Merrill Lynch Headquarters

Merrill Lynch Headquarters

World Financial Center New York, NY

Nature of Project

Blast mitigation

Scope of Project

Square feet of glass protected - 358,500
Number of windows protected - more than 11,000 panes
Number of days to complete project – 23

Type of Film Installed

Armorcoat 7-mil clear fragment retention film

World Financial Center New York, NY  Blast mitigation Project
Blast mitigationInstallation Project

Project Challenges

Extremely tight installation schedule with work being done in both buildings simultaneously. High security and close coordination with tenants, especially on the trading floors. The work was started the day after Thanksgiving, 2005, and was completed before Christmas. This was an unprecedented short completion time – 23 days – for such a large and difficult project.

Project Detail

Merrill Lynch occupies two high-rise office towers in the financial district in lower Manhattan. These buildings are located directly across from the World Trade Centers that were destroyed on September 11, 2001.

Bekaert Specialty Films, a film manufacturer, was awarded a contract to furnish and install 7-mil clear fragment retention film to the exterior facing glass of the buildings. Time was critical, and Merrill Lynch requested that the project be completed before the end of the year.

Bekaert realized they did not have the experience or resources to handle the project and complete it on time. Since Bekaert and Commercial Window Shield had worked together on previous film installation projects, Bekaert retained CWS to handle the Merrill Lynch job

The project started the day after Thanksgiving and was essentially completed three days before Christmas – or 23 days. To accomplish this feat, Commercial Window Shield installed an average of nearly 16,000 square feet of film on about 500 windows per day. Work was carried out simultaneously on both towers after hours and on weekends because of the heavy daily work volume in the buildings. Additionally, there were security and access issues to deal with, making the quick completion time even more remarkable.