Seattle Washington Building Expert Directory

Pile Test Likely for Settling Millennium Tower

October 04, 2021 — Nadine M. Post - Engineering News-Record
A pilot pile program to prove the efficacy of a less-disruptive method for the paused foundation fix at the ailing Millennium Tower in San Francisco could begin the week of Oct. 4. Accelerated settling and tilt—caused by a pile upgrade intended to correct settlement of the 645-ft-tall residential condominium—ceased after Aug. 20, when the engineer-of-record halted the $100-million fix. Reprinted courtesy of Nadine M. Post, Engineering News-Record Ms. Post may be contacted at postn@enr.com Read the full story... Read the court decision
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Condominium Exclusion Bars Coverage for Construction Defect

August 17, 2011 — Tred R. Eyerly - Insurance Law Hawaii

Coverage was denied under the policy’s condominium exclusion in California Traditions, Inc. v. Claremont Liability Ins. Co.,2011 Cal. App.LEXIS912 (Cal. Ct. App., ordered published July 11, 2011).

California Traditions was the developer and general contractor for a housing development. California Traditions subcontracted with Ja-Con to perform the rough framing work for 30 residential units. The project had 146 separate residences that were freestanding with no shared walls, roof, halls, or plumbing or electrical lines. To allow a higher density development, the project was developed, marketed and sold as condominiums.

The purchaser of one of the units filed a complaint against California Traditions alleging property damage from the defective construction. California Traditions cross-complained against Ja-Con.

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Reprinted courtesy of Tred R. Eyerly, Insurance Law Hawaii. Mr. Eyerly can be contacted at te@hawaiilawyer.com

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An Architect Uses AI to Explore Surreal Black Worlds

October 24, 2023 — Kriston Capps - Bloomberg
For architect Curry Hackett, the appeal of using artificial intelligence to design projects isn’t to build the world of the impossibly distant future. Instead he wants to mine the near present, using machine learning to generate postcards from a world that is recognizably our own, but refracted through a lens of Black history and material design. Hackett is the designer behind a series of provocations made using AI to remix Black vernacular architecture in kaleidoscopic Afrofuturist landscapes. Specifically, he’s assembling images with Midjourney, an AI tool favored by architects to imagine what buildings might look like. Hackett’s prompts result in straightforward yet surreal sets, including roadside Popeyes kiosks in rural North Carolina, homes with inflatable porches in the Florida panhandle and park benches made out of the couch from grandma’s living room. Quilts, basket weaving and other cultural modes associated with American South are the building materials for Hackett’s speculative futures. Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of Kriston Capps, Bloomberg

The Sensible Resurgence of the Multigenerational Home

August 13, 2014 — Chris Farrell – Bloomberg
One of the biggest fears spawned by the recession and subsequent up-and-down recovery is getting stuck at home. The commonly expressed concern is that millennials are too burdened with student debts and poor job prospects to make it on their own. According to the narrative of generational dependency, the resurgence in multigenerational living is a trend hardly worth celebrating. Or is it? Yes, many young college graduates have faced tough economic circumstances in recent years. But the trend toward embracing the multigenerational home began well before the Great Recession, suggesting something else is at work. A record 57 million Americans, or 18.1 percent of the population, lived in a multigenerational household in 2012, according to a Pew Research report, “In Post-Recession Era, Young Adults Drive Continuing Rise in Multi-Generational Living,” released on June 17, 2014. (You can include the First Family among the multigenerational households.) That’s up from 28 million, or 12.1 percent of the population, in 1980. Equally impressive, the return of the multigenerational household marks a striking reversal of the post-World War II decline. In 1940, 24.7 percent of the population resided in a multigenerational home, a living arrangement that bottomed in the early 1980s. Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of Chris Farrell, Bloomberg

