ODU Development

[cpeakesqr]

Two newcomers!!! Welcome gezses and dday!

[Sky06]

Foreman Field Progress:

[Sky06]

Significant progress is also being made on the 2nd research center building.

[Sky06]

Foreman Field Day Bldg and parking deck progress:

2nd University Village research center progress:

[burt]

This Associated Press story reports that Deborah Stanley has withdrawn from consideration to become ODU's next president:

http://www.inrich.com/cva/ric/news/vaapwir...08-29-0031.html

Edited August 29, 2008 by burt

[cpeakesqr]

The BOV also suspended the search for a new president...

[dday3232]

hey not sure if anyone else has seen this or not, it was my first time. But I found this on wikipedia of a cool rendering of the Quad ...hope it's something new for most of you. =) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:ODU_Quad.JPG

[cpeakesqr]

hey not sure if anyone else has seen this or not, it was my first time. But I found this on wikipedia of a cool rendering of the Quad ...hope it's something new for most of you. =) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:ODU_Quad.JPG

I sat down and made a lot of changes to the ODU wiki a while ago, that picture was one of them. Actually I stole the picture from Clark Nexsen, and maybe violated the copyright... Shhhh.

[cpeakesqr]

The District at ODU

It's the housing development that was rumored to be going up. Nearly a 1000 new apartments for only ODU students.

Edited October 23, 2008 by cpeakesqr

[odumonarch]

The District at ODU

It's the housing development that was rumored to be going up. Nearly a 1000 new apartments for only ODU students.

It's a good jumpstart for the ODU Village, but still, students are being housed in areas where they should not be, and I think more apartments are needed. But the problem is the city of Norfolk can't tell the property owners that are adjacent to ODU to leave so they can build more and more.

The real solution is to go up and up. There's little free extra land that ODU can work with, and the laws restrict the height here and there. But building dorms for ODU students only can eliminate the need for a parking garage. It's kind of sad that ODU is overflowing with garages already and I guess more garages are being planned.

[cpeakesqr]

Copied these off Clark-Nexsen's website...

Edited November 30, 2008 by cpeakesqr

[mlsimons]

http://hamptonroads.com/2008/12/odu-raze-p...d-start-scratch

ODU to raze president's home...I left two long comments:

The president's home is one of the biggest pull factors for any prospective president. If ODU wants to attract a truely great president, then the school must show its appreciation. I say build the house, and raise the surrounding values in larchmont. It's my feeling that ODU needs to aquire all of the homes along 49th street, ODU already owns most, the rest are rentals. ODU could turn then all into campus ministry homes, or student sponsored activity homes (all alcohol free) and with honor students living upstairs for free, but in charge of upkeep, cleaning and student activity planning, much like an R.A. This would give 49th street and Larchmont a better name and add to the already high number of ministry houses along 49th. Plus the school could then control the outside grounds and appearance of the homes to make 49th look clean and uniform...in addition...I know for me, living in the dorms was not an easy experience. Especially when you are not a drinker but still want to have fun. I was lucky enough to randomly be assigned another alcohol-free roommate 1st semester. Yet we had only a few places to go at night to avoid alcohol presence/pressures. One place was the campus ministry houses on 49th st. ODU and larchmont can afford to have one place where it's alcohol free students can gather to still have fun. Plus the new president would feel safe walking home at night down the "alcohol-free, student activities district" or whatever you want to call it. After all, 30% of ODU students do not drink (taking from a student wide survey of over 2,000 students).

[mlsimons]

http://hamptonroads.com/pilot/sports/odu-football

The video's on here are pretty cool. Excitement is in the air....

[jeffconn]

i hope that the plan in cpeakesqr's post above doesn't come to fruition, because that will mean the end of the Gray's Pharmacy plaza on Hampton Blvd. It will also mean the end of this guy:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/outside/15003...57594139624295/

Edited December 28, 2008 by jeffconn

[Sky06]

Edited January 12, 2009 by Sky06

[mlsimons]

http://hamptonroads.com/2009/01/norfolk-ok...ore-odu-housing

Approved!!!!

[geszes]

Does this look safe to everyone?

Pictures from Metromont's new precast garage near Foreman Field:

[virginia pe]

Does this look safe to everyone?

Pictures from Metromont's new precast garage near Foreman Field:

Some of the photos look questionable or marginal, but I would not form a definite opinion without a first-hand observation in the field. Even then, you might need to have information on the actual structural loads and design assumptions.

[urbanfan]

Does this look safe to everyone?

Pictures from Metromont's new precast garage near Foreman Field:

All connections and precast design are done by professional engineers. They have to document any changes in the field and calculations must be done. With that said, unless the engineer isn't paying attention or the developer isn't consulting the original engineers, there should be no problem. Let's also remember that not only are there structural engineers inspecting the work and connections, the city is there probably on a daily basis inspecting the work. It is mandated by state law. My guess is that some of the connections didn't line up quite right, so the developer went back to the precast engineer and asked for a change order. The engineer came out or hired someone to come out, look at the conditions in the field, and then designed a fix for the problem. Happens all the time in construction. We just finished a job that had several hundred change orders. However, it's a little more uncommon to see that happen in a pre-designed, prefabricated garage. They tend to be pretty straightforward.

