Tower at OPOP (Roberts Tower), 411 North Eighth Street

aviator · PostApr 23, 2008#8262008-04-23T01:26+00:00

timbo wrote:I really would doubt that this building will use geothermal heating and cooling since the footprint is really really small, maybe they meant a heat pump system

I don't know. It obviously wouldn't work in a horizontal arrangement but Geothermal can be done vertically as long as you can dig deeply enough into the ground.

crbswiss · PostApr 23, 2008#8272008-04-23T16:24+00:00

Geothermal systems use heat directly from natural sources like hot springs, geysers, volcanic hot spots or hot bedrock from deep in the earth.

Ground source heat pumps are air conditioners that use groundwater or simply soil to cool the condenser instead of an outside coil and fan. It uses electricity to move heat energy from one place to the other. Run it backwards and it provides heat, more efficiently than using the electricity directly.

aviator · PostApr 24, 2008#8282008-04-24T00:44+00:00

Actually the word "geothermal" is used very frequently in reference to heat pump systems. It is, after all, transferring heat between a building and the ground. That sounds geothermal to me.

crbswiss · PostApr 24, 2008#8292008-04-24T16:22+00:00

You are correct, Geothermal is often used to describe heat pump systems (even by some manufacturers), but incorrectly so. This practice has let to a broad missunderstanding of the 2 systems. Just because the discriptive of the name seems to fit does not mean that is actually what it is.

jlblues · PostApr 24, 2008#8302008-04-24T21:34+00:00

ge·o·ther·mal

adj. Of or relating to the internal heat of the earth.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

So, you can use the word geothermal to describe any system which uses the heat of the earth to heat a building, but not to describe a system which also uses the relatively cooler temperature of the earth to cool a building, as heat pump systems do. Make sense?

Heat pump, shmeat pump.

awrhodes · PostMay 11, 2008#8312008-05-11T23:08+00:00

So how is construction going? Have they moved past the drilling-foundation stage yet?

I'd love to see some pics if anyone lives/hangs out around there. Thanks.

newstl2020 · PostMay 28, 2008#8322008-05-28T05:24+00:00

Went by today and they look like they have completed some substantial excavation.

PostMay 28, 2008#8332008-05-28T05:24+00:00

^Pics tommorow

MattnSTL · PostMay 29, 2008#8342008-05-29T02:08+00:00

Yep, they are pretty far down now. I'd think they should be starting to come up soon now.

magnatron · PostJun 05, 2008#8352008-06-05T02:46+00:00

newstl2020 wrote:^Pics tommorow

It's been tomorrow for about 7 days now......

MattnSTL · PostJun 05, 2008#8362008-06-05T04:11+00:00

^I'll take some tomorrow during lunch or whenever I decide to sneak out of the office, but I make no promises on when they will get posted.

newstl2020 · PostJun 06, 2008#8372008-06-06T00:29+00:00

Magnatron wrote:
newstl2020 wrote:^Pics tommorow

It's been tomorrow for about 7 days now......

My apologies. I've been caught up in moving back to StL for the summer business.

MattnSTL · PostJun 06, 2008#8382008-06-06T05:31+00:00

Excavation is now almost complete. These were taken around 11:00 am this morning.

magnatron · PostJun 06, 2008#8392008-06-06T18:14+00:00

cant wait to see the steel skeleton rise

newstl2020 · PostJun 06, 2008#8402008-06-06T20:01+00:00

^Speaking of which, do we know that it is going to be steel?

MattnSTL · PostJun 07, 2008#8412008-06-07T20:56+00:00

Most residential buildings nowadays are concrete.

framer · PostJun 08, 2008#8422008-06-08T03:25+00:00

I guess this thing is really happening. I admit that I had suffered a bit of lingering skepticism, even as we watched the excavation proceeding.

Hats off to the Roberts Bros.

ntbpo · PostJun 09, 2008#8432008-06-09T04:01+00:00

Even with all of the slowups of other projects the Roberts tower and the new Four Seasons are two great highrise additions to downtown.

MattnSTL · PostJun 20, 2008#8442008-06-20T06:20+00:00

At this point, I don't think anyone can doubt whether this tower is going up. Excavation is now basically finished with the long reach excavator getting loaded up today. Now the tower crane will be going up. The base was put in place this afternoon. Pics are from this afternoon.

Besides what is posted here, I have a bunch more pics from the last couple weeks here for those that may be interested.

shimmy · PostJun 20, 2008#8452008-06-20T15:45+00:00

With all the stalls and cancellations, it's really great to see this one moving forward.

vollum · PostJun 20, 2008#8462008-06-20T15:46+00:00

Talked to one of the construction workers at the site this week and I asked him when the construction would start to reach grade level. He told me that he thinks it will be about one month from now.

arch city · PostJun 21, 2008#8472008-06-21T01:04+00:00

The crane, the crane!

framer · PostJun 22, 2008#8482008-06-22T03:21+00:00

That crane operator's going to have to be damn good, working on such a tight site (with the Mayfair right next door and all). I guess that's why they make the big bucks.

newstl2020 · PostJun 22, 2008#8492008-06-22T17:26+00:00

Best news I have personally seen this week.

irocktheparty2000 · PostJun 27, 2008#8502008-06-27T21:01+00:00

A few updated photos of the now in place crane. You can also see how the plaza is coming together in the last shot.

Tower at OPOP (Roberts Tower), 411 North Eighth Street

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