Uptown

[alex]

11 hours ago, Jernigan said:

Somehow we never had a, "The Sevens" thread.  

Here's the construction cam if anyone is interested - better super late than never: https://app.oxblue.com/open/brasfieldgorrie

Interesting to see that only the outside walls are block, and not the walls between apartments. I guess some block is better than none...

[JFW657]

6 hours ago, alex said:

Interesting to see that only the outside walls are block, and not the walls between apartments. I guess some block is better than none...

That's not unusual.

I think there only has to be a block firewall in between every few units, but not every one.

 

[jrs2]

so, what are the walls between units, wood frame/ metal frame and sheet rock?

[JFW657]

1 hour ago, jrs2 said:

so, what are the walls between units, wood frame/ metal frame and sheet rock?

Nowadays they tend to use metal studs covered with sheetrock. Unless the project is primarily wood framed with plywood sheathing on the exterior walls, like Crescent. Then they'd use wood framing throughout.

 

 

[jack]

2 hours ago, jrs2 said:

so, what are the walls between units, wood frame/ metal frame and sheet rock?

This project is drywall and metal studs. Some units will have block as they are columns to support the building. 

[nite owℓ]

On another note, "soundproofing" is a foreign idea in Orlando. Instead of leaving hollow voids between units, they should fill the spaces with foam, Roxul or use green glue sheetrock etc to cut down on noise intrusion. Even worse, they tile/glue wood floors directly onto the concrete subfloors so footfall, dropped items & sharp noises will travel right through the concrete. Yeah soundproofing will cost more, but happy tenants tend to stick around longer.

Does anyone live in Star Tower? I heard it has better soundproofing than the Vue. I'm kind of obsessed with Star Tower, but it's way out of my price range.

Edited April 14, 2016 by nite owℓ

[Nick@Night]

I really like star tower also. Build quality does seem superior, though i haven't spent enough time inside to really give an educated answer.

I can however speak for the vue. Noise produced on the concrete directly, such as dropped items, heavy furniture moving, drilling etc. does come through pretty well unfortunately. The only noise that I'd describe as "annoying"would be the drilling, which can be pretty loud.

If the sound isn't being produced directly on the concrete, such as the TV, music, etc. The walls will actually do a very good job.

The windows. From the 12th floor, city view, it's not bad. Club/ bar music is very faint. The train can be loud but it isn't an issue for me, and it's definitely not in the same category as the wall drilling.

If one of my nearest neighbors are out on their balcony, the windows won't do much. It's almost as if they're inside my place talking but in a different room. Thankfully, it's a pretty rare occurrence people are actually out on their balconies.

My unit wraps around one of the building's stairwells. Thankfully there isn't much foot traffic, but when someone does decide to forgo the comforts of an elevator ride, i am the first to hear about it. The sound is eerily similar to the noise produced by using the stairs in my own loft, which can be scary to wake up to.

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[Pete C]

Having lived in the Paramount where there was not concrete between the units, it was pretty bad. They definitely did not put any sort of soundproofing between units either. When I was in the living room with bedrooms creating a buffer on either side, I never heard anything next door. However, when I was in the bedroom, if my neighbor was on the phone I could literally hear every word clearly. Just terrible for such an expensive building.

Edited April 14, 2016 by Pete C

[John Hargrove]

55 West is actually quite good for this. You get the sound of people dropping things (probably because it seems like even the carpeted areas lack padding beneath them. I swear my carpet is as hard as concrete.), but between units on the same floor ... the sound isolation is GREAT. Biggest complaint is probably the lack of weather stripping or other such things on the front doors. Someone in the hallway talking is basically in your living room. 

[AndyPok1]

Couldn't agree more.  I've said here numerous times that I've been here 3 years and don't think I could move to another apartment simply because I'm too accustomed to not hearing any neighbors except in the hallway.

[JFW657]

You guys know that Lowe's and Home Depot both sell weather stripping, right?

Pretty cheap too, I'd imagine.

