Dive Brief:
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A shortage of glass is stalling the construction of high-rise apartment and office buildings in San Francisco and costing their owners millions of dollars.
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A recently resolved, nine-month contract dispute between West Coast dock workers and their employers has delayed deliveries of glass curtain wall systems and other imports, as shipments piled up at ports in California and Washington.
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In the meantime, some developers have turned to Chinese glass manufacturers—largely untested by U.S. companies.
Dive Insight:
Downtown San Francisco is dotted with partly finished skyscrapers whose steel frames and concrete floors are in place but are missing their glass walls. One result, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, is that the city’s housing shortage is worsening, as the opening of a number of residential towers is delayed.
Another consequence: Drywallers and other trades are stalled, as they can’t finish interior work until a building’s outer skin—the glass walls—is in place.