A team of engineers and inspectors combed Baltimore's Marriott Waterfront hotel on sending samples of the outer surface to a laboratory for tests.
And the results could lead to major repairs.
The work was ordered by the Harbor East Management Group, owners of the 32-story luxury hotel, said Ed Rudzinski, the hotel's general manager. The inspection comes in response to a report last week in the Wall Street Journal that said construction of the 750-room Marriott Waterfront hotel may have included the use of 83,000 square feet of Reynobond PE, a highly combustible exterior panel made with polyethylene.
The same panels were used in construction of the Grenfell Tower in London, which caught fire on June 14 killing at least 80.
Rudzinski said Monday that samples taken Friday were sent to a laboratory for analysis.
"They are going to do it as fast as possible," Rudzinski said, adding that an architect could be called in to re-do the exterior cladding "depending on the outcome."
The results, Rudzinski added, could lead to a reconstruction project of the hotel that was completed in 2001 by the late H&S Bakery magnate John Paterakis, who developed Harbor East at the urging of former Mayor William Donald Schaefer.
The Journal reported that the construction of the hotel used the Reynobond PE panels based on information on the website for Arconic Inc., manufacturer of the panels used on the Grenfell Tower. In Baltimore, use of such materials was legal under the city code in 1998 when the Marriott Waterfront hotel construction began, the article stated, and remain legal today under code because the hotel has an interior sprinkler system.
Rudzinski said Monday that the Marriott Waterfront "was the poster child" for the materials on the website, cited as a prominent development that had used them.
He said other large hotel chains around the U.S. were involved in inspections this month as well in the wake of the report.
"Hilton and Hyatt are doing their studies. Its not going to be broadcast," Rudzinski said. "Its going to be quiet but they are going to be looking."
