The Breakers Life Safety Improvements

The Breakers is an occupied oceanfront condominium on Lynn Shore Drive. After a frozen sprinkler pipe burst, the damaged units were taken down to the studs, and what the water uncovered raised hard questions: vertical shafts that no longer separated one floor from the next, old knob and tube wiring and outdated electrical panels. The City needed a clear path to compliance, the owners needed their homes back, and the board needed to know exactly what it was committing to before it committed.

We started with preconstruction, not a contract. In December 2025 we walked the building and gave the board a renovation approach: life safety first, the gutted units returned as clean shells, and every scope defined before anyone signed. We walked it again with the City's building and fire officials, wrote a life safety compliance summary, and worked through design with Gienapp Architects and the electrical engineer. A field walk in March grew the scope. A site meeting in April with the fire, building and electrical inspectors and the design team found riser valves that were never on paper, and exploratory cuts in May confirmed what was inside the walls before the permit set was stamped.

In June the board had an itemized proposal with a bond option, a summary their lender could read and a phased payment plan, and in July it awarded the work. We mobilized in September and are building floor by floor with residents at home. The new shaft enclosures passed inspection in October.