Quote:
Originally Posted by Barrelfish
Not quite right:
1. They created a design where the narrow parts of the frustrums got even narrower than the current design. A blow through floor was not needed.
2. After construction had already started, the developers wanted to add more square footage
3. They changed the design to widen the narrow parts of the frustrums to add more square footage
4. This increased the wind resistance, so the new design required a blow through floor to not sway too much.
So if there was any screw up, it was either: - Not anticipating that the developer might want to add more square footage, and designing a building that could be scaled up easily without major changes like adding a blowthrough
- Not coming up with a better design revision *after construction had already started* that didn't require a blow through floor
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We've discussed their excuses in the trade article many times. As I have said from the very beginning, even before the design was revealed (although i revealed it to LVDR who then did a sketch) this was a function-follows-form idea from the beginning, and a really, really, bad one.
Why would the developer suddenly need more SF at the cost of some of the most premium SF in the building? That's definitely not what happened.
I would invite anyone that thinks the frustum design was inspired to take a close look at the condo floor plans, particular the stacked units in the lower half of the building. Taking 3-4 feet in and out of the same floor plans on all the exterior walls pretty much results in a horror show. And this doesn't even address the 4' thick shear walls in so many of the bedrooms.... jail cells have more light. There was clearly never any functional reason for the frustums... and well, that led to all kinds of unintended consequences.
What I really suspect is that like the mechanical room louvers, Gang just chose to ignore or remain ignorant about the technical requirements of a supertall. This isn't a mistake that Smith or Gill would have ever made. Granted, I have to give Gang some benefit of the doubt due to the fact that this is probably the tallest building built by the cheapest developer in the history of the planet.