Final draft at center of dispute

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Milwaukee housing authority wants Zimmerman, Gilbane to pay for repairs

By Beth Kevit

Potted plants clog Caroline Duncan’s windowsills in Milwaukee’s Convent Hill, their leaves lush green against the grays and browns of the city below.

But a lilac sprig and a snarl of fronds in the corner are yellow and shriveled.

“It’s just a little draft in the wintertime,” Duncan said, pointing out the dead plants. “That got killed because it was too cold.”

The Housing Authority of the City of Milwaukee, which runs the low-income housing building, agrees Convent Hill, at 455 E. Ogden Ave., is too cold. In October, the agency sued Convent Hill’s architect and contractor over drafts and other problems, such as excessive energy costs, stemming from the exterior construction on the building.

Convent Hill opened at the end of 2007, according to court documents, and residents complained to HACM right away.

Zimmerman Architectural Studios Inc. and Gilbane Building Co., both of Milwaukee, botched the job and failed to design and build an air-tight residence, said Sue Lappen, a Milwaukee assistant city attorney representing HACM. Convent Hill cost about $18 million to build, she said.

“Between the two professional entities,” she said, “they should have been able to figure it out.”

Dave Stroik, Zimmerman’s president and CEO, said his company isn’t at fault for the building’s failings. He said third-party reports HACM commissioned from Velcheck & Finger Roof Consulting & Service Inc., Pewaukee, and Architectural Testing, Franklin, bolster his claim.

Velcheck used an infrared camera in January 2008 to survey common areas and some of Convent Hill’s 120 apartments, according to the third-party report. Although the camera found areas where the temperature dropped by as much as 46 degrees Fahrenheit inside the building, according to the report, Velcheck could not fit those drafts into a pattern that matched the building’s design.

“If there’s a design issue,” Stroik said, “you see a pattern of issues.”

Convent Hill is built on the site of the former Notre Dame Convent. HACM hired Zimmerman to determine whether the convent could be renovated, Lappen said, and the agency believed the architectural firm when it reported the building could not be saved.

“The old building,” she said, “the problems with it was it was cold and damp and drafty.”

So is the new building, Lappen said.

“They just turn the heat up and wear sweaters,” she said. “On really cold days, there is actually frost that forms on the walls.”

HACM brought Gilbane back after the project to re-caulk the windows, Lappen said, but that did not fix the problem. The building’s exterior has to be removed, and new insulation has to be put in, all of which could cost as much as $3 million, she said.

HACM is asking a judge to force Gilbane and Zimmerman to pay for that repair, among other damages.

A Gilbane representative did not respond to multiple requests for comment by deadline Thursday afternoon.

But the true sources of the problem, Stroik said, are the people who live in Convent Hill.

“The residents leave their windows open in the dead of winter,” he said. “We have money flying out the window as we speak.”

Several windows at Convent Hill were open Thursday morning, when temperatures were in the 30s.

Although he denies Zimmerman’s design is flawed, Stroik said, he would change the building if he had the chance.

“We should never,” he said, “have had open-able windows.”

Duncan was one of Convent Hill’s first residents, and she said she never has opened her windows.

“I have asthma,” she said, “so the pollution would get me.”

She said she still gets chilly sometimes when she’s sitting on the sofa, so she knows something is wrong with her windows. But, she said, she is not troubled by the drafts.

“If you have a complaint about being drafty or cold,” she said, “just put your heat up.”