Courthouse Construction Photo Thread

[mustang84]

I decided to start up a courthouse construction photo thread to show its progress during construction. This courthouse will be one of the most significant buildings built within the last 30 years in Cedar Rapids, so it's a pretty big deal for the city. It will be an eight story building that will encompass two full city blocks, with a transparent glass lobby that will allow visibility through the building when looking up or down 1st Street SE.

United States Courthouse - Cedar Rapids, IA
Architect: William Rawn Associates / OPN Architects
General Contractor: Ryan Companies
Completion: 2012


Image courtesy OPN Architects


Image courtesy OPN Architects


Image courtesy William Rawn Associates

I will try to update once a week when construction ramps up, but at the moment there is little going on since the concrete for the footings is still curing.

8/09 - Job sign


10/4/09 - footings poured


11/1/09 - The tower crane bases are being constructed. There will be two tower cranes on the site, and they will probably tower about 120 feet or so above ground level. Progress will be slow for the next month until the concrete cures, so I'm guessing the rest of the tower cranes will be put up later in the month.

[DMRyan]

It's a beautiful building and its orientation in conjunction with the rest of the downtown buildings will really call attention to it. Thanks for the updates and it should be fun to watch this get built with all of the other projects that could get underway within the next year or two. Will there be a separate parking garage built for this building, or will they use a mix of underground parking and surface lots?

Also, I keep seeing mention with a few development projects that the first floors of buildings would be parking or unoccupied space to spare the first floor from any future flooding events that may be as severe as 2008. Why isn't that a concern here and will the future flood improvements protect downtown to the extent that these lack of uses of first floor space would be moot?

[mustang84]

Will there be a separate parking garage built for this building, or will they use a mix of underground parking and surface lots?

Also, I keep seeing mention with a few development projects that the first floors of buildings would be parking or unoccupied space to spare the first floor from any future flooding events that may be as severe as 2008. Why isn't that a concern here and will the future flood improvements protect downtown to the extent that these lack of uses of first floor space would be moot?

Parking is being studied at the moment, but nothing has been publicly announced yet. There won't be an underground parking garage at the courthouse, so it will have to be an off-site development.

The recent aversion to the river by residents and some city officials has been a little bit distressing lately to those of us who think the city should continue to embrace its riverfront and develop vibrant street scapes, although I don't think we will become a city of stilted buildings. What I could see developers embracing in the areas closest to the river are mixed use structures where offices fill the top 2/3, parking is integrated into the lower levels, and retail takes up the street level space. Think Davis Brown Tower, but on a smaller scale.

As far as the courthouse goes, when finished the ground level will be raised seven feet above street level, which means it will be a couple feet above the 500 year flood plain. Many here in CR don't realize this, so there is usually a lot of complaining on the KCRG message boards whenever a courthouse article is posted.

[mustang84]

The east tower crane topped out today around noon. I'll try to get some pictures soon.

[mustang84]

Photos from this afternoon and evening

[JMsioux]

Crane topples over at courthouse site this morning. Link to Gazette article below:

http://gazetteonline.com/breaking-news/ ... ction-site

[mustang84]

I just got back from taking pictures. It crushed the guard shack and a corner of the contractor shed, as well as two trucks. Fortunately nobody was hurt. Apparently a woman was in the guard shack when it happened and was pretty shook up. Pictures will be posted tonight.

[mustang84]

Photos from before and after the collapse

10:00, about an hour and a half before the smaller crane erecting the tower crane tipped over. This was before they moved it further to the east.


And taken around noon, about 30 minutes after the collapse

[JMsioux]

Nothing like the "Big Blue" collapse in Milwaukee but still very fortunate that no one was killed in this incident. I was on a communications tower construction site when a gin pole broke as the crew was raising a piece of the tower into place. New Fruit of the Looms for everyone.

[mustang84]

10/16/09 - not much new besides the second crane being erected over the weekend. Steel should be arriving soon. The two cranes give a better idea of the scale of the project.








