ANCHORAGE | Downtown & Midtown Construction

[mthq]

Last updated: October 2011

Anchorage, Alaska

Town Square Center
[STATUS: ON HOLD]


source


Augustine Energy Center
[STATUS: ON HOLD]

Rendering courtesy of Venture Development Group:


Current site:

[bryson662001]

I hope all that stuff is more earthquake proof then it looks.
Do they take any special precautions?

[SnyderBock]

I'm sure they haven't thought of that yet, bein' all backwards and stuff - up there and all. Just joking. Seriously, I'm sure they have rigorous earthquake code in Anchorage, Alaska. Plus, those buildings aren't over 15 stories tall, making earthquake engineering much less subtle in appearance.


Anchorage would be one of the best places to live in North America. I would assemble a list something like this:

1.) Denver, Colorado
2.) Vancouver, BA
3.) Portland, OR
4.) Chicago, IL
5.) Seattle, WA
6.) Calgary, AB
7.) Boise, ID
8.) Anchorage, AK
9.) Laramie, WY
10.) Salt Lake City, UT

[mthq]

Indeed all buildings in Anchorage have to meet strict earthquake building standards. Unfortunently, downtown Anchorage sits on what is known as "bootleggers clay" which is very weak ground that liquifys during a strong earthquake. As a result during the 1964 Good Friday quake (the strongest in the history of North America), downtown Anchorage along with the former neighborhood of Turnagain Heights suffered the worse damage as the clay they sat on slid down, much of it going into Cook Inlet.

After the quake, geologists suggested that downtown be moved away from Cook Inlet, but of course as you'd expect, money won over as former governor Wally Hickel among others wanted to prove Anchorage's comeback by building large scale hotels and office buildings on the same site were the worse damage occured. Thankfully, Midtown Anchorage is located on land that is much more stable. BTW Downtown actually has 4 buildings at or over 20 stories while the proposed Augustine Energy Center will be at 21 stories. In 2005, a 22 story building was also planned in downtown but seems to have fell through. From what I know of, the current height limit is 30 stories.

4th Avenue in Downtown Anchorage, 1964

http://images.encarta.msn.com/xrefmedia/sharemed/targets/images/pho/t629/T629338A.jpg

The seven story Four Seasons apartment complex that was supposedly equipped with the latest in earthquake resistent technology.

http://www.johnmartin.com/earthquakes/eqshow/images/64700707.GIF

Government Hill Elementary School near Downtown.

http://www.greatdreams.com/alaska/alaska-school-1964.jpg

[Xeelee]

Cool list.

[cityguy]

2.) Vancouver, BA?

[James Bond Agent 007]

Hey ummm . . . what about the other Anchorage thread?
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=94042

[JDRCRASH]

A revitalization of this city isn't too suprising. Because of the accelerating Arctic ice melting due to ongoing Global Warming, untapped ocean straits and channels in Northern Canada that have been blocked by ice for the longest time are now beginnning to take shape.

New cargo container ship routes and possibly even new cruise lines, along with the possible offshore drilling of oil fields beneath the seafloor, and of course, rising trade with Asia could bring much needed business to Alaska.
Thus, the potential economic wonders and possibilites are VERY remarkable.

[mthq]

James Bond: I got permission to recreate the Anchorage construction rundown list because the thread starter of the original rundown had last logged on to SSP in 2006, and the first post of his thread was an article from 2005. Since I live in Anchorage, I would have the ability to regularly update the first post with the latest status on construction, etc.

JDRCRASH: Well right now the building boom in Anchorage is happening because of two reasons. One, Mayor Mark Begich successfully got the public to approve building a new convention center and museum expansion, and two, developers are cashing in on the prospect of a new natural gas pipeline being built in Alaska and going into Canada that would expectedly result higher demand in class A office space as the economy would finally rise rather than stagnate. I'm certain, however, that the two office buildings in midtown will have some vacant space in their buildings for quite a while. Basically, they could be jumping the gun, but we'll see.

