San Francisco, CA
Scope/Solutions
The owner planned to rehabilitate the 1927 office building and adapt it for use as a luxury hotel. The brick walls of the fifteen-story building had large vertical cracks at the corners and suffered from water leakage. SGH investigated the steel-framed building with masonry infill walls, brick and cast stone cladding, and large, wood framed double hung windows.
SGH performed a window and facade investigation and determined the brick was not adequately anchored at the corners of the building. We designed an anchorage system for the brick that could be installed from the exterior through the mortar joints, causing minimal disruption to the interior finishes and exterior historic fabric.
We also analyzed the exterior wall stability in various seismic events and evaluated the performance of the exterior walls, if strengthened or if left unrepaired, under different levels of earthquake. With information from our study, the owner was able to decide if they wanted to invest in strengthening the exterior walls.
SGH presented our solutions to the Foundation for San Francisco’s Architectural Heritage. We developed a restoration program that included stabilization repairs, as well as repointing, patching, pinning and cleaning of the exterior brick and cast stone facades. We prepared construction documents, and provided construction administration services for the restoration work.
Project Summary
