A four-month project to replace the Linda Sokol Francis Brookfield Library building’s exterior shell is now underway.
A black substance has been dripping from the library’s outside walls since the library’s construction was completed in July 2021. An investigation found that a combination of three building materials used to seal the building created a chemical reaction that resulted in the black substance leaking.
Construction work began Monday, May 11, and is expected to last through the end of September, though the library will remain open for its regular hours and operations, according to an FAQ on its website.
The work comes more than a year after library officials took steps to settle outside of court with contractors and subcontractors in a dispute over a “black substance dripping” from portions of the building’s exterior envelope.
According to an unfiled legal complaint the library drafted last March, engineering, architecture and materials science firm Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associated, Inc. discovered last year that the substance was created by the interaction between three specific materials used to construct the envelope, which wraps the building.
In the complaint, the library alleged that the materials — W.R. Meadows’ Air-Shield liquid membrane and MaxLife Industries’ ArmorSeal sealant and ArmorWall NP sheathing product line — are known to liquefy when they come into contact with each other at high temperatures, which the library further alleged the design for the wall system induced.
Library trustees approved a settlement agreement in August 2025, requiring each of the five implicated parties — architecture firm Product Architecture & Design (PAD); construction firm IHC Construction Companies, LLC; subcontractor firms L.J. Morse Construction Co. and BOFO Waterproofing, LLC; and material supplier W.R. Meadows, Inc. — to pay the library and settle the matter.
According to a copy of the settlement agreement, L.J. Morse and W.R. Meadows each agreed to pay $65,000, and BOFO agreed to pay $90,000. IHC agreed to pay $140,000, while PAD, which designed the wall system, agreed to pay $275,000. Altogether, the five firms agreed to pay the library $635,000 to resolve the dispute.
The projected cost of the full project is $1,763,000, leaving a shortfall after the settlement payments of $1,128,000.
Kimberly Coughran, the library’s executive director, declined to give an interview with the Landmark about the replacement project. In an email, she said the library will make up the difference from its cash reserves. She said the library has a “strong financial reserve.”
“There is zero burden to taxpayers,” Coughran wrote.
Coughran said in that email that the library is contracting with Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates for architectural design work and with Ward Contracting for construction work.
Coughran said Ward came in as the lowest qualified bidder after a request for proposals was opened in March. On May 11, the same day construction work began, Brookfield’s village board approved an ordinance waiving the library’s permit fees for the work, which would have totaled $30,000, in the public interest.
Coughran said the work will see contractors remove the library’s existing tiles “elevation by elevation” in order to remove the old envelope and replace it with the new one. The tiles will be replaced with new versions of the same stainless-steel style.
