A typical high-rise office tower can need hundreds of thousands of square feet of metal-framed glass panels. A Brookfield Property under construction in New York City.
Cost of Skyscraper Glass Hits Dizzying Heights - Earlier manufacturing cutbacks create delays, add to price tag as construction rebounds: A shortage of glass is taking a toll on the nation’s commercial building boom, adding millions of dollars to the cost of new skyscrapers and halting some projects midway through construction.
Demand is soaring for the metal-framed glass panels, or curtain wall, used to sheath skyscrapers. Those buildings need a lot of glass—hundreds of thousands of square feet for a typical high-rise office tower.
Glass manufacturers and fabricators can’t keep up. Many glass makers mothballed their operations or went out of business in 2008 and 2009, during the recession, which hit the construction industry hard.
Now, however, apartment buildings are sprouting up at their briskest pace in decades, and new office towers are rising in major markets like Manhattan at the fastest rate since the early 1990s.
Restarting idled glass factories is a costly and time-consuming process, so property developers say the current shortage could last well into next year, if not longer.
In the meantime, builders are reporting that curtain-wall prices, which have risen more than 30% in the past 18 months, are setting records.
Glass accounts for roughly one-quarter of a construction project’s budget, so the extra expense can add tens of millions of dollars to a building’s cost, according to Brett Atkinson, executive vice president of Moss & Associates, a Florida-based company with 30 buildings under construction that require curtain wall.
New Hudson Facades is a glass-making business that is an offshoot of real-estate developer Related Cos., which teamed up with a specialty-metal manufacturer so as to ensure a supply of glass panels.
Delays are also a problem: Several towers in San Francisco’s trendy Rincon Hill neighborhood, home to some of the city’s most expensive apartments, are standing bare while their builders wait for glass.
“Nowadays, the glass guys are dictating the timetables of a project to us, instead of the other way around,” said Ralph Esposito, who oversees commercial construction by the New York office of Lend Lease Corp., one of the country’s largest building contractors, with nearly 30 high-rise towers under way. “I don’t think people had the leap of faith that the [real-estate] industry would be as strong as the run we’re currently on.”
The glass that ends up on the outside of an office building is manufactured in giant tanks in which sand is melted at temperatures north of 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Long ribbons of raw glass are floated down a river of molten metal. This “float glass” is then cut into pieces, customized to order, and the panels are sent to contractors who fit them into metal frames to produce panels that meet the builder’s specifications. A contractor typically installs the curtain wall on the side of a building.
Producers shut 11 out of 47 float-glass manufacturing plants in North America between 2007 and 2014, according to PPG Industries Inc., a Pittsburgh-based glass maker, as demand for glass of all kind—from building facades to auto windshields—sagged during the downturn. Building a new plant can cost hundreds of millions of dollars, PPG says, and restarting an idled line can take months because workers have to jackhammer thousands of pounds of hardened glass to remove it from melting tanks.
“Once you take one of those tanks out of commission, you can’t just turn it back on,” said Glenn Miner, director of construction for PPG’s flat-glass division. The downturn “affected all the suppliers in the marketplace. None of them were unscathed.”
New Hudson Facades is producing mockups for the panels set to go on the Manhattan building.
As the glass shortage worsens, some developers are taking matters into their own hands. This summer, Related Cos., a large New York real-estate firm, got into the glass-panel manufacturing business. Teaming up with M. Cohen & Sons, a specialty-metal manufacturer, the developer, opened a $16 million, 180,000-square-foot factory in a wooded industrial park in Linwood, Pa., near the Delaware border.
Related, which is known for glitzy properties like Manhattan’s Time Warner Center, decided to open its own curtain-wall factory after waiting months for delivery of window panels intended for new apartments last year in the New York borough of Queens.
The developer needs more than 3,000 panels of architectural glass for an apartment tower it is building on Manhattan’s West Side, said Bruce Beal Jr., Related’s president.
The new glass company, dubbed New Hudson Façades, is producing mockups for those panels. It predicts that by next year its factory will be at full capacity, producing two million square feet of curtain wall annually.
“With the logistical issues, small number of producers and growing costs, we’d rather bet on our ability to domestically produce and control the supply” of glass, Mr. Beal said.
The glass industry is gearing back up, but progress is slow because some parts of the supply chain still haven’t recovered from the recession, said Troy Hansen, director of materials at Viracon Inc., a division of Minneapolis-based Apogee Enterprises Inc. and one of the largest fabricators of the glass panes that go into curtain wall.
“As these [float glass] plants have shut down, glass has to travel farther and farther from the raw manufacturer to our facilities,” Mr. Hansen said. “There’s definitely a future of shortage of raw glass coming.”
