CNA Building

Project Details

Overview

This job required MILBURN to perform full demolition and disposal of all walls, ceilings, flooring, and MEP on 25 floors of the 40-story CNA Building on Wabash Ave in downtown Chicago. The project included removal of escalators within the main building lobby, curtainwall systems, exteriors sidewalks, pavers and granite cladding. We also removed a 40-story mail conveyor and dumbwaiter system, as well as chillers and air handling units from the building’s mechanical room. In total, we gutted around 625,000 sq ft of office space.

Our Biggest Challenge

A major challenge we overcame on this project was the need to carefully coordinate our work with an abatement contractor, due to the asbestos fireproofing sprayed on the underside of all the floor decks. Therefore, we couldn’t do our demo work any faster than the abatement contractor could abate and reinsulate. In addition, the remaining 15 floors of the building were still open and in use while we worked, meaning all work had to be done at night.

The End Result

We exported 3,800 tons C&D for sorting and recycling, and 94% was successfully recycled or diverted from landfill. We started this project in August 2018, and finished on schedule in November 2019. Our superintendent Don Collier and site foreman Juan Ochoa were invaluable on this job — they had weekly meetings to adapt to frequent changes in the plans, and they also successfully managed multiple crews totaling over 25,000 Man hours on-site.