Milwaukee City Hall Winner of the AGC of America's Marvin M. Black Excellence in Partnering Award

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Historic Restoration
Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Owner:	City of Milwaukee
Selection:	Bid
Architect:	Engberg Anderson Design Partnership
Timeline:	August 2005 to December 2008
Size:	13-story Building
Construction Format:	Lump Sum
Self-Performed:	30%

Project Description: J. P. Cullen & Sons Inc. was awarded a bid contract of $59,927,218 million to restore the exterior of the Milwaukee City Hall. Cullen’s competitor’s bid came in at $63,927,000. The project has a targeted completion date of November 2008. Repair work includes the rebuilding of the clock tower (south tower), restoring cracked and chipped terra cotta sculptures and other designs on the building, upgrading 1,900 windows, replacing copper roofing on the building's two spires, upgrading the lightning protection, repairing exterior sandstone, and fixing or replacing hundreds of thousands of deteriorating bricks. The building has been enclosed in scaffolding equipped with netting since 2002 to protect pedestrians from falling bricks and stonework. The building's age, downtown location, state of deterioration, and height make it an especially high-risk job. Cullen crews and trade contractors worked at heights upward of 400 feet while restoring the façade of this outstanding example of German Renaissance architecture in the New World. Over 366,000 hours were worked on the project over a  42-month duration with only two lost time accidents.  This was a significant accomplishment given the project is located at one of the busiest intersections in downtown Milwaukee and the building remained open to the public throughout construction.  During this time, approximately 1.5 million visitors and employees visited the City Hall building during construction. With only two lost time accidents during the entire project, the severity rate was minimal. The lost time was contributed to from a recurring hernia and a pulled arm tendon due to a slip.  The total number of lost time hours totaled 960 or 0.2% of the total hours on the project.  There were two recordable incidents without lost time.  All workers returned successfully to the job site after their recovery. At the Associated General Contractors of America's annual meeting on March 5, 2009, J. P. Cullen & Sons was, for a fourth time in our history, given the Marvin M. Black Excellence in Partnering award in recognition of our partnering program to complete the restoration of the Milwaukee City Hall. We are grateful to all the diversified talent that helped give MCH the "hundred year fix."