SAN DIEGO (KGTV) - Multiple windows at the Superior Courthouse in Downtown San Diego have spontaneously shattered, prompting the need for canopies while the Judicial Council investigates the cause of the breaking glass.
A spokesperson said there have been three recorded incidents in the last few months of glass randomly shattering at the building, which is less than five years old.
The first happened May 16, 2022, when an exterior window pane shattered on the 14th floor. The second happened July 5, when an interior pane shattered. The first two times, the glass shattered but did not fall. The third incident occurred August 4, when a window on the 12th floor spontaneously shattered and fell onto an unoccupied interior rooftop on the 4th floor.
In all three recent incidents, no one was hurt. As a precaution, though, the Judicial Council is adding a canopy around the perimeter of the building.
See that hole in the glass? That’s a shattered window at the Superior Court building in downtown San Diego. The building is less than five years old and in the last few months, THREE windows (both interior and exterior) have spontaneously shattered. Story at 6 on @10News. pic.twitter.com/G8hVPJcn7d
— Leah Pezzetti (@leahpezzetti) August 17, 2022
This is not the first time there have been issues with the windows of this building. The 22-story building was constructed in 2018 and cost $556 million to build. Just nine months after completion, new windows were needed for parts of the building. Those updates began in September of 2018 and included replacing 13% of the bullet-resistant glass units in 22 judges' chambers.
The first issues stemmed from scratches on the interior surfaces — characterized as a "crazing defect." The scratches on the bullet-resistant glass did not meet the specified quality standards for the project. Those issues were fixed in the fall of 2018.
Now, the council is in the process of retaining experts to evaluate the current window conditions.
The council is also in the process of retaining a contractor for the canopy work. The council will be working with the building contractor to recover the window repair costs and all other related expenses.
It’s unclear how long both the canopy construction and investigation into the cause of the broken glass will take.