And just a bonus skyline shot

[mustang84]

11/22/09 - taken from 8th Avenue, which will be the back side of the courthouse. Nothing new to report...the steel is being fabricated and should arrive by December 1st.

[mustang84]

Steel arrived on Monday. I don't have any pictures at the moment and probably won't have a chance this weekend since I am heading to Omaha, but when the steel starts going up I will try to snap a few. It is getting harder with the days getting darker earlier.

[mustang84]

12/10/09: steel has been going up, but the snowstorm caused a few days of delay. If you look closely you can see steel rising in the far back corner of the site.

[DMRyan]

that's an awesome photo with all of the steam and emissions coming out of the plant (Penford Plant?) in the background. I'll be curious to see some angles of the downtown skyline from the south when this gets some height to it.

Thanks for the update.

[mustang84]

12/19/09: More steel has gone up over the past week. Steel for the first floor looks to be about 2/3 completed, so we should see second floor start to take shape in the next couple weeks or so.

[mustang84]

1/10/10 - first update of the new year. First floor steel should be getting close to being finished, and the curve is very visible from 7th Avenue. Imagine that curve times eight more floors.





Here's some photoshop speculation of the height. I think this is fairly close to what it will be when finished.


Taken from 7th Avenue


Taken from 8th Avenue

[DMRyan]

I like the imposed steel beam rendering, showing the estimated height of the building in relation to the rest of downtown. It really gives us outsiders a perspective to how this building will sit on the site. This seems like it'll be plenty visible on the money shot of the skyline from the south looking north.

[mustang84]

I don't have any pictures right now and probably won't until this weekend, but the courthouse is starting to get some impressive height. I drove by yesterday and steel on the second and third floors has been going up very quickly lately. It's going to be an amazing transformation when done.

[mustang84]

1/21/10

[mustang84]

1/30/10




Found a new vantage point...12th Street Bridge. Now that I think about it, when completed the Courthouse is going to block much of the skyline from this bridge.

[Brady]

Interesting point about the 12th Ave view. The 8th Ave perspective (driving .... or walking over) should still be pretty impressive.

[mustang84]

2/14/10




A couple of the Human Services Building. The elevator shaft has topped out, so it gives an indication how tall it will be.

[JMsioux]

Kinda the forgotten project with the courthouse going up 2 blocks away and should add some good density to that block.

[mustang84]

2/22/10



Human Services

[Ingersoll1978]

Is that Mount Trashmore in the background of the Human Services building? We talked about that in my urban environment class at Drake. Wow. That's huge.

[Brady]

Is that Mount Trashmore in the background of the Human Services building? We talked about that in my urban environment class at Drake. Wow. That's huge.

That's it. What were you discussing in your class that it came up?

[Ingersoll1978]

Is that Mount Trashmore in the background of the Human Services building? We talked about that in my urban environment class at Drake. Wow. That's huge.

That's it. What were you discussing in your class that it came up?

It was discussed when we were talking about urban waste sites (as it is near downtown CR) and their effects. In addition, we talked about sites in Chicago and New Orleans. For a final project, a group of students decided to do a presentation on it (my group chose Four Mile Creek flooding).

[JMsioux]

...And soon the old Sinclair packing plant (to the left) will be making the short journey to the top of the Mount. I've seen some of the landfill sites around Detroit and Chicago and some of them make Mt. Trashmore look tiny.

[mustang84]

2/24/10 - I just updated the other day, but there was a nice sunset this evening and I decided to snap a few. It was bitterly cold, though.

[mustang84]

3/11/10 - Not the greatest photos...my camera battery was low and having a hard time focusing with it being such a gloomy day. The fifth floor has been started around where the atrium will be. At the rate steel is moving, it should all be in place by July, I would think.

Edit: Actually, now that I think about it, we may actually only be on the 4th floor. The courthouse's first floor is being built up about 7 feet above street level, so that bottom level may be the basement.