Yea to get an accurate height, just take QCSI and stack 2 more on top of that building.  The crown will extend a little beyond that at the top.

Ok, is it me or is it finally time to raise the main tower crane?

From the looks of the QCS II webcam (this evening) there doesn't seem like a lot of room between the roof of the new building and the bottom of the tower crane operator's booth. I'm just sayin'......

The crane in the center of the project was lowered within the last week. It used to be the same height as the north crane.

Maybe the north crane was raised?

Ok, is it me or is it finally time to raise the main tower crane?

From the looks of the QCS II webcam (this evening) there doesn't seem like a lot of room between the roof of the new building and the bottom of the tower crane operator's booth. I'm just sayin'......

 

They haven't increased that tower but once since they put it up, and that was only a few sections maybe 1 or 2.

The crane in the center of the project was lowered within the last week. It used to be the same height as the north crane.

 

I don't believe it was lowered, just that the sublevel parking has risen several floors.

The crane in the center of the project was lowered within the last week. It used to be the same height as the north crane.

 

:roll:  :drunk:

The SOUTH tower crane - closest to the river - closest to the main building. As of today, it's still the same height as when it was first constructed. Should go higher as the building goes higher .... :roll:

It's interesting to see now that phase 1's leasable floors will align with the existing phase 2 floors. This wasn't obvious until this week, when construction rose above the parking garage levels of the existing structure.  But there are a few office floors in the new tower that will have no windows on that side of the building AND on the north side of the tower, because they will be blocked by the new tower's above ground parking garage.  This should be some relatively cheap space for back office functions. 

 

I suspect that the economics of these towers operate on a sort of "penthouse" model, meaning the high rent for the upper floors is where the developer makes his money, whereas the lower floors are difficult to rent and perhaps just break even due to lesser prestige and a more congested floor plate and oddities such as the one described above. 

 

Overall QCS is a supreme example of the constraints put upon urban developments in a auto-dependent city.  This design is in every way following the clunky demands of the automobile. 

No office floor will have an obstructed view.  There is a gap between the office floors of I and II.  Only the parking garage floors are "connected" and the exterior parking garage on the 4th street side is no higher than the levels above ground on the 3rd st side.

^ thanks for clarifying nicker.  i brought this up a few days ago...and now it all makes sense.  its easy to forget that the all but 8 floors of qc1 are parking hidden behind the curtain wall.

The crane in the center of the project was lowered within the last week. It used to be the same height as the north crane.

 

I don't believe it was lowered, just that the sublevel parking has risen several floors.

 

I'll have to disagree. The sublevel parking rising wouldn't make the crane appear lower. The North and the Center Crane were the same height when originally installed. They are no longer the same height.

>No office floor will have an obstructed view.

 

There are clearly office floors being built in the new tower that bump up against the parking garage floors of the existing building.  If this side of the building had windows, it would be three feet from a concrete wall.  Additionally, these same floors might not have any windows on the north side because of the above ground garage that has yet to start construction. 

The crane in the center of the project was lowered within the last week. It used to be the same height as the north crane.

 

I don't believe it was lowered, just that the sublevel parking has risen several floors.

 

I'll have to disagree. The sublevel parking rising wouldn't make the crane appear lower. The North and the Center Crane were the same height when originally installed. They are no longer the same height.

 

Well I guess if you're comparing it to the north crane.  Maybe they don't need it any more?

>No office floor will have an obstructed view.

 

There are clearly office floors being built in the new tower that bump up against the parking garage floors of the existing building. If this side of the building had windows, it would be three feet from a concrete wall. Additionally, these same floors might not have any windows on the north side because of the above ground garage that has yet to start construction.

 

Those spaces your talking about may not be office space.  They are immediately adjacent to the huge lobby (which from the photos above looks to be 2 stories tall on the south of the building, and 3 on the north by the parking garage) and may be programmed for building mechanical or maintenance areas.  I doubt they would design rent able space with no views to the exterior at all, that would make several LEED points unachievable, in terms of daylight and views...  Although the adjacency and frontage to the lobby would make for a great bank or cafe.

