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MGM Mirage’s $9 billion Strip-side CityCenter project, encompassing seven buildings, continues rising Thursday across Interstate 15 from Panorama Towers.
Friday, Feb. 6, 2009 | 2 a.m.
There's no evidence of building defects in other CityCenter towers, but one Vdara condominium investor wonders, "Am I buying a lemon?"
A spokesman for MGM Mirage says new inspection efforts should prove CityCenter is structurally safe.
Face to Face: Teacher Salaries; Sound Structures?
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Sun Archives
- Watchers were not watched (1-15-2009)
- How did CityCenter tower flaws persist? (1-8-2009)
- MGM Mirage cancels CityCenter condo project (1-7-2009)
Clark County has ordered MGM Mirage to verify that CityCenter’s towers are structurally sound.
The order, in a letter Monday from Development Services Director Ron Lynn to MGM Mirage Vice President Bill Ham, came six months after significant structural defects were found at the Harmon, one of seven buildings simultaneously rising at the company’s $9 billion project.
After the engineer of record on the project raised concerns, the county determined that 15 floors of reinforcing steel at the Harmon had been improperly installed by subcontractor Pacific Coast Steel, which is overseen by CityCenter general contractor Perini Building Co.
The problems were repeatedly missed by third-party private inspector Converse Consultants, hired by MGM Mirage to ensure the complicated tasks were properly executed.
Though the inspectors employed by Converse Consultants — Scott Edberg and Joseph Glenn Laurente — had not worked on any other CityCenter buildings, the county nonetheless wants MGM Mirage to reassure the public that all parts of the project inspected by the firm are free of structural problems.
Converse is performing the bulk of the private inspection work at CityCenter. The county’s Development Services Department oversees the work of such third-party inspectors.
“At this point in time we have no reason to think that there’s an issue at any other parts of CityCenter,” said Assistant County Manager Phil Rosenquist. “We just want to be sure.”
Neither Edberg, Laurente, nor a representative of Converse could be reached for comment.
As a result of the delays and cost overruns caused by the rebar problems, MGM Mirage announced last month that it would shorten the Harmon by 21 floors by removing the 200 condo units that were to top the building.
The county is requiring that a third-party private inspection company other than Converse inspect the other CityCenter structures that were overseen by Converse. The county’s building inspectors lack the expertise to do the work, county spokesman Dan Kulin said.
MGM Mirage has three weeks to submit for county approval a plan from the engineer of record detailing how inspectors will test reinforcing steel and certain welds and bolting. Any problems will require review by the engineer of record and “possible remediation” in addition to more extensive testing within the structure, the letter states.
Converse Consultants is a national firm that provides environmental and construction engineering and inspection services. It has the contracts to conduct third-party inspections at all parts of CityCenter other than Veer and the mechanical plant, which are overseen by other companies.
Edberg and Laurente had issued 62 reports stating that the rebar at the Harmon was to code, Rosenquist said. Two Development Services employees monitoring roughly 50 private inspectors at CityCenter also did not catch the problems.
Edberg and Laurente have been removed from CityCenter, but other Converse consultants have remained — and are still at the Harmon. That’s because county code doesn’t allow builders to fire third-party inspectors because it could create conflicts of interest, MGM Mirage spokesman Gordon Absher said.
Absher said the new inspection efforts should reassure the public that buildings at CityCenter are sound.
For Steve Pharar, of Diamond Bar, Calif., who had reserved two units at Vdara, news of rebar problems at the Harmon added to anxiety over his investments.
“Am I buying a lemon?” Pharar said. “If there was any kind of lax monitoring, is this something susceptible to more issues?”
Luxury condo agent Aaron Auxier said he has heard some mild concerns from Veer clients after reports of construction problems with that CityCenter building. The problems at Veer were caught by another third-party inspection company at CityCenter, Kleinfelder.
“We’re now working on complying with the most recent request of having the engineers provide a verification plan,” Absher said. “We’re confident this validation as outlined by the county and executed by engineers of record will satisfy everyone’s concern.”
Every time I read about this story I shake my head and wonder. How one of the largest and most visible construction projects on the planet end up appearing like a project in some third world country where buildings readily collapse during earthquakes? Or like the mall in Thailand (?) that fell in on itself from the weight of customers?
This is really shameful. However it might have happened, and whomever it is that is really to blame, we should all collectively notice and take note of this massively obvious reflection for ourselves.
The City Center is calling all of us to look within ourselves and inspect our own internal framework for defects. While we have been attempting to birth something new, important things have gone overlooked and unnoticed.
Also interesting to note here, that the ones who "missed" the defects were "Converse Consultants", i.e. the Ego.
