Erieview Tower Case Study

The View: Erieview Tower

Erieview Tower, Downtown Cleveland

 

Warren Roofing® Erieview Tower Case Study Since the 1960s, the Erieview Tower has been one of the most recognizable buildings in the downtown Cleveland skyline. The 42-story building stands proudly over the Galleria at Erieview shopping complex and other area attractions.

It’s hard to imagine the East 9th corridor without the tower in place.  It’s also hard to imagine how difficult it must be for the roof of the building to take on Cleveland’s tough weather year after year.  When it was time for a full tear off and replacement for the old roof, the owners of Erieview Tower called the downtown Cleveland commercial roofing experts at Warren Roofing® to handle the task, which proved to be more challenging than anticipated.

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The Challenge: The Case of the Missing Floors

On the surface, the rooftop of the Erieview Tower would seem to be just like any other skyscraper.  The team at Warren Roofing® handles those types of tasks every day.  But what the crew didn’t know going in was that the elevator inside of the building only went up to the 39th floor, leaving the crew three floors short of reaching the roof.   This project called for some sharp thinking and problem solving from our crew of commercial roofing experts to get their materials up to the work site.

As if that wasn’t enough the entire roof was framed by a concrete track which needed to be taken out before the new roof could be put into place.  The combination of the two unique complications ensured that the view from this roof would be unlike any other job the crew had seen before.

The Team:

John Arsena

Project Manager: John Arsena

The Crew:  10 team members from Warren Roofing®.  Also contracted work to Total Roofing Services to supplement as needed, bringing total to about 18 workers.

The Status:  Started in October 2016.  Wrapping up by end of 2017.

The Process:

John and the crew had their work cut out for them.  With no elevator access to the roof, John and his team went outside the box and developed a plan.  They cut a square hole in the roof deck and inserted a hoist from the 42nd floor down to the 39th floor so that they would be able to get their materials safely to the roof. At first, the owners of the building were reluctant to allow the team to cut a hole through three stories of their iconic tower, but the pay off was the permanent addition of a roof hatch. This ensured that they would never have that type of project to do again and that their roof maintenance visits would be much easier going forward.

The team had done some similar workarounds in the past, but nothing on the level of what they encountered on the roof of the Erieview Tower.  The concern for the team was time.  How far behind would they lag due to the unique environment and extra work from cutting the hole? The answer?  They would finish ahead.  That’s right, despite the extra project and unique obstacle created by the elevator situation, John’s crew beat the production estimate and finished before they were expected to.

As for the concrete frame, the crew had to take jackhammers to the rooftop and knock out the concrete track all the way around the perimeter. The hoist system came in handy, as all that concrete had to be lowered down and removed as well. The cleanup crew would fill 100-gallon buckets with debris and take them out of the building at the end of every workday.

 


The Results:

The work paid off, and as John put it, the difference in the roof is “night and day.”  The owners were “ecstatic,” and the crew from Warren Roofing® proved that once again, there is no project that they can’t tackle and conquer.

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