CHICAGO | SoMi Tower | 488 FT | 47 FLOORS

[simon07]

Steel is being pounded into the ground today. U/C?

[Notyrview]

It's not under construction until they start drilling the caissons

[SamInTheLoop]

^ ^^Actually, it might be under construction. Do we know for certain that this building has a caisson foundation? It's always possible it's a steel pile foundation.....don't forget, a lot of towers in the South Loop - this area (directly behind - 1333 S Wabash, 1401 S State, for example used steel pile foundations), and also closer to the river/Printer's Row/Roosevelt Collection area, where several projects are also on steel piles and/or micro-piles......actually, now that I think about it - also due north, as one or both of the towers under construction in the 1100 block of S Wabash used piles as well.....

Not sure what the practical maximum tower height/size is for piles....if this one is, it will be the tallest/largest in personal memory locally....

[Ned.B]

Originally Posted by SamInTheLoop

^ ^^Actually, it might be under construction. Do we know for certain that this building has a caisson foundation? It's always possible it's a steel pile foundation.....don't forget, a lot of towers in the South Loop - this area (directly behind - 1333 S Wabash, 1401 S State, for example used steel pile foundations), and also closer to the river/Printer's Row/Roosevelt Collection area, where several projects are also on steel piles and/or micro-piles......actually, now that I think about it - also due north, as one or both of the towers under construction in the 1100 block of S Wabash used piles as well.....

Not sure what the practical maximum tower height/size is for piles....if this one is, it will be the tallest/largest in personal memory locally....

I heard that this building does indeed have piles for a foundation instead of caissons from someone on the design team.

FYI, the official ground breaking was yesterday, not that that has any association with being U/C

[harryc]

Originally Posted by Ned.B

I heard that this building does indeed have piles for a foundation instead of caissons from someone on the design team.

FYI, the official ground breaking was yesterday, not that that has any association with being U/C

801 S Financial and 235 W Van Buren are on friction piles (technically caissons are piles as well). Has to do with the soil conditions in that area.

[SamInTheLoop]

^ Ahh - 235 has steel ("friction") piles as well....that would be a similar-sized tower to 1326 S......

[SamInTheLoop]

Originally Posted by Ned.B

I heard that this building does indeed have piles for a foundation instead of caissons from someone on the design team.

FYI, the official ground breaking was yesterday, not that that has any association with being U/C

This is one building in which an 'official' groundbreaking/groundbreaking ceremony might have actually coincided with an actual groundbreaking.....we'll need someone to provide visual evidence, I suppose, but by the sounds of it (literally according to my ears from some blocks away this morning) this one is almost certainly now u/c.....

[BVictor1]

Move this thread.....

There are cluster piles along the alley -85'.

[Notyrview]

Woo-hoo!

[gebs]

This image was new to me:



(via Curbed)

I know it's because of the interior lighting and time of day the rendering aims to capture, but this image really changes how the building looks from the previous images. I like this a lot more.

[BVictor1]

05/04/17

[BVictor1]

[KWILLSKYLINE]

Bvic or anyone else, iv'e heard of this cassion process before but have never seen it. It seems much more time consuming than the drilling. Whats the reason for using one process over the other? My guess would first be financial reasons but I have no clue. I know you guys talked about soil quality early but can someone post some information on why you would use one method over the other depending on soil? I would appreciate it.

[BVictor1]

Originally Posted by KWILLSKYLINE

Bvic or anyone else, iv'e heard of this cassion process before but have never seen it. It seems much more time consuming than the drilling. Whats the reason for using one process over the other? My guess would first be financial reasons but I have no clue. I know you guys talked about soil quality early but can someone post some information on why you would use one method over the other depending on soil? I would appreciate it.

Caissons are a bit more tedious and expensive, but either are acceptable and support the building in a similar manor. The main pilings around the core will still be capped and connected with a mat.

In terms of time consuming, I think it's probably less in man hours because of the crews required.

The rental building going up on Wabash just north of Roosevelt used pilings.

And as you can see, they're still going down 85' or so.

[LouisVanDerWright]

Also something about the soil in the South Loop makes piles more practical. The soil is more firm closer to the surface or something like that, further North the soil is swampier (I'd imagine since it's near the mouth of the river) and they can't use piles at all (or it's cost prohibitive to do so).

[KOgc]

I think this method also means you have way less spoils to haul off the jobsite. Nowadays, almost everything is considered special waste, which is a premium for excavators to dispose of.

[ChiHi]

Really surprised that the indents in the tower didn't get ve'd out of the final design. Looks really nice (minus the standard Chicago monotonous podium). As a resident of the area I'm always glad to see something built that isn't a townhouse down here!

[ithakas]

Originally Posted by ChiHi

Really surprised that the indents in the tower didn't get ve'd out of the final design. Looks really nice (minus the standard Chicago monotonous podium). As a resident of the area I'm always glad to see something built that isn't a townhouse down here!

Yeah I'm a little disappointed about the podium. In earlier renderings it seemed the central portion of the podium was covered by active uses.

South Loop needs the most help at street level...

[Kumdogmillionaire]

Originally Posted by ithakas

Yeah I'm a little disappointed about the podium. In earlier renderings it seemed the central portion of the podium was covered by active uses.

South Loop needs the most help at street level...

I don't remember that being the case at all. I thought it was always obvious that the middle section was going to be slightly obscured parking garage.

[SolarWind]

May 10, 2017