Page 36 - Trump Never Give Up: How I Turned My Biggest Challenges into Success

trum_c04.qxd 11/30/07 3:33 PM Page 15

I S T HIS A B LIP OR A C A T ASTROPHE ?

THE LOW POINT

There have been some problems—some big ones, naturally.
Three months after we began foundation construction, we dis-
covered that water had begun leaking into the building site from
the Chicago River. Since the foundation was being laid below the
level of the river, it was always a possibility that the old river
bulkhead that was already in place wouldn’t hold. However, that
wasn’t the problem—water was coming in through a corner where
the bulkhead and the Wabash Avenue Bridge meet. This could be
a serious problem—so we dealt with it seriously, and it was taken
care of. After a while, it is possible to take problems in stride—if
you have the right attitude and know what you are doing.
Another element of the building that took an odd turn was
the structural design. In the original concept, the base and first
14 floors of the building were designed to be a structural steel
frame, with a reinforced concrete building above. Very late in
the design process, as we were bidding the work, we found that
there was a huge spike in the world commodity prices for steel
due to industrial growth in China absorbing so much of the
world’s supply. We went back to the drawing board and
redesigned the building as all concrete, saving several million
dollars in the process and simplifying the construction logistics.
We also had to consider that the rock caissons (supports) for
the tower, which are sunk into the bedrock, make a lot of noise
during construction and we hoped that our Chicago neighbors
could put up with 241 of them being pounded into the bedrock.
About a fourth of the supports had to go down 110 feet into the
limestone, so you can see that this alone was a tremendous proj-
ect. We got it done and didn’t make too many enemies in the
process. Because each of the columns carries 14 million pounds,
the support system has to be carefully and meticulously thought
out and implemented.

15