oh ok...so they are making the core smaller now?

They probably reached the point where one of the elevator banks drops away.

They probably reached the point where one of the elevator banks drops away.

 

explain?

^ Some elevators in tall buildings don't go from the ground floor all the way to the top.  The core is smaller at upper floors because there may only be 6 elevators for floors 12-24, whereas there were 8 for floors 1-12.

 

Likewise, there are certain express elevators, that will stop at the ground floor, and only service upper floors.  This is so you don't end up taking 30 minutes to leave the building from the top floor at 5:00.

^ What he said.

 

Express and local elevators in the Carew Tower. The elevators in the foreground serve floors 20 through 45; the elevators in the background serve the lower floors up to 20.

 

 

I used to work in the Sears Tower, where they had at least six banks of elevators at the ground floor, plus additional elevator banks on the sky lobbies on levels 33-34 and 66-67 (reached by double-deck nonstop express elevators). I worked on the 54th floor, so I took an express elevator to 33, an escalator to 34, and then a local elevator to 54.

 

Oh geez seems like a lot of work.  But you know I thought they would be higher than this before they did the core changes?  Hmh i guess they are at the 16th (technically it's the 20th b/c of the sub levels) floor for the core though huh?  Thanks for your explanations guys.

QCSII has much larger floors than the Carew Tower. Larger floors means more people per floor, which means more demand for elevators, which means the elevators need to be divided up into more banks.  6-8 elevators per bank is pretty typical.

 

Wait times are also a factor; fewer elevators serving more floors means longer wait times for office workers. Office workers are generally willing to wait about 30 seconds between the time they push the elevator button and the time the elevator shows up. Wait times can be much longer for elevators in parking garages or residential towers, or much shorter for hospital elevators.

 

Carew Tower, as beautiful as it is, would never be feasible to build today because the floors are so small, and there are only two banks of elevators. Several newer but shorter office buildings in downtown Cincy have three or four elevator banks, but I just happened to have a photo of Carew's elevators.

 

take a look at the core today and you'll see exactly what I was talking about. 

So are they just gonna cut off that one end, and go up like that?

Interesting comparison:

 

Carew Tower costs

$33,000,000 in 1931

 

QCSII costs

$322,000,000 by 2011

 

This translates roughly to:

 

Carew Tower costing

$462,402,530.64 in 2008

 

QCSII costing

$294,402,530.18 in 2008

The 1929 crash probably inflates the 2008 value of the Carew by about 30-40 million since 1 mil from 1931 is worth more now then 1 mil from 1929.

I assume those numbers include the adjacent Netherland Plaza Hotel, so it's sort of an apples-to-oranges comparison.

Also, both buildings occupy a similar footprint, but Carew's block is surely more valuable.

I wonder if they're sitting on their asses today? I see no significant outward signs of progress today or for the last few days for that matter? Tighten up workers, don't be like the WTC site which has been working for 2 years and barely broke ground. They were moving so fast. Now things have slowed down abit.

not sitting...I see 4 guys on top of the core right now. They have been pouring a lot of cement the past few days on the first 4 or 5 floors of the tower.

I guess sarcasm really don't translate well on paper.  But um yeah I knew they were working.  I've just seen little visible changes to the site on the site-cam in the last few days.

The core jumped today. Interesting how this is going to work now...they dropped one elevator bank. Cool, so this thing should rise much faster now that the core has literally shrunk.

I have a question, now that they have cut off one elevator.  How far will they go up with just the 3.  Or will they bank that third one once they reach a certain height limit.  You know this thing looks really odd right now?  Any architects/enthusiast care to explain what's going on in terms of the core/floor space ratio?

I have a question, now that they have cut off one elevator. How far will they go up with just the 3. Or will they bank that third one once they reach a certain height limit. You know this thing looks really odd right now? Any architects/enthusiast care to explain what's going on in terms of the core/floor space ratio?

 

I'd check out google.

I'm due for a monthly update of the construction sites downtown (QCSII and The Banks).  Does anybody want me to bother posting pics on this forum?  Or I could just put up the link.  You decide!

 

 

Please post plenty pretty pics!

please post them to this site.  Thank you!

Ok I will.  I hope it's pretty out this weekend?

pic from today

Awesome photo... but here are some pics from the ground today: 8/9/09

 

QCSI vs. QCSII

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Tenth Floor

 

 

 

The Garage: - the South end is a little bit above street level.  The north end has a few feet to go.

 

 

 

Very nice. Thanks for sharing.

Finally!!!!

 

Man can you believe they're only 1/3 the way up now. They got alot more to go! LOL! Woot! for progress! They are working on floors 14-15 this week. So I guess they're gonna go up another 15 floors with the core the way that it is now and then they'll bank down one more until the reach the top floor?

