Friday Construction Photo #26

Metal underfloors are filling in quickly. You can even see where they've poured concrete on top of that metal low in the photo. As the floors are filling in, there's some sort of digging going on underneath it all. Maybe they're doing some of the more local services; I don't know.

Friday Construction Photo #25

Looks like the steel frame is finally done. I saw them tearing down the crane this week. I'm not sure how they're going to get the flooring material up into place but they're clever, they'll know what to do.

Friday Construction Photo #24

The steel skeleton is almost complete. As the frame expands and the space for the crane to operate contracts around it, I bet the builders are applying some lessons learned along the way. In order for the crane to deliver pieces to far corners, it needs room to move. If the nearby steel gets too tall too early, it'll be blocked from being able to reach. I bet there have been some interesting oops moments along the way for some of these guys.

It reminds me of listening to an elder aircraft engineer who worked on at least one military plane before computerized design had arrived. He said it wasn't uncommon to find that two components would be accidentally designed such that they would occupy the same space in the plane; not gonna work very well. I'm sure that, from time to time, building construction runs into a similar gotcha.

Friday Construction Photo #23

The steel keeps rising. Since last week, the framework on the right of the image has reached full height and advanced on the remaining corner of gravel. It can't be long before the crane will have to get out of the way of the growing building.

There's also an interesting temporary elevator going up the left side of the image. I think it might be pretty interesting to take a ride in that little birdcage.

Friday Construction Photo #22

The skeleton keeps growing. As cold and more challenging weather approaches, I'm guessing they'd like to get things in place and closed up. They're making good progress! Clear days like this one can't hurt.

Friday Construction Photo #21

The crane keeps moving around but I'm not seeing a lot of new steel. There does appear to be work being done on the existing floors. There used to be open spaces in the steel framework that is now filled in with what appears to be a heavy corrugated metal.

Friday Construction Photo #20

The steel keeps rising. Done on the left, it's going up on the right. Not much else visible is going on. It won't be many more weeks before the skeleton will be in place.

Friday Construction Photo #19

There's been good progress on the southwest corner. The steel is nearly all the way up and shiny floor material is filling in the framework.

There are signs that these areas are soon going to be active platforms for other workers. On the middle floor on the right, you can see a perimeter of posts defining a "safe" zone. Driving by, I saw men pulling safety cables around what will be the exterior walls. It won't be as visible but there will be a lot going on.

Friday Construction Photo #18

The steel in the southwest corner went up quickly. The crane now appears to be off the footprint of the building so it may get to stay there for a while. It looks like the base for the remaining girders has been prepared so things should keep moving along smoothly. I'm a little surprised that the steel has been such a focus but, with cooler and likely rainy weather ahead, I guess it makes sense to get the framework and exterior up quickly; they can fill in the interior when the cold winds are blowing outside.

Friday Construction Photo #17

They're really moving now. Each week, the steel skeleton adds new sections, new floors, new stairwells. I can't tell much about what's going on within the framework but the expansion is impressive. As expected, the crane has made his way out of the box in the left corner. The ground appears to be ready for all of the steel to be assembled above it; it won't be long now.

Friday Construction Photo #16

The steel keeps arriving and taking shape. The metal sheeting for the second and third floors has also expanded quickly. Stairwells zigzag up from the ground as well. They're smoothing gravel in the right center so I'm guessing steel will be going up there before too long. The crane in the left center still has an escape route but it looks like it'll be an interesting drive. The forms for the footings in the lower center look like they could pour more concrete soon.

Friday Construction Photo #15

Things are really moving along! You really have to look close to see some of them. Of course, the girders and floors continue to rise and expand. Last week, it was a boxy framework; this week, we can see the basis of flooring on the fourth story.

In the right center of the photo, you may be able to see grey and white pipes sticking up out of the gravel. I believe the white pipes are plumbing while the grey are the entry of the electrical system.

Concrete forms await in the left and right corners of the site. This photo is of the concrete pumper delivering the concrete right where the workers need it. The mixer unloads into a hopper where what has to be a powerful pump pushes it along the piping of the boom for delivery. That has to be a pretty cool system ... especially for anyone who had to coerce a mixer into a tight corner to pour or horse a wheelbarrow of cement to the right spot. I've done neither but I still like it!

Friday Construction Photo #14

Steel! Suddenly, there's steel going up! In it's first week on the site, that new yellow crane has been busy hoisting I-beams, giving a vertical dimension to the work. The streets echo with the clank of men bangin' them into position. It's a busy place. In this shot, I count four backhoe type machines; there are mounds of dirt and gravel are still scattered across what was once a pretty smooth work site. It looks like the trenches are full of cement; there are a few underground vaults that appear to be finishing up. This portion of the skyline is going to be changing nearly daily for a while now.

We'll probably soon be losing sight of something and I'd like to take this time to point it out. In the greenspace in the right background of the photo, there's an arc of sidewalk. I'll be posting more about that shortly.

Also, the red and yellow tent in the central background is part of the Iowa Fringe Festival. I'll be talking more about that in an upcoming post as well.

Friday Construction Photo #13

I thought there was a lot going on last week... Everything that was going on last week moved ahead and new things are happening! Unfortunately, most of the things in the image are coated with gravel dust and the sun was high so there's not a lot of contrast to pick out small details. It's not too hard to find the big yellow crane in the upper left; that wasn't there last week. The rebar fabrication station that used to be lower center is reforming in the right center. The deep, broad trenches that were in the lower portion of the site are now filled with concrete and bristle with rebar. The main footprint of the building is starting to emerge; it appears to be a capital 'H' with the top being in the upper right (or lower left for that matter.) There's a rectangular box with dark sides and a light top with two circles; it looks like some sort of electrical or stormwater box with two manholes to me.

Friday Construction Photo #12

Lots of interesting little things going on this week. Most apparent is probably the framing in the right center of the photo; I'm guessing that's for an elevator or stairwell shaft but we'll see. The rebar fabrication area has moved from bottom center to the right-hand corner. In the lower left, the footing trench sure looks deep and wide. New gravel is being laid out in the upper center. In the center, there's a line of dirt piled up like a trencher had recently been run. In the left corner, there are some pretty well constructed wooden squares that could either contain concrete or keep concrete out of their area. Hmmm...

Friday Construction Photo #11

Another week of working on footings. If you look closely, you might be able to see that some of the footings at the far corner of the site are actually now above ground level. You have the whole range in this shot: above ground, poured with rebar, and freshly dug.

Also, in the "background" of the photo, you can see the white tents of the Des Moines Art Festival. Each year, this event has seemed to grow in popularity and stature. Weather looks like it should be fantastic for this weekend's event.

Friday Construction Photo #10

Rain this morning surely slowed at least a few of the tasks at the work site today. The sky was threatening when I took this shot and soon another downpour was rolling across the city. Several of the concrete footings are clearly poured and trenches bristle with rebar. It looks like the rebar storage area in the foreground is likely to be displaced in the next week or so as the trenches keep expanding.

Friday Construction Photo #9

Lots of stuff showing up now! They're diggin' holes and trenches and puttin' rebar in to form footings and there are trucks and barrels and wooden forms and all sorts of things on the site now! The pathways between all the trenches look to be narrowing down to where only the smaller vehicles are going to be able to navigate some parts of the site. The big dump and cement trucks appear to have a path right up the center but it looks like they'll soon be crowded out. I imagine it takes a little while to get the hang of planning the sequence of work and the logistics of vehicle movements to be able to manage a work site like this.

This shot shows one of the things I've been mentioning for a while. This digger has cleared the gravel and dirt from around eight to ten of those pilings that were made with that tall derrick drill. You can see the rebar sticking out of the top of each one. The concrete for these was injected into the ground as the drill was withdrawn. If you've been following along, you know I'm fairly impressed with this approach. It's pretty a pretty slick operation to drill the hole and refill it with concrete with one tool; it's a complex tool but I think they make good use of it.

Friday Construction Photo #8

It's been a pretty good week, weather wise. Some new holes have been dug and a good deal of rebar has arrived. Near the center of the photo, along the edge of the biggest hole, I'm starting to see trenches connecting the pads atop the pilings. These trenches have been filled with concrete and have rebar poking out of the top; looks like footings to me... but I didn't stay at a Holiday Inn so you should take that as just the speculation of an uninformed.

Friday Construction Photo #7

Rain this week has no doubt slowed progress but they're still moving forward. Even with the thick later of gravel, enough water has fallen to make some pretty large if shallow pools; enough to really make things messy on the site.