Quote:
Originally Posted by mark0
It's my understanding they replace windows constantly anyways and have been for a long time, so the windows should be fairly current already? Cant they just do the metal skins and leave the windows in place? Is that really a billion $$$$?
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Let's do a little math... the AJ Celebrezze Federal Building in Cleveland was reclad recently (10 years ago ish). At $121M for 340,000sf of envelope, that's approximately $350 for every square foot of envelope.
Sears has around 1.4 million square feet of envelope, so that would pencil out to around $500M in 2010 dollars. Chicago is a more expensive construction market than Cleveland, and there would be at least 10 years of cost inflation... plus the Cleveland project covered over the existing facade in place to save money and be less disruptive. If you're talking about a true replacement, then you've got to relocate tenants, etc. I could easily see the job landing between $750M-$1B.
Now, there may be some kind of field-applied coating that could be used to darken the anodized finish and reduce the faded appearance. That would be a lot cheaper, but you wouldn't get any energy benefits. There's just not really a great reason to replace the cladding. We aren't trying to replace the limestone on the Board of Trade or Union Station just because it weathered a bit after 100 years.