RAMAPO BUILDING PROJECT

[steeringwheel]

What you need to know about the 1.7-million-square-foot Watchtower project (westfaironline.com)

[trottigy]

Thank you!

 

Quote

There would be 10 residential buildings totaling more than 711,000 square feet. There would be 323,949 square feet of offices. A fitness center would occupy 19,378 square feet, a car wash would take up 3,355 square feet and a central energy plant would cover 17,550 square feet.

 

The actual production studios would encompass 120,000 square feet with an additional 30,000 square feet of support and maintenance space. Other facilities would include a 118,075-square-foot visitor center, a 33,913-square-foot reception center and a 129,718-square-foot events facility. Outside there would be a backlot along with a sports field.

According to documents on file with the town, none of the proposed buildings would be taller than 75 feet.

 

Watchtower proposes to build a 95,000-square-foot parking garage at the site. Additional parking would be in the lowest level of each residential building as well as the events facility, reception center, office building and visitor center. There would be a total of 1,143 indoor spaces for vehicles, including buses, with an additional 138 spaces at grade level.

 

[Dages]

I like the green design... 

[jwhess]

7 hours ago, Dages said:

I like the green design... 

The article on the laminated wood construction was very interesting.  Wood, not steel...

[M.J.]

This confuses me. My understanding was that wood was in high demand and has become extremely expensive. Especially with all the trees burned in California. I thought that building with wood would be the most expensive option at this point in time. 

[Dustparticle]

1 hour ago, M.J. said:

This confuses me. My understanding was that wood was in high demand and has become extremely expensive. Especially with all the trees burned in California. I thought that building with wood would be the most expensive option at this point in time. 

Unless they got the wood in advance. Who knows?

[Qapla]

The plan submitted for the wood construction was submitted long before the upsurge in wood prices ... there is speculation that the "bubble is about to burst" on wood prices because new housing starts are back on the decline due to the increased cost of lumber

 

[M.J.]

The plan may have been submitted, but did they actually purchase the wood? 

Everything I've read says that builders will now give a quote, but with a clause that by the time of construction the price can go up due to rising lumber prices. 

[Old]

30 minutes ago, M.J. said:

The plan may have been submitted, but did they actually purchase the wood? 

Everything I've read says that builders will now give a quote, but with a clause that by the time of construction the price can go up due to rising lumber prices. 

Not to worry we have it under controll.

[trottigy]

Doubtful that they bought the wood. Most supplies only give a 90 day lock on prices and they are clearly farther out than 90 days.

 

It is better to buy a year from now when they will be ready for wood  - as prices are likely to go back to normal. By then, supply and demand will become more balanced - meaning prices will go back to normal.

 

The good news is - they don't have a date that they MUST build by. They can easily wait a few months if necessary. I am certain they will be good stewards of our donated funds.

[Shawnster]

We have also made use of materials found on the properties.  A lot of the wood used at Warwick, as well as the stone for the stonework and mortar, were used from the property itself.  

 

Now, I don't know what the property at Ramapo looks like.  It could have been all open space with few trees.  I doubt it based on what I've seen of that part of New York.  Now, as to the quality of the lumber on the Ramapo site... that's another question.

Edited June 10, 2021 by Shawnster

[M.J.]

3 hours ago, trottigy said:

It is better to buy a year from now when they will be ready for wood  - as prices are likely to go back to normal. By then, supply and demand will become more balanced - meaning prices will go back to normal.

Wood is projected to even out its prices in mid to late 2022.

[Thesauron]

If Jehovah wants it to be made out of wood, it will be. If not, we can try all we want. But we can trust that the brothers look for Jehovah every step of the way.

[jwhess]

If you investigate the construction methods proposed for Ramapo, you will find this is proposed to be a "Mass-Timber" construction.  Th is a lot more than being made of wood.  We are not building a residential type of structure with 2x4 frame and covered in plywood.

 

Mass Timber is a manufactured resource (not on site) where large amounts of milled wood is laminated together.  This means that many pieces of kiln-dried timber is laid or stacked and glued together (laminated).  If the timber is laid at right angles in the stack, it is called "cross-laminated" or CLT.  It can be massive timber columns or beams and it can include special panels of laminated material covered in glued wood veneer to make decks or walls.

 

This is not just cutting logs for a log cabin or milling a square post of of a tree on site.  This material is treated. glued, pressured and stressed in its manufacture.  So the wood is not being bought by the carload to be delivered to the site.  The building is being designed, calculated and then manufactured to the specifications.  Then the building pieces will be delivered on a schedule of construction need.

 

Go to the JW link on Ramapo "Features".  Scroll down to the video on the wood construction.

 

https://www.jw-avcenter.org/features.html

 

[Doug]

On 6/10/2021 at 4:58 AM, jwhess said:

If you investigate the construction methods proposed for Ramapo, you will find this is proposed to be a "Mass-Timber" construction.  This a lot more than being made of wood.  

 

Mass Timber is a manufactured resource (not on site) where large amounts of milled wood is laminated together.  This means that many pieces of kiln-dried timber is laid or stacked and glued together (laminated).  If the timber is laid at right angles in the stack, it is called "cross-laminated" or CLT.  It can be massive timber columns or beams and it can include special panels of laminated material covered in glued wood veneer to make decks or walls.

 

  This material is treated. glued, pressured and stressed in its manufacture.  

 

I watched the short video at the link you provided.  It was really focused on 'carbon sequestration' and not much on how the wood components are made.

 

You gave us more detail than the video did.  I wonder if CLT is a cross-lamination of strips (like pulling apart string cheese), rather than sheets (such as plywood veneers). Strips layered and oriented at right angles and glued under pressure is incredibly strong and water resistant.  That's how I imagine Mass-Timber technology.

[jwhess]

Br. Doug, here is a link to a video on Mass Timber CLT, NLT, LVM and GluLam materials.

Here is an educational brochure on Mass Timber.

 

https://youtu.be/zxW5Qyu184U

 

Mass Timber.pdf