As usual the county or the inspections division takes no responsibility as they did not catch the problems themselves. They say there is a third part inspector because they don't have the knowledge, what a joke. Like this is the first high-rise building ever built in Vegas. Why don't they just hire an inspector that has the knowledge. I know of several large projects & not one of them were completed without some kind of problem that should have been caught by the inspectors. Plus how many home owners have done projects themselves just to get conflicting opinions on what code is from the two different inspectors that checked on your project. If anything the county should hire the independent inspectors & the company building the project should pay the cost of the 3rd party inspector but have no control over them. Any way its more BS from the County.
I have been In the construction trade for 32 years,and I currently work on this site. I will give you the reason with 100% certainty as to why there are so many "problems" at city center. There are literally hundreds of Illegals on this job site that are poorly trained,and do not speak or understand english. (You get what you pay for) The bottom line here Is that there are many unqualified people on this job,and If the Sun really wants a good story,they should Investigate what I am saying.I do not make these statements with any type of agenda,this needs to be brought out into the open. A frind of mine that worked on the Harmon told me that many of these people that I talk about are employed by Pacific Coast,and that they would get confused on the different sizes of rebar. Rebar sizes go by a number system In english,and of course all of the blueprints are In english. Very easy for something to get mixed up In translation. This Is no joke,now the ball Is In your court....
Budger,
I also work in construction, and another problem that compounds what you are saying is the illiteracy rate amoung many Spanish-only speaking workers. Also aren't all the warning signs and whatnot in English. Again, no agenda, no "damn illegals, they're taking our jobs". Just this is a safety issue.
"The county's building inspectors lack the expertise to do the work, county spokesman Dan Kulin said."
THAT's the story. Where's the follow-up on that comment?
The expertise In construction starts with the craftsman and ends with the inspector. I had to go through a four year apprentice program,then I am required to have a license for what I do. County building Inspectors DO NOT,nor are they required to have the expertise needed on a project of this magnatude. The GENERAL CONTRACTOR (Perini) Is responsible for hiring the required ENGINEERING,and STRUCTURAL Inspectors needed for a project of this size and complexity...
I work on the city center project.I will not tell you my position but lets just say its hand in hand with the 3rd party inspectors.This is the biggest bunch of crap!Whats going on is the county failed to do theyre job by making sure the project is being built per county approved plans.They got caught and are now trying to blame Tishman,Perini,MGM,and Converse.I was told that this is just one layer of the coverup.There are 3 different entities involved in a inspection.1st is the contractors Quality control(Perini) after that the engineer of record has reps that do a inspection(Thornton-thomasetti or HKS) then the 3rd party which is Quality assurance(Converse),The problem with the harmon is the engineer of record designed the building wrong.They knew from level 10 that there was a problem with the design.They even took pictures!! They just sat back and waited until they could catch a screw up and unleashed hell on everyone involved so that they dont get stuck holding the ball!Do you know how much money it would have cost them to re-design the harmon after they were that far along?MILLIONS!!! So now since the old term poop rolls down hill goes into effect so converse,perini,PCS and whom ever else get stuck holding the pile.I personly feel sorry for the guys at converse they have alot of good inspectors with families that are going down for the actions of so many.I also agree with you budger,what happened to the days when union work meant the job was going to get done right??
The county is obligated to evalluate and approve all third party inspectors.
The reporter, gravely and unfortunately, is going exactly where Perini wants her to go: on a wild goosechase.
Her only route to serve the public and win herself a Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting in 2009 is to go for the juggler.
Perini Corporation's largest shareholder is United States Senator Dianne Feinstein.
WAR PROFITEER...see attached....
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news...
This will be a WHITEWASH. I can guarantee you this. John Ensign will not stand for an investigation of Perini because of her. Mister Majority Leader Reid will not go after her.
on January 20th 2009 over one billion people around the world looked at Barack Obama with his hand on Lincolns Bible taking the Oath of Office and right at the new Presidents shoulder in a Homburg Hat and a vicunna coat stood Richard "Dick" Blum, DiFi's husband and majority stockholder of Perini Corporation.
Its built like a house of cards.
The out of state unlicensed sales of the condo's in California by City Center Broker of Record Bob Hamrick is a great train robbery of peoples trust...hundreds and hundreds of illegal sales....Terri Lanni....A FRAUD.....Booby Baldwin an engineer?...HA....SCRAP it and send the steel to China....ITS A TRAGEDY and will be as cursed as Tutankammens Tomb for generations to come.....good luck to the reporter...wicked bad assignment to get stuck with, poor girl....
