New York Construction News
January 2007
Limestone Icon
New Manhattan Tower Fills Out Prime Central Park Site
_
_
by Diane Greer
Real estate industry players had long coveted the 57,900-sq.-ft. site encompassing the Mayflower Hotel and an adjacent vacant lot near Columbus Circle.
The site, ensconced between Lincoln Center and Central Park, was one of the most valuable redevelopment spots in Manhattan, especially after the decline of the famous hotel and the work of a previous developer to assemble other parcels to create a large tract stretching from Broadway to Central Park West between West 61st and West 62nd streets.
Among those with their eyes on the parcel was the development team of William and Arthur Zeckendorf, who lead New York-based Zeckendorf Development.
“We had been aware of the project and speaking to the owner for 10 to 15 years,” said William Zeckendorf, the firm’s co-chairman.
Their patience paid off in July 2004 when the winning bid for the property went to a joint venture between Zeckendorf; Whitehall Street Real Estate Funds, which is sponsored by New York-based Goldman Sachs; and an affiliate of Global Holdings, which is controlled by the family of Eyal Ofer of New York.
After the acquisition, the team moved quickly, selecting Robert A.M. Stern Architects of New York to design a $1 billion condominium complex. It broke ground with Bovis Lend Lease of New York as construction manager later that autumn.
The complex has 202 residences and 29 private suites designated for guests, staff, or personal offices. Condominiums, ranging from 1,000 to 6,600 sq. ft., are priced at $2 million to $45 million and feature 10- to 14-ft. ceilings and oversized windows.
Designed in the neoclassical style, the complex features two wings – the 20-story House and the 43-story Tower, which includes five floors with 86,000 sq. ft. of retail space at the base. Joining the two wings is a courtyard with a glass rotunda and reflecting pool.
Slated to open this spring, the building posted $1.5 billion in sales in its first 14 months on the market, with 75 percent of the residences sold by late fall. Even the retail spaces are moving fast, with more than half leased when Best Buy, the electronics retailer, signed up for a large chunk.
Aiming for Classic Manhattan Style
In an era when many new high-rise residential buildings are covered in glass, Zeckendorf’s complex at 15 Central Park West will stand apart.
The 886,000-sq.-ft. structure is clad in Indiana limestone cut from the quarry that supplied the stone for the Empire State Building.
From the start, Stern advocated a light palette and stone façade, Zeckendorf said.
“No one understands New York architecture like Bob Stern,” he added.
Stern, senior architect at his namesake firm, said the stone has reflective qualities that make it stand out.
“Limestone is far more beautiful than any other stone,” he added. “It reflects the light beautifully and even on a gray day it seems to glow.”
A huge loggia sitting atop the tower portion provides a distinctive skyline profile.
Stern said he drew his inspiration for the building from careful study of the great residential buildings in the city.
“The Zeckendorf brothers wanted a building that would have the great features and character of the best prewar apartment buildings but would also be a completely modern building in terms of services and room sizes,” he added.
Extensive Demo and Façade Work
To make way for the new complex, the developer had to demolish the two-building Mayflower Hotel, a process that began in November 2004 and ended the following June. Demolition took place in two phases to accommodate the last remaining tenant, who resided in the upper floors of the Plymouth, one of the two buildings.
The first phase razed the structure known as the Mayflower building on the southern portion of the property. But by the time the last tenant left, allowing demolition of the Plymouth, foundation work had already begun on the side cleared earlier, requiring careful coordination of the sitework, said Nick Grecco, senior vice president at Bovis.
“A safety zone divided the demolition area from the foundation area so materials would not fall into the hole,” he added.
The structure and composition of the rock outcroppings beneath the site slowed the foundation effort. Moving from west to east on the parcel, the rock transitioned from medium soft to hard. The team used excavators and blasting to remove it.
“On the Central Park side, the rock went to medium soft again but also dipped down so deep that we could no longer perform a straight footings job,” Grecco said. “We had to put the building on drilled caissons on the Central Park West side.”
After finishing the foundation, workers began to erect the reinforced concrete structure, which utilized 43,000 cu. yd. of concrete and 5,500 tons of reinforced steel. The project team topped out on the smaller building in July and on the taller structure in September.
As the building rose, the team also began to mobilize to install the panels for the 290,000-sq.-ft. limestone façade. Each of the 2,832 limestone panels needed a precast concrete backing for attachment to the building.
“The engineering of the limestone precast panels was pretty intense,” Grecco said.
Artex Systems of Canada, the project’s precaster, developed detailed shop drawings for each unique limestone panel and ordered the stone from the Indiana Limestone Co. in Oolitic, Ind. The stone contractor cut the limestone to specified dimensions and shipped it to Artex’s Toronto plant, where crews embedded and epoxied pins into the stone and then poured concrete over it to create the backing. The limestone was then shipped to New York.
“I do not know of one single panel that did not fit the building,” Grecco added. “The joineries are terrific.”
The construction team used three cranes, requiring careful sequencing and coordination to prevent collisions, Grecco said. The taller tower utilized two cranes, one installing the limestone panels and the other the concrete, while the third focused initially on the smaller tower and later shifted to installation of the panels.
“They switch back and forth depending on the elevation being erected,” he added.
The team is now shifting attention to the interiors, where the residences and public spaces are designed and constructed to exacting standards, using high-end materials. Amenities include a garden, library, health club, two distinct lobbies, cobblestone motor court, and 155-space underground parking garage. The courtyard reflecting pool doubles as a water-filled skylight for a competition-size swimming pool below.
In many cases, the team constructed mock-ups both onsite and offsite to test processes and installation techniques, such as the placement of tongue-and-groove flooring over a double layer of plywood above the concrete substrate.
“The biggest challenge right now, after working out all the details, is delivering the quality level called for in the details,” Grecco said. “The only way to achieve this is with a high amount of offsite monitoring. Because of the high level of finishes, we are not taking anything done in the past for granted and as the only way to do it.”
___________________________________________
15 CPW Limestone Facts
• Limestone Source: Empire Quarry, Indiana Limestone Co. of Oolitic, Ind.
• Color-Finish: Buff to bright gray with sawn smooth finish
• Quantity: 2,832 panels and approximately 13,000 sq. ft. of hand-set pieces covering 299,000 sq. ft.
• Weight: 6,000 tons with pieces ranging in weight from a few hundred pounds to more than 24,000 pounds
• Quarry method: Belt saws slice 20-ton blocks, like a loaf of bread, into 2-ft.-thick slabs. Slabs are sawed to the correct height, laid flat and then sawed to an approximately 2.5-in. thickness using a multiblade technology. Special blades and machinery were flown in from Spain to obtain the sawn finish desired by the architect. For ornamental or profile work, large pieces of stone were put into a shaping machine, called a planer, which shaves the stone to the desired shape.
• Installation: On average, 12 to 13 panels per day, occasionally peaking at 17 or dropping to five depending on conditions.
Source: Duffe Elkins, Indiana Limestone Co., and Carlos Patino, Bovis Lend Lease
Prev
Linear Mode
