On April 15, opposing sides in a debate over the fate of a deteriorating, nine-year-old Seattle apartment tower presented their positions regarding the building’s future safety to Seattle’s Dept. of Planning and Development (DPD). McCarthy Building Cos. maintains the 26-story McGuire Apartments, with its corroding post-tensioned slab system, can be economically fixed. The owner disagrees.
The structure’s current acceptable “level of integrity” can be maintained through “basic” repairs commonly performed in buildings of this type, says the St. Louis-based contractor. McCarthy plans to file repair designs with the DPD “soon.”