Windows have been shattering and falling from the sides of Philadelphia apartment towers since 2024, and the company that owns those buildings is now suing the Minnesota-based parent company of a glassmaker and a window-unit maker for the second time, trying a new legal strategy to make it pay. PMC Property Group says broken glass has landed on sidewalks, balconies and patios at its properties, forcing the company to hire outside experts and put up emergency scaffolding to protect residents.
PMC filed its latest federal complaint on Oct. 27 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota, this time naming Apogee Enterprises directly rather than only its subsidiaries. According to the USGlass, the new complaint alleges that Apogee controlled its subsidiaries, Wausau Window and Wall Systems and Viracon, and directed their responses to complaints about the spontaneous glass breakage. Apogee, based in Bloomington, Minnesota, is the parent company of glassmaker Viracon and window-unit maker Wausau; the Star Tribune describes it as reporting nearly $109 million in adjusted profit in fiscal 2025.
The dispute traces back to window systems PMC installed at three Philadelphia properties — Franklin Tower, Riverwalk Tower I and Riverwalk Tower II — in 2021 and 2022. PMC paid Wausau roughly $50 million for those systems, and court documents indicate Viracon manufactured at least some of the insulating glass units Wausau used in them. The exteriors of the Riverwalk buildings consist of almost entirely window systems, per the Star Tribune’s reporting, meaning any defect has an outsized impact on residents.
Breakage Blamed On Microscopic Stone Inside The Glass
PMC alleges that nickel-sulfide inclusions contaminated the glass during manufacturing and caused windows to spontaneously break as the panels expanded and contracted with temperature changes, according to the lawsuit cited by USGlass. The developer says breakage at the three properties has increased since 2024 and that it expects glass-related expenses to reach millions of dollars…