Two Prudential Plaza

The 59-story high-rise office tower facade is constructed with a combination of prefabricated panels and hand-set or stick construction erected over a composite frame of cast-in-place concrete on the lower floors and structural steel on the upper floors. The classic setback design incorporates 72 roof offsets before reaching the spire. The general contractor was dismissed during the project close-out for inattention to severe leakage problems at the roof setback/curtain wall interfaces. The building owner filed suit to recoup repair costs, and the contractor filed a counterclaim for various extras.

RRJ was retained by the building owner to provide litigation assistance. RRJ  reviewed the curtain wall contract documents for constructability and addressed contractor claims for extras related to tolerance interfacing and connection fit-up problems encountered during erection. Trial materials were prepared using extensive 3-D modeling to evaluate the complex setback roof and spire geometries, along with color graphics and full-size mockups of critical curtain wall and structural frame components and assemblies.