541 North Fairbanks Court
Architect: Klein & Hoffman
Installer: Christopher Glass & Aluminum
Location: Chicago, IL
The Innovation Glass team was pleased to be part of the renovation of the 541 North Fairbanks Court, formerly known as the Time Life Building.
This project is unique in that it had a historical designation for the building so the owner elected to preserve the curtain wall structure during the rehabilitation. The original lobby curtain wall was designed and built using exterior COR-TEN “self-weathering” steel mullions. Over time the upper slip connections bound up and the mullions began to buckle causing leaks. Also the base anchors corroded badly from standing water infiltration.
The role of iG was to engineer new head and base anchors, supply replacement parts and define the rehabilitation method for the glazing contractor Christopher Glass. This included removing a lower portion of the mullion and replacing it with new 316 stainless steel base anchors which were attached to the slab with drilled-in anchor bolts. The head connection was cut away as well and replaced with new 316 stainless steel head anchors that had to attach to a concrete waffle slab. iG developed an adjustable anchor bolt attachment strategy that accommodated the significant variation from anchor to anchor. The project was executed in 2 phases to allow the building to remain open during the renovation.
