Foundation & Brickwork

The last few days of construction have been a ballet between the big yellow excavator, a hydraulic boom lift, backhoe and other equipment on the lot, as they work on the foundation and adjacent building brickwork. Most of the existing foundation has been torn up, and workers began spraying the adjacent brick walls with something black, which I assume is a sealer. It's interesting to think that the walls of the Apple store will go up right next to the existing buildings, without leaving a scratch on the bricks. I'm anxious for those first steel beams to go up.

Snow Storm

Work on the foundation of the new store began around 7 a.m. when the temperature was about 30 degrees...but then the weather started to turn colder, and snow began to fall about noon. The backhoes jackhammered the foundation and moved the debris, even as the temperature dipped to 26 degrees around 2 p.m. Shortly after that, the time-lapse movie shows the two backhoes plowing out of the lot, leaving only tire prints!

Cutting and Sawing

Today the Pro Cut Inc. crew arrived with their concrete saws and started carving up the existing foundation. A second yellow backhoe appeared, this one equipped with a jackhammer to break up the concrete and remove the debris. Check this satellite view of the site that was posted back when the store was first revealed. [Remember that time-lapse videos are posted with the link http://ifostore.cachefly.net/boston/marXX.mov, where XX is the date number.]

Look Closely

The construction work hasn't been so...well, big these past few days. A couple of pick-up trucks and a van appeared, along with a backhoe and a smaller machine. If you look closely, you can see some trenching work at the front of the store. The backhoe appears to have dug a 6-8 foot trench running from one side to the other, and workers installed trench boxes to shore up the sides. There also seems to be some drilling or cutting of the concrete at various points in the existing foundation. The weather had moderated somewhat, even reaching the 60s. However, it will be turning cold later in the week, perhaps in the mid-30s. Reminder: You're looking at the rear of the lot, with Boylston Street (and the front of the future store) at the far end of the lot.

Chalk Me Out a Store

The last half of the week was pretty quiet. In fact, looks like no one was on-site Thursday at all. But then what appeared to be a survey crew showed up mid-morning Friday and seemed to be setting out some marks around the building site. We should be seeing some foundation work before too long. You may know that the area of Boylston St. north about 9 blocks to the Charles River Basin is fill dating back to about 1860, and subject to some level of groundwater. All the buildings back then were built on pilings cut off 2-3 feet below the groundwater level to prevent rot. Construction of very tall buildings in the area now requires a complex dewatering process as the excavation progresses, which actually causes surrounding buildings to settle very slightly. In this case, it appears Apple will use the existing foundation, so the fill and groundwater won't be issues. [Read more.] Sunday--Yes, it appears that the camera is stalled....

Sooner, Not Later

Kudos to the demolition crew that braved the cold weather and the scrutiny of the Webcam to get the space cleared off! They should come by the waiting line before the store opens and say "Hello!" Now that the building has been demolished, a reminder that the Back Bay Architectural Commission is requiring Apple to begin construction "immediately thereafter." So hopefully we won't have the same view to look at for very long!

Demolition complete

I got a call from the owner of the demolition company yesterday, looking to see if we had footage that he could have of the demolition (we do in the form of a 560MB Quicktime file - and NO, I will not email it to anyone that asks :) ). He told us that the demolition is pretty much over. So I think that the webcam will pretty much be the same images for a while, until they start the excavating and construction.

Bricks, Bricks, Bricks

That big yellow excavator disappeared from the site on Thursday morning, leaving a smaller Bobcat and mostly piles of red bricks behind. The weather continues to be very cold, but without snow. Seeing the buildings adjacent to the future Apple store, the piles of bricks from the demolished building, and knowing that many of Back Bay's older buildings are made of brick, it makes you wonder why Apple's architects couldn't squeeze out a concession from Steve to use a little bit of brick on the façade. Of course, back in the old days the brick was the actual exterior wall of the building. These days those old bricks are popular as an architectural feature for all sorts of projects. There are lots of brokers for red bricks and other vintage building materials. Well, we lost an opportunity on this store, but we always have Glasgow to look forward to for some "wow" architecture. [Thursday's time-lapse]

More Clean-Up, Still Cold

The last couple of days have been a continuation of the clean-up of debris from the site. Working in 32-degree temperatures, the workers have sorted out the debris and loaded it onto trucks with the excavator and small Bobcat. The excavator took another turn at the wall on the left, scraping off the last layer of bricks that was the outer wall of the building--without damaging the brick wall of the building next door. Watch the work on Tuesday and on Wednesday. [Tip: Even if there's no link posted, future movies will be named like "mar1.mov" or "apr10.mov" on the ifostore.cachefly.net/boston/ server.] P.S.--Any chance I should be watching the Webcam in case someone tries to steal the excavator at night?