Here's the bottom line with City Center- MGM wants thier project finished. They don't give a damn about inspections. in fact the senior project managers do everything they can to disuade the inspectors from conducting job walks. i should know, i've been working there for over a year and a half and have yet to see a county inspector get out of his/her vehicle. Now don't get me wrong- the various trades are doing the best they can with what they got. The electricians and plumbers for example are getting work done that, in some places may be questionable, but that doesnt mean incompetence on thier part.The big boys in "the pentagon"- slang term used to describe the construction manager's large office complex back on frank sinatra drive- are being pressed by MGM corporation to bring the project in... NOW! So when the county inspectors office gets "favors" from MGM Corp. to keep their minions from walking the job and slowing it down due to the overwhelming amount of defective and illegal installation being done then it pays to play-"Get with the program clark county and the massive tax revenues that will be brought in when this behemoth opens will overshadow any abnormalities in the property". wanna shoot the project in the leg?- conduct an in-depth investigation with HONEST third party inspectors who will then issue a laundry list of stop-work order suggestions to the county. watch the 9 billion price tag grow to 13 billion.
Nutshell- Massive quantity of illegal, unskilled labor.
- incompetent project managers with little or no experience.
-plans check? doesnt happen.
- personnel working on the prints( a.k.a. CAD operators) fresh out of college with zero construction/ trade experience in regarding the trade they are drawing prints for.
-changes being done after months of working in an area-"start over boys".
- and last but not least( and here's the final nail) ZERO coordination between the trades and the general contractor (perini). seriously it's a free-for-all in there. walls being finished before any utilities are assembled. floors being poured with no rebar inspections- or better yet NO REBAR at all. it's the cart before the horse here at City Center. i'm paid by the hour- so the longer these idiots "in charge" take to figure things out- the more money i get in my bank account. have a nice day!
The issue here is not an uncommon one in Clark County or Las Vegas in general. The problem started during the construction boom and the lack of qualified inspectors able to handle the work load. I have been a Special Inspector for the last decade and have worked in Clark County during that time for third party consulting firms.
Unfortunately, many Special Inspectors are not educated or experienced enough to perform their duties correctly. Third party firms are very competitive since there are approximately 30 listed to do work in the county. With this much competition there is no way a company can bid work without cutting as many costs as possible, including training and continuing education. Most inspectors are hired off of their resume. They are usually not questioned or monitored to see if they can do what they say they can do. Many Special Inspectors I have met don't even get out of their cars or they will have an unqualified person visit the site and sign their reports. Not to bash the consulting companies, but there are significant problems with the way many of them operate, and they know it.
I agree with many comments here that the problem was not created by single individuals but by the collective group. Although, the Special Inspectors assigned to a project of this size are on-site full-time and should catch any problems before they manifest into community outrage. That is precisely what their purpose is on a job.
The comment in the article that the county does not have qualified inspectors is false. The county hires Structural Inspectors and Architectural Inspectors, both of which require a minimum amount of certification and experience. I know many of them personally and they have the same certifications and experience as many of the Special Inspectors that work for consulting firms. In fact, many of the county inspectors came from third party companies. These inspectors very often don't walk the job site and do any sort of inspection. Typically the County Structural Inspectors will look at the Special Inspectors reports and then sign off on them.
Generally, issues such as this one never make the news. I suppose it happened this time because of the high profile of this particular project. If an investigative reporter was to go through Final Inspection Reports that are submitted to the county they would find that there are significant errors made on projects of all sorts throughout the county and everywhere else in the country. Typically, the engineer of record will resolve the non-compliance issues with little difficulty. On this project I am sure that the structure will be fine and that the engineers will come up with some sort of fixes that will be done. I have never seen a building come down due to non-compliant issues. There is always a fix. None-the-less, each company involved should be quite ashamed and embarrassed including the Clark County Department of Development Services - Building Division.
" Mr. Smith is Vice President, Regional Construction Manager at Converse working out of the Las Vegas Office. He has over 18 years of experience in Construction Inspection and is responsible for managing a staff of over 85 technical personnel. Mr. Smith has direct responsibility for managing all Converse materials testing and inspection projects in southern Nevada and Arizona. His duties include client management and relations, directing investigations for material failures, budget management, supervision of materials testing in both the field and laboratory, review of all inspections, development of concrete mix designs, preparation of final reports and direct supervision of all project managers. His project management experience includes responsibility for projects of various scopes and sizes, including high rise structures, hotel/casino properties, commercial developments, industrial buildings, parking structures, residential developments, flood control and pipeline projects, streets, highways, bridges, and utilities, as well as some of the largest, highest profile projects in company history.".......from Converse Consultants Web site www.converseconsultants.com