Window Restoration Project Completed and Decades-Long Window Grime Problem Solved

Ashforth Pacific, Inc., has changed the look of Portland’s skyline. After completing a challenging, time-consuming window restoration project, Ashforth’s 14-story office tower, One Pacific Square, located in downtown Portland, now shines as a prominent member of the Portland skyline.

Ashforth purchased One Pacific Square in August 2006 and inherited a decades-long window grime and stain problem that appeared on all 3,772 windows of the 240,000 square foot building. “The stains on the windows at One Pacific Square were so noticeable that when the management team completed the project the color of the building actually changed,” said Wade Lange, vice president of property management for Ashforth Pacific. “The dirt build up is a combination of a lot of things,” says Lange. “Traffic of course is a big contributor but another major issue determined was engine emissions from the ships moving up and down the Willamette River.”

Lange added, “The windows are washed three times per year as standard procedure even before Ashforth acquired the property but previous owners were unable to improve the appearance. We needed to complete a full scale window restoration, which past owners had been told was not doable, and the only way to have the windows appear new was to replace the windows – a $1.5 million expenditure!”

Keeping your building as clean as possible has multiple benefits. “It creates a positive first impression to prospective tenants, and it creates a lot of goodwill with current tenants,” says Scott Langley, CEO of Ashforth Pacific, Inc. “When people look at a building, if the exterior is covered with grime, they’re going to have a negative first impression of what the interior is going to look like. The landlord or manager who’s meticulous about maintaining the exterior is meticulous about the inside, and vice-versa.” Once Ashforth Pacific acquired the building they immediately contacted their vendors and contractors to help resolve the window issue, but no solution was forthcoming. It was at this point Ashforth’s vice president of operations, Scott Lunski, took the challenge of resolving this issue.

After more than three months – a consuming six weeks of trial and error to produce the right cleaning mixture and removal process added to eight weeks of physically cleaning the windows – One Pacific Square looked like a completely new building. “This is an extraordinary accomplishment and a tremendous amount of credit is due to our entire management team for their determination and persistence, particularly Scott Lunski, who spent countless hours formulating a sustainable cleaning solution and the proper method to clean the grime without damaging the windows,” said Langley.

Ashforth originally contacted three large window cleaning companies but all concluded that nothing could completely remove the grime. After trying 30 to 40 products singularly and in combination, and with the goal to only use products that are environmentally safe, Lunksi came up with a solution that worked. “We found two products that removed different parts of the build-up. When the two products were mixed together the combination proved to be the perfect solution for removing the decades of grime.”

The final challenges included determining the proper cleaning tools and the precise process to use to remove the products. Ashforth also needed to ensure that the window washers were all following the exact same process in order to achieve consistent results from one window to the next.

Window washers from Premier Window Cleaning, based in Portland, cleaned the entire building using the newly created product and cleaning process. All at Ashforth agree the cleaning solution saved them from investing in an expensive and disruptive window replacement project.

A side benefit of this project may very well be increased energy savings. The heavy film of grime actually absorbed heat, so now that it’s removed, the glass is doing its job reflecting the sun’s rays and saving what they anticipate being a considerable amount of energy.

Owned and managed by Ashforth, One Pacific Square, located at 220 NW Second Avenue, is a 13-strory, 240,000 square foot Class A office building positioned within the Old Town/China Town District of Portland’s Central Business District. The 354-foot building was built in 1983 and is currently over 90% occupied.