Purdueenginerd

On 8/12/2019 at 9:22 AM, H-Town Man said:

 

I wish I owned land in Midtown. It's going to be our own Upper West Side in 20 years.

 

I tried to buy in Midtown in 2014. Prices rose so fast in like 2 month period that I got priced out. 

12 hours ago, ekdrm2d1 said:

Noticed these sticking up.

 

Looks like theyre about to test some piles. 

4 minutes ago, Subdude said:

 

Yes, I think pro teams increasingly try to bundle mixed-use projects in with new stadium developments.  It's another source of revenue for them.

First I've heard of this, I guess from a pure development standpoint it makes sense and is positive. But breaking into political discussion here a little bit,  is there evidence of MLB teams using these style developments as leverage against the public for stadium subsidies? I generally oppose subsidizing taxpayer dollars for new stadiums, but that dynamic could change if said MLB team is building hotels, apartments, and a litany of other businesses. 

Thats interesting. Is it common for MLB teams to be in the development industry for mixed use, etc?

On 8/4/2019 at 8:22 PM, hindesky said:

Jesse H Jones Building foundation repair.

 

Library looks almost complete.

 

 

 

Theyre definitely doing something with the foundations. You can see the top of the pier exposed and all the grade beams. I dont see any distress from the photos however. Interesting. Wonder what manifested so late in the project. 

Anecdotally my wife and I both distinguish between target and walmart. In my opinion, especially when I was younger an had less money, Target's clothing department was superior to walmart in fashion and quality. Granted its probably been like 10 years since I'e bought Any clothing there. I prefer target for other reasons.

Only time I ever really go to Walmart is if I'm out of town and forgot to pack something I need. 

I'm just picturing a lab room full of Proton Packs from Ghostbusters and a big danger sign that says "Warning! Dont Cross the streams!" 

7 hours ago, TheSirDingle said:

Man, Wikipedia needs to update their figures, we have around 40 152m+ buildings. Los angles has a lot more than 10 too, Wikipedia needs to step up their game. Unless I'm looking at it wrong.

 

Using Emporis, between 500 and 600 feet buildings, Houston has about 18 completed high rises on that website(not counting under construction and transmission towers). At a cursory level, looks like wikipedia is mostly correct albeit their table is slightly misleading.   he table should have a range, but they just put greater than or equal to. So yes, Houston has more than 18, 500 footer buildings, but between 500/600 the table is correct. 

https://www.emporis.com/city/101031/houston-tx-usa/status/all-buildings/2

Supertalls, even in cities as Dense as NYC are rare.

NYC only has 12 buildings that are over 1000 ft and 3 of them are what I would consider hyper rich residential ego trips.. As far as skyscraper breakdown, Wikipedia provided a nice table. (no idea how up to date it is) 

Right now, Houstons office market cant really support a thousand footer and our residential market isnt hot enough for gazillionares to fork over investment for 1000'+ Condo high rises.

My personal wishlist, build a beautiful 1200' building on Block 142. Then infill every other surface lot downtown with 10-15 story buildings-- same for midtown.

Also, Dallas has a 1000'+ on the drawing board right now: https://www.papercitymag.com/real-estate/dallas-smart-district-tallest-high-tech-skyscrapers-amazon-headquarters/

And for my own City Pride, I'd like Houston to retain the taller skyline

3 hours ago, Luminare said:

@hindesky @Purdueenginerd From my eyes it looks like they are getting a floor done between 1 1/2 weeks - 2 weeks. They are at around the 3rd level of parking (9 levels of parking total from the section I remember). You fellas think we should be seeing them get to the actual tower portion around beginning of October? Once they get there it should start rising faster as the floor plates and layouts are much simpler.

Im not sure how much faster it will go. Yeah the floor plates will be simpler but... theyre going awfully fast already haha. 

@ekdrm2d1 put this on my amazon wish list the other day. 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01DMDI5XU/?coliid=I1H95VI68DMOIF&colid=U35NVB7GTF0U&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it

Hopefully my wife sees it in time for my birthday

1 hour ago, Luminare said:

 

Now this is analysis we need more of! I talk about design stuff on various threads a bunch. Would not mind taking a step back to hear some about engineering. Though the equations immediately fly over my head, its great education nonetheless. This is also a building system I'm not familiar with yet. I know they use this system a lot for multifamily as well, but my only experience with steel has been web joists + steel columns. Not a forest of mtl stud acting as shear walls, and mtl stud being configured to act as beams.

Im not a super big fan of light gage. Its superior to wood framing and more uniform. But Owners sometimes dont realize there are load bearing walls in the structure. 

From an architectural standpoint the floor plans more or less have to be uniform. Which is great for a hotel/apartments. Its get problematic and expensive when the floor plans change from floor to floor. 

Additional comment: I went back and looked at a few photos from earlier in construction. I'm not totally convinced shoring is the issue here. Im still at my office, so when I go home, I'll get into my blind speculation. 

1 hour ago, Triton said:

@Purdueenginerd Any thoughts?

 

 

You just gave me a heart attack. I have a light gage building of similar height and construction that's topping out soonish. 

Quote

Upon initial review of the incident, the inspector believes the shoring was "inadequate," Erin Jones, a spokesperson with Houston Public Works, said. That means whatever temporary support system was in place while workers poured the concrete may not have been working properly and resulted in the collapse.

Let me just say, from the imagery I can see -- theres not a lot I can discern. But I will comment on the quote above, which involves shoring. Typically (though not always) steel decking can support a live load (ie, people), but can't support the wet, uncured concrete weight (dead load) without additional shoring. Typically for this style construction, the shoring is designed by a subconsultant that the contractor hires. Once the concrete cures then it effectively "adds" strength, or can self support without the shoring. The shoring is subsequently removed and construction proceeds. Getting into the weeds here, but this is the load tables both the contractor and their subs would have access to http://vulcraft.com/catalogs/412 (PDF warning) and if you go down to the load tables. You'll see every single deck has a table of its capacity... followed by another table of its "Maximum Construction Clear spans". For Example go to page 30, you'll see in some of those configurations, the deck can only span 5-6 feet before needing shoring (during construction). Obviously, I dont have their span tables or deck drawings so I cant comment on if their shoring was sufficient.. however looking at the photos. I dont see shoring on the level below the collapse. Thats not unheard of, but not that common. Generally you want to shore 2-3 levels. I also dont see shoring on the area to the right, though its not clear if that area was to receive concrete decking. Was the contractor dumb enough not to install shoring? -- I'd be genuinely surprised if that was the case... but contractors have surprised me in the past. Maybe more likely is that the shoring got bumped out of place (or improperly installed) which lead to collapse during concrete placement. 

Just shy of 1 million dollars for the contract amount seems quite low for what has been shown in renderings, IMO. 

Yep! @Luminare you got it. 

Think of it it like a concrete pump extension. Primary pump is a street level and it booms up to a certain point. In order to actually get the concrete where you want it to go. You could either have the main boom swinging around or just pump it to a secondary boom and get it where you need it to go. 

Thats a great photo!

6 hours ago, CrockpotandGravel said:

Endurance Properties is listed as the real estate company fired to sell the property.






 

Disaster struck the moment they signed that contract!  

1 hour ago, hindesky said:

I'll check next time I ride by.

 It is a bit unusual at this stage of the game. Unless theres another small structure going next to it, or soemthings going with the foundations (or, depending on the construction, the slab-on-grade). I did look up the firm. 

http://powerliftfoundation.com/

They seem to specialize in foundation repair. But they do perform some new construction it seems. 

1 hour ago, hindesky said:

Curious why they would do this to an existing building? They have done some excavation on other corners of this same building. Is the foundation failing?

Not sure actually. Do you see any of the brick veneer cracking? or any evidence of windows that have broken? 

On 7/21/2019 at 3:42 PM, hindesky said:

 

 

 

This device was near a different building. Looks familiar, like the device on 19th St. @Purdueenginerd

Indeed! Good eye!

11 hours ago, H-Town Man said:

 

But occupancy by humans is more in the nature of a building than of a mountain. For instance, an office building is a building that allows people to office inside. So when the Petronas Towers were declared taller than the Sears Tower, it struck many as a sham, since the Sears had a higher office floor, while the Petronas relied on a spire. I think this may also affect 600 Travis' rank as tallest building in the South vs. the BoA building in Atlanta.

 

I'll probably agree with @Luminare on this one. Consider me biased though. When you start getting that high, the stuctural engineering of items associated with wind loads get more and more challenging. A spire to me, is a structural member that has to be accounted for.

That being said, I understand the Pro-Sears tower/Willis Tower position on occupied floor. 

On 8/1/2018 at 7:41 PM, Purdueenginerd said:

 

There is a portion of the building towards the front that was designed and constructed in the 1930's. If you look at the curved drive-in ramp of the structure, you'll see the original 1930's portion of the structure. Ive attached a screen shot of the site from 1944 to 2017. You'll see the original 1930's building in both images. 

 

 

Sorry @H-Town Man,  I was off by a few months. 

15 hours ago, MarathonMan said:

I saw on Emporis today that they list the construction cost of some, but not all, developments. 3300 Main comes in at $70M, The Driscoll is listed at $150M, and Drewery Place a whopping $200M!  Just by looking at it, it is easy to tell that Drewery Place is high-quality, but WOW!  Two questions to those who are well-versed on high-rise construction:  (1) How reliable are the numbers on Emporis? and (2) Is there really that much of a range in construction cost for similar-sized buildings?  If the answer is yes, I’m a little scared at what the final product at 3300 Main will look like!

I actually dont know how accurate Emporis. I'm not sure how they would have access to the contractors fees. 

for your second question. Yes. A lot of it can depend on interior and exterior finishes etc... a lot depends on finishes, difficulty of construction, and of course how fast the owner wants it. If the contractor has to throw a bunch of extra people on it to complete it quicker, then the owner is going to pay more.