[SnyderBock]

Originally Posted by mthq

Indeed all buildings in Anchorage have to meet strict earthquake building standards. Unfortunently, downtown Anchorage sits on what is known as "bootleggers clay" which is very weak ground that liquifys during a strong earthquake. As a result during the 1964 Good Friday quake (the strongest in the history of North America), downtown Anchorage along with the former neighborhood of Turnagain Heights suffered the worse damage as the clay they sat on slid down, much of it going into Cook Inlet.

After the quake, geologists suggested that downtown be moved away from Cook Inlet, but of course as you'd expect, money won over as former governor Wally Hickel among others wanted to proove Anchorage's comeback by building large scale hotels and office buildings on the same site were the worse damage occured. Thankfully, Midtown Anchorage is located on land that is much more stable. BTW Downtown actually has 4 buildings at or over 20 stories while the proposed Augustine Energy Center will be at 21 stories. In 2005, a 22 story building was also planned in downtown but seems to have fell through. From what I know of, the current height limit is 30 stories.

4th Avenue in Downtown Anchorage, 1964

http://images.encarta.msn.com/xrefmedia/sharemed/targets/images/pho/t629/T629338A.jpg

The seven story Four Seasons apartment complex that was supposed to be equipped with the latest in earthquake resistent technology.

http://www.johnmartin.com/earthquakes/eqshow/images/64700707.GIF

Government Hill Elementary School near Downtown.

http://www.greatdreams.com/alaska/alaska-school-1964.jpg

I wonder if the can construct a massive, subterranean concrete retaining wall along the side of Anchorage, which the clay moves towards during earthquakes? Possibly drive steel pylons down and fill them with concrete. Arrange them, side-by-side, so that the clay cannot shift to the other side of the barrier.

They would have to go down deep. Possibly use a drill to drill down 300 feet and fill with concrete, then do the concrete filled steel pylons for the upper 100 feet of the barrier. It might cost upwards of $50 million, maybe more. It could save hundreds of millions of dollars in damages from occurring in the next major earthquake.

[James Bond Agent 007]

Originally Posted by mthq

James Bond: I got permission to recreate the Anchorage construction rundown list because the thread starter of the original rundown had last logged on to SSP in 2006, and the first post of his thread was an article from 2005. Since I live in Anchorage, I would have the ability to regularly update the first post with the latest status on construction, etc.

OK, I'll close the other one and link this thread in the Featured Cities List at the top of this section instead of the other one.

[JDRCRASH]

Maybe to put it simply: The Alaskan Economy should have nowhere to go but up.

[Xeelee]

This is good news.

[KevinFromTexas]

Just a few old postcards of Anchorage. I think I've shown mthq this first one before. But the other one I just got a few weeks ago.

Downtown from at least the 60s. You can see the Hotel Captain Cook (red buildings).

Copyright: Alaska Scenic

Is this downtown or midtown? Seems to be from the early 60s (50s?). I'm not real familiar with Anchorage's skyline, so I'm not sure what's missing here.

Copyright: J&H Sales Company and Jim Balog

[JDRCRASH]

I can't put my finger on it, but it reminds me of Afghanistan or Tibet.

[mthq]

Actually, I didn't see either of those postcards, but thanks for posting them Kevin!

Judging by what is already completed on the first postcard, I'd put it at the late 1970s to early 80s. The second one is downtown before the '64 earthquake. I believe the Hill Building (the yellow lowrise in the center of the photo) was completed in 1959.

[KevinFromTexas]

Wow, well I was way off on that first one. The card itself looks much older than that. Most of these have been through the mail and aren't always taken very good care of. So they can be a little worse for wear.

[Hong Kongese]

What is the population in Anchorage? It looks pretty, would like to go there sometime.

[JDRCRASH]

Someone who went there recently told me that it's now over 300,000. But according to the Census, it's 282,813.

BTW, just so veterans on this site don't bug you; you could have checked Wikipedia. Sorry if I sound rude, I just don't like seeing NOOBIES getting picked on for innocent mistakes.


Nice:
(from wikipedia)

[Hong Kongese]

^^^ Thank you for the info! Don't worry, I can take care of my self.