Viracon closed one of its three manufacturing plants, in St. George, Utah, in early 2013 amid flagging demand. In late 2014, as construction picked up, the company rushed to bring the plant back online. Even so, Viracon told customers in July that prices would rise by as much as 12% due to shortages of float glass, a once-unusual price increase that is becoming commonplace, Mr. Hansen said.
Scott Kinter, a senior vice president in Boston with AvalonBay Communities Inc., one of the largest U.S. apartment-builders, said his team began hearing about glass-related delays about a month ago, and he expects a significant curtain-wall shortage in the fourth quarter of 2015 and into early 2016. Prices are up between 35% and 45% from 2013, he said.
“Everyone is so busy and they can’t keep up with the demand,” he said. “If I were starting a new high-rise anywhere on the East Coast today, the first thing I’d try to lock down is the glass. Then I’d pray nothing goes wrong.”
Aaron Rodgers Carries Packers to 31-25 Super Bowl Win Over Steelers: Injuries. Mistakes. And finally, heroics by Aaron Rodgers and a defense that forced three turnovers by a Pittsburgh team that's used to forcing them itself. The Packers beat the Steelers 31-25 Sunday to win their first title in 14 years and deny a team that already holds a record with six Super Bowl wins. It wasn't a pretty game but it was a great one, highlighted by some remarkable throws by Rodgers, the man who replaced Brett Favre and proved himself on this day to be every bit Favre's equal. "We put this game on his shoulders and he delivered,'' coach Mike McCarthy said. Rodgers, who was named the game's Most Valuable Player (MVP), threw for 301 yards and three touchdowns and might have come close to 500 and five if his receivers hadn't kept dropping perfect throws.
Longshore keeps eye on windows of opportunity (11/09/2006): Nate Longshore would be stepping into the shoes of Aaron Rodgers, who learned to do the job beautifully and whose work came to be greatly admired. Rodgers was quick and efficient, could scramble, had the vertical and the horizontal game. "I just stepped into the spot Aaron left," Longshore says, modestly. Yeah, Aaron Rodgers could really handle a squeegee. We're talking about window washing.
For the last few years, Cal quarterbacks (and a few other players) have washed windows in the Lafayette-Moraga-Orinda area as a summer job. I'm naive. I had no idea a star Pac-10 quarterback would have a summer job so labor-intensive that it would involve actually showing up. Whatever happened to the college-sports-star tradition of secretly hiring an agent who advances you millions of dollars against your future NFL contract so you can hire someone to do your windows? I'm guessing Matt Leinart never squeegeed a window while he was at USC.
Last summer, Longshore needed money for housing and incidentals. And Nate's father, Todd Longshore, passed away unexpectedly last April, so hard work probably helped take Nate's mind off his grief. So he worked every weekday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. as an intern for Cal alum Alan Metheny at the Morgan-Stanley investment firm, then Longshore went to class at Cal, then he worked out with teammates and trainers. On weekends, he picked up the squeegee. Longshore and a teammate would knock out two or three houses every weekend. Hard work, and risky. "I don't know if coach Tedford would approve," Longshore said. "Sometimes you're out on a catwalk three stories up. Or on ladders, hanging out windows, on roofs."
Most of the windows they cleaned belonged to Cal alums, but the toughest and most dangerous job was the home of a Stanford alum. Is it possible that was a set-up? "Maybe," Longshore said. I asked Longshore if he ever saw "The Karate Kid." "Wax on, wax off," Longshore said. So did the window washing help build his quarterback muscles? "It's some good shoulder work, yeah," he said. "Especially the high windows."
There were other perks. Longshore said he enjoyed watching the Italy-USA World Cup game at one of his jobs. No, he didn't plop down on the couch; he watched the game through the windows he was washing. Marcie Tuttle, who hired Longshore, told her football-loving 10-year-old son, "You may never have another Division I quarterback wash your windows again. I suggest you take advantage and engage him in conversation." So Sam Tuttle hung with Nate, helped him with buckets and ladders.
Of course, last summer Longshore was much less of a celebrity. His leg was broken in his first game and there was no guarantee he would ever take another snap for the Golden Bears, so a humble job was no problem. Not that Longshore's recent exposure to the limelight has gone to his head. Either fame hasn't caught up with him, or he with it. Asked Tuesday if he is treated as a celebrity on campus, Longshore said, "They don't know me. I'm just a regular dude, that's all." If Longshore's academic schedule permits, he might want to take Ego 101. He's got another season or two at Cal, but Longshore might be washed up as a window-washer, especially after Tedford reads this column. But the job helped the not-overly-outgoing young man open up around strangers, and it taught him lessons that will help carry him through life. Said Longshore: "Those micro-fiber clothes are great."
