CHA Frances Cabrini Rowhouses

When Friedler Construction needed a contractor to perform all of the HVAC work on 146 public housing residential units in 2009, the company turned to Northwoods Mechanical. Northwoods installed new furnaces, complete with central a/c and ductwork in each of the units for the Chicago Housing Authority project, which spanned some 17 separate buildings and the entire Chicago city block of Cambridge Avenue between Oak Street and Chicago Avenue. The project also included new gas piping and remote rooftop mounted condensing units for each apartment.

Northwoods came through, meeting a difficult project schedule. “Especially with projects involving older buildings, the historical system drawings don’t always reflect reality. Once you actually are working in a unit, you have to deal with what exists, not with what is supposed to be there,” said Eric Friedler of Friedler Construction, the general contractor on the project. “It helps to work with a company that knows how to be flexible in order to accomplish the job, no matter what the real-world circumstances are—and Northwoods is that kind of company.”