[urbanlife]

my guess would be that this happened with a shift in the soil. I remember the ground being quite soft there, but I would still consider this safe. They installed a brace for the horizontal load as well as install a tension rod, it looks like, to help prevent any more shifting....now if the question was does this look good? then the answer would be no.

[virginia pe]

All connections and precast design are done by professional engineers. They have to document any changes in the field and calculations must be done. With that said, unless the engineer isn't paying attention or the developer isn't consulting the original engineers, there should be no problem. Let's also remember that not only are there structural engineers inspecting the work and connections, the city is there probably on a daily basis inspecting the work. It is mandated by state law. My guess is that some of the connections didn't line up quite right, so the developer went back to the precast engineer and asked for a change order. The engineer came out or hired someone to come out, look at the conditions in the field, and then designed a fix for the problem. Happens all the time in construction. We just finished a job that had several hundred change orders. However, it's a little more uncommon to see that happen in a pre-designed, prefabricated garage. They tend to be pretty straightforward.

It is not a matter of the engineer not paying attention. This project falls under the jurisdiction of the Virginia Bureau of Capital Outlay Management (BCOM). The normal BCOM procedure does not require the engineer-of-record to inspect the project during construction. The agency (which is ODU) must provide an inspector, but I have seen BCOM projects where the inspection is lax to non-existent. BCOM also requires an independent testing agency to perform testing, but the discrepancies shown in the photos do not appear to be elements that the testing agency would normally be responsible for. Also, since this is a BCOM project, the city inspector is unlikely to ever set foot on the jobsite until just before kickoff for the first game.

Having said all that, I seriously doubt that there is a problem here. It is true that all of the connections and the precast design is done by professional engineers. But I have seen cases where things did not come together in the field, and the contractor took it on himself to devise a solution. But like you said, precast parking garages tend to be pretty straightforward. I have not seen this type of discrepancy before, but I suspect they occur often enough that the precast manufacturer and his structural engineer have developed standard "fixes" for discrepancies of this type. When they occur, the precaster's engineer finds the sketch for the appropriate fix in his computer and emails it to the field.

Note the designation "30K" on the steel joist seat. This probably means the member is designed for 30 kips, or 30,000 pounds (1 kip, or kilopound, = 1,000 pounds). They would not put this designation on the element if it were custom-made for this project. It implies that they have a bin full of these at the precaster's shop, and when they need one for a 30 kip load, they pull it from the bin and send it to the jobsite.

[urbanfan]

my guess would be that this happened with a shift in the soil. I remember the ground being quite soft there, but I would still consider this safe. They installed a brace for the horizontal load as well as install a tension rod, it looks like, to help prevent any more shifting....now if the question was does this look good? then the answer would be no.

Considering this building is sitting on I don't know, 30 to 50 foot piles driven into the ground, I can say with confidence that this had nothing to do with a shift in the soil. More than likely, this was problem of not paying attention to the design process, which actually happens relatively easily since cad work has come on the scene. It's very easy to make mistakes in cad and I have found in my own experience that a lot of people don't tend to be precise with their building models, so things aren't always to scale as they should be which can create issues like we see here.

[mlsimons]

http://hamptonroads.com/2009/02/government...#comment-704956

I'm sorry but this seemed to be too important not to discuss!

Here's my written comment:

"In 1998, the housing authority placed nearly all the land east of Hampton Boulevard to Killam Avenue between 47th and 38th streets within a redevelopment district and targeted old buildings for demolition."

This is the fact of the matter. The area was labeled "blight" long before the Village was built and before Boone bought the property in 2005. Furthermore, Boone has never lived in the building! Nor made an attempt to rent it out. He simply heard from his parents about the new project and thought they could get around the "blight label" with their million dollar lawyers. This is a crooked speculator's attempt to bend the system.

If a decision cannot be met, the Judge should order Boone to take up residence in the home personally!!!

[lil-bear]

I think that this is dirty dealing from the get go.

I thought years ago that RB Jr. was simply trying to flip this property and make a quick 100 Grand.

What makes this issue worse is on top of wanting more than the property is worth, RB Jr. is trying to extort free tuition for his kid. This whole scheme has made me not want to patronize any Boone business. I'll take my real estate dealings elsewhere and I will avoid any Boone owned eating establishment.

Dirty Dirty Dirty

[mlsimons]

I think that this is dirty dealing from the get go.

I thought years ago that RB Jr. was simply trying to flip this property and make a quick 100 Grand.

What makes this issue worse is on top of wanting more than the property is worth, RB Jr. is trying to extort free tuition for his kid. This whole scheme has made me not want to patronize any Boone business. I'll take my real estate dealings elsewhere and I will avoid any Boone owned eating establishment.

Dirty Dirty Dirty

Well put, a lot of people think this is capitalism at its best and that Boone should get loads of money, but I think its easy to see through.

Also, what are some Boone owned businesses? What is the extent to the Boone influence in this region?