The Clarendon

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A couple of questions now that concrete is mentioned. I've noticed the Clarendon, Province St., and the Bryant are concrete construction while the BU and Northeastern dorms, Apple store, Avenir, 2 Financial Center and the Mandarin, Renaissance Seaport hotel and the huge Archstone-Cambridge, among others, are steel I beam construction. Why do some buildings get built using concrete while others steel and is concrete construction fairly new in Boston? None of the new construction here in Atlanta is anything but concrete and yet, I don't ever remember a building going up in Boston, until recently, that was anything but I beam construction. I would imagine the cost of concrete vs steel is a major factor but any other reasons since it seems that the preferred construction method in Boston is steel.
 
Not that I am a total expert on this but some reasons for concrete:

quieter
safer in fire
no need to fireproof as with steel skeleton - saves money for builder
after 9/11 people living there feel more comfortable with a stronger more fireproof building
cost of materials
 
Cost is always the biggest factor.

However, a builder might want concrete for a residential building, as it has better soundproofing, and steel for commercial, as it allows huge open floorplans that can easily be configured for each companies use.
 
The Big Dig chewed up the supply of concrete locally until completed. That was the #1 economic and logistical reason why it wasn't used much in the last decade.

Within the last five years the number of contractors who will bid on high-rise concrete construction has increased from two, this has led to competition and cheaper costs. Concrete construction requires careful coordination, because unlike steel decking you can't go punching holes everywhere, everything has to be thought out before pours occur. The system is inherently less flexible than steel, but as far as noise abatement, and safety it is unmatched, making it a better system for fairly static residential use than offices. That's a big reason most of the skyscrapers (which are residential) in the UAE are concrete.

A 9/11 style impact on one of those new super-talls, like the Burj, wouldn't be sufficient to cause catastrophic structural failure. I fully expect any iconic super-talls in steel will have state of the art fireproofing and highly redundant fire suppression systems to account for this.
 
Concrete is also weather dependent for the pours I believe.
 
To a certain extent the concrete can be chemically treated to deal with adverse conditions during a pour, however you are correct the weather is a serious impediment. All the large scale construction in the middle east is unhampered by severe humidity and regular rainfall. Here, rain, humidity, frost, etc. mucks anything it can up frequently and unexpectedly. On a very large building with a complex construction schedule it can be a bloody nightmare for the construction manager.
 
From the JH garage? The one and only time I ventured up there I was escorted out by an attendant.
 
Yeah from the Hancock Garage. No one said a word -- I was surprised cause I was up there a while.
 
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Jass' early April photo:

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Some early dude's photo:

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From the BBJ 5/9/08:

Meanwhile luxury condo development The Clarendon in the Back Bay began selling units recently and to date has 10 of its 100 condos under agreement, according to Robert Beal, president of The Beal Companies LLP in Boston.Beal would not disclose a price range, but real estate brokers say sales have ranged between $675,000 to $4.6 million.
Click to expand...

Read the full article here
 
Looks interesting as is. Depending on how the final product turns out, we might end up with another project that looks better incomplete.
 
Unfinished, it reminds me of Marcel Breuer's Whitney Museum.

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Spectacular!

Keep those photos coming -- this concrete form system is intriguing -- the future of high tower construction

These photos are almost as good as the demolition at Filenes and Russia Wharf

Westy
 
Take June 15, 2008-- As said above lots of progress:





The rest of my pictures of the Clarendon going up are HERE.
 
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