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If a piece of limestone estimated to weigh 200 pounds falls off a brand-new courthouse and nobody tells the public for six months, did it actually happen?
Well, it did, WW has learned.
The good news is nobody got hurt back on Feb. 11, when a 4-by-2½-foot section of the façade on the $334 million Multnomah County Courthouse fell from the building’s third story to the icy sidewalk below.
The incident occurred while the city, already shut down for the pandemic, went even deeper into hibernation during a rare ice storm.
County spokesman Mike Pullen says the county closed adjacent sidewalks and began immediate inspections. It did so quietly.
“Courthouse managers were notified, and the county took immediate steps to ensure public safety,” Pullen says. “In the county’s view, the incident did not warrant a news release.”
The county avoided disclosure—until now. But as negotiations continue over final payment for the building, the secret has rumbled to the surface. It’s a potentially sour conclusion for County Chair Deborah Kafoury, who shepherded the project through a difficult funding and design process.
Pullen says county contractors, including Hoffman Construction, the general contractor, are still sorting out the issue.
“Hoffman Construction’s subcontractor, Columbia Stone, is doing a check on some of the clips that connect the stone to the façade system,” Pullen explains. “They are checking all the stones at the top of a floor level as well as stones that were installed out of sequence due to construction methods. The stone that fell was installed out of sequence.” (Columbia Stone did not respond to a request for comment.)
Hoffman, the Northwest’s largest construction firm, has built a host of state landmarks, including University of Oregon athletic facilities, portions of Portland International Airport, and much of Nike’s campus.
The cost of ensuring that more of the 17-story building’s stone sheathing won’t come crashing down is just one of the points of contention between the county and Hoffman. Pullen says there are six change orders worth $10 to $15 million still outstanding, including the stone work. “The county and county consultants have evaluated the change order requests and have requested additional information from Hoffman,” Pullen says.
Gerry Hein, Hoffman’s project manager for the courthouse, would say only that the fallen stone had been replaced. Hein declined to answer questions or comment on the substance of discussions between Hoffman and the county, which he said were ongoing.
The courthouse, located at the west end of the Hawthorne Bridge, opened last October after four years of construction. COVID-19 precautions have meant, however, that relatively few people have visited the 465,000-square-foot building, which features a soaring three-story atrium and 44 courtrooms. A faulty sprinkler caused flooding in January that left behind significant damage, including an elevator bank that is still out of commission.
But Pullen says those elevators will be fixed within two months and the building is otherwise solid. “There are no problems with the structure or mechanical systems,” he says.