SAN FRANCISCO | Trinity Place | 240 FT / 73 M | 24 FLOORS

[peanut gallery]

They are really moving fast on this.

[BTinSF]

Originally Posted by nativeguy1964

I remember when they re-didi upper market - theres what an uproar about putting int he palm trees - every one thought it was too "LA" really thought redwoods would have been better - but the palms look good on upper market and embarcadero. (Rohnert Park has planted redwoods everywhere and they also look great along highway 17 through los gatos area)
The trees on lower market are so dull. and If there are trees on van ness they must be really un inspiring because I never even notice they are there.
Once they start the Van Ness BRT project it will be an opportunity to redesign Van Ness entirely.

What kind of trees soften the noise? trees on both side and down the median could creat a canopy on ven ness --- I do recall braodway through downtown Oakland has a nice tree'd area.

Not everybody opposed the palms--I like them. And they were planted for a reason: they are wind resistant. That's the problem with the sycamores: The are NOT well adapted to SF's wind.

Yes, Van Ness has trees. Van Ness has an odd median layout where every other block has a median that's a lane or so wide and there, on most blocks, you'll find eucalyptus. On either side of the street are mostly sycamores although in some places, like I explained above, there are other species (like in front of opera Plaza or in front of British Motors).

That's one of the big downsides to the BRT IMHO: a lot of pretty mature median trees will almost certainly be cut down and given the mortality rate among new tree plantings in SF, it'll be a long time before anything that gets planted looks halfway decent. As to what gets planted, there just aren't that many species that grow well here. In it's primordial state, SF was mostly treeless sand dunes. To grow trees at all requires a good deal of positive attention which the typical street tree will not get (they often get vandalized as I mentioned before). And, frankly, I have yet to see any good evidence anyone in SF's Planning Dept. knows anything about trees. The palms actually may be the best news on that front--they were a good choice and most of them are now looking pretty good.

And now--on to the topic at hand. Yes, they are putting Trinity Plaza up fast and they'd better if, as we were told, they plan to have people moved into it by the end of next year.

[nativeguy1964]

8 days per floor. Found this article in concrete construction: but are they only refering to onstruction the skeleton of the building?

Speed is often one of the defining factors in today's construction. In the June 2005 issue of CONCRETE CONSTRUCTION, we reported that New York City concrete contractors had taken this to the extreme--building high-rise concrete structures on a two-day per floor cycle. By contrast, California concrete contractors building flat plate high-rise concrete buildings are able to achieve only aboutan eight-day cycle. What causes such a big difference? Are California contractors that much slower? Is it that laid-back California style in contrast to the fast-paced life in New York? Let's take a closer look at concrete construction in the high-seismic regions of California to see what's different. Design in seismic areasWatching a high-rise go up in Southern California, you immediately notice one big difference: reinforcing steel. "If you look at a Chicago concrete column versus a San Francisco column, the number of longitudinal bars may not be that different, but the ties are much, much closer," says S.K. Ghosh, one of the nation's leading experts on seismic design of concrete structures and president of S.K. Ghosh Associates, Palatine, Ill. "The reinforcement is tied up a whole lot more in high seismic areas."
Design of concrete buildings in the United States is dictated by the ACI 318 "Building Code Requirements for Structural Concrete." Chapter 21, Special Provisions for Seismic Design, "contains provisions considered to be the minimum requirements for a cast-in-place or precast concrete structure capable of sustaining a series of oscillations into the inelastic range of response without critical deterioration in strength." In other words, when an earthquake shakes the building, and the building begins to deform from the motion, it will continue to stand up. It may seem odd to think about it this way, but in an earthquake, concrete buildings are designed to become sort of flexible. According to Chapter 21, "As a properly detailed cast-in-place or precast concrete structure responds to strong ground motion, its effective stiffness decreases and its energy dissipation increases."
This flexibility is primarily accomplished with reinforcing steel, which Ghosh says "gives the concrete structure the ability to deform beyond the elastic stage while retaining gravity load-carrying capacity." But he cautions that this is not the place for novices. "The designer has to be aware of the requirements but also be experienced in using the requirements. In other words, in concrete frame construction, the detailing of the beam-column joints becomes critical. It can get so congested that the concrete can't get in so you have to think of it beforehand. In experienced hands, a concrete building can be built to 30 stories without problems, but in inexperienced hands even a 12-story building can get severe congestion problems at the beam-column joints. The contractor has to work hand in hand with the engineer because whatever the engineer has in mind has to be implemented at the jobsite and quite often the contractor would have a better idea how to do that. Or the contractor may want to speed up construction, and the engineer has to take that into consideration and still make sure the building meets code requirements."
Building for seismic forces.
Placing and working with the reinforcing steel dominates construction in high seismic zones. "The detailing starts to add various levels of complexity," says Chris Forster, Morley Construction, Santa Monica, Calif. "Things like the lengths and locations of splices, or staggered"As a properly detailed cast-in-place or precast concrete structure responds to strong ground motion, its effective stiffness decreases and its energy dissipation increases."

