Western Construction Group forms Western Façades

Western Construction Group, a national building restoration and preservation company founded in 1915, has formed a new team, Western Façades, dedicated to full-scale, multi-million dollar façade restorations and replacements. The formation of Western Façades draws on key personnel with extensive experience on complex projects from Brisk Waterproofing, a Western company serving the N.Y.C. real estate community for nearly a century. The new Western Façades team will be led by senior operations manager Michael Radigan, and will work exclusively on large-scale, complex façade restoration and re-cladding projects requiring the company's expertise and experience. The Western Façades team was established in response to the growing number of large scale projects the firm has been retained for over the past several years, including The GM Building, The Corbin Building, 90 Church Street, 55 Water Street and 215 East 68th Street in New York. Western Façades is the first restoration company dedicated exclusively to these complex assignments. Responding to the growing need for such services in the market, Western Façades provides the size and manpower of the largest general contractors with the expertise of nearly a century of waterproofing and restoration experience. Western Facades' current project at the Rudin family-owned 215 East 68th Street, one of the city's premier rental properties, is a prime example of the types of project for which the new team was developed. It involves removing the building's white brick façade and replacing with a white terra cotta cladding. Working in association with Forst Consulting and Architecture and FXFOWLE, Western Façades is installing a new "Passive Rain Screen System" developed in Germany, the largest such restoration of an occupied building of this type. The new system will provide energy savings by preventing heat transfer from the exterior skin through a 3 to 4-inch air and insulation barrier, while providing full air and vapor protection to the occupied space. The system also requires less maintenance than traditional masonry systems and makes repairs easier. "Large and complex projects like these require a unique skills set and the coordination of hundreds of workers on a daily basis," said Mr. Radigan. "Through the entire process, the goal is to raise the professional bar to make the project painless for building occupants and extremely successful for ownership. This is precisely the type of job for which the Western Façades team was created." Western Façades is part of Western Construction Group, offering a nationwide network of expertise that building owners, engineers, architects and property managers count on to develop cost-effective, corrective measures that can add years of useful life to buildings and structures. Serving the entire nation from over 30 offices, they offer the best, time-tested techniques combined with innovative new technology.