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CityCenter developers get Aug. 15 deadline on Harmon tower
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Duane Prokop/Review-Journal
The Harmon tower is shown under construction at CityCenter on Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2008. » Buy this photo
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LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
Updated: Jul. 13, 2011 | 7:26 a.m.
Clark County's Building Division gave CityCenter developers until Aug. 15 to devise a strategy for either repairing or demolishing the unfinished Harmon tower after a structural engineer said the 27-story building could collapse in a strong earthquake.
In a letter Tuesday to CityCenter executive William Ham, Clark County Building Official Ron Lynn said the development, owned by MGM Resorts International and Dubai World, is required to "provide a plan of action that will abate the potential for structural collapse and protect" neighboring buildings and businesses along the Strip.
Lynn specifically cited the Crystals shopping center, its high-end retail stores and the pedestrian overpasses across the Strip and Harmon Avenue as areas that could be damaged if the Harmon were to collapse.
The county's request comes a day after structural engineering firm Weidlinger Associates of Marina Del Rey, Calif., said the Harmon was unrepairable.
Conceived as a 47-story luxury hotel and condominium tower and designed by famed British architect Lord Norman Foster, the Harmon was scaled back in size and scope and eventually mothballed after building inspectors discovered structural construction defects in 2008.
Lynn asked CityCenter to provide the county with substantiating tests, documents, calculations and supporting information used by Weidlinger Associates, which was hired by MGM Resorts to conduct a structural analysis of the Harmon.
MGM PROMISES TO COMPLY
In April, Clark County had asked CityCenter to conduct the third party analysis after building division consultant Walter P. Moore Structural Engineers concluded the Harmon "suffered from certain vulnerabilities."
Lynn told CityCenter officials the Weidlinger report indicates "a high likelihood of catastrophic failure" of the Harmon.
"Prior to remediation work or demolition, all required permits and inspections must be obtained," Lynn said.
MGM Resorts spokesman Gordon Absher said the company will comply with the county's requests.
In reacting to the Weidlinger Associates report Tuesday, CityCenter's general contractor blamed "design defects" for the problems; said the building is not unsafe; and maintained that it can be repaired.
BUILDER CALLS PROBLEMS DESIGN DEFECTS
In a written statement, Perini Building Co., which is mired in a lawsuit with CityCenter developer MGM Resorts over nonpayment and construction defects involving the $8.5 billion project, said the casino operator "does not want the Harmon to be repaired because the Harmon is worth more dead than alive to MGM."
Perini's statement, which was emailed from the company's Phoenix offices, said "vulnerabilities" cited by Moore were "design defects that are the responsibility of MGM."
The Moore report, which relied on "information that was obtained from the available design documents, noncompliance reports and limited visual observations," stated its "analytical findings suggest that the as-designed Harmon tower structure is structurally stable under design loads from a maximum considered earthquake (MCE) event."
In its statement, Perini disputed Weidlinger Associate's assessment that the building can't be repaired. The company said its own third-party structural engineering experts "have determined that the Harmon was defectively designed, but is currently stable and all design and construction defects can be repaired."
Perini said its structural engineering expert, which it declined to name, has a tentative repair plan.
In an emailed response, MGM's Absher said Perini was "attempting to deflect attention from what it already has admitted: As general contractor, it failed to properly construct the Harmon. No amount of misdirection can change that fact."
INCONSISTENCIES DISCOVERED IN 2008
Absher said the Moore and Weidlinger reports used different methods to study the Harmon. Moore said the building was stable "as designed," but never offered an opinion about its status "as built." Weidlinger studied the building as it now sits.
"Perini's representation of the facts is as poor as its construction at the Harmon," Absher said.
In 2008, building inspectors found structural work on the Harmon did not match plans submitted to Clark County. The construction issues involved improperly placed steel reinforcing bar, commonly known as rebar.
In January 2009, MGM Resorts scrapped the planned 200 condominium units for the upper floors and capped the tower at 27 stories with 400 hotel rooms. Company officials said at the time they would delay a decision on the tower's future until 2010.
CityCenter opened in December 2009.
The Harmon's construction defect issues became the focal point of the lawsuit between MGM Resorts and Perini filed last year in Clark County District Court.
The litigation is on hold pending a Nevada Supreme Court ruling on technicalities with the case.
The Harmon was to be run as a nongaming hotel by The Light Group, a restaurant and nightclub operator.
The Harmon would also feature MR CHOW, a branch of the popular Los Angeles restaurant owned by Michael Chow.
But with the building the focus of litigation, construction was halted on the interior. The outside of the building is blue glass on what is essentially an empty shell.
Contact reporter Howard Stutz at hstutz@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3871. Follow @howardstutz on Twitter.
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Here is an easy solution to satisfy all...