I wish they would had combined QCQ1 and 2 to make a 60 story tower.

That would have been nice huh?

I wish there was a Subway stop under QCS instead of multiple levels of parking garages...

GAA!!!  COAST was rambling on about the unused train station across the street.

No one uses it, so why would they use a subway? well?

GAA!!! COAST was rambling on about the unused train station across the street.

No one uses it, so why would they use a subway? well?

 

You obviously missed my point.

every day I drive on 471 to work and I can see the QCII cranes peeking over One Lytle Place. Pretty soon I'll be able to see the core of the building over One Lytle Place.

Dirty Sandpit, Cygnus

Being sarcastic, doesn't translate at all.

If we had a streetcar and light rail, they could have saved what $20 millionish on that parking deck?

You know at the moment it looks like they just have two QCSs lol...cool I love the progress this site is making compared to WTC...that one is going painfully slow!

You know at the moment it looks like they just have two QCSs lol...cool I love the progress this site is making compared to WTC...that one is going painfully slow!

 

Twin towers right now...almost.  It is exciting to watch the progress.  When you think about it, if you have lived in Cincy in the last ten years you havde had the opportunity to watch some pretty exciting projects spring from the ground.

You know at the moment it looks like they just have two QCSs lol...cool I love the progress this site is making compared to WTC...that one is going painfully slow!

 

Hey, they finally put in a beam that rose above street level yesterday, take it easy on them!

 

Yeah ONE beam...lol they've done nothing all year and suddenly they put in a 60ft column and everybody does a hallelujah dance.  I'm disappointed in the lack of progress with that site.  It's not worth checking everyday like QCS.  You can check in six months and it will look the same I guarantee you.

^Some would argue that QCS isn't worth checking daily either...  :evil:

Yeah ONE beam...lol they've done nothing all year and suddenly they put in a 60ft column and everybody does a hallelujah dance. I'm disappointed in the lack of progress with that site. It's not worth checking everyday like QCS. You can check in six months and it will look the same I guarantee you.

 

Considering that a huge chunk of downtown Cincinnati could fit inside the WTC bathtub, and that QCS doesn't sit on top of two active subway lines, and that the QCS site isn't contaminated with asbestos and human remains, I think the comparison between the two projects is like apples and aardvarks.

 

Anyone posting about WTC reconstruction, Chinese construction, Saturn's moons or anything other than the progress of Queen City Square will have their privileges revoked.

The design of the building looks fine to me but I'm disapointed that they did not go higher than the Carew Tower in the floor count.  They should have gone at least 50 floors to get out of the 40 story range Cincy has been stuck in since 1931.  I'll forgive them if they'll build a 70 story somewhere between the Carew and QCS! 

^70 stories for what office demand?  Maybe in 30 years when our office vacancy rates drop off a bit, and we become an emerging world city.

Make it a mixed use building such as residential, shopping, etc. Along with the Banks that should bring some of the people back to the downtown area that Cincy has lost since the 50's.  By the way, I support the street car but think you guy's should start building on the subway you abandoned years ago.  A subway is the best mode of transportation for any good size city.   

A 70-story tower with all those uses.  Looks like you'd be a fan of Le Corbusier's Vibrant City.  Look into some of the criticisms of that design.  Another problem with that would be a concentration of uses in the same building, which would discourage potential foot traffic with varied uses along corridors.

 

As for the subway, we didn't abandon a subway.  A project like that requires substantial federal subsidy, which was its pitfall prior to WWII.

 

To get back on topic, Cincinnati has a high class A office vacancy rate.  Read some of the earlier posts in this thread about how Frost Brown Todd and GAIC are simply moving to a newer office space, rather than providing attractive options with our existing office footage for potential relocations *to* the area.  We don't want the former to become an ongoing trend.

To be honest I don't know why they are building this thing? Do they really need a new 41 story office tower, when there are so many vacancies?

Vacancy rates downtown aren't all that bad prior to the Queen City Square two-phase project.  If those spaces left over from office users moving to Great American Tower can be filled then there was obviously some demand for upward migration in the downtown office market.  If they don't fill then all that will be gained is the improved office space for local companies at a rate they could afford.  It will take a couple of years to see whether or not that square footage can be absorbed.

To be honest I don't know why they are building this thing? Do they really need a new 41 story office tower, when there are so many vacancies?

 

To be honest I don't know why they are building new houses in the suburbs?  Do we really need new houses when we have so many vacancies in the city?

We should be due for another tower crane lift here shortly.  I hope they go more than 80ft this time.  IT took no time for them to go up 80ft.  And now that the core is smaller they should move fairly quickly?  :mrgreen:

@QueenCitySquare (on Twitter): http://twitpic.com/e9h7h - Great American Tower surpasses 303 Broadway in height. August 17, 2009

Movin' on up!