The Hub on Causeway (née TD Garden Towers) | 80 Causeway Street | West End

In an area where there is loose soil and/or fill does building these concrete underground garages help to stabilize the ground in case of an earthquake? What about pilings that go down to bedrock? I would think that removing loose soil/and or fill and replacing it with concrete walls or concrete pilings would help reduce the damage from vibrations.
 
Tango said:
In an area where there is loose soil and/or fill does building these concrete underground garages help to stabilize the ground in case of an earthquake? What about pilings that go down to bedrock? I would think that removing loose soil/and or fill and replacing it with concrete walls or concrete pilings would help reduce the damage from vibrations.
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It does.

If an earthquake ever hit Boston proper, the safest places to be would be in the tallest skyscrapers. Sadly, the Victorian brownstones of the South End and Back Bay are so structurally compromised (rotted wooden pilings on mushy infill) that they're destined to crumble. Beacon Hill east of Charles Street would be fine.
 
Plus the ground in filled areas would most likely liquefy which would cause many of the old buildings built on the fill start to sink into the ground magnifying any pre-existing foundation issues.
 
dshoost88 said:
It does.

If an earthquake ever hit Boston proper, the safest places to be would be in the tallest skyscrapers. Sadly, the Victorian brownstones of the South End and Back Bay are so structurally compromised (rotted wooden pilings on mushy infill) that they're destined to crumble. Beacon Hill east of Charles Street would be fine.
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The one skyscraper I am not sure would be great in the earthquake scenario is 200 Clarendon (aka Hancock Tower). Per my recollection (which could be faulty) it has a hybrid foundation, part deep piles to bedrock (south side) and part floating foundation on the fill (North Side that caused all the problems with Trinity Church).

That floating foundation could be a real issue in a liquefaction scenario.

If you want to see a really depressing map of how big the issue is see:
http://www.mapc.org/sites/default/f...onment/Plate9_BostonSouthLiquefMap_lowres.pdf
 
^ Huh, that map basically boils down to Boston's landmass of 1689 versus today--every single bit of fill, whether it's 18th, 19th or 20th century fill, is susceptible. Yikes.
 
dshoost88 said:
If an earthquake ever hit Boston proper, the safest places to be would be in the tallest skyscrapers. .
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There was a small/moderate earthquake (maybe 4.5ish on the Richter scale) that was felt in Boston proper not that long ago (maybe 6-7 years ago). I was on the 17th floor of 101 Federal when it happened and I remember it well as I could feel the entire building swaying.
 
What is the weird median strip out front on Causeway? Will it go away once work is done? Will street be reconfigured?
 
Core is about to be visible from all over

36838319676_2f408d1233_b.jpg
 
I don't know how high they can take that core without lateral support (anyone out there know?). Perhaps they are holding here until the steel workers finish with the office podium and can start work on the residential podium.
 
Money said:
I don't know how high they can take that core without lateral support (anyone out there know?). Perhaps they are holding here until the steel workers finish with the office podium and can start work on the residential podium.
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Slipforms can definitely go higher than that. I'm perplexed by what does appear to be some dismantling. In one webcam snapshot, you can see them, I presume, removing the portapotty from the top, but they could be putting it up there instead and are maybe just doing a rework of the rigging before going higher?
 
datadyne007 said:
Slipforms can definitely go higher than that. I'm perplexed by what does appear to be some dismantling. In one webcam snapshot, you can see them, I presume, removing the portapotty from the top, but they could be putting it up there instead and are maybe just doing a rework of the rigging before going higher?
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Is it possible that the podium/hotel portion could be primarily steel and the residential tower is cast-in-place concrete? If that's the case, isn't the core usually constructed with the concrete structure?

FWIW, there seems to be a fair amount of rebar above where the rigging is being dismantled.
 
Looks like they're starting to work inside north station. They are building a temporary box office under the escalator by McDonald's and then relocating the mbta windows to the current box office allowing them to start configuring champions row.
 
palindrome said:
Looks like they're starting to work inside north station. They are building a temporary box office under the escalator by McDonald's and then relocating the mbta windows to the current box office allowing them to start configuring champions row.
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Makes sense, the legacy transit ticket windows are right about where the party wall is about to get blasted through, IIRC
 
jdrinboston said:
Is it possible that the podium/hotel portion could be primarily steel and the residential tower is cast-in-place concrete?
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That would be *very* strange. If anything when structural systems change, it's from concrete to steel, rather than the other way around. It would be a terribly strange transition from steel to concrete.

If that's the case, isn't the core usually constructed with the concrete structure?
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Yes. When cast-in-place structural systems are used, everything gets cast at once.

FWIW, there seems to be a fair amount of rebar above where the rigging is being dismantled.
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I noticed it sticking up too, so it looks like they're not done. They really may just be adjusting the rigging/staging before they climb higher.
 
I believe they're at the point where they need a tower crane jump to continue, but there's no place to put tie ins to the building so they cannot jump until the rest of the building is up to/close to that point
 
datadyne007 said:
That would be *very* strange. If anything when structural systems change, it's from concrete to steel, rather than the other way around. It would be a terribly strange transition from steel to concrete.
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Uncommon, but not unheard of, and it makes sense for the switch to residential. See FMC Tower in Philadelphia.
 
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