Millennium Tower (Filene's) | 426 Washington Street | Downtown

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Re: Millennium Tower - Filene's

3 or 4 concrete trucks lined up this morning. Great to see stuff going in instead of coming out.
 
Re: Millennium Tower - Filene's

Semass said:
3 or 4 concrete trucks lined up this morning. Great to see stuff going in instead of coming out.
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It was 4! I saw them walking into work. Great sign of progress.
 
Re: Millennium Tower - Filene's

Poured in place concrete. This is a huge building for all that forming. I wonder why they chose poured in place vs concrete core with steel columns.
 
Re: Millennium Tower - Filene's

Concrete has better sound blocking qualities than other materials. Given that the tower will be luxury residences, I'm not surprised they went with that over steel (though I'm sure there are other reasons)

As I understand, cast-in-place concrete for large structures is common in other countries, especially in Europe.
 
Re: Millennium Tower - Filene's

Downburst said:
Concrete has better sound blocking qualities than other materials. Given that the tower will be luxury residences, I'm not surprised they went with that over steel (though I'm sure there are other reasons)

As I understand, cast-in-place concrete for large structures is common in other countries, especially in Europe.
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As far as I can tell, Toronto and Montreal are all concrete construction. I don't think I've ever seen a steel beam in any of these cities.
 
Re: Millennium Tower - Filene's

lowellline said:
I have no exact timetable for the tower erection, but it is some time away, possibly months. The crane that is there now is setting steel for the roof and elevator shaft of the Burnham; it should be gone Monday night. After that, the entire site needs to be excavated to match the elevation of the 4th basement of the Burnham. The tower will be poured-in-place concrete with one tower crane. The total erection time for the Millennium could be upwards of a year plus. .
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Thanks for the most informative construction update we have seen around these parts in years. It's wonderful to have someone on the inside. Thank you for taking the time to post here, we really appreciate the updates.
 
Re: Millennium Tower - Filene's

Some architects in Germany don't even know how to detail steel, as was the case with our studio professors who were practicing architects. We had to show them when we were producing wall sections. Concrete construction is just assumed.

The advantage of concrete is that the lead time is about 1/6 of the time it takes for steel (steel needs to be designed, sized, and ordered/fabricated). When done right, it can even be constructed faster than steel because statistically there are typically less mistakes that cause delays with concrete. Material costs are also reduced in addition to the building being more energy efficient because thermal heat gain is greatly reduced.

I'm so excited to see this concrete tower rise!
 
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Re: Millennium Tower - Filene's

datadyne007 said:
Some architects in Germany don't even know how to detail steel, as was the case with our studio professors who were practicing architects. We had to show them when we were producing wall sections. Concrete construction is just assumed.

The advantage of concrete is that the lead time is about 1/6 of the time it takes for steel (steel needs to be designed, sized, and ordered/fabricated). When done right, it can even be constructed faster than steel because statistically there are typically less mistakes that cause delays with concrete. Material costs are also reduced in addition to the building being more energy efficient because thermal heat gain is greatly reduced.

I'm so excited to see this concrete tower rise!
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If its quality work it looks great too. They have exposed (possibly polished) concrete columns at 319A and its classy
 
Re: Millennium Tower - Filene's

lowellline said:
I've lurked here for a few years, just finally posting/joining now. I have pictures from other projects too that I'll try and post soon: Spaulding Rehab, the Kensington, Wonderland garage, GrandMarc, MIT Broad at Ames st. Cambridge, Watermark, 319 A st, and many more. I'll get as many updates as I can while I'm on this job and post them accordingly.
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Awesome that you are here! Looking forward to this.
 
Re: Millennium Tower - Filene's

AmericanFolkLegend said:
Poured in place concrete. This is a huge building for all that forming. I wonder why they chose poured in place vs concrete core with steel columns.
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With concrete they gain a floor every 10. Reduced floor thickness compared to deeper steel beams. In a 54 story building your talking an extra 5 floors. With 10-15 units a floor, you're now looking at 60+ sellable units by choosing concrete.
 