This flexibility is primarily accomplished with reinforcing steel, which Ghosh says "gives the concrete structure the ability to deform beyond the elastic stage while retaining gravity load-carrying capacity." But he cautions that this is not the place for novices. "The designer has to be aware of the requirements but also be experienced in using the requirements. In other words, in concrete frame construction, the detailing of the beam-column joints becomes critical. It can get so congested that the concrete can't get in so you have to think of it beforehand. In experienced hands, a concrete building can be built to 30 stories without problems, but in inexperienced hands even a 12-story building can get severe congestion problems at the beam-column joints. The contractor has to work hand in hand with the engineer because whatever the engineer has in mind has to be implemented at the jobsite and quite often the contractor would have a better ideahow to do that. Or the contractor may want to speed up construction, and the engineer has to take that into consideration and still make sure the building meets code requirements."

Building for seismic forces

Placing and working with the reinforcing steel dominates construction in high seismic zones. "The detailing starts to add various levels of complexity," says Chris Forster, Morley Construction, Santa Monica, Calif. "Things like the lengths and locations of splices, or staggered

[Connect]

Does anyone know when they vacated the old apartments on the Trinity site?

[BTinSF]

^^^They haven't vacated them. The building now under construction is on what was either a parking lot or simply vacant. As earlier posts explain, the plan is to finish this structure, the tallest of the several, by 18 months or so from now and then move the existing tenants into it. After that, the existing buildings can be demolished.

[nativeguy1964]

Toady the first construction crane has arrived and ready for assembly.

Would the skeleton be finished by the end of summer? another six months for the exterior and 6 months for the interior? Is that sounding about right? I have no idea but that would keep them right on schedule.

[AndrewK]

im really happy to see this project moving forward. i use civic center bart all the time and always think about the potential that this stretch of market has (and how fugly the current trinity is).


on an only slightly related note, does anyone know if anything is slated to happen to that lot on market between 7th and 8th, next to the old strand theater? i think there used to be another theater there once which was torn down. with all the new construction on the west and south ends of this block, it seems like the rest of it could really be improved (as long as they keep cancun on the corner).

[BTinSF]

^^^Nothing planned for that lot anyone knows about. It did used to be a theater--I recall going there once or twice in the 80s. In the 90s I worked at the methadone clinic a few doors down (red brick building). Between Trinity Plaza, the Merchandise Mart plans, a possible second tower at Fox Plaza and the 10th/Market project (hopefully that isn't dead), this stretch of Market could see a lot of improvement in the next few years.

[nativeguy1964]

Well a huge crane has been erected and some of the foundation has been poured.

[BTinSF]

^^^


Source: http://www.socketsite.com/

[Jerry of San Fran]

Here is a picture I took of the mobile crane building the construction crane - from my Fox Plaza apartment (we call the Fox Plaza the Wincester House - seemingly endless remodeling for three years) on the 27th floor.

[nativeguy1964]

Here are some pics of the progress this week - you can see where the elevators will be.

http://web.mac.com/jtatarazuk/iWeb/Site/Photos%202.html

pls post.

[peanut gallery]

Here are nativeguy's pix:

[nativeguy1964]

Thanks for posting those....

[rocketman_95046]

^ to post the pictures yourself just grab the photo's url i.e.http://web.mac.com/jtatarazuk/iWeb/S.../elevator2.jpg and place [IMG]"image link"[/IMG] around it.

That is all it takes... and please keep posting

[peanut gallery]

From ground level today.

This is the part closest to Mission:


I managed to work my way around to the side of this same area:


The other half, farther away from Mission:


Same area from another angle:


Which window is yours, nativeguy?

[Downtown Dave]

Good shots; that's a tough site to photograph. They are really speeding along with the work.

[peanut gallery]

^^^ It sure is. I even tried going up Stevenson (the alley behind the fed building) to get a better angle. I could get in that way, but it didn't really improve the view.

[nativeguy1964]

I just noticed they put in some conrete columns. Will take some pics from 3rd floor and post this weekend. I'm still trying to figure out the configuration of the floors. Since this tower wil have 240 studios and 80 i bedroom units... I'm curious as to what the center glass area will be. There are three different exterios on this building.

[nativeguy1964]

There will also be something like 1200 space parking - will that be underground?