CHICAGO | BCBS | Vertical Expansion (25 new floors) | 743 FT / 226 M | 57 FL

[Adam186]

You know what? I just found another hole in the lower left.

[Untitled]

Originally Posted by ardecila

I think we reached a consensus earlier that "construction" as far as we are concerned will begin when steel appears on the roof.

Is this still the consensus?

[SlatsGrobnik]

Originally Posted by AdrianXSands

why is this still in the proposals section? they've been doing construction on this for like a week.

They've been doing deconstruction for a week. They're taking stuff off, not putting stuff on.

[Knightwing]

Originally Posted by AnotherPunter

How much view will this building block from south LSD?

[IWSteve]

Hello. I'm an ironworker on this job and can give you some insight on whats happening there.
On March 24 we started three nights of demo work to prepare for the new iron in the atriums.
On April 2 we started installing iron in the two atriums that will be the new elevator shafts. That's being done at night so as not to disrupt the office operations.
On July 16 I started on the day shift and we began beefing up some of the existing iron just below the roof to support the weight of the derricks. That's why "HOLES" have been cut in the roof, (they go through the rubber, insulation and pre-cast concrete slabs) to get access to those beams that need to be strengthened and to add the pedestals that will support the derricks.
The first derrick is small enough to be brought up in pieces on the freight elevator to the low roof. It's then brought up to the high roof with a chain hoist thats by the "HOLE" at the top of the picture. We're in the process of assembling that derrick now.
This derrick will reach over the NW corner to the street and bring up a larger derrick. That one will set some of the iron that was left out in the area around the cooling units, and then it will assemble the first of two tower cranes on some of that iron.
That tower crane will then set some more iron and then the second tower crane. I heard that the iron for the additional stories won't start going up til sometime in November.
If you look in the picture from museumparktoms' post, you'll see small white squares around the perimeter and grey square boxes in the interior of the roof. Those are the covers for the original columns that are sticking up through the roof about a foot and were put there to protect them and the floors below from rain and weathering.
Hope this answers some of your questions. I hope they do set up a webcam for the job, it will be interesting. We were told there are surveillance cameras on some of the surrounding buildings but I don't know if they will ever be available on the web.

[Tom Servo]

Originally Posted by IWSteve

Hello. I'm an ironworker on this job and can give you some insight on whats happening there.
On March 24 we started three nights of demo work to prepare for the new iron in the atriums.
On April 2 we started installing iron in the two atriums that will be the new elevator shafts. That's being done at night so as not to disrupt the office operations.
On July 16 I started on the day shift and we began beefing up some of the existing iron just below the roof to support the weight of the derricks. That's why "HOLES" have been cut in the roof, (they go through the rubber, insulation and pre-cast concrete slabs) to get access to those beams that need to be strengthened and to add the pedestals that will support the derricks.
The first derrick is small enough to be brought up in pieces on the freight elevator to the low roof. It's then brought up to the high roof with a chain hoist thats by the "HOLE" at the top of the picture. We're in the process of assembling that derrick now.
This derrick will reach over the NW corner to the street and bring up a larger derrick. That one will set some of the iron that was left out in the area around the cooling units, and then it will assemble the first of two tower cranes on some of that iron.
That tower crane will then set some more iron and then the second tower crane. I heard that the iron for the additional stories won't start going up til sometime in November.
If you look in the picture from museumparktoms' post, you'll see small white squares around the perimeter and grey square boxes in the interior of the roof. Those are the covers for the original columns that are sticking up through the roof about a foot and were put there to protect them and the floors below from rain and weathering.
Hope this answers some of your questions. I hope they do set up a webcam for the job, it will be interesting. We were told there are surveillance cameras on some of the surrounding buildings but I don't know if they will ever be available on the web.

so would you say you guys have started 'construction' yet; should this thread be moved? or should it not be moved untill nov when the new floors begin to rise?

[IWSteve]

I would say construction started when the iron for the new elevators started going in on April 2.

[trvlr70]

Originally Posted by IWSteve

I would say construction started when the iron for the new elevators started going in on April 2.

Awesome!

And thanks for all the infomation.

[Untitled]

Originally Posted by IWSteve

I would say construction started when the iron for the new elevators started going in on April 2.

Thank you very much for the info. We're gluttons for raw knowledge ...

[i_am_hydrogen]

Thanks for the info, IWSteve. It looks like we can move this one into the u/c column.

[IWSteve]

My pleasure. I wish I had found this site sooner. This is my first time in a blog. Will they post a notice when it's moved to the u/c column?

[Untitled]

Actually, the notice is where you find the thread, which is now in the u/c category. So your post led to it being moved.

[BVictor1]

Originally Posted by i_am_hydrogen

Thanks for the info, IWSteve. It looks like we can move this one into the u/c column.

We'll see.

It might just be considered building prep.

[Untitled]

This is being treated like any other project when in fact, it's fundamentally different.

With your typical building, site prep only means so much, because the project could still easily fall through and something could be built.

But with this, prep work takes on a different meaning because it's so much more of a commitment than your average project. They're not going to build a parking garage or a park up there.

I think it's foolish consistency to label this as anything other than "under construction."

[BVictor1]

Originally Posted by Untitled

This is being treated like any other project when in fact, it's fundamentally different.

With your typical building, site prep only means so much, because the project could still easily fall through and something could be built.

But with this, prep work takes on a different meaning because it's so much more of a commitment than your average project. They're not going to build a parking garage or a park up there.

I think it's foolish consistency to label this as anything other than "under construction."

It might be considered under-construction here, but I wonder if the people at Emporis are willing to change the status?

[IWSteve]

Who is Emporis?

[left of center]

Originally Posted by IWSteve

Who is Emporis?

http://www.skyscrapers.com

[honte]

IWSteve, glad to have you with us!

[IWSteve]

Originally Posted by honte

IWSteve, glad to have you with us!

Thanks. I'll keep you updated from time to time.
This will be different from any other job I've worked on mainly because of the extra precautions. For instance, we're not allowed to leave the cutting torch carts (oxygen/acetylene tanks) anywhere on the building at the end of the shift and we won't be using propane heating torches to pre-heat the columns before welding. This is to lessen the chance of a fire or explosion that could panic the office workers below.

[BVictor1]

Originally Posted by IWSteve

Who is Emporis?

www.emporis.com

It's worldwilde skyscraper database. You can look up statistics on mist highrises around the world on Emporis.