I think a requirement that all investors be on the hook for 15 years and are limited in liability to 5X the investment not just 1X would result in some better building going on.
http://www.q13fox.com/videobeta/69cf9459-2a30-4533-83f2-b9a8
The reason the city does not deal with inspections this complex is that they are ultimately not responsible for design and construction flaws. The owner hires a private inspector with a cadillac insurance plan that can cover such catastrophic events such as this one. A lawsuit of this magnitude is incentive enough for a private inspector to do their job properly and it is not in their interest to turn a blind eye for profit. Personally, I do not want my city and tax dollars to be responsible for all the hi-rise construction failures.
As an architect that has worked on similar projects, I can tell you that the same applies to our work and drawings. The city does check them for code compliance, but their check is only cursory. Ultimately, we are responsible to follow the code to the tee for the same reasons mentioned. The city will not get involved in a lawsuit in case something goes wrong and is also the reason we carry insurance policies.
As architects we, along with a structural consultant (separate from the third party structural inspector) are hired to oversee construction in a process called CA (construction administration). As a team, we act as a representative to the owner to make sure the building is built as designed and specified. Submittals should have been provided to review specifications of the materials in question. If they differed from the ones reviewed, it’s the contractors who’s at fault. However, the architect’s structural engineering consultant, who is typically scheduled for regular site observation visits, should have spotted unprotected pt cable reinforcing strands. After all, he or she had 25 chances to do so.
This whole thing could have been avoided if the contractor built as specified. But it could have also been avoided if the architect had chosen to do a “rain screen” cladding system as was being done at the time and is all over the hi-rise towers in Vancouver B.C. A rain screen system is basically a glass curtain wall that goes up the entire height of the building, thus keeping rain intrusion out of critical structural elements such as post tensioned concrete slab edges. Instead, the architect chose to leave these susceptible elements exposed to the weather in order to achieve a certain architectural aesthetic. In addition, wall panels were set back a few inches from the edge to further accentuate the floor lines and thus creating ledges for water to sit and penetrate into the structure. Though the contractor could have prevented these problems had they built to specifications, the design of the building may have been flawed to begin with.
This will all work out for the best. McCarthy Building Companies projects in Texas and California are already under very severe scrutiny. They will eventually lose hundreds of miilions off the bottom line due to their cuddly relationships with the QC people. The building owners will recover their money from their own and the contractors’ insurance and the City of Seattle has had a long needed wakeup call.
Using a southern clime building material in the rainy northwest is really asking for it. Building materials is a local thing and transplants seldom work well. Stucco is one of them. it just doesn’t last up here as an exterior treatment.
just wondering what’s the lastest news on the mcguire site,,haven’t heard any thing on this side [north ]of the border. ths
I need to check on this, Gerard, but I can point you to this post about the demolition in progress from last May: http://www.cornichon.org/2011/05/the-rhine-maiden.html