This one is a lot more gothic than ‘standard’ postmodern shape-shifting glassy
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This page from CetraRuddy’s architectural plan does make the building look like a bloated, pregnant guppy as it goes up.
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Thanks! The larger floors in the most valuable part of the building are impressive, but it almost looks unbalanced. The elevators and the core look like they’re offset to the South part of the tower so I’m guessing we’ll get a shear wall that runs the height of the tower on the Southern elevation a la 220 CPW.
Probably how the engineers balanced out the cantilever - making the South side heavier
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Construction Update #14
WEEKS OF 3/18+ 3/25 + 4/1
Over the next three weeks, we’re working on removing excess soil from some areas, and cleaning up the site.
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Finally looks like they might be done “drilling and pouring secants” as they’ve mentioned for the past half a year (or more). Seems like they might start digging a hole like 9 Dekalb, will be great to see these two rising at the same time.
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Based on the DOB documentation, it seems that the installation of the perimeter wall in the form of a drilled secant wall is now complete, at least for now. According to the documentation, the next step in this “top-down” (or “up-down”) approach is for the cellar floors to be constructed as the excavation progresses. The ground floor slab, once in place, will serve as a “lay-down area” and facilitate equipment access across the site.
If there are any structural engineers lurking about here, please enlighten!
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Any idea who’s writing these updates? This last one about “removing excess soil” and “cleaning up the site” almost sounds like “we’re not doing anything for the next three weeks.”
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Not necessarily. As I mentioned earlier, their latest PR release seemed to suggest they wouldn’t be doing much of anything for the next three weeks. There could be a number of reasons for this, not all bad by any means.
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There has to be so much to coordinate with a huge project like this. The pilings are probably easy to do as a separate phase, presumably by a separate sub-contractor. But you wouldn’t want to start the next (main) phase of construction until you had absolutely everything lined up so that your hundreds of workers could continue work uninterrupted until the building is done. You need to ensure you have enough workers, all the materials, and guarantees that all of the necessary sub-contractors will be available at the right slots in the schedule. Starting early could lead to paying workers to sit on their hands.
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All of that is true. I wonder if an additional contributing factor has to do with the developers intentionally slowing the pace of construction to try and better time the condo market to maximize profits. FiDi has such a large number of new condos in the pipeline, it’s not inconceivable that Madison Equities and its partners are in no rush to complete this project since it’ll take some time for the market to digest all of the inventory headed its way.
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If Howard Hughes Corp. ever gets around to building a condo building in FiDi, at least we’ll get to read the truth about the project in a timely manner, as it’s a publicly traded company and management has shareholders (myself included) to answer to. That’ll be a welcome reprieve from the normal guessing game we go through with these buildings. Most NYC developers are so murky, cliquey, and nepotistic.
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Pizzarotti was supposed to be the general contractor here, no? They’re undoubtedly embroiled in the One Seaport fiasco.Whether or not that would stop work here is something i’m unsure about. I don’t think full financing was ever announced, so they might have the project on pause until they secure a construction loan.
edit: apparently Gemdale bought a significant stake (81%) in the project awhile ago. That brings the question of whether or not they’re looking for an out amidst the Chinese crackdown. I would think otherwise they would be on Madison’s case to get this tower rising. They have tens of millions to lose if the project collapses.
second edit: then again, they seem to be right on schedule according to the latest update. No need to panic. They told us the equipment would be gone and that they would be cleaning the site.
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something is wrong. work doesnt just stop with a full demobilization of all equipment.
my guess, no more money
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What is standard construction equipment for laying the cellar floor of a building like this? Because that’s supposedly the next step in a “top-down” approach as is planned for this project.
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From what I’ve seen some perimeter piles have been put in but even that job is incomplete.
Next would be to bring in a few excavators and dig down, then place piles, then pour the foundation mat.
What seems strange is that the perimeter piles don’t look done and there are no excavators.
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Yes, the drilled secant perimeter wall appears incomplete especially along the north side of the lot. However, not being an engineer I couldn’t tell if that was intentionally put off for later or not.
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https://www.updateson45broad.com/lookahead
WEEKS OF 4/8+ 4/16 + 4/22
Over the next three weeks we will be surveying and reviewing the site and we will begin mobilization on our foundation.
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Were the past three weeks a collective vacation for the construction crew or something?
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