City Center has no need for Harmon's hotel rooms or condos. Nor will City Center EVER need them in the future. The Harmon current purpose is as a 27-story billboard, and so it will remain. Simply fill the Harmon with rebar and concrete. Done deal.
Makes you wonder if somebody in the inspections department is looking for a handout (aka bribe)? Or are some county commisioners looking for campaign contributions? Sounds more like a shakedown.
i have an easy fix, scrap it down to 3 floors, then open the middle like at atrium, now add restaurants, bars, shops an outside patio and you can save that corner. look what they are doing on the north est corner next to PH. Same thing.
@ Plainer
Quote "Highly doubt any building in Vegas is really earthquake proof"
Really? So in Feb 2007, when a 3.0 magnitude earthquake shook Las Vegas all the buildings fell down? Las Vegas sits on a dozen or so faults and it is a requirement of building code that structures over a certain size be built to resist substantial damage from earthquakes.
Even in Japan a 9.0 magnitude earthquake causes severe damage and no amount of building reinforcement can prevent damage at that magnitude.
However, one would reasonably expect a tall building to maintain structural support at an earthquake level of 3-6.0. The County Inspectors are saying this building probably wouldn't survive a strong earthquake in the 5-6.0 range, most of the Strip tall buildings would be structurally fine.
Highly doubt any building in Vegas is really earthquake proof. You have to have very deep foundations (several stories deep)resting on massive shock absorbers as the basis for constructing earthquake resistant buildings as they are in Japan. They utilize some of that subterranean space for an underground shopping center, which makes a lot of sense to pay for that added cost. Common sense is the best approach rather than cutting corners.
"Tutor Perini Corporation (NYSE: TPC) (formerly Perini Corporation) is one of the largest general contractors in the United States. At the end of 2008 it reported an annual revenue over $5.6 billion. Tutor Perini is headquartered in Sylmar, California and as a consequence works on many construction projects for the gaming and hospitality industries in California and Nevada."
Ironic, isn't it, that the Tutor Perini corporation headquartered in Sylmar, CA, the city very near to, and often associated with, the epicenter of one of the most deadly quakes in California history (1971), ignored seismic standards / codes.
"The quake claimed 65 lives and caused more than half a billion dollars in damage, including the destruction of two hospitals, two freeway interchanges and the Lower Van Norman Dam. Damage to the earthen bulwark dam raised concerns of a partial or total collapse. Much confusion ensued as various agencies declared a need for the mandatory evacuation of 40,000 people. Communication was made difficult by disruption of telephone, water, and electrical service.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1971_San_Fernando_earthquake
This is Kafkaesque.
The whole CityCenter construction was financed by unrepayable debt.
This time Senator Harry Reid will be unable to rescue CityCenter like he did last time, heh, heh.
Now they want to demolish the incompletely built Harmon Hotel, part of CityCenter.
Is Perini Construction part of the Mob?
They should demolish Las Vegas instead.
Oh, well, it eventually will demolish itself anyway and become a ghost town like Rhyolite, heh, heh.
The Clark County Building Department allowed American Invsco out of Chicago to do a condominium conversion at the Meridian Private Residences without any inspections either before or after the still unfinished conversion! When Meridian HomeOwners went to the County for help the CC Building Department issued those homeowners citations for work done without permits and more importantly work that did/does not even meet minimum code standards. American Invsco took 6 safe buildings and made them unsafe. The floors are overloaded according to two Engineering Reports & the Clark County Building Department. The CC Building Department is requiring the vast majority of the tile floors to be removed throughout the project and has to intention of going after American Invsco for their illegal work. The CC Building Department has company though as the Nevada State Contractors Board is refusing to help rectify the situation citing a two year limitation on going after the Developer even though homeowners originally filed within the time period and the NSCB closed the case only to reopen it again after the time had expired! This is more than incompetence, it is more than people not willing to do their jobs...it is flat out CORRUPTION! One would be hard pressed to find either a County employee or state employee who is willing to do their job, and for the most part in my opinion (humble at that) it is the result one gets when there is little to no oversight & absolutely no accountability. A NSCB employee told a Meridian owner this: "forget about your lawsuit against the Developer, hire an unlicensed contractor to do the work and be done with it." - it is on tape if anyone would care to hear it! CC Supervising Inspector Richard Maddox without question falsified his report which closed the original complaint regarding Harrah's Entertainment Inc. illegal remodel of the RIO Hotel & Casino - he was fired & a year later reinstated with back pay...why? CORRUPTION rules in Las Vegas still!
Am I to assume that no other buildings on the strip have this contingent liability? Why would this be the be the only building when it certainly can not be the first that was constructed by these groups of contractors?
If there were construction inconsistencies in 2008 and now Weidlinger Associates state that the building is unrepairable, how--and more importantly, why--is the option to *fix* the tower on the table? Unless by "fix" they mean "implode," what other (safe) route is there?