Earlier today, a Curbed reader tipped us off to some alarming developments at Joffrey Tower, the 32-story condo tower that Smithfield Properties built at State and Randolph in the Loop. "I live in Joffrey Tower and we've been having all sorts of problems!!" the tipster writes. "From aesthetic building features falling off the building and killing people to now the City says the building wasn't even finished!!!" That does sound bad. Let's start with the first part. Last week, the Chicago Tribune and other news outlets reported that a piece of aluminum fell from the first floor of the tower and struck a woman, who was later hospitalized and was in critical condition. According to our tipster, doctors released the woman to her hotel room, but when her condition worsened, she was rushed back to the hospital, where she later died.
After the incident, scaffolding was erected around the entire building to protect pedestrians and cars from falling debris. According to the tipster, the piece of metal that fell last week was a 20-25 foot rectangular section that serves as the border for the white backing of the building. We couldn't find the exact spot where it fell when we visited the building, but it does look like several pieces of aluminum are missing from the back side of the building.
There's also the issue of the building being unfinished. Let's turn it over to the tipster again:
Once the accident occurred City officials were VERY quick to come out and inspect the building only to find that the building hasn't even been completed!! There are several cylindrical rods that stick out from the building that serve ZERO purpose to the naked eye. But from the original architect's renderings and plans they should have more to them." [Ed. Note: As a commenter observes, the cylindrical rods appear to have been added to hold banners.] Now in order to finish the building our assessments will sky rocket!!"
We'll be tracking this story more as it develops. If you live in Joffrey Tower or have some info to share, hit us up on the Curbed tipline.
· Woman injured by falling debris from Loop building [Trib]
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