You can see clearly what I am talking about in this image:

 

In this one, it's clear that at least two floors of office space above the lobby level will not have windows facing east, and might not have north windows for part of the floor if the parking garage is built to the same level as the one in the existing tower:

 

Incidentally, the escalators from 3rd St. to the lobby level were installed this week and are under a tarp.  It's a bit funny that the company moving into this building is moving from one with a non-traditional skywalk level lobby which was accessed via similar elevators. 

To clarify, I was wrong about the "gap between the two buildings.  They will actually be attached;  however, all office floors will be open on the other three sides.  The parking garage for II does go the same height as I, but stops at the east side of the core.  there is a ramp connecting each parking floor in I and II.  the west side is either main lobby or mechanical until the office floors are reached.  the office floors do not connect to each other in I and II.

 

a good question will be what happens to all the curtainwall on the west side of I, since i don't know the answer to that one...

Are we sure there's no gap at that point? If you look at the first picture jmeck posted above, there appears to be a stub connector between 1 and 2 that stops at the top of the parking garage.  it would seem to me like above that point, there is a gap between the buildings that is the width of that stub (maybe 12').

 

edit: the main rendering on the website http://queencitysquare.com/ shows that there is a gap there.  Granted, the view will be 12' across and into another office, but that's still a lot better than views out of many old buildings around town.

^That gap is a recess.

SO how many floors will they go up before we see curtain wall? BTW, they definately need to raise that tower within the next few days are so or else they will blow it off. LOL...I'm excited at the pace these guys are working, kudos to the QCSII site workers! :clap:

from the "most recent photo"

 

You can see QCSII now coming up 27, it's cool!

'Tiara tower' turning greener

 

By Lisa Bernard-Kuhn • [email protected] • June 22, 2009

 

 

The Great American Tower at Queen City Square -- the 41-story skyscraper under construction at the corner of Third and Sycamore streets downtown -- is on track to be "greener" than designers originally planned, the project's developers said Monday.

 

The 800,000 square foot office building is on the registry for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification with the U.S. Green Building Council and previously was targeted to achieve a basic certification.

 

But Eagle Realty Group, the project's developers and a division of downtown-based Western & Southern Financial Group, said they are now attempting to achieve a "silver" level certification. The higher designation covers the entire project, excluding the interior tenant spaces.

 

Remind me again why I care about LEED certification?

Remind me again why I care about LEED certification?

 

The article gives you reasons...choose one. 

^ You don't really have to.  While LEED does encourage some good principals, the points systems are flawed, there are too many inside interests, and it's run by a bunch of CEO's of "sustainable product" companies, who have their own motivations for what they do.

 

As an architect I'm fully aware of the need to make buildings efficient, both to lower operating costs and because I feel it's a basic responsibility, but LEED is for good PR and that's about it.  In my eyes, it costs slightly more up front to make a building sustainable, but it pays off.. to get a building LEED certified it costs significantly more...

^ If good PR is what it takes for companies to start thinking this way, then so be it.  I really dont get why so many people are down on LEED.  No, its not a perfect system.  Yes, in certain ways its flawed.  Does the certification process cost too much?  Probably.  But companies in America dont do anything anymore without some sort of incentive (there are certainly exceptions).  And if good PR is the incentive they need to build better, more efficient buildings, then i think thats a good start.

 

Ideally, in the years to come LEED disappears and sustainable principals are absorbed into building codes...but until then, its all weve got.

I appreciate what the Clinton Global Initiative is doing, in respects to the retrofit project that will soon be underway at the Empire State Building. By refurbishing all 6,500 windows with triple-glazed insulated units, upgrading lighting, controls and design, overhauling or replacing furnaces, chillers and air units, and installing demand-side management systems, the Empire State Building can recoup their investment in as little as three years (estimated cost is $20 million).

 

Going 'green' and all is nice, but if there is not a market-driven rationale behind it, it isn't really necessary and is nothing more than a PR move. If it costs more to go 'green' and LEED than what one can expect to recoup out of the building in say, 10 years, then it isn't worth completing until the costs and barriers of entry go down.

In the context of the current state of the environment and our civilization, the greenest thing you can possibly do is kill yourself. There is no "market" or "profit-based rationale" or "investment recoup," there is only the 6 bilion bags of meat munching on resources on one planet, and they don't know how to get off of it when dinner's over.