Plymouth-based window cleaners Steve Warn and son Chris, "We're being targeted by yobs," says family after second paint-stripper attack. Vandals have caused thousands of pounds of damage to a family's vehicles – again. Sandra Warn said yobs targeted the family's Mercedes last year causing more than £5,000 damage after throwing paint stripper across the bodywork. The louts have now struck again at their home in Buckingham Place in Higher St Budeaux, this time targeting her husband and son's brand new work vans. Sandra, aged 54, said the vandals returned on the evening of January 14 and poured yet more paint-stripper over the two vans.
Both vans are used by husband Steve and son Chris who run Reliant Window Cleaners Ltd, the firm first established by Sandra's father in 1947. She said: "It's going to cost us another £5,000 or so to fix. "We only bought them a few months ago and they've been kitted out with all the equipment. Thankfully we hadn't got around to having the signs written on the panels. "We really feel that we're being targeted and we don't know what to do. "It's a cowardly way to deal with things."
Steve, 59, said: "When I first saw the damage I was totally gutted. It's just so much malicious damage. I've never had a new vehicle before so it was awful to have this happen. "We definitely feel we're being targeted by someone. "We'll be keeping a close eye on our vehicles from now on." A police spokesman said officers were carrying out an investigation into the incident and had a number of leads to follow. The spokesman said: "We are aware of certain people in the area. We would urge members of the public to come forward with any information they have." Anyone with information should call police on 08452 777444 or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111 quoting crime reference ED/11/305.
Adventures of a high-rise window cleaner: After cycling from Toronto to the West Coast and back, then sailing from Scarborough to Iceland, K.C. Maple was having trouble adjusting to the confined life within the tall towers of Toronto. That was until he found a job that let him climb to the top and dangle off of them. For the past two and a half years, the 24-year-old with long, blond hair pulled back in a ponytail has washed the windows of Toronto’s highrise buildings. It was on the way to a native sun dance ceremony that the part-Swede, part-aboriginal met a man who cleaned windows for a living. “That was the pivotal point that brought me into the joy of this business,” he says. He is sometimes afraid, but mostly he enjoys the thrill of being up so high. And the money is good. He tells me a beginner who works fast can usually make around $50,000 a year. “It’s great to be paid to go out there, have a little danger and have some fun,” he says. “I’ve always wanted adventure, excitement, physical danger.”
Maple spends his days speeding up elevators with 250 feet of ropes draped over his shoulders, then lowering the rope down the side of buildings and repelling on a small plywood seat, holding a couple of squeegees, a suction cup to help him keep close to the windows and a five-gallon bucket filled with water and dish soap. It’s great exercise, especially pulling the ropes up at the end of the day — “From a fitness standpoint, you’ve got a lot of reps,” he explains. Instead of feeling trapped within the walls of a crowded city, he feels liberated in scaling them. “I love the peace out there — on the outside of the building. You’re not inside the fishbowl.”
And what he finds on the highrise windows, besides layers of dust, bird feces and grease from unburned fuel, is an urban ecosystem. There are spiders, birds of all types and far too many midges for his liking — a midge can leave a long streak on a window if it gets caught between the squeegee and the glass. Even the peregrine falcon at Yonge and Eglinton has warmed up to him. “He used to scream when I’d come up,” he says. “But over the last year and a half he doesn’t make noise.”
Then, of course, there’s the life on the other side of the glass. Maple tells me that despite what people might imagine, he isn’t usually looking through the glass, but at it. Sometimes, though, he will be distracted by a stunning condo interior, or a cluttered one. Other times, people will wave to get his attention. “I have people showing me their babies a lot,” he says. But really, he admits, they’re probably showing their babies the window cleaner.I ask him how long he thinks he will do this job. “Until I can come down,” he says, referring to his passion for the work. “I can’t see myself doing anything else.”
Artists see the light in stained glass - "We explained to people what we were going to do with conservation, it hadn't been done before, and from then on we started restoring some of the biggest churches in Ireland, from Castlebar church, which has the biggest window in Connaught to Valentia Island, to all the Ring of Kerry." Taking out the windows, they would bring them back to the studio in Dublin, where they would make a rubbing of the window and then dismantle it completely. The process involves washing them in cold water with no acid. "Previously people were cleaning them with wire wool and damaging the glass because the paints of years ago were very delicate, the kilns weren't hot enough then to bake it in."
