Harriet Tubman House | 566 Columbus Avenue | South End

Demolition is well under way.
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Having been to the Tubman house for meetings I have to say that it was a poorly designed building inside...dark, gloomy, a warren of split levels, empty and wasted space, stairways, claustrophobic meeting spaces, and an undersized kitchen. You had to walk forever to find a rest room. It was a poor attempt at 70's 'avantgarde". Glad they're rebuilding and hopefully making the interior more useful for more people.
 
Yeah I didn't really understand the love of the building. I think it's probably more of who occupied it rather than the design of the building itself. The new building is definitely a much nicer and more sensible design.
 
I walk past this almost daily. The thing that continues to amaze me is size of the pit. There are some large buildings in the South End, for sure, but in general everything seems pretty human sized. The square footage of this plot is remarkable to see in person.
 
JumboBuc said:
Isn't this five-over-one? A tower crane for five-over-one is unusual.
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I’m not familiar with the terminology, but that’s how the developer referred to it in an email out to the Claremont Neighborhood Association last week (which I’m part of).
 
JumboBuc said:
Isn't this five-over-one? A tower crane for five-over-one is unusual.
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This site is larger than it looks. I'm not an engineer, but logistics could be an issue regarding the W. Springfield corner of the site. There really isn't any logical egress for even medium construction equipment to access the site from that corner, and the people in the way are rich. My original point is really the idea though, this site is quite a bit larger than it looks.
 
dman10089 said:
I’m not familiar with the terminology, but that’s how the developer referred to it in an email out to the Claremont Neighborhood Association last week (which I’m part of).
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One steel or concrete street level floor then 5 wood floors on top for a 6 story building. Once you know what it is youll see them everywhere. Most new condo/apartment buildings across the country are built this way. You can of course get variations like 3 over 1 or 4 over 1 for shorter neighborhoods or 5 over 2 where theres 2 concrete or steel floors and 5 wood. Fire codes changed allowing 5 story wood buildings and if you put it over a steel floor you get 6 stories. So now youll see 6ish story wood frame buildings in every city across the us.
 
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Does anyone know if it is actually a 5 over 1? It could be steel framed. That is some massive steel there.
 
I wonder if that's a sign that they'll be using heavy timber beams over the typical kindling stick firetraps seen elsewhere.
 
stick n move said:
One steel or concrete street level floor then 5 wood floors on top for a 6 story building. Once you know what it is youll see them everywhere. Most new condo/apartment buildings across the country are built this way. You can of course get variations like 3 over 1 or 4 over 1 for shorter neighborhoods or 5 over 2 where theres 2 concrete or steel floors and 5 wood. Fire codes changed allowing 5 story wood buildings and if you put it over a steel floor you get 6 stories. So now youll see 6ish story wood frame buildings in every city across the us.
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It's actually a reference to where the materials are addressed in building code. The height can vary, but the distinguishing feature regards use of type 1 materials on the first floor, and type 5 materials for additional floors. I do think there is a limit to just how many type 5 floors you can add, though local variances probably vary on this.
 
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