Since there isn't that much going on at the Bay View Campus construction, I rode my bike over to another Google building going up at the corner of Charleston, and Shoreline. This is a building I am calling a turtle building because of the unusual turtle-like covering which is to go over the whole thing.

One of the curved column supports is just visible in this image, otherwise at this juncture, the site is basically just a hole in the ground.

I've now moved a long city block to Charleston and Shoreline where the building envelope of the new turtle shell Google building is being constructed. It is the yellow steel affair that looks like an amusement park ride. The campus will occupy that entire block lined with the green fence. The tall yellow object is a crane to lift the yellow steel tubes into place for bolting, and later welding in place.

There is another building corner springing out to the left behind the light pole. Up close I can see another substantial concrete column taking shape for the corner of the building closer to where I'm standing.

Now you see why I'm calling it a turtle shell building.

The steel tube work is impressive to look at. It could almost be a stadium under construction.

Here is a better view of the portion of the roof in place at this juncture. The rust-colored steel supports simply hold up the yellow tubes until they can be bolted into place with the rest of the structure.

This is a close up of a major ground support. Maybe Google could incorporate a roller coaster in this structure to make it worth something more than a pretentious waste of money.

Now on July 22nd 2018, more of the superstructure has been installed. The yellow lattice on the right, which would be the south-west corner of the building is getting closer to joining up with the south-east corner.

This is a tighter shot of the south-east corner roof lattice supports.

This eastern side is growing to the north as the building support structure construction continues.

The eastern edge as it progresses along Shoreline.

Closer image of the tubular structure with temperory vertical support steel still in place.

Backing toward the other Bay View Campus' construction, these sites are only a couple city blocks apart.

Here three weeks later on August 25th, more of the yellow tube steel has been installed. The web is complete all the way from the south-west corner, around to the north-east corner.

Looking at the south-east corner, now installed are roof panels. It's not obvious to me at this point if this is the outer skin of the buildng or not, but it looks unfinished both on the topside and from the underside too.

Nice sweeping view to the north from the south-east corner showing the newly installed roof panels. Way off in the distance are the white tents of Shorline Amphitheater.

I'm back to check the yellow campus on Dec 6th, 2018. This south side view shows much more of the roof skin completed.

Here is a zoomed view with the near underside of the panels visible, and in the background are more virtical column supports for more of the building's yellow tube trusses yet to be installed. There is so much traffic in this area that I can't get to the south west side of the construction to image it, so I'll have to come back on a weekend for more photos.

Looking to the north here with more of the "roller coaster" roof truss and skins in place. I still think this building looks like it belongs in an amusement park.

Remember everything yellow is a permenant structural element, where all dark steel is for temporary support during construction.

Back for a quick update on January 10th, with lots of traffic, so just one quick shot. This crane with the 300 foot boom is here to pick HVAC equipment to be placed in the center of the complex. Right now it is only lifting roof tiles, and window glazing.

I'm back on January 19th, a Saturday with little traffic, so I could bike around the entire block.

Long shot of the progress so far with most of the yellow tube beams in place.

That Manitowoc 300 foot boom is really impressive up close. The boom has a significant bend in the crane's parked position.

A zoomed shot of the interior with many of the roof tiles in place. Most of the temporary column supports are still supporting the yellow tubular beams, and there is a lot of welding going on even today, a weekend day. There has been a lot of rain in the previous week, and they may be playing catch-up with the schedule.

Interesting story about this Manitowoc crane: My wife was ridding her bicycle out in the bay on the dirt roads when a man walking stopped her and asked where he could get a bike to ride. In the conversation, Kristin discovered he is a worker on the Turtle Google Campus, off work for the rest of the day, and looking for something to do. Turns out, we have several bikes he could borrow, as he is from Portland, just here as a temperory construction employee, so she offered him one to borrow for the next few months.

He showed up at our home to pick it up, and I quizzed him about this Google project. He is this red crane's operator. He said it has a capacity of 600 ton, although it doesn't look that heafty to me. It rents for $50,000 a month, about $800 an hour, and is there for a particular pick, namely air conditioning equipment which will be placed right in the middle of the lot. Meanwhile they are using him to place roof tiles. The day he came by, he had only one pick, but was payed for the entire day regardless.

I'm back on Feb 17th after a couple weeks of rain. I only took this one picture since I didn't see a lot of change from a couple weeks ago. There is a lot of glazing in place further to the south, more roof tiles have been placed, and many more of the yellow steel tubes are in place now.

Today is April 14th 2019, I was at the Bay View Campus and happened to look over to the Turtle construction only to see the 300 foot boom Manitowoc out over the highway! So after some images at Bay View, I rode over to this campus.

This first shot is from the north east showing the finished roof. The crane boom is still out over Shorline Blvd. so I need more information rewarded by a closer viw.

Here you can see what I mean about the boom/jib out over the street.

So, they are moving the crane from the south east corner along the east side to the north east.

The crane tracks make a lot of crunching noise as the crane moves at about an inch a second or 5 feet a minute. I don't have the patience to wait and see how far they are going, but the planks the crane travels on stretch to the north-east corner.