 

 

Edited April 15, 2016 by JFW657

[Nick@Night]

55 west bros. What about church street bar/ club noise? Always assumed that would be an issue

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[dcluley98]

Bungalower has an article up about the pedestrian bridge over Colonial.  There are two proposals up for the Design-Build project from Southland Construction (HKS, Horizon) and Gibbs & Register (Borrelli, HDR)

http://bungalower.com/2016/04/27/city-considering-colonial-pedestrian-overpass-bids/

Renderings of each, Southland on top, Gibbs & Register on bottom:

Full proposal documents are linked on the Bungalower website.

Edited April 29, 2016 by dcluley98

[gibby]

Seems like this entire trail is just jumping across the railroad tracks way too often.  Maybe there isn't enough room between the tracks and the old loft building to fit the bridge?  This will look goofy going over Colonial diagonally and then somehow jogging back to the east.

[John Hargrove]

Just need to get it done already. Shouldn't take so long to finish something this simple.

 

[prahaboheme]

The bid from Southland is much more iconic, I hope it is chosen.

[metal93]

5 hours ago, gibby said:

Seems like this entire trail is just jumping across the railroad tracks way too often.  Maybe there isn't enough room between the tracks and the old loft building to fit the bridge?  This will look goofy going over Colonial diagonally and then somehow jogging back to the east.

I agree. Looking at the way things seem to be going with the developments near the the railroad track, it seems the trail is destined to cut across the railroad tracks at least a few times as it meets up with Gertrude's Walk. Some areas the trail appears to be planned for the east side of the tracks, other areas to the west. It's very concerning to me because I don't see people using the trail if they're going to have to cross active railroad tracks 2-3 times going through downtown. It's particularly annoying when bicycling and having to cross railroad tracks, and dangerous if you try to cross them diagonally. They should honestly stick to running the trail entirely on the east side (the side closer to Orange Ave). The only issue is that it will be really tight in some areas, you can have your 10' trail but that would be it as it would have to be up against the buildings and whatever barriers they put up between the trail and the tracks.

Is there space between the tracks and the loft building? Certainly, but there's a big catch. Most of the utilities will have to be relocated - electrical boxes, railroad signal mast, and whatever else is in that right of way. I believe that's also a part of Downtown that still has overhead electrical wires so those would have to be moved underground as well. The side clearances around the rail in some places are also rather wide so those can be narrowed down a bit to maximize space for the trail. I wonder what kind of agreement the city has with FDOT to use this right of way though. From what I've seen waking next to the tracks along this corridor, I think a trail can be done just on one side of the tracks instead of jumping around all over the place.

56 minutes ago, castorvx said:

Just need to get it done already. Shouldn't take so long to finish something this simple.

 

This, but I think it's a lot more complicated than it appears. Mostly with all the studies and surveying undertaking such a thing would entail, and dealing with all the land owners along the railroad if utilities need to be moved.

[dcluley98]

I think they are trying to tie it in to the Lynx Central Station for Sunrail and Lynx, which makes a lot of sense to me. The main goal is to have mass transit connect to downtown and have pedestrian corridors feeding from that.  I agree that it should not go across the tracks a bunch of times, but would argue that it should stay on the west side of the tracks most of the way and tie in to the existing Gertrudes walk on the west side down to Church Street Station.  It makes no sense to have the plan where the trail jogs over to State lane as it is shown on the expansion map.  I don't know what the plan is around Ace Cafe, but putting the trail through there makes a lot more sense.  Of course, they still have the western rail line through Parramore to go over if they stay on the west, but that probably has less traffic than the main Sunrail line and maybe they could build an elevated platform over it eventually.

[gibby]

There were several projects on the east side that built their section of the walk already (Orlando Central, Camden parking garage).  Strangely, the City parking garage at Jefferson did not build one, which seems to screw things up.  The Camden section of the trail is decent but it's completely isolated.  I'm not sure if it connects to anything at all, north or south.  With this plan, it would continue to be a waste unless I'm missing something.

