CHICAGO | Aqua | 858 FT / 262 M | 87 FLOORS - Page 66

Horio · #**1301** Posted **Apr 26, 2007, 4:21 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nowhereman1280

Are you sure? How would the form work be supported where the balcony beneath does not exist?

From what I understand, they will be supporting off of some type of cantilever beam system. I can't remember if the balconies are being supported from below or above.

Loopy · #**1302** Posted **Apr 26, 2007, 5:19 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by denizen467

Does this basically mean there will be 800-foot-high scaffolding surrounding the building as construction is completed?

It sounds like he's talking about a full-height scaffold to me. Very strange. Kind of like those bamboo staging structures they still use all over Asia to build high-rises.

Quote:

So the perimeter of the building is essentially different on every single floor. Because of the cantilevered balconies, no hoist can be closer than 12 feet to the structure. The framing of each floor will be difficult, as the balconies will be cantilevered off the column line and cannot hold support for upper floors

To support the building while each floor plate is constructed, McHugh will build a solid temporary structure set more than 12 feet away from the building in all directions that will rise to the 82-story height of Aqua. To create each balcony, Alexander said McHugh workers will use 130 bridges that account for the length of each different balcony in the project.
The balconies extend a maximum of 12 feet from the perimeter,” said David Alexander, SVP at McHugh.

Nowhereman1280 · #**1303** Posted **Apr 26, 2007, 3:11 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Loopy

It sounds like he's talking about a full-height scaffold to me. Very strange. Kind of like those bamboo staging structures they still use all over Asia to build high-rises.

Yeah, that's what I got out of it too. In which case Aqua would become the largest tease ever. We wouldn't really get a good idea of what she looks like until all of the scaffolding comes down at the very end!

Horio · #**1304** Posted **Apr 27, 2007, 4:51 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nowhereman1280

Yeah, that's what I got out of it too. In which case Aqua would become the largest tease ever. We wouldn't really get a good idea of what she looks like until all of the scaffolding comes down at the very end!

Trust me, Aqua will be built without scaffolding. It will be more of a flying form system with cantilevered sections hanging out from the columns and shear walls to support the balconies. You will be able to see the balconies take shape as each week goes by. A scaffolding system for a building this size would be just too massive.

Nowhereman1280 · #**1305** Posted **Apr 27, 2007, 4:59 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Horio

Trust me, Aqua will be built without scaffolding. It will be more of a flying form system with cantilevered sections hanging out from the columns and shear walls to support the balconies. You will be able to see the balconies take shape as each week goes by. A scaffolding system for a building this size would be just too massive.

Ok, lets make a deal. We'll believe you if you tell us how you know this? Are you somehow involved with the project? Could you fill us in on anything else?

Loopy · #**1306** Posted **Apr 27, 2007, 2:37 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Horio

Trust me, Aqua will be built without scaffolding. It will be more of a flying form system with cantilevered sections hanging out from the columns and shear walls to support the balconies. You will be able to see the balconies take shape as each week goes by. A scaffolding system for a building this size would be just too massive.

This makes more sense to me. My hunch is that the story is just another case of bad journalism that is endemic to construction news.

Quote:

To support the building while each floor plate is constructed, McHugh will build a solid temporary structure set more than 12 feet away from the building in all directions that will rise to the 82-story height of Aqua.

I guess this could be interpreted to mean a flying system rather than a ground-up system. These guys are used to nobody reading their articles, so they become sloppy writers. Their job is to create filler to put between the ads.

Horio · #**1307** Posted **Apr 28, 2007, 6:45 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nowhereman1280

Ok, lets make a deal. We'll believe you if you tell us how you know this? Are you somehow involved with the project? Could you fill us in on anything else?

Its a possibility...

Alliance · #**1308** Posted **Apr 28, 2007, 2:42 PM**

^^^ but is it a fact?

Loopy · #**1309** Posted **Apr 29, 2007, 2:40 AM**

Just for grins; here's a few pics of a supertall in Hong Kong being constructed using ground-up scaffolding:

Photo: Michael Wolf

Photo: Michael Wolf

SolarWind · #**1310** Posted **May 4, 2007, 3:22 AM**

May 3, 2007

APPRAISER · #**1311** Posted **May 4, 2007, 3:47 AM**

For you guys that know the constuction process, how long do you think they will be doing caissions for?

djvandrake · #**1312** Posted **May 4, 2007, 3:47 AM**

Caissions! Yeah!

Look at how bright and blue 340 on the Park is in the background. Beautiful.

Great pics!

simcityaustin · #**1313** Posted **May 4, 2007, 5:40 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by APPRAISER

For you guys that know the constuction process, how long do you think they will be doing caissions for?

I don't know, but there is a crazy amount of them for this project.

...and yeah, 340 looks awesome. Can't wait till that and the BCBS expansion is complete. Quite the cluster!

BorisMolotov · #**1314** Posted **May 4, 2007, 12:33 PM**

^ I wanna say something like 80. I remember reading about it in a post waaay back.

biophilic · #**1315** Posted **May 4, 2007, 12:47 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by BorisMolotov

^ I wanna say something like 80. I remember reading about it in a post waaay back.

80 Caissons? The real number is closer to 300.

Alliance · #**1316** Posted **May 4, 2007, 1:41 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by SolarWind

BVictor1 · #**1317** Posted **May 4, 2007, 2:00 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by APPRAISER

For you guys that know the constuction process, how long do you think they will be doing caissions for?

Several months.

There are a total of around 300 caissons, and I believe out of those, there are between 80-100 rock caissons.

BorisMolotov · #**1318** Posted **May 4, 2007, 4:05 PM**

^ Haha! I was right about the rock caissons!

Nowhereman1280 · #**1319** Posted **May 4, 2007, 4:09 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by BVictor1

Several months.

There are a total of around 300 caissons, and I believe out of those, there are between 80-100 rock caissons.

Bvic, isn't Aqua going to be bell cassions only? I thought it was going to become the tallest building in Chicago supported only by hardpan and not any rock anchors... I just swear I read that somewhere back. 640 OTP is the current tallest and I thought that Aqua was supposed to pass it up. Am I crazy or right?

Horio · #**1320** Posted **May 5, 2007, 3:44 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nowhereman1280

Bvic, isn't Aqua going to be bell cassions only? I thought it was going to become the tallest building in Chicago supported only by hardpan and not any rock anchors... I just swear I read that somewhere back. 640 OTP is the current tallest and I thought that Aqua was supposed to pass it up. Am I crazy or right?

There are about 300 caissons on the site. There will be rock caissons under the tower. I believe they are shooting for finishing the caissons in June sometime, but that will depend largely upon how many hiccups they run into.