Berggren Architects had a board meeting in Kearney County to bring the board up to speed on the work that had been completed on the courthouse tower project, including modeling the tower, documenting the rust and water damage, and analyzing the structural issues plaguing the tower in its current state.
We then, after familiarizing the board with our discoveries, brough to the table our suggestions, presented by our structural engineer, Jason, for how to move forward in restoration of the tower.
The focus of this was the concept of an internal scaffolding design to be assembled internally with modular parts that would both support the weight of the structure and allow for us to disassemble the tower’s existing components and assess the damage individually. We gave a rough, ballpark estimate of $3,000,000 for the total cost of the restoration process. At this point, a board member stated that he strongly believes it would be cheaper to remove the entire tower and replace with a replica built from modern materials. Jerry and Jason both disagreed, but the client made it clear that the next step they wished to pursue was get formal cost estimates for restoration and replacement of the tower.