ZUCKERFEST: Chicago window washing czar Neal Zucker knows how to throw a party — and his 45th birthday bash Friday at Macy’s Walnut Room was no exception. From the multiple Marshall Field’s-esque signature emerald green accents to the classic Walnut Room menu (including Field’s famous chicken pot pie and Frango mint dessert), Zucker said the evening was both a tribute “to all those memories we had coming here as kids, but also a way to look forward.” Among the 300-plus “FONZ” (Friends of Neal Zucker) spied toasting their pal with Neal’s family were Mayor, Maggie and Patrick Daley; Nora and Sean Conroy; Bill Bartholomay; Kathy Brock; Valerie Jarrett; Leslie Hindman; Ron Huberman; Juanita Jordan; Linda Johnson Rice; M.K. and J.B. Pritzker; Desiree and John Rogers, Lisa Madigan, and Art Smith.
How Much Does Window Cleaning Cost? Most window cleaning services charge by the number of panes. Each pane is a piece of glass framed on all sides by wood or metal. Some companies charge by the total square footage of the home. Typical costs: Generally, window cleaning costs $2-$7 per pane. For a 1,300-square foot home with 20 panes, the cost would run $40-$140. For a 2,200-square foot home with 28 panes, the price would average $56-$196. Self-cleaning windows can be made easier with the proper tools. The Housekeeping Channel recommends buying a professional squeegee and using dish soap. Squeegees and window washing tools run under $10.
What should be included: Good Housekeeping recommends cutting "prep" fees by removing drapery and blinds ahead of time, and clearing any furniture that obstructs access. Additional costs: Screen cleaning is .50 cents-$5 each, depending on size. Some companies will not clean broken or torn screens. Sliding glass doors run $2.50-$8 per door. Some companies average the cost of sliding doors with small bathroom windows, to cut the price. Some cleaners will include sills and tracks. If not, the price runs .50 cents-$5. While second story work is generally charged the same as single story, third and fourth-floor ladder work runs $3-$5 extra per window. Paint or stain removal on the windows costs $3.50-$6 for a regular-sized window. Removing mineral deposits is included by some companies and runs about $20 per pane at others.
Window cleaner conman in court: A conman who went door-to-door claiming to be the window cleaner’s mate and asking to be paid only made £17, a court heard last week. Jamie Lanigan, aged 25, of Fairfax Court, St Neots pleaded guilty to 16 allegations of fraud before Huntingdon Magistrates Court on Thursday. He visited 16 homes in Eaton Socon on November 4 claiming to be the window cleaner’s mate. He was given £17 at one home, but received nothing elsewhere. He smirked when magistrates pointed out it was not a “profitable exercise.”
When Thompson learned that Mattress Mania had paid a guy $150 to clean the two store windows, he said he’d do it for $100 — and so he got himself another part-time job. He’s approaching business owners for more regular commercial window cleaning jobs.And he still hopes for a full-time job. “I never give up,” he said. “I kept putting in applications even though I’m not making it. I’m trying to keep a good spirit up.” For a year now, Thompson has waved a sign 5 1/2 hours a day in front of Mattress Mania on Gateway in Springfield or on West 11th Avenue in Eugene — about a block from the site of the grocery store where he started his work life. He makes $8.40 an hour.
Javier Morillo, president of SEIU Local 26, a union representing janitors, window cleaners and security guards with a largely immigrant membership, saw firsthand what happens after an audit and he, too, questions the feds' new direction. In November 2009, New York-based cleaning firm ABM Industries fired 1,200 SEIU-represented janitors in the Twin Cities after an audit. Subsequently, many of the fired janitors went from $13-an-hour jobs with access to health care to what Morillo describes as an underground economy of unscrupulous employers who pay their employees under the table and off the books. Still, based on a survey of the affected workers, only 6 percent said they were seriously considering returning to Mexico or other countries of origin. The union estimates 760 U.S. citizen children were affected by the audit, by having a parent lose a job, and 678 houses were expected to go into foreclosure.
Treasured gold ring returned to Saltburn woman: Around Christmas time, in deep snow, Stephen J Dowd, a retired window cleaner and keen local photographer, saw a woman, man and two children desperately looking for the ring which had been dropped. He said there wasn’t an earthly chance of finding it in the snow and even a return visit by two men with a metal detector failed to find the ring. Then, when the snow had gone, he spotted it under a stone plinth on his second search. We highlighted the story and asked for the owner to come forward. Then a very emotional and grateful Victoria Tosh, 41, of Oxford Street, Saltburn, met Stephen at his home to be reunited with her very sentimental, most treasured possession. “We had a snowball fight and my hands got cold and wet. I felt it go, but though we searched high and low we couldn’t find it. We went back next morning to look again and two friends went back a week later to look with metal detectors, but no joy. “Then our pal Andy Pennock, of Brotton saw the Gazette story and left a message on our phone. Previous blog on this story here.
