CHICAGO | St. Regis Chicago (Vista) | 1,191 FT | 101 FLOORS

[Skyguy_7]

^^ Welcome to the forum! Can I trouble you to define what you mean by “underpowered”? Also, anymore backstory on the glass mishap would be appreciated by all of us.

[PittsburghPA]

By underpowered maybe he meant unable to meet mockup requirements. Aka failing multiple times and delaying installation. I believe there are still problems with the balcony glass.

[LouisVanDerWright]

McHugh has been around forever and built many of Chicago's private and institutional projects. They run deep with Chicago City Hall and the trade unions. Here's the first line of their Wikipedia:

Founded in 1897 by James D. McHugh, an Irish bricklayer from Chicago's south side, McHugh Construction originally specialized in masonry work.

A turn of the century Irish masonry contractor from the South Side? Sounds like a business that would NEVER be involved with organized crime or a political machine.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_McHugh_Construction_Co

They probably aren't openly corrupt today, but just based on how long they have been involved in building things for the city, for union pension funds (Marina City) and Cook county, it's extremely doubtful that there wouldn't be a long and colorful 'history' there.

[cozy]

Louis, that made me laugh so hard!! Makes a lot of sense, they simply run deep with the political machine.

Edit: and thanks for the additional clarification building guy

[GlassDude]

Hi guys,
Not a big forum poster, but upon reading your comments wanted to follow up then probably not be back for a while. Lol

So lets start with McHugh. South side concrete culture at heart, and understanding the GC racket is just an incestuous sales channel for them to feed concrete profits (not represent the owner) sets the stage for how you get 80 stories of concrete and no glass on Vista !!!!lol

Vista facade was way above McHugh’s technological skis....so they of course choose the cheapest possible system they can find EFCO (so they can pump up their concrete number and still meet GMP) only problem is, they weren’t sophisticated enough on facade performance detailing to know that they picked the WRONG TRADE trade to skim from this time! Lol.
EFCO says “no worries we got this” but when it came time to test, they couldn’t come close the meeting the performance requirements. Fast forward 18 months, and 80 floors of concrete as McHugh rakes 10’s of millions extra profit from the inflated budget lines from their “facade skimming play” at the owner’s expense.... now poor underpowered EFCO with the help of several million dollars from the Appogee mothership and a dozen mock-up patches and system fails, finally gets something to pass by gluing together enough “fixes”....now that “something” is Vista. Pretty on the outside if you don’t look too closely, but an abomination and a living monument to greed and corruption underneath.

Ohh... btw.... Talon Wall is a curtainwall, so by simply cutting a deeper shelf horizontal it could easily take the 5” offest on Vista without loss of performance on shortcurcuiting and thermal transference resistance. Take a look at the Paragon.... cutbacks all over that one, and that Entekk Talon Wall system chased the concrete all the way up.... and... I have it on first hand authority.... passed every test.

That my friends is why I say McHugh is corrupt. BTW. They tried a similar play on the Nema across the park, and tried to put a 50 year old family owned glass company out of business trying to cover up mistakes and corruption within their concrete divisions because they misrepresented how the building would move ..... but that guy fought back... and word has it may win the day! But... that story is for another day and another post!

Take care.... happy replying and stuff!

[harryc]

Feb 8

[donnie]

Originally Posted by harryc

Feb 8

Can't wait to see this angle once WPS is complete!

Filling in nicely.....

[feynman]

Originally Posted by harryc

Feb 8

Five iconic buildings in one shot. Amazing.

[marothisu]

^ All I have to say is wow, this is juicy stuff... Glad you are here!

[SFBruin]

Wow, this thing looks better and better every time I check back here haha.

I may say that I think that it looks better in overcast weather than it does in the sun.

[Flaccer05]

Feb 9

Love the new peak from Montrose Harbor!

[Jibba]

[edit]

[Jibba]

[edit]

[donnie]

I was afraid Vista was going to look like a skinny tower from afar!

I can finally put those fears to rest.......

[BonoboZill4]

[BVictor1]

Making traffic work in my favor...

02/09/19

[the urban politician]

Originally Posted by BonoboZill4

^ Some epic view termination right here...

[cozy]

awesome pics guys! bombarier's rep still stands. props for remaining cordial after being called out like that

[marothisu]

BVictor1's picture is what I was talking about the other day. It's very present from the interstate which is awesome.

I think they're on the 94th floor? If so then it should be topped out within a month I think?

[lu9]