Park Avenue West | 501' 7" | 30 floors | Completed - Page 70

PacificNW · #**1381** Posted **Apr 17, 2014, 4:38 PM**

downtownpdx · #**1382** Posted **Apr 17, 2014, 5:48 PM**

That view from Director Park will be awesome!

2oh1 · #**1383** Posted **Apr 17, 2014, 8:43 PM**

PAW really is going to look marvelous from Director Park, and it's going to drastically change the feel of the park. It already has. I just wish the fountain in Director Park wasn't so lame. The shape of the fountain area is great, but it rarely runs, and when it does, it's just a lame spray or two. That fountain takes up so much of the park, and it should be a key feature of the park. Instead, it's mostly just a barren slab of concrete with a nice round bench. What a shame. It could have been gorgeous.

tworivers · #**1384** Posted **Apr 17, 2014, 9:36 PM**

Agree 100% 2oh1. The fountain sucks. The round ball that is supposed to be in honor of teachers (right?) is also hideous, right down to the font used for the inscription. Details are important. Personally I think Director suffered from being over-visioned, a process this town specializes in, but I still like it at the end of the day.

65MAX · #**1385** Posted **Apr 18, 2014, 12:08 AM**

You can see the crane for PAW from I-84 driving into downtown now. It's really going to fill that void between Fox and Big Pink.

philopdx · #**1386** Posted **Apr 20, 2014, 10:48 PM**

cailes · #**1387** Posted **Apr 21, 2014, 2:39 PM**

A couple from this weekend.

urbanlife · #**1388** Posted **Apr 22, 2014, 4:07 AM**

I can't wait to get back home, I feel like I am missing this tower going up. Though it has been nice seeing daily pictures of it.

philopdx · #**1389** Posted **Apr 23, 2014, 10:24 AM**

They finished the core bump yesterday. The top of the formwork is at 161 feet, or about 32% of the final height. PAW is now taller than the Benson Hotel, the Montgomery Park building, Oregon National Bank and Jackson Tower (that's the clock tower building adjacent to Pioneer Square). They have also poured more than half of the residential floors (8 of 15).

Pictures taken from the design advice and webcam.

PacificNW · #**1390** Posted **Apr 24, 2014, 2:25 AM**

Definitely going to be a plus for downtown Portland.

Photogeric · #**1391** Posted **Apr 24, 2014, 3:04 AM**

They are really pushing it to the last second to bump that crane up aren't they?

ablerock · #**1392** Posted **Apr 24, 2014, 1:20 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by philopdx

They finished the core bump yesterday. The top of the formwork is at 161 feet, or about 32% of the final height. PAW is now taller than the Benson Hotel, the Montgomery Park building, Oregon National Bank and Jackson Tower (that's the clock tower building adjacent to Pioneer Square). They have also poured more than half of the residential floors (8 of 15).

Pictures taken from the design advice and webcam.

Thanks for the progress graphics you've been posting. Very helpful.

philopdx · #**1393** Posted **Apr 27, 2014, 12:49 AM**

cailes · #**1394** Posted **Apr 28, 2014, 3:11 PM**

From Saturday

philopdx · #**1395** Posted **May 1, 2014, 2:38 PM**

This has been an unusual sequence of construction. It appears that they are putting steel on the crane side to create an attachment point for the bump. The concrete pump is getting awfully close to the crane now, and I'm sure the operator has to take care not to hit it.

The top of the formwork is now at 174 feet, or about 35% of the final height. The building is now taller than the Portland Marriott downtown.

Images taken from webcam and design advice.

Photogeric · #**1396** Posted **May 1, 2014, 4:04 PM**

They must be about to do a MAJOR crane bump if they are going up that high with the steel. They better hurry though, I don't think that they will be able to raise the core anymore without raising the crane. I would guess that it is going to be lifted up to at least the 20th floor height...

zilfondel · #**1397** Posted **May 2, 2014, 1:20 AM**

35%? I guess I didn't realize just how tall this building will be. It's a monster for that tiny site!

urbanlife · #**1398** Posted **May 2, 2014, 4:22 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by zilfondel

35%? I guess I didn't realize just how tall this building will be. It's a monster for that tiny site!

I love it, I would love to see Portland get a new tallest and have it be a half block size building like this one. It is going to look so slick when it is finished.

2oh1 · #**1399** Posted **May 2, 2014, 6:03 AM**

I'm fascinated by the idea of these slender towers and how they could possibly withstand a major earthquake. We all know the "Big One" is coming at some point, right? I'm not arguing against this sort of tower in the least. In fact, I'm thrilled to see it rise! I'm just genuinely fascinated.

maccoinnich · #**1400** Posted **May 2, 2014, 7:17 AM**

Even in a place like Portland, most of the lateral structural design is driven by wind loads, and not earthquakes. (And if you want to hear a great podcast about a real New York skyscraper that actually could have blown over in the wind, I recommend this episode of 99% invisible.)

Seismic design gets more complicated with every irregularity in the shape of the building - i.e., a rectangular building (such as PAW) is easier to design for than an "L" or "H" shaped building. If the shear walls don't align floor-to-floor, then that's a problem too, but in this case the core is acting as the shear walls, and runs straight up and down the building. I would imagine imagine that most of the seismic design was specifying appropriate connections - i.e., how does steel connect to concrete, etc.