Re: Millennium Tower - Filene's

There are 3 40-50 story high-rise buildings going up in my neighborhood and they are all cast-in-place concrete.


Downburst said:
Concrete has better sound blocking qualities than other materials. Given that the tower will be luxury residences, I'm not surprised they went with that over steel (though I'm sure there are other reasons)

As I understand, cast-in-place concrete for large structures is common in other countries, especially in Europe.
Click to expand...
 
Re: Millennium Tower - Filene's

NEUcivENG said:
With concrete they gain a floor every 10. Reduced floor thickness compared to deeper steel beams. In a 54 story building your talking an extra 5 floors. With 10-15 units a floor, you're now looking at 60+ sellable units by choosing concrete.
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Ah, very good point. I didn't think about the fact that you can probably get away with a 4" slab with CIP concrete versus a 12"-18" deep I-Beam.
 
Re: Millennium Tower - Filene's

4", no way ... maybe 8" or 10". This can be achieved with a system called Girder Slab as well. Girder Slab will be much more popular around here given the labor and union conditions around this region.

cca
 
Re: Millennium Tower - Filene's

AmericanFolkLegend said:
Ah, very good point. I didn't think about the fact that you can probably get away with a 4" slab with CIP concrete versus a 12"-18" deep I-Beam.
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I would (not to defend steel use) say the point is not as accurate as all that. The depth of your plumbing would be similar to the depth of residential structural steel (meaning ceilings in the same places to hide this and keeping your floor to floor very similar.). Also, embedding the steel in the concrete and doing a hollow tube concrete (forget what this is called) and pour a topping slab on it, and your looking at very similar depths. Last tall dorm I did was like this, and the floor to floor height what of course very tight.

edit - yes pretty much the girder slab he just mentioned.
 
Re: Millennium Tower - Filene's

SeamusMcFly said:
I would (not to defend steel use) say the point is not as accurate as all that. The depth of your plumbing would be similar to the depth of residential structural steel (meaning ceilings in the same places to hide this and keeping your floor to floor very similar.). Also, embedding the steel in the concrete and doing a hollow tube concrete (forget what this is called) and pour a topping slab on it, and your looking at very similar depths. Last tall dorm I did was like this, and the floor to floor height what of course very tight.

edit - yes pretty much the girder slab he just mentioned.
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You're thinking of hollow core slab (prestressed).

Cast in place slabs will decrease in thickness as you're moving up the building. Lower blocks of floors in the 14-16" range, upper floors in the 10-12" range. Hearing concrete in neighborhood of 8k-12k psi.

Steel with composite slab on deck would be in the realm of 24" -30" on the lower (figure w18 or w24 girts + 6" s.o.d.). Big time space saver.
 
Re: Millennium Tower - Filene's

NEUcivENG said:
You're thinking of hollow core slab (prestressed).

Cast in place slabs will decrease in thickness as you're moving up the building. Lower blocks of floors in the 14-16" range, upper floors in the 10-12" range. Hearing concrete in neighborhood of 8k-12k psi.

Steel with composite slab on deck would be in the realm of 24" -30" on the lower (figure w18 or w24 girts + 6" s.o.d.). Big time space saver.
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Thank you. It was only two years ago I was working on a job like that for the first time. Did a cast in place slab on a hotel in PA a few years back. I liked the idea, but it took a long time to pour and set each floor. Nice having no steel to coordinate with though.
 
Re: Millennium Tower - Filene's

A few updates of the site today from the 18th floor of my building and 9th floor of my building's garage.

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Re: Millennium Tower - Filene's

Any ideas as to what that brick oval thing they appear to be carefully unearthing by hand is?
 
Re: Millennium Tower - Filene's

Nice pics DigitalSciGuy! I had an interview today in 101 Arch (leftmost building of your first pic). The office has incredible views on 3 sides, and I was actually staring down into the hole watching a machine dig dirt from one side, and then deposit it onto the other side... I didn't really get it... Random question but, how are all these machines going to get out of the hole once they finish digging it?
 
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