skyscrapers' costs

[gaetanomarano]

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I don't know if this is the right section to open this thread (if not, please move to the right place)

I'm living in a small city in the south of Italy that has no skyscrapers (the highest building is 9-stories tall...)

over 25 years ago was developed the first project to build a small skyscraper in my city, but never built

that project failed because there was not a market for a skyscraper here in mid '80s

but now (both) the city and the urban area had a growt and I feel one or more skyscraper may have a market

so, I'm just curious to know "how much costs" build a small-mid skyscraper (maybe, around 50 stories)

here I've seen the costs of some skyscrapers built around the world but it's not clear to me how to "adapt" them

in other words, how much costs a "general" x-y-z-dimensions skycraper built like "this" or "that" building

do you have any thread here (or an external link) about the argument of evaluating costs?

this is my first day here and (so far) I've not found a thread with links to FREE design/3-D/rendering software

thank you

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[foxmtbr]

Lol, I wouldn't call 50 stories a small-midsize building. 50 stories is humungous for a small town. I'd say 20-30 stories is more resaonable. As for the software, have you tried Google Sketchup? It's a wonderful program. If you want to check out what it can do, just click the link in my signature and check out my city, and be sure to see the others in the SSP Cityscape too.

I almost forgot, welcome to the forums!

[gaetanomarano]

Originally Posted by foxmtbr

...I wouldn't call 50 stories a small-midsize building...

you're right... it's not "small" ..."midsize" is the right word

...50 stories is humungous for a small town...

that's true, but the skyscraper #1 is often the "leader" of other projects... "the example to follow" (and I hope many will be built) also, despite it's a small city, it has a fast (horizontal) growth that has substantially merged it with two other small cities around (since it's very important for commerce in this area and has one of the most important italian universities)

...have you tried Google Sketchup? It's a wonderful program...

I've tried it for a brief time and I've some free 3-D software on my PC (like Anim8or 0.9 and the old Simply 3-D) but the question was about the availability of (free) 3-D software specialized for buildings' design and rendering

...just click the link in my signature and check out my city...

I've seen your EXCELLENT Sketchup drawings from your signature's link but (it seems me) the limits of the software is that it can "paint" the buildings' details instead of actually "draw" them (or, draw them, needs too much work with a non-specialized software)

[Xelebes]

50 stories sounds a bit much. What's the size of the town (pop and area?)

[LMich]

There is nothing that tall (50 stories) in the entire country of Italy, I believe. It's not even mid-sized. That would be one large building.

[BTinSF]

One thing to keep in mind: Italy, like California, is prone to earthquakes and so you need need to make sure that any cost figures you get are for a building engineered to be earthquake safe. There are some radical new ideas about earthquake-resistant design and ways to design buildings that would cost less but be as safe in quakes as ever. We are presently having a debate over that with regard to our building codes in San Francisco right now. But my point is you could get radically different cost figures depending on whether you choose to go with newer (but pretty much theoretical) designs or with the tried and true. In other words, there could be a very wide range of figures.

Beyond that, you say you have looked at the cost of buildings here such as the Millenium Tower going up in SF now. At 60 stories, it's costing $400 million. That's for residential construction. And it's got traditional earthquake resistant engineering. By contrast, One Rincon Hill is a newer and controversial design for a building of similar height and use (also residential) but it's costing "only" $290 million (for a discussion of the design, see http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...AGD5JO3A41.DTL ).

[gaetanomarano]

Originally Posted by Xelebes

50 stories sounds a bit much. What's the size of the town (pop and area?)

the city's population is 100,000, the urban area (25 km. radius) is 250,000 and the full province (100+ km. radius) is 800,000
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[gaetanomarano]

Originally Posted by LMich

There is nothing that tall (50 stories) in the entire country of Italy, I believe. It's not even mid-sized. That would be one large building.

that's true, the biggest is the Pirelli skyscraper in Milan that has 33 stories and is 127 m. tall ...many other skyscrapers are planned or under construction in Italy (Wiki link only in italian) especially in Milan (mainly in the former Milan fair area) but not higher than 216 m. and 50 stories ...however, our province's population (800,000) is pretty close to the Milan city population (but without any skyscraper)
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[gaetanomarano]

Originally Posted by BTinSF

...Italy, like California, is prone to earthquakes...

that's true, but not so powerful nor frequent like in California and Japan ...the biggest heartquake we have had in Italy was the (7.2 Richter) Reggio Calabria and Messina heartquake in 1908 (Wiki link only in italian) with 100,000 dead, but 100 years ago all buildings was old and not so much resistant, also, recently I've read that great part of the heartquake's victims was due to the following tsunami since the distance between the two cities is just 3 km. of sea ...of course, I hope that ALL skyscrapers built in Italy will match the BEST earthquake-resistant specs
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[Dac150]

A fifty floor highrise would go for roughly 500+ million. It really depends where the location is. There was recently a 30 floor or so building on Lexignton Avenue in Manhattan that went for 700 million. The GM building in Manhattan recently sold for over 1 billion (which is closer to the fifty floor range.). Nothing over twenty floors in a hotspot would sell for less than 200 million.

Why, do you want to purchase a building?

[gaetanomarano]

Originally Posted by Dac150

Nothing over twenty floors in a hotspot would sell for less than 200 million.

also in Italy there are cities and streets where prices are very high ...when I talk about "costs" I refer to "construction's costs", not "selling prices" (that, clearly, are very high in Manhattan...)
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[skyscraper]

I don't cost nearly that much. I can be quite reasonable.

[Dac150]

^^^^^^^^I would like to see where the cost of a skyscraper would be of a reasonable cost to the common man.

[gaetanomarano]

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a possible way to evaluate the costs to build a skyscraper in my city is to start from the current (average) price-per-sq.meter of common (under 9 stories) buildings that is around $2000

a (simple design) 50 stories' skyscraper may be around 220 meters tall and with a 35 x 35 meters base, so, each floor (excluding elevators, stairs, etc.) may be around 1000 sq.m with a price-per-floor around $2M ...then, the price of the entire building (at my city's prices) may be in the range of $100M (about 75 million euro)

but all skyscrapers have some (shared) extra-costs a small (9 stories) building doesn't have ...so, I must multiply the final (total) price for an (unknown) "coefficient" ...1.2? ...1.5?

.

[Kelvin]

The increase in cost related to height is not a linear adjustment. The complexity and cycle times increase exponentially as height increases and therefore so do costs.

As an example, based on constructed costs for highrises around the world (but mostly US projects), my best-fit model is:

Cost = $4,000 * Z^2, where Z is the building height in metres and "Cost" is in constant 2001 US Dollars.

In your example, Z=220m, so Cost = $193.6 Million. That is a "base" cost for a generic highrise of this height anywhere in the world. There are an endless number of other contributing variables (currency exchange, taxes, land prices, remotness, local labour supply, etc.) that will obviously adjust the final price for your particular situation. I would suggest a contingency fund of 50% to 100% at this stage, until better definition is aquired.

Also - construction cost should be based on GFA, not NFA. Your 35m x 35m footprint has 1225 sq.m, and your total GFA is 24 500 sq.m. The basic construction cost is thus approx. $8,100/m^2 (no contingency).

[zilfondel]

Originally Posted by skyscraper

I don't cost nearly that much. I can be quite reasonable.

Lol!

did nobody else get this but me???

[xxxtim68]

Here's a link to get approximate building costs, here in Canada

http://www.rsmeans.com/calculator/canada_qce.asp