MCCA Hotels: Aloft & Element | 371-401 D Street | South Boston

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On the up-and-up. Love the samplers, by the way.



And from Channel Center:

 
AmericanFolkLegend said:
Really odd to see an urban hotel being wood-framed.
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AFL -- Did you see the giant fire in LA a few weeks ago -- that was a mostly wood framed million sq ft class development that burned while it was still under construction

http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-downtown-fire-20141209-story.html#page=1
Tower of fire' destroys L.A. apartment complex under construction
The fire engulfed a towering residential project, raining ash on much of downtown Los Angeles and lighting the predawn sky a smoky orange.

Computers and cubicles melted in neighboring buildings. Hundreds of thick windows cracked. Palm trees were ignited. Intense heat damaged fiber-optic cables beneath a downtown freeway and melted one of the signs. Homeless people were roused from their sleep blocks away.

Maria Joya, 54, woke up beneath an underpass of the 110 Freeway to feel her bare feet suddenly baking hot.

She said she leaped from her blanket to see "a tower of fire." She screamed to her neighbors to wake up.

"There were tongues of fire," she said. "I just started crying."

Officials say that they are inclined to believe the fire was intentionally set.

It took 250 firefighters an hour and a half to put out the fire that broke out in the Da Vinci apartment complex about 1:20 a.m. Monday. The development, the size of a city block at the juncture of the Harbor and Hollywood freeways, was in the process of being framed, mostly with wood. No one lived there yet and no injuries were reported.
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When the wood is all exposed -- that's the vulnerable time for a modern wood framed structure -- as soon as the insides are covered with sheet rock and the exterior is covered with a typically hard to ignite material -- wood is fine

The only other limitation is the use of wood for structural support limits spans and how high you can stack things -- but mix in some concrete and .or some steel and you can do a lot with wood
 
I know this kind of construction is very popular right now (mostly because of cost) but as an architect, I will never suggest to any client that this is the right structural system for any kind of building other than Single family homes up to 3 families. I do not believe it is safe and I do not believe in the overall durability and flexibility.

The fires in LA and SF do nothing but reinforce this for me.

cca
 
Why the wood? Serious question. (Did I miss the answer, above?)

I walk by this building daily. It, plus here at 407 D Street, are wood-framed. God, it's like plywood. Scary. Not just for fire, but huff huff huff blow me down.
 
cca said:
I know this kind of construction is very popular right now (mostly because of cost) but as an architect, I will never suggest to any client that this is the right structural system for any kind of building other than Single family homes up to 3 families. I do not believe it is safe and I do not believe in the overall durability and flexibility.

The fires in LA and SF do nothing but reinforce this for me.

cca
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CCA -- Add to the list -- that big fire over the weekend in the Avalon at Edgewater, that big 4 story apartment complex along the Hudson River across from Manhattan in New Jersey
http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/22/us/new-jersey-apartment-fire/
Hundreds left homeless in massive New Jersey apartment fire
By Mayra Cuevas and Tina Burnside, CNN
Updated 9:42 PM ET, Thu January 22, 2015
....More than 200 firefighters battled to bring the fire under control as the flames shot high into the sky.

"We arrived on scene and we encountered the sprinkler system going off and smoke conditions on the first floor," Jacobson said. "I sent in crews to check what was going on; we had heavy fire on the ceiling."....

"The fire conditions were getting worse. It was in the floors and it just traveled," Jacobson said. "We had crews on three floors. We had the task of dealing with multiple rescues on different floors because the smoke had traveled through the building, and we had to evacuate the people. We had people stuck on back balconies. We had ladders removing the victims from the balconies, and the fire just took off."
https://v.cdn.vine.co/r/videos/FCF4...p4?versionId=Ca3v2asKkJSkfrBpa9SGqi5pH5zBm1Q5
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I'm starting to think that somewhere there needs to be a reinvestigation of what you need in sprinklers when you build a big wood structure
 
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