MEDIA SPOTLIGHT: Pieces Falling off Chicago Skyscrapers Bring Attention to Building Fasteners

John Wolz

Editor�s Note: Articles in Media Spotlight are excerpts from publications or broadcasts which show the industry what the public is reading or hearing about fasteners and fastener companies.

Fasteners were brought into question in a Washington Post article on parts of aging skyscrapers falling to sidewalks below.
Under the headline �Chicago Faces Up� and the subhead �After Recent Incidents, Officials Pursue Greater Scrutiny for Aging Buildings,� the article reviewed accidents including the death of a 37-year-old woman walking with her daughter on the opposite side of the street.
In another incident, 1,600-pound limestone slabs fell 36 floors, demolishing a parked car and closing the street for two days.
�It is every urban pedestrian�s worst nightmare,� reporter William Claiborne led off his article. �You are walking along the sidewalk without a care in the world when a heavy block of granite or a lethal sheet of glass dislodges from a fa�ade 50 stories or so above you and hurtles down.�
�Mercifully, it doesn�t happen often,� Claiborne wrote. �But when it does � and it has twice in the past nine months in this city of tall buildings � there is an immediate chilling effect, with walkers edging nervously toward the curb as they stroll past skyscrapers.�
In the 12th paragraph fasteners were mentioned by Chicago Alderman Bernard Stone, who told the Washington Post that the stone slabs typically are secured to a building by metal fasteners. �Over time, water seeps in behind the fa�ade, and extreme heat and cold temperature expand and contract the rusting fasteners until they break,� Claiborne explained.
City officials are calling for more inspections of buildings.
�I�m not saying it�s negligence, but we have to be more careful,� Stone told the Post. �Yes, more inspections will be expensive, but how much is a human life worth?�
Since 1996 building owners have been required to conduct annual visual examinations. Contracted inspectors usually stand in the street or on a nearby rooftop with binoculars to look for bulges or other irregularities. Every four years owners use scaffolding to go floor by floor and tap on every panel. A proposed ordinance would require that inspection every other year.
However, building owners said inspections won�t necessarily prevent falls and pointed out that the building where eight 200-pound panel panels dropped on LaSalle Street had been inspected just five months earlier.
Chicago buildings commissioner Mary Richardson-Lowry said she is concerned about a pattern in which older buildings with stone panels secured with non-galvanized steel fasteners had experienced fa�ade mishaps or were found in inspections to be at risk.
The accidents triggered lawsuits, and CAN Financial Corp. announced it would spend more than $1 million reinforcing all 4,900 windows on its towers.