Iconic

One Bryant Park: The Next Phase of Green Construction

New Bank of America Tower is looking to raise the bar for green building.

A crystal 56-story tower with a multi-faceted facade is rising up across from Manhattan's Bryant Park to join an already busy skyline. But One Bryant Park is not your standard high-rise.

In addition to a progressive yet historically referenced design and a combination of a steel core and a concrete shell to lighten the tower, the building marks the next phase of green building in New York. In a city where certain unscrupulous builders tout green credits by hitting the minimum to achieve a basic LEED rating, the 2.2-million-sq-ft tower has served as a veritable testing ground for experimental green methods and is poised to become the very first LEED Platinum high-rise in the country.

“[One Bryant Park] is transforming the marketplace,” says Richard Cook, principal at New York's Cook + Fox, the architects of tower.

The tower's design inspiration stretches back to 1853, when the Crystal Palace erected inside Bryant Park for the World's Fair became the very first metal and glass building in the country. The palace, directly inspired by the London Crystal Palace of 1851, was a hit: according to Cook, Mark Twain called it "beautiful beyond all description.” Walt Whitman described it as "gladdening the sun and sky" in “The Song of the Exhibition”, a poem entirely dedicated to the palace. Its light construction, as well as its first-ever addition of automatic emergency elevator brakes, has paved the way for high-rises making up the iconic skyline of Manhattan.

The Crystal Palace burnt down just six years after completion, but Cook + Fox have picked up on the structure's pioneering spirit. To take advantage of the views of Bryant Park and the nearby Empire State Building but to avoid trampling on pedestrians' views, they spiraled the tower to expose more facets, sloped it after the 21st floor to reduce the tower's upper profile, and incorporated several setbacks, with green roofs, to allow more air and light on the street. A 250-ft rooftop spire brings the total height to 1,200 ft. On ground level, the team is adding a public plaza three times the size required by the site's zoning and an Urban Garden Room at 43rd St. and 6th Ave., as well as new glass-enclosed subway entrance at the corner of 42nd St., and a mid-block entrance on 42nd St. Below ground, a pedestrian walkway will link the B,D,F lines to the Times Square station.

Think Huge

At two acres, the tower's development site along the west side of 6th Ave. between 42nd and 43rd Streets is now the largest in Manhattan. The 70-ft dig ended up as the biggest hole in Midtown, according to David Horowitz, senior vice president on the tower for Tishman Construction Corp., the New York-based construction manager on the project – and one that has subway tunnels all around it.

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On a 90,000-sq-ft footprint, the tower averages 70,000 to 80,000 sq ft on the first five floors, shrinks to 36,650 sq ft thereafter, and slopes inward toward 25,000 sq ft by the 51st floor. Even incorporating a material-saving design that combines a steel core with a concrete shell, to bring this monolith up, the team needed 25,000 tons of steel, 68,000 cubic yards of concrete for the superstructure, 18,000 cubic yards for the foundation, and 6,500 tons for reinforcing steel. The 86,000-unit curtain wall was further complicated by the spiraling shape of the tower. “Typically, you'll have thirty guys installing it. Here, we had two hundred,” says Horowitz.

An added layer of complexity came from the schedule: work on the building’s interior commenced as construction on the overall building was still going up. Design elements such as concrete stairwells and elevator shafts allowed time savings by eliminating the need for future dry-wall installation. But coordinating so many trades, combined with constant coordination with transportation officials, and the incorporation of an on-site LEED supervisor, made the project a “team sport”, according to Ross.

A Broadway Classic

The tower is going up literally on top of the 1918 Henry Miller Theater, with a landmarked neo-Georgian facade. To preserve the facade, the team had to “surgically” demolish the inside of the building, prop it up with rock ties and underpinnings, and extensively monitor vibrations during demolition and excavation for the main tower. The theater will be updated for the 21st century, with restoration of the 50,000-sq-ft space, increased capacity of 1,000 patrons, ADA accessibility, a new lobby bar, ground-floor cafe, and mezzanine-level restaurant.

Real LEED

LEED elements such as natural lighting, interior automatic light and CO2 sensors, low-VOC finishes, local sourcing, and the use of recycled and recyclable materials have by now become de facto for any high-profile project in the U.S., and the tower incorporates them all. But that wasn’t enough for the team behind One Bryant Park, a 50-50 joint venture between the Durst Organization, which developed what many consider the first green high rise in America at 4 Times Square, and Bank of America, which intends to move its trading floors into the tower but is adamant on also reducing its worldwide greenhouse emissions by 7 % by 2008.

The tower boasts an under-floor air ventilation system, only the second modern skyscraper after the recently completed New York Times Tower to use this method, brought back from earlier, more efficient ways of ventilating buildings once without the benefit of electricity. All storm and waste water is captured and recycled in a sophisticated gray water system, estimated to reduced potable water use by 50 % and divert up to 95 % of storm water from the city's sewers. A thermal storage system will produce ice during off-peak electricity times for the cooling system. The most advanced addition is the 5 megaWatt co-generation plant located in the cellar.