Construction Wall Falls, Hurts Three

November 06, 2013 — CDJ STAFF
A construction wall collapsed on November 1 during heavy rainfall in New York City. Two women were briefly trapped under the rubble, while other bystanders worked to free them. Einstein Construction Group, a contractor based in Texas, was remodeling the first floor for a new tenant, a Japanese restaurant. The company, which disclaims responsibility for the occurrence, were cited for violations and a stop work order was issued. Just prior to the incident, high winds whipped through the area. The construction wall allegedly had not been securely attached to the building. Read the court decision
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The Future of Construction Defects in Utah Unclear

December 11, 2013 — CDJ STAFF
In recent years, more courts have started to view construction defects as accidents, covered under insurance policies. In a post on the Parr Brown Gee & Loveless web site, Jeffrey D. Stevens writes that “the number of courts siding with insurance companies to deny contractors and subcontractors insurance coverage in construction defect lawsuits has been shrinking.” Recently, the Supreme Court of West Virginia “switched sides on this issue completely.” The Utah Supreme Court has not made a ruling on this, but the Federal District Court for the District of Utah and the Tenth Circuit have looked at Utah law and concluded that “under Utah law damage caused by construction defects is not accidental.” But in another case, “the district court determined that property damage allegedly caused by defective or defectively installed windows was caused by an accident.” Mr. Stevens thinks that “it is likely” that the Utah Supreme Court “will follow the increasing number of courts that have held that damage caused by construction defects is an accident for insurance purposes. Read the court decision
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Montana Supreme Court Tackles Decade-Old Coverage Dispute Concerning Asbestos Mineworker Claims

December 20, 2021 — Patricia B. Santelle & Paul A. Briganti - White and Williams
On November 23, 2021, the Montana Supreme Court issued an almost unanimous decision in National Indemnity Company v. State of Montana, a ten-year-old coverage dispute arising from claims against the State of Montana alleging it had failed to warn of asbestos dust conditions at vermiculite mining and milling operations in and around Libby, Montana (the Libby Mine) run by W.R. Grace & Company and its predecessors. Affirming in part and reversing in part rulings by the trial court that culminated in a $98 million judgment against the State’s CGL insurer from 1973 to 1975, the court addressed issues including the duty to defend/estoppel, the number of occurrences, “trigger of coverage,” and, in a case of first impression, allocation under Montana law. Whether the Insurer Breached the Duty to Defend Depended Upon the Timeframe The court looked at whether (1) the insured provided sufficient information to bring the claims within the possibility of coverage under the subject policy and (2) the insurer gave “the necessary substance to” fulfilling its duty to defend at four points in the relevant timeframe:

The insurer did not breach its duty at the time the State initially tendered the Libby Mine claims because the State defended the claims through its self-insurance program, hired its own counsel, managed the litigation, made its own defense decisions, and took the position with the insurer that the matter was “under control” and “nothing was left to be done[.]”

Reprinted courtesy of Patricia B. Santelle, White and Williams and Paul A. Briganti, White and Williams Ms. Santelle may be contacted at santellep@whiteandwilliams.com Mr. Briganti may be contacted at brigantip@whiteandwilliams.com Read the court decision
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Court Clarifies Sequence in California’s SB800

December 20, 2012 — CDJ STAFF
As California’s Right-To-Repair law, SB800, nears its ninth birthday, it has remained “largely untested in the legal system” as noted by Megan MacNee of Wood, Smith, Henning & Berman LLP on the site RealEstateRama. She writes that some homeowners have requested documents prior to filing a claim, which she describes as an attempt to “game the system,” and “analogous to requiring a party to litigation to comply with discovery before a complaint is filed.” The court determined that homeowners may not request documents from the builder until they have actually filed a claim. The court noted that SB800 lacks any clear indication that homeowners may request documents before filing a claim (and also does not indicate that a builder would have to provide documents in these circumstances). The court concluded that the section that sets up the prelitigation procedures occurs before they section on documents discovery. “Because the document request is part of the prelitigation procedure, and the prelitigation procedure does not begin until the homeowner has served notice of a claim, it follows that there can be no prelitigation obligation to produce documents under section 912, subdivision (a) unless the homeowner has commenced the prelitigation procedure by serving notice of a claim.” Read the court decision
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