origin.clt

october 15, 2008 - 1927 south tryon this building's street presence is just awful. this might be the best example in charlotte of bad urban design. the awnings definitely help.....

october 15, 2008 - circle at south end october 15, 2008 - millenium october 15, 2008 - spectrum

october 15, 2008 - ashton southend

it would appear that is the case as it looks like the main signage is being lifted off.

october 14 2008

october 14, 2008 from trade, this is going to be a wide building.

To add, from 10-14-2008. front of the complex, no more tower cranes.

Ah, I was wondering when this "project" was going to surface. I really don't see how a multi-unit residential building at that location could possibly have a small carbon footprint. What are the chances that the necessary rezoning on this land would be successful given it's size and context? Of course, I guess the developer already has a sterling rapport with city council...... =>

^Yep, no retail. The only public entity in the building will be the leasing office. That corner at the end of Tremont could have been a great spot for some retail for sure. If you look carefully at the ground floor next time you go by, you'll notice that it is roughly 1-2' above the street/track level on all the public edges. That isn't the signature of ground floor retail.

Got to tour Ashton Southend this afternoon. The project supervisor took a group from the firm I work for inside and showed us everything from the ground floor to the rebar up top. The building is single use (no retail) but is loaded with amenities. It has a private movie theatre, office conference space, function space complete with kitchen and of course a workout space. They will be landscaping the rail-side from the building to the rail, hopefully setting the standard for how future developments deal with that edge. There will also be a pool on the roof. They hope to be moving people into the lower floors by spring of next year and be fully finished by the following fall. Mock up wall. Main entry space. Shoring on the 7th floor. Equipment on 10th floor. Looking into courtyard. Top level of parking deck. There will be a building amenity space here above this top level. Atherton and Southborough View from the 10th floor. Spectacular.

I don't think there is a recent thread specifically for the Trolley Museum. Anyway, today car 18 was lifted up and placed into the museum. This is the same trolley car that used to be located in the Spaghetti Warehouse when it was open in Southend years ago. It will function as an exhibit space and object theatre in the new museum, which should open up later this year. Photos:

Ah, that corner isn't at 90˚, it's more like 120˚. Probably easier and cheaper to treat it like an expansion joint....

No, it's real modular brick with precast stone accents. You can see the some brick in the bottom of the last photo andy posted. They use an integrated hoist on the scaffolding to jack whole pallets of it up to the level of work.

Looking at the webcam today, it appears that crews are removing much of the formwork from the tower footprint as well as dismantling the climbing core form.

^ Little Diversified Architectural Consulting does a fair share of marketing and branding work.

Pretty much in agreement that the street edge is not what is desired. The entire block is slave to the almighty parking space. Its structure is primarily based on typical parking dimensions, forcing anything built on top to respond to the deck, not the terrain. Also, one could imagine that if they weren't spending $40k or more to build each parking space, there would be a few dollars left over for a quality facade with appropriate detail and scale... But anyway, here are some construction updates from the inside (4-26-08). Aloft appears to be topped out Eifs residue is all over the place Interior courtyard space. The steel structure looks to be a set of elevators which come up from the parking deck. Column-less arcade? 210-trade looming above. It's easy to see how this is a construction nightmare. If the epicenter below is opened up first and construction resumes on the tower, every time the flying formwork moves from floor to floor, the courtyard of the epicenter will have to be closed. Elevator core again, i hope this is glass and not more eifs Construction mistake @ the grand trade staircase They needed a hole here, after all. 4th street facade

^ No problem, descriptions can only go so far so here are some photos of what i was talking about. You can see the metal lath as well as the multiple layers of stucco material and the absence of any white styrofoam. The yellow dens glass board is made by georgia pacific and provides wind and water resistance as well as structural backing for the permanent facade. It probably adds only a minimal insulation value.

The base uses what appears to be lightweight precast panels. Above that looks to be hard-coat stucco product, not eifs (at least not the same cheap variety that is being used on the epicenter). The times that I have been down there, I have seen the yellow dens glas sheathing, then a vapor or wind barrier, metal lath, then a pretty thick base layer of a cementitious stucco material. I assume the final coat will go on when all of the base coat has been finished to the top of the structure. This is in stark contrast to the epicenter which uses a sto eifs. It consists of the same dens glas sheathing, a 2-3 inch layer of styrofoam glued to the sheathing, and the thin layers of exterior coating.

southbound track damage

That is exactly what is shown on the model in Founders Hall. Additionally, the model shows no change in the deck facade or the location of the deck's elevator core.

sps stands for Southern Pan Services http://www.southernpan.com/ the white panels are probably for a climbing formwork system. here is there project page for the "superblock" http://www.southernpan.com/projects/commer...ASuperblock.htm

Sunday - 01.06.08 middle structure taking form. it's nice to see some variety in materials.

Sunday - 01.06.08 it's easy to see the repetition that is giving this building it's high construction speed.

Admin note: preceeding pop quiz moved to Charlotte Coffee House I have to echo all of the sentiment regarding the TVMs. They are very slow, especially if you push the wrong button and need to cancel the transaction. On top of that, if one rides less then 10 times a week and can't justify the purchase of a week pass, getting a 1 way ticket each time is pretty wasteful resource-wise. I know that I have already accumulated a hefty stack of used tickets. I guess that is going to be unavoidable with the proof of purchase fare system. Additionally, the train arrival announcements seem to be still off by a factor of at least 2. The standardization of the schedule is going to be a welcome improvement. It would also be nice if the digital display boards would flash the next 2 scheduled arrival times, sort of similar to how it is done on the DC metro. This way people could see the current headway and it would make hopping off and getting back on more predictable.

here is the typical connection that bled-man was describing image from the mid-atlantic precast association in this photo, the concrete double tees sit on concrete haunches. those concrete haunches are cast into the exterior spandrel system. as bled-man described, any extreme horizontal force could potentially cause enough movement for a failure, especially if it happens in the middle of the spandrel. it should be noted that these connections typically feature steel plates which are welded together and would help in resisting any major movement.