[nite owℓ]

Southland's bid also includes stairs which were omitted from the city's concept plans. Unfortunately, the stairs are only on the south side of Colonial and not on both sides. Stairs on both sides would encourage pedestrians to use the bridge to cross Colonial and provide more eyes on the bridge for better security. Plus having escape routes stairs on both sides of Colonial would help ease any anxiety about potentially getting trapped on the bridge with the killer.

[UngaBungalow]

It's interesting to see how wide they're making Ultimate Colonial, under the bridge

[Jernigan]

I didn't think the goal was to encourage pedestrians to use the bridge to cross Colonial.   I know it's being called a ped bridge but I'd hope it is treated as a trail overpass.   Let's not cave in and sacrifice the expectation to be able to cross a downtown street at steet level.

[John Hargrove]

13 hours ago, nite owℓ said:

Southland's bid also includes stairs which were omitted from the city's concept plans. Unfortunately, the stairs are only on the south side of Colonial and not on both sides. Stairs on both sides would encourage pedestrians to use the bridge to cross Colonial and provide more eyes on the bridge for better security. Plus having escape routes stairs on both sides of Colonial would help ease any anxiety about potentially getting trapped on the bridge with the killer.

I missed the stairs. I guess I always assumed that any pedestrian bridge going over 50 would have stairs at the sidewalks. Crossing that road is sketchy ...

10 minutes ago, UngaBungalow said:

It's interesting to see how wide they're making Ultimate Colonial, under the bridge

Is there a plan to widen or otherwise improve 50 through downtown?

Edited April 30, 2016 by castorvx

[gibby]

You can see how they jogged the frontage of SteelHouse along Colonial on an aerial.

[metal93]

On 4/28/2016 at 6:24 PM, dcluley98 said:

I think they are trying to tie it in to the Lynx Central Station for Sunrail and Lynx, which makes a lot of sense to me. The main goal is to have mass transit connect to downtown and have pedestrian corridors feeding from that.  I agree that it should not go across the tracks a bunch of times, but would argue that it should stay on the west side of the tracks most of the way and tie in to the existing Gertrudes walk on the west side down to Church Street Station.  It makes no sense to have the plan where the trail jogs over to State lane as it is shown on the expansion map.  I don't know what the plan is around Ace Cafe, but putting the trail through there makes a lot more sense.  Of course, they still have the western rail line through Parramore to go over if they stay on the west, but that probably has less traffic than the main Sunrail line and maybe they could build an elevated platform over it eventually.

Fair enough. I was just concerned about the Lynx Central Station portion - having the trail between the bus platforms and Sunrail platform - isn't the "trail" through this segment technically part of the platform? Do the Sunrail people get mad at people for riding their bikes through here? At other stations I've seen people on their bikes and they get yelled at over the intercom not to ride their bikes on the platform. I wasn't sure if the same applied here. That western rail line through Parramore is going to serve as part of the proposed Orange Blossom Express commuter line, and I wouldn't be surprised if they double tracked it. But that's an simple fix as you would only need the trail to curve somewhat to safely cross the track perpendicularity. I guess it would make more sense to put the trail entirely to the west. That entire corridor needs an overhaul anyways.

 

13 hours ago, castorvx said:

I missed the stairs. I guess I always assumed that any pedestrian bridge going over 50 would have stairs at the sidewalks. Crossing that road is sketchy ...

Is there a plan to widen or otherwise improve 50 through downtown?

Yes. Colonial is composed of 5 10 ft lanes through most of downtown and beyond, while being 6-7 lanes through the current I-4 interchange. What the Ultimate I-4 project is going to do is convert that interchange into a single point urban interchange (similar to the Colonial/Semoran interchange). The big changes are that the ramps are going to totally be reconfigured and Colonial itself, will add an extra left turn lane, and all lanes will be expanded to 11 ft for just this portion of Colonial. This means the roadway surface of Colonial is going to widen somewhat. Shouldn't be a whole lot since it appears the lanes are wider here to begin with. So the road is going to become even sketchier to cross. The best option is to have ramps and stairs on both sides of Colonial, so it can accommodate both trail users and people who want to cross Colonial.

Proposed Colonial Drive interchange:

Edited April 30, 2016 by metal93
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