Hi-Rises

Read the reference letter provided by the Elgin Tower Building.

To Whom It May Concern:

I highly recommend Fortune Painting Company, Inc. as a commercial painting contractor. I had the opportunity to work with Fortune Painting during the extensive renovation of the Elgin Tower Building in 1996. This project involved the refinishing of over 300 steel-frame windows and ornamental cast iron spandrel panels on the 15 story, nine-sided structure. Due to the significant cost involved in staging this building, the quality and durability of the painting work was a major concern.

The proposal’s technical detail made me fee quite comfortable that paint products suggested by Fortune Painting and used on the project were the most appropriate and that our concern for durability was addressed. The Fortune proposal was very professional in appearance and content - attributes that are highly valued by the project architect, the owner and me as the project coordinator. Issues concerning the project scope which none of us had thought of, and which were not addressed by other bidders were raised in the Fortune proposal. This clearly helped avoid disputes and change orders once the project was underway.

From my experience, preparation of the work (cleaning, sanding, etc.), while vital to a quality job, is a common place for a painting contractor to cut corners and is difficult work to closely supervise. The extent of work preparation done by Fortune Painting on this project far exceeded my expectations and even the specifications of Fortune’s own proposal (which went further than the architect’s specifications).

Another common problem in all construction, but even more so in a restoration project like ours, is change orders and other "add-ons" once the work is started. There were certainly plenty of opportunities for Fortune Painting to legitimately request additions to their contract amount. Repeatedly hearing "it didn’t take more than a few hours, we won’t charge anything extra," certainly made my contract compliance duties much easier. The total price for painting on this project was exactly the amount of Fortune’s original proposal.

With windows and spandrels on nine faces of our building to paint, extensive tuckpointing work to do on all faces and on all 15 floors, and major ground level work on all sides of the structure, coordination of subcontractors’ activities could have been a significant problem. Due to Fortune’s use of all the men they could reasonably engage at any one time, we did not experience a single delay of any other contractor’s work due to the painting operations. The painting was completed precisely on schedule without us ever having to hear the excuses of uncooperative weather and "it’s the other guy’s fault" (even though both would have been legitimate). This is far from the norm in the construction field today.

If you would like to discuss my experience with Fortune Painting Company, I can be reached at 847-741-7275, or you are welcome to stop by and inspect the painting work on the Elgin Tower Building at any time.

Sincerely,

Neal R. Pitcher
Renovation Coordinator
Elgin Tower Building

NRP/ner