Formwork at Parking Garage

Crews working with A.A. Will Corp and S&F Concrete began work on the parking garage this week.

An engineer for A.A. Will Corp. prepares this area for work, marking the ground with yellow spray paint.

In the background, the S&F Concrete Foremen is standing in the previously excavated trench laying out forms for the back wall of the parking deck.

The sections marked in yellow are then excavated. The area is dug out down to the blue clay and crews pour one foot of ¾ inch crushed stone on top. Next, carpenters working for S&F Concrete layout the forms for the footings.

Pictured below are reinforcing dowels projecting out of a footing that will be the structural stand of the columns supporting the parking deck. These dowels penetrate the footing 22 inches, with a 90-degree bend at the bottom, and stand approximately 5-feet out of the footing. The dowels are necessary to reinforce the concrete of the column to withstand things such as earthquakes and car impacts.


Around the dowels are additional reinforcing dowels (seen below) for the structural concrete columns, put in place after the concrete footing has been placed. This connection of five feet gives strength to the columns to withstand side impacts. The hook bars at the top are designed to be the connection between the second floor of the parking deck and the column.


Concrete forms will be set around the reinforcing rods and concrete will be poured inside the forms to create the column.

The footing and column work will continue into next week, grading for the lower level of the garage will follow.

Structural Steelwork Continues

Structural steelwork continued this week at the Northwest side of the building.

A look at this section upon completion:





The stairwall adjacent to the main entrance of the building was erected this week.






The installation of Q-decking is ongoing. The concrete is expected to be poured in the coming week.

Video Update - Topping Off Ceremony

Topping Off Ceremony

The New England Regional Council of Carpenters (NERCC), along with Suffolk Construction, held a Topping Off ceremony today to celebrate the progress made towards completing the Carpenters Center.

Representatives from Suffolk Construction, NERCC, the Boston JATC, community members, and the men and women who have worked on the project attended the ceremony. According to tradition, a tree and American flag were attached to the beam, which was then signed by various individuals involved in the project. The beam was then lifted into place and erected by the ironworkers.

Topping off Ceremony at the Carpenters Center

The New England Regional Council of Carpenters (NERCC), along with Suffolk Construction, will hold a Topping Off ceremony on Friday, May 22, 2009, at 11:30 am to celebrate the progress made towards completing the New England Carpenters Union headquarters – the Carpenters Center. The event will take place on the first floor of the building, located at 750 Dorchester Ave.

A topping off ceremony is a tradition within the construction industry that marks the moment when the highest structural point in the building construction has been attained. The practice of "topping out" a new building can be traced to the ancient Scandinavian religious practice of placing a tree on the top of a new building to appease the tree-dwelling spirits of their ancestors that had been displaced. The practice migrated to England with Scandinavian invaders and took root there (www.wikipedia.org). This tradition of placing a tree at the top of the building continues today.

Community members and local businesses are invited to the ceremony, along with Representatives from Suffolk Construction, NERCC, and the men and women who have worked on the project.

Q-deck installed, Ironwork continues

Q-decking is being shot down to the steel beams of the third floor. The decking provides a stay-in-place form for the concrete slab of the third floor.

This is a view looking up at the Q-deck attached to the steel beams.

Along the west side of the first floor, concrete block is being put in place by masons working for M-Fal Masonry. The retaining wall of the parking deck is behind the concrete block (seen here).

The first floor mechanical, electrical and plumbing work is ongoing.

MEP Work Begins

MEP-- Mechanical, electrical and plumbing (including HVAC and sprinkler system), work is ongoing at the Carpenters Center.

EM Duggan is running the rough plumbing under the first floor slab. As you can see in this picture, the pipe work currently runs from the first floor to underneath the second floor slab. When the steel structure and new concrete slab for the second and third floors are set, the plumbing work will continue through those floors as well.



Conduit for the electrical work is being installed. Electrical conduit is metal or plastic pipe through which electrical wires are pulled, it houses and protects the wires.


The electrical foreman, working for McDonald Electrical Corp.

Cantilever Erected

The cantilever on the Southeast end of the building was erected this week.


A cantilever is a projecting structure, such as a beam, that is supported at one end and carries a load at the other end or along its length. Cantilever construction allows for overhanging structures without external bracing.



The cantilever is a key component of the design of the Carpenters Center. On the face of the cantilever will be a curtain wall (windows) that looks into office space and conference rooms on the third floor. Steel plates will penetrate through the aluminum frame of the curtain wall. The Transparent LED sign will be mounted to these plates, resting approximately 14 inches off the face of the glass (curtain wall).

Ironwork Continues

Flying Steel

The erection of the second floor frame and third floor/roof began this week. The first column (below) was erected on Monday. The columns being erected this week will frame the second and third floors of the Carpenters Center.



The steel came from Capco Steel’s fabrication plants located in Rhode Island.

The project architect and structural engineers provide Capco with Computer-Aided Designs (CAD), from which the company produces its own shop drawings. These drawings include detailed fastening connections for each column and beam, so that when the steel arrives on site all fastening points have been predrilled and coordinated at connections. Each piece is also numbered. When the steel comes off the delivery truck it is placed in a numeric sequence so that each piece of steel can be erected in proper order.

Onsite, the Operating Engineer, working for Subcontractor Hallamore Corporation, operates the 200-ton hydraulic crane. The crane lifts the structural steel members to the locations of the building where the Ironworkers fasten them into place. The crane’s boom is 197 feet long when it is fully telescoped.

The following sequence shows the Operating Engineer flying steel to the Ironworkers.








Meanwhile, on the first floor of the building, structural steel was added to the first floor columns, to carry the added loads of the third floor and roof. In this picture, the Ironworker is welding anchorage connecting the concrete slab to the beam below it.

Piledrivers Arrive on Site

Piledrivers, working for A.A. Will Corporation were on site this week drilling and installing the soldier beams, which will be used for soil retention along the property line. The piledriving rig can be seen in this shot, it is drilling into the ground for the placement of the soldier beams.


Crews working for AA Will also graded the area at the loading dock on the North end of the building. The machine pictured here, called a Gradall, is leveling the area in preparation for the retaining wall, which will support the poured in place concrete loading dock.



Ironworkers from Capco Steel installed beams to support of the second floor in preparation to cut the concrete for the new stairwells.


Crews working for Pro-Cut can be seen here cutting through the concrete at the site of the interior stairwell that will connect the Boston Carpenters Training Center shops located on the first floor to the classrooms and offices on the second floor.




Here, a Broq breaks up the concrete, once it is cut, so that it can be lowered onto the first floor and removed from the building for disposal.




Coming up next week: Erection of steel structure for the second and third floors will begin. In the following twenty-eight days the structure of these floors and roof will be erected.