Townhouse Framing Begins

Truckloads of prefabricated wall panels and floor trusses began arriving on site this week, as the townhouses wrap up foundations and begin framing.  Within months the site’s 22 buildings will be recognizable in form.  Meanwhile, the two largest buildings progress on the outside, with framing and sheathing, and the inside, with unit framing and interior plumbing and electrical.  See below for progress around the site!

The first townhouse wall panels are placed.

Looking north along what will be the extension of Antwerp St to Western Ave.

Waterproofing over the sheathing before brickwork starts.

Unit framing and plumbing fixtures are progressing rapidly.

Framing in place for a bedroom along Western Ave

A fourth floor apartment view

The garage concrete and systems work is nearly complete

Looking down the garage entrance ramp

Coming into View

The City of Boston and Charlesview have layers and layers of importance to one another.    As the steel buildings rise along Western Avenue, downtown Boston comes into view.  And with activity ramping up all over the site, there are now over 120 construction workers on the jobsite each day, priming the Boston economic recovery and great local jobs.  We move closer and closer to realizing the vision of preserving Charlesview as a critical housing asset for Allston-Brighton families.

See the gallery below for lots of great images around the site (click any image to enlarge and launch slideshow)

The first townhouse foundation is formed along Telford Street, near STAR Market

The shape and massing of Building D1 comes into view, looking from the south

A closer view of the steel framing of Building D1

Boston views start to become apparent from the 4th floor of Building D1

A view of the third floor of Building D1 with steel and concrete in place

A view of the E1 framing progress, taken from D1, looking across what will be Antwerp Street extension

Workers prepare the reinforcement for the concrete deck to be poured later this week.

Progress continues inside the garage on mechanical and plumbing.

Street wall coming into shape: Steel erection of Building E1 in progress, with the steel framing of Building D1 completed in the background.

Steel and Garage Photos

At the beautiful end to a soggy week, here are several photos from above the garage deck, as a 52-unit, mixed use building along Western Ave reaches its full height, and from below the deck, as concrete and plumbing work continues apace.

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Progress Above and Below the Deck

Work continues rapidly this week with additional concrete pours scheduled on the deck and garage levels.  Crews work quickly ahead of the pours on the structural steel connections and detailing, installing the metal deck and on the subslab systems.  The deck structure now enables work to continue on both levels simultaneously.  See the pictures below from around the garage construction.

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Structural Steel Erection

It has been an exciting few weeks on the Charlesview site as the garage structure has been quickly erected.  What a difference two weeks can make at this stage of construction!

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First Concrete Slab Pour Today

The first concrete deck over the roof of the garage is being poured by concrete sub JL Marshall today.  This particular pour is an important step in the construction sequencing; that section is where the crane will sit to erect the first Western Ave midrise once the concrete cures to the proper strength next month.  The garage floor slab pours will follow each deck-level pour.

Workers spread newly poured concrete on the garage deck

Garage Steel Progress Photos

Some images from the site as structural steel erection proceeds rapidly across the garage level.  Concrete pouring of the slab on deck should begin next week, weather permitting.

Ironworkers on the garage deck level

View of the garage steel progress

Structural steel erection moves to the eastern side of the garage

Building steel pokes above the garage level

More Steel Progress

Garage Steel Arrives

Steel erection begins on west side of garage

The crane arrived this week with the first sequences of steel

Beginning this past Monday, steel that had been fabricated in Maine began arriving on site.  The superstructure of the garage has been quickly going into place over the first few days, beginning on the west side of the garage.

Change of Direction

After an incredibly mild winter and a carefully coordinated effort by JMA (general contractor), J. Derenzo Co. (sitework) and JL Marshall (concrete), the foundations will be substantially completed in the next week.  A small portion of the garage–about 10 isolated footings and a section of wall–will remain unfinished so the earthen ramp can allow a crane and other equipment to continue to access the garage level for another few months.

The garage structure is over 110,000 square feet in area, so what the team has accomplished this winter is the equivelent of building a structure the size of the old K-Mart/Office Max building out of reinforced concrete, underground, beneath the water table.

This milestone also signals an important direction for the project: Up.

Steel will begin to arrive in early March for the erection of the garage structure.  By late spring, the steel will be back up to grade level and the structure of the two largest mixed use buildings will commence.

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