PHILADELPHIA | W Hotel & Element by Westin | 617 FT | 51 FLOORS - Page 61

TechTalkGuy · #**1201** Posted **Nov 8, 2015, 9:32 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by kraggman

^^^ That's ridiculous !! What the hell was there before ???

I have no idea myself.

I know that there should be a movie theatre nearby.
Not certain though as it's been many years since I've been down there.

Knight Hospitaller · #**1202** Posted **Nov 8, 2015, 10:37 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by summersm343

Update from Brook Lenfest

Wow. Miscreants though they were, I can see why the demolition contractors took the easy way out. Those sturdy old buildings weren't meant to come down.

Cro Burnham · #**1203** Posted **Nov 9, 2015, 7:13 AM**

I wonder who the site inspector was back when the original demo contractor was supposed to have been removing all that stuff.

As I understand construction management (OK, not so not terribly well), in general, it is a very good idea - and a common practice on many large contracts - to hire a competent and trustworthy expert whose job it is to make sure that the contractor is doing what they say they are doing . . . and to report back to the owner the findings; then the owner may withhold money until the job is completed as specified in the contract and verified by the third-party inspector.

Assuming the original contractor didn't perform the job as specified in the contract, that seems really crummy and dishonest. But you have to wonder if the owner/managing partner at the time either never hired an inspector who might've advised that the contractor was cutting major corners, or hired a really sloppy and/or lazy inspector who never bothered showing up at the site to check in on what the contractor was actually doing. Cause it sure looks like that dirty ol' contractor did not do very much at all.

I think it was that Mahoney guy who owned the site back then, and maybe Lenfest was an investor with Mahoney. My recollection is that Mahoney hadn't done much if any prior city stuff, but I may be off on that. From what I recall reading, it seems like Mahoney and the owner of the Ritz (Craig Spencer) kind of may have hated one another and endless litigation seems to have consumed everyone's attention at the time.

Anyway, I wonder if, when Lenfest bought out Mahoney, it was somehow represented to Lenfest that all this site work had been completed when maybe no competent inspector had ever actually checked out the work while it had been in progress.

I mean, looking at those photos, how could an inspector have missed that stuff? It looks like someone buried megaliths from Giza under that lot.

I wonder what kind of engineer does the testing of the site to verify whether or not underground structures will need to be removed. Seems like something someone would have investigated for at some point in the past few years while planning for the current project.

Arch+Eng · #**1204** Posted **Nov 9, 2015, 2:06 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Plokoon11

Found another picture.

Lol. We will have flying cars and gundams before this gets above ground.

loves development · #**1205** Posted **Nov 9, 2015, 4:18 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cro Burnham

I wonder who the site inspector was back when the original demo contractor was supposed to have been removing all that stuff.

As I understand construction management (OK, not so not terribly well), in general, it is a very good idea - and a common practice on many large contracts - to hire a competent and trustworthy expert whose job it is to make sure that the contractor is doing what they say they are doing . . . and to report back to the owner the findings; then the owner may withhold money until the job is completed as specified in the contract and verified by the third-party inspector.

Assuming the original contractor didn't perform the job as specified in the contract, that seems really crummy and dishonest. But you have to wonder if the owner/managing partner at the time either never hired an inspector who might've advised that the contractor was cutting major corners, or hired a really sloppy and/or lazy inspector who never bothered showing up at the site to check in on what the contractor was actually doing. Cause it sure looks like that dirty ol' contractor did not do very much at all.

I think it was that Mahoney guy who owned the site back then, and maybe Lenfest was an investor with Mahoney. My recollection is that Mahoney hadn't done much if any prior city stuff, but I may be off on that. From what I recall reading, it seems like Mahoney and the owner of the Ritz (Craig Spencer) kind of may have hated one another and endless litigation seems to have consumed everyone's attention at the time.

Anyway, I wonder if, when Lenfest bought out Mahoney, it was somehow represented to Lenfest that all this site work had been completed when maybe no competent inspector had ever actually checked out the work while it had been in progress.

I mean, looking at those photos, how could an inspector have missed that stuff? It looks like someone buried megaliths from Giza under that lot.

I wonder what kind of engineer does the testing of the site to verify whether or not underground structures will need to be removed. Seems like something someone would have investigated for at some point in the past few years while planning for the current project.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lenfest and Mahoney were partners from day one.

1487 · #**1206** Posted **Nov 9, 2015, 6:56 PM**

The most likely explanation is that they didn't have complete documentation (if any) on the foundations of the old buildings. drawings are really the only way to get a detailed idea of the footprint of the buildings support system. If they didn't have them, the contractor probably made assumptions about how much was to be removed and how long that would take. Its obvious they found a lot more than expected.

kraggman · #**1207** Posted **Nov 9, 2015, 7:18 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cro Burnham

I wonder who the site inspector was back when the original demo contractor was supposed to have been removing all that stuff.

As I understand construction management (OK, not so not terribly well), in general, it is a very good idea - and a common practice on many large contracts - to hire a competent and trustworthy expert whose job it is to make sure that the contractor is doing what they say they are doing . . . and to report back to the owner the findings; then the owner may withhold money until the job is completed as specified in the contract and verified by the third-party inspector.

Assuming the original contractor didn't perform the job as specified in the contract, that seems really crummy and dishonest. But you have to wonder if the owner/managing partner at the time either never hired an inspector who might've advised that the contractor was cutting major corners, or hired a really sloppy and/or lazy inspector who never bothered showing up at the site to check in on what the contractor was actually doing. Cause it sure looks like that dirty ol' contractor did not do very much at all.

I think it was that Mahoney guy who owned the site back then, and maybe Lenfest was an investor with Mahoney. My recollection is that Mahoney hadn't done much if any prior city stuff, but I may be off on that. From what I recall reading, it seems like Mahoney and the owner of the Ritz (Craig Spencer) kind of may have hated one another and endless litigation seems to have consumed everyone's attention at the time.

Anyway, I wonder if, when Lenfest bought out Mahoney, it was somehow represented to Lenfest that all this site work had been completed when maybe no competent inspector had ever actually checked out the work while it had been in progress.

I mean, looking at those photos, how could an inspector have missed that stuff? It looks like someone buried megaliths from Giza under that lot.

I wonder what kind of engineer does the testing of the site to verify whether or not underground structures will need to be removed. Seems like something someone would have investigated for at some point in the past few years while planning for the current project.

Wouldn't it be routine for the original survey to include ground penetrating radar to locate underground structures/objects ?? Like Cro Burnham said, how do you miss "megaliths" ??

GarCastle · #**1208** Posted **Nov 10, 2015, 12:20 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by kraggman

Wouldn't it be routine for the original survey to include ground penetrating radar to locate underground structures/objects ?? Like Cro Burnham said, how do you miss "megaliths" ??

I believe Brook answered that a few pages back, basically the radar is not very effective unfortunately.

Cheers,
G.

1487 · #**1209** Posted **Nov 10, 2015, 4:55 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by GarCastle

I believe Brook answered that a few pages back, basically the radar is not very effective unfortunately.

Cheers,
G.

GPR is primarily for indentifying underground utilities that may not be shown on drawings. Not for marking out huge underground concrete structures.

thisisforreal · #**1210** Posted **Nov 12, 2015, 4:20 PM**

Nov 3rd:

Nov 12th:

Baconboy007 · #**1211** Posted **Nov 12, 2015, 6:14 PM**

White van in the top left moved. First to spot the difference, what do I win?

kraggman · #**1212** Posted **Nov 12, 2015, 6:49 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Baconboy007

White van in the top left moved. First to spot the difference, what do I win?

A Where's Waldo tee shirt.

1487 · #**1213** Posted **Nov 12, 2015, 6:56 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Baconboy007

White van in the top left moved. First to spot the difference, what do I win?

the dumpster moved as well in all fairness. Major progress!

thisisforreal · #**1214** Posted **Nov 12, 2015, 7:10 PM**

The jackhammer noises have been non-stop for the past month. It's a little headache inducing. My condolences for those on site.

Do note the northeast corner - that's where the progress has been made.

Knight Hospitaller · #**1215** Posted **Nov 16, 2015, 7:52 PM**

I don't expect this will affect the W/Element project, but it is worth noting:
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/marriott-buy-starwood-hotels-12-2-billion-deal-111819799--sector.html

1487 · #**1216** Posted **Nov 17, 2015, 1:20 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by thisisforreal

The jackhammer noises have been non-stop for the past month. It's a little headache inducing. My condolences for those on site.

Do note the northeast corner - that's where the progress has been made.

They are way down on the east side now. Probably at least 30 feet below street level. I saw a ton of mangled steel beams piled up towards the western end of the site yesterday when I stopped by. The noise is indeed quite loud.