Ithacating in Cornell Heights

At the new Tompkins Financial Headquarters under construction at 119 West Seneca Street downtown, it looks like most of the structural steel has been erected, and gypsum sheathing has been installed over the skeleton. The top (seventh) floor is set back slightly from the lower levels, and will use light colored aluminum metal panels on all sides except the front, which will use black brick and stone veneer. With the exception of the rear stairwell, the side and rear walls will be faced with a tan brick veneer on the lower floors.

Brick veneer can be tricky because it’s porous. Water can penetrate the brick and make its way to subsurface coatings, where moisture can do damage over time. As a result, builders have to use a water-resistive barrier (WRB) between the sheathing and the brick. This can be done a few different ways – with Simeon’s and DiBella’s, for example, they used a polyurethane spray foam.

In this case, it looks like there’s a bright blue-colored vapor barrier being applied over the sheathing, probably Carisle Coating and Waterproofing (CCW) 705 or similar. CCW-705 is a rubberized-asphalt adhesive laminated with a smooth, durable plastic film. Construction crews spray an adhesive (CAV-GRIP) onto the sheathing, and then roll out the air/water barrier sheets over the top, kinda like wallpaper. These unfurled sheets are then pressed over with a seam roller to ensure it’s firmly and completely applied to the building surface.  The edges of the sheets are then filled in with a liquid mastic, which is a putty-like waterproof filler and sealant. Once the surface is completely sealed by the barrier, tie plates are fastened with washers and screws, and the brick veneer is laid over the top, typically with a 2″ spacing for drainage and ventilation. It appears the brick may be underway on the western wall of the building, as shown in the first image below. Meanwhile, the bottom floor looks like a different sheathing material, some variety of Dow Thermax panels (fiberglass embedded in polyiso) from the looks of it.

Based on building elevations and girder brackets, the JPW Erectors crane located at the southeast corner of the site will eventually be replaced with the last steel sections for the building. The steel decking is in, and there’s ductwork for the HVAC rough-ins. Curious to see if they’ll have the building closed up before the first snow flies.

LeChase is the general contractor, and it looks like they have some union crews doing work on site – the Carpenters’ Union Local 277 and the IBEW (International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers) Local 241 have signage up, as do project team members JPW Erectors, Elwyn & Palmer (structural engineering), TWMLA Landscape Architects, and HOLT Architects.