From the Winter 1982 issue of PROSOCO News:
Because of its location in one of the busiest urban centers in the country, the Randolph Towers restoration project presented some particular problems. Not only had the tower been victimized by the usual urban grime, it had accumulated 3/8-inch thick veneer produced by a combination of steam and coal dust from the city’s subway system before it converted to electricity. The subway travels at the third story level of the tower.
Randolph Tower, formerly known as the Steuben Building, was constructed in 1928. In its early days, it was a combination office building/apartment/social club complex. Except for the speakeasy which had a first-floor entrance, the building was a traditional office complex for 23 levels. Then came the change. The 24th and 25th floors constituted a 7,000 square foot open dance hall. The several levels above contained a health club – thought to be the oldest such club in the country – that featured an Olympic-sized swimming pool. And the tower portion contained all private apartments.
The exterior is done and a Gothic style, and the exterior lobby was originally in an Art Deco design. The building has 350,000 square feet in 46 stories (an 18-story tower atop a 28-story base). The eight-sided tower is heavily ornamented and terraced … a feature that contributes to the aesthetics of the structure while making the cleaning effort that much more difficult.
For years the building was an office building for the state of Illinois. Today, however, the building contains all private offices except that the state attorney general and the Illinois secretary of state still maintain offices in Randolph Towers.
The building is the tallest terra cotta building in Chicago. Plans called for the contractor, Continental Kramel Corporation of Elmhurst, Illinois, to use ProSoCo products to steam and water clean the solid glazed terra cotta and brick exteriors in order to restore them to their original buff color. The original color of Randolph Towers is similar to that of the Wrigley Building on adjacent North Michigan Avenue in the loop area.
At the outset of the project, chunks of the terra cotta were removed from the building and sent to the ProSoCo Kansas City lab for initial testing and cleaning procedure recommendations. Jim Lucas, ProSoCo sales representative in Chicago, Tom Vodnansky with Continental Kramel, and Scott Buscher, ProSoCo’s North-Central Regional Sales Manager, then ran tests on the building to determine the most effective cleaning procedure. Several tests later and with the help of ProSoCo chemist, Jim Dunlap, the team came up with the recommendation of using SURE KLEAN Heavy Duty Restoration Cleaner and high-pressure steam to clean the bulk of the surfaces.
For the tower section, by far the dirtiest part of the building, the terra cotta surfaces required prewashing with steam and application of SURE KLEAN T-766 Limestone Prewash before applying the heavy duty cleaner.
The entire procedure for dealing with the heavy duty grime called for “prewashing” the terra cotta with a thick coating of T-766, a thickened alkaline cleaning product. This material was left on the surface for three to five minutes and rinsed with steam before applying the Heavy Duty Restoration Cleaner.
As previously noted, the terraced tower presented problems to the work force. The stage had to be moved to a new position as cleaning at each terraced level was completed. The tower portion, however, had the advantage of being cleaned during the daylight hours, while a large part of the main building will have to be cleaned during the night.
On December 29, Murdoch & Coll, Inc., new owners of the building, held an informal ceremony to celebrate the lighting of the restored tower of the Randolph Towers building. Hereafter, from dawn to dusk, the tower that is lit with mercury vapor lamps will beckon travelers to Chicago’s loop area. Meanwhile, work on the main building portion continues with completion scheduled for early May.
Commercial building restoration is beginning to come into its own in Chicago. According to Jim Lucas, it is anticipated there will be a “big crunch” of the type of work similar to what is being done on Randolph Towers. “I’m sure Chicago will continue to be involved in much more heavy-duty restoration,” Lucas said.
In addition to the Randolph, five major commercial high-rise buildings are undergoing cleaning and restoration in the Chicago area. Not surprisingly, all five are undergoing restorative cleaning with SURE KLEAN products. These five buildings include:
1. The 666 North Lakeshore Drive Building (with Continental Kramel Corporation as the contractor);
2. The Anvan Development Project on South Federal Street;
3. The Pullman Building; and
4. The Marshall Field Annex (with the George Court Company as contractor).
