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For any who are interested in the meat and guts of these buildings this made for interesting reading:
"One of the biggest challenges was how to weave the support structure for all of this through the substantial subway escalators. The tower is mainly supported on 10 caissons, 100 feet deep with diameters of up to six feet, which had to be driven very accurately…The building was only able to touch the rock below in two thin strips that do not even span the whole site. Otherwise, it lands on the New York’s Metropolitan Transport Authority facility in predefined locations with predefined loads. The problem was that those predefined points were based on a completely different design. The previous plans for the site, for which WSP was also the structural engineer, envisaged a steel-framed tower with a diagrid structure. Now they had to work out how to land a concrete building with a completely different form in exactly the same way.
“Generally speaking, if you compare a typical concrete office structure to a steel-framed building you’re dealing with roughly twice the load,” explains Smilow. “But we had to match the steel building’s loads, and in the right locations.”
Sounds like Related made WSP jump through hoops with for this one. I wonder: is it the steel itself or the Union Steelworkers that make steel buildings more expensive than reinforced concrete?
Related seems to want reinforced concrete wherever possible (10 and 55 both among very few office buildings with this structure). 30 HY had to be steel because supporting a concrete superstructure over that part or the train yard was too challenging, but then why will 50 HY have steel perimeter columns?
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Any updates on the curtain wall?
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You mean around the crown? They’ve finished it i believe
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Exactly what I meant. That took long!
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I’m not sure I like the way the crown has turned out. Is it supposed to illuminate at night?
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In this render it looks lit up, but I don’t understand how they’re going to light up the mechanical floor under the roof, it’s mostly closed off from looking outside. They might just have lights on the roof like 3 WTC…we’ll see. However in this image it’s during sunset and the top looks completely blocked off
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Is this building better in person? It’s disappointing, I think. The facade up close is nice, though.
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I think its one of those towers that looks better during the winter due to the general lighting. Has that facade that works well with winter lighting.
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Those balcony floors look ridiculous.
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I don’t like this one. The whole thing just looks goofy, it would be better without the awkward crown and the balconies. Even then, the simplistic design literally looks like those default roblox buildings on the default maps
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If every piece of the facade was matte black this building would have been a success. Unfortunately the balcony columns and parapet are turning out to be a distraction.
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The crown looks good at night, I guess. Definitely my least favorite building out of all 5.
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