This photograph, showing the bottoming out of the site for the new Wilshire Grand tower in downtown Los Angeles, was taken from the 40th floor of a neighboring building with a Nikon D4 camera using a 14mm focal length lens.
Excavating to the maximum depth of 106 ft, crews needed 230,000 worker-hours to haul away 7,400 truckloads of material during demolition of the site's previous building—the Wilshire Grand Hotel—and to remove 210,000 cu yd of soil. The site is being readied for a massive concrete mat pour in February, during which 21,100 cu yd of concrete, carried by 2,111 trucks, will be poured continuously for slightly less than 20 hours.
When completed in late 2016, the new tower will reach 1,100 ft, or 73 stories, and is expected to become the tallest building on the West Coast. Four tower cranes will erect the structural steel and concrete core structure. AC Martin is the architect, and New York-based Turner Construction Co. is the general contractor. Brandow & Johnston Inc., Los Angeles, is the structural engineer.