 

OK, anyhow, LEED is cute, but the work being done to re-use existing buildings in Over-the-Rhine (for example) is spectacularly more green than building a new building, even if it is downtown. Any extraction of a base resource to build something new sets off a virtually limitless chain reaction of extraction and refinement. We call this "The Economy." But if you want to be an environmental purist (and I am not, just for the record) then you must admit that LEED is lipstick on a pig.

What's being built to the north of the tower on the rest of that parcel of land?  A parking structure?

http://www.queencitysquare.com/pdf/siteplan.pdf

the overhead camera that looks down on the whole project, seems to be stuck on June 23, 2009.  Is there anyone to contact, or way to have the camera start up again?  Thanks

http://www.queencitysquare.com/pdf/siteplan.pdf

 

Thanks Thomas!  Are there any rendering showing what the garage's facade will consist of?  It would be nice if they used the same materials from the exterior of 303 Broadway to tie the whole project together.

^ You don't really have to.  While LEED does encourage some good principals, the points systems are flawed, there are too many inside interests, and it's run by a bunch of CEO's of "sustainable product" companies, who have their own motivations for what they do.

 

As an architect I'm fully aware of the need to make buildings efficient, both to lower operating costs and because I feel it's a basic responsibility, but LEED is for good PR and that's about it.  In my eyes, it costs slightly more up front to make a building sustainable, but it pays off.. to get a building LEED certified it costs significantly more...

 

I can't thank you enough for saying this.  While I am LEED AP, after you read deeply into the manual you begin to question the whole system and why some credits are not worth more than others.  Sustainability should be a standard, not a reward IMO

Any body know what this is they're building in front here? It looks like a crane?

 

 

I think I know, maybe it's the elevator to get up there lol?  I guess it's becoming tiresome to walk all the way up there now? :|

 

I must say, I am pleased with the progess this site has made.  Kudos to the construction guys!  :clap:

The  webcam has come down for window washing, and will be down for some time.

Thank you for the udate on the webcam.

Is the webcam still down?

QCS phase 1 will probably grow higher than QCS phase 2 this week. 

^backwards but probably correct

YEs, for now, that webcam on top of the building is still down.

QCS phase 1 will probably grow higher than QCS phase 2 this week.

 

from my view from above next door, it appears that the core is one floor below the top of QCS I.  They did add a nice banner to the core announcing this as "QUEEN CITY SQUARE."

Brandt lands Great American Tower tenant deal

http://cincinnati.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/stories/2009/06/29/daily33.html

 

Brandt Retail Group in Sycamore Township has been signed to lease the restaurant and retail space at the $300 million Great American Tower at Queen City Square, downtown’s latest and biggest office tower.

 

The 41-story skyscraper, at Fourth and Sycamore streets downtown, is being developed by Eagle Realty Group, a subsidiary of Western & Southern. When completed in 2011, it will be the tallest building in the region.

 

Dave Sheehy, a senior vice president and restaurant specialist at Brandt, will serve as exclusive agent for the firm. Sheehy, who brokered deals to bring the restaurants Oceanaire and Boi Na Braza to downtown, is seeking new-to-market tenants to anchor the project.

 

Brandt lands Great American Tower tenant deal

 

"Our idea is to have concepts that are only downtown," Sheehy said this morning. "It might be a local restaurateur who has other units, but we're looking for a new concept that would only be downtown. We don't want to duplicate what's already in the suburbs."

 

The project will includes an 8,000-square-foot space in the Fourth Street lobby level, overlooking Great American Ball Park. In addition, there are two spaces, of 2,600 square feet and 4,000 square feet, and several kiosk-type spaces.

 

...

 

"We've had several meetings," he said. "Right now its been local and regional."

 

I like what I hear.  Between this space and The Banks a block away, I hope to see lots of local/regional flagship locations.

Hm, consider me pleasently surprised.  I thought the retail component of this building would be typical office building stores like a Blue Chip Cookie or Starbucks or something. 

The site cam website has been redesigned and they've added timelapse since the start of the project until now.  It's still under construction but the site is pretty neat.  You should all check it out:

http://www.siteisight.com/clients/queencity/

07/01/2009 04:44PM

uh, can you scale this down a bit hoss? LOL I wonder if they are going to be working on friday? If so I expect this baby to overtake QCSI this weekend.  If not monday.  But I did see them pouring the concrete today so who knows. 

They really need to raise the crane now.  They can't raise the core another level until they do. LOL!!