Volume 38, Issue 12, December 2003

ContractGlazing

Contractor Guilty for Scaffold Collapse Deaths

IUPAT Endorses Dean The International Union of Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT) has announced it will endorse Howard Dean as the Democratic presidential candidate, making it the first international union to endorse Dean in the 2004 campaign.  “Over the course of this campaign we have put together the greatest grassroots organization of the modern era,” said Dean. “I am thrilled to accept the endorsement of the IUPAT, the union awarded for their grassroots organizing.”

Pleading guilty to second-degree manslaughter in State Supreme Court in Manhattan, Philip Minucci, owner of Tri State Scaffold & Equipment Supplies Inc., has been sentenced to four to 12 years in prison, reported the New York District Attorney’s office. Minucci pled guilty to five construction workers’ deaths and serious injuries of four others caused by a scaffold collapse on October 24, 2001.

New York City’s building code says a licensed engineer is required to design any scaffold taller than 75 feet. In this instance, Minucci, who has no engineering back-ground, designed the 130-foot scaffold.

According to court records, Minucci admitted he did not know the load capacity of the scaffold, which, at the time of the collapse, was holding 16 workers, most of whom were said to be undocumented aliens being paid $7 an hour in cash.

Minucci is scheduled for sentencing January 14, 2004. 

Werner Systems Works on FDA Building, Housing Complex ustin, Calif.-based Werner Systems, a manufacturer of custom aluminum glazing systems, was part of the team that completed the construction of a new lab and office building for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in Irving, Calif., earlier this year. Woodbridge Glass of Tustin, Calif., was the glazing contractor. Werner provided the material to create the 24,800 square feet of glazed areas. The project features 11,000 square feet of twin-span curtainwall with integral, operable windows and 13,700 square feet of curved, sloped, undulating, custom serpentine curtainwall. The custom glazing features a 12-degree sloped semi-circle section of 28-feet by 6-inch radius that transitions into a larger 12-degree sloped section of a truncated cone of 215-feet by 3-inch radius. Moving toward the end of the cone, the curtainwall starts a progression from 12 degrees sloped back, through vertical continuing to an outward 16 degree (inverted) slope. The curtainwall continues to advance around another curve at 124 feet by 8 inches. The building was completed last June. Total glazing cost was $3.6 million. Werner was also involved in the creation of the 58,000-square-foot Water Terrace apartment complex in Marina Del Ray, Calif. Woodbridge Glass was the glazing contractor on this project as well. With 450 residential units, the finished project’s exterior included nearly 190,000 square feet of glass in a custom-designed aluminum glazing system and almost 80,000 square feet of 1/8-inch aluminum panels. More than 600 aluminum sliding glass doors and 900 zero sightline aluminum awning windows were used.  The total glazing cost was $12.8 million.

USG