Cambria Hotel | 6 West Broadway | South Boston

Re: Six West Broadway Hotel |South Boston

Brad Plaid said:
This will turn out decently enough. Would like to have seen the gray window panels several shades lighter to create some contrast between them and the glass and the brick. As is the windows are too much of a dark void.
Click to expand...

On purpose they read like void ... that is not to say that you should like it. Just know that it is intentional.

cca
 
Re: Six West Broadway Hotel |South Boston

Why do we rarely make the vertical seams of these precast panels jagged, following the lines of the cast brick? I feel like this would make them far less visible.

A quick google search shows that this does exist

poly-brick.jpg
 
Re: Six West Broadway Hotel |South Boston

Time and money. Mostly apathy.
 
Re: Six West Broadway Hotel |South Boston

When you combine the post disruptive regulatory state, a construction economy with crushing cost increases, and rampant socialism.....

you end up with VE'd curtain walls and endless fugly on seemingly everything under 45 stories.
 
Re: Six West Broadway Hotel |South Boston

odurandina said:
When you combine the post disruptive regulatory state, a construction economy with crushing cost increases, and rampant socialism.....

you end up with VE'd curtain walls and endless fugly on seemingly everything under 45 stories.
Click to expand...

Did you really just blame Value Engineering on Socialism? These were VE'd to maximize profit (capitalism) not redistribute wealth.
I don't know why I took the bait....
 
Re: Six West Broadway Hotel |South Boston

Well, that characterization is a fair, credible point that factors in.

We should do our best to discourage architectural heresy.

Copley Tower, Columbus Ctr were summarily flushed down the toilets.

Columbus Ctr, barely a skyscraper -- was the best project in 25 years.

Not pulling all the stops to build it, including the state building the whole smash and adding it to the marketplace is a shame.
 
Re: Six West Broadway Hotel |South Boston

theSil said:
Why do we rarely make the vertical seams of these precast panels jagged, following the lines of the cast brick? I feel like this would make them far less visible.

A quick google search shows that this does exist

poly-brick.jpg
Click to expand...

The real answer.

It is more difficult form-work when they are casting the panels. It is also very difficult to install without breaking off the edges. So yes ... time and money.

I know where you are going with this. You want the wall to be seamless like a brick building built with load bearing brick walls. I have said many time and I will reiterate again. Those days are beyond dead. No building will ever be built with a load bearing brick wall again. Even a real brick (cavity) wall has a seam that breaks the brick pattern every 30 feel or so to allow the field of single wythe brick to move without cracking. Some projects hide it well. Some don't.

If you look at Moakly Courthouse, they actually run the expansion joint as you suggested to hide it but ... but ... the sealant reads slightly different color ..thus you can follow the zipper up the facade.

So ...that is why.

cca

Your image is not a real built condition ... its an explanatory diagram.
 
Re: Six West Broadway Hotel |South Boston

odurandina said:
When you combine the post disruptive regulatory state, a construction economy with crushing cost increases, and rampant socialism.....

you end up with VE'd curtain walls and endless fugly on seemingly everything under 45 stories.
Click to expand...

This line of discussion (in every thread in this forum) is terribly boring. I pray we can talk about something else from time to time ... like ... how to hide an expansion joint ... on buildings that are too short.

cca
 
Re: Six West Broadway Hotel |South Boston

cca said:
I know where you are going with this. You want the wall to be seamless like a brick building built with load bearing brick walls. I have said many time and I will reiterate again. Those days are beyond dead. No building will ever be built with a load bearing brick wall again. Even a real brick (cavity) wall has a seam that breaks the brick pattern every 30 feel or so to allow the field of single wythe brick to move without cracking. Some projects hide it well. Some don't.

If you look at Moakly Courthouse, they actually run the expansion joint as you suggested to hide it but ... but ... the sealant reads slightly different color ..thus you can follow the zipper up the facade.
Click to expand...

Kind of tired of the load bearing strawman. No one is suggesting that. Can we move the focus to brick facades? I appreciate your knowledge here and would be grateful if you could point out some more examples of buildings that do a better job addressing these seems and what in particular makes the difference. Moakley seems more obvious than most but I'm sure most would agree that is still leagues better than most precast seems.
 
Re: Six West Broadway Hotel |South Boston

cca said:
On purpose they read like void ... that is not to say that you should like it. Just know that it is intentional.

cca
Click to expand...
Why is it intentional, to make the windows appear larger than they are?
 
Re: Six West Broadway Hotel |South Boston

Justin7 said:
Kind of tired of the load bearing strawman. No one is suggesting that. Can we move the focus to brick facades? I appreciate your knowledge here and would be grateful if you could point out some more examples of buildings that do a better job addressing these seems and what in particular makes the difference. Moakley seems more obvious than most but I'm sure most would agree that is still leagues better than most precast seems.
Click to expand...

I was speaking about brick facades. I was speaking about load bearing brick facades that did not need expansion jointing. All brick facades now are cavity wall construction.

The way one thinks about brick wall these days are as "panels" the reason we have to think of them that way is that they are always done out of a single wythe and the opportunities for raised panels are pilasters or cornices or string courses (where you can hide an expansion joint) are very very limited. If you want to pay tons of money to hide these things you can design the walls to do something like what they did at:

- the Bolling building (amazing ... with an amazing pricetag)
- The Clark and Richards buildings at University Park in Cambridge (done with a masterful amount of thoughtfulness and planning to hide the jointing withing the organization of the facade. They are not gone, but they look logical.
- Lots of other buildings around.

The point here is, one needs to re-frame the issue. These joints are the architectural expression of how we build today and we either integrate them into the overall aesthetic, or pay a premium to tuck them away. (or live with them just being there randomly like most of the less thoughtful facades we see being thrown up).

cca

Ps. Most brick facade joints are better than precast seams because the tolerances for brick are smaller than large concrete panels. The less accurate the making and placement of a material, the more tolerance you need.
 
Re: Six West Broadway Hotel |South Boston

BostonDrew says "It seems like it's taking a very long time to clad this building..." about Roxbury parcels 9 &10/ Melnea Cass Blvd.

i was thinking this about Six West Broadway.

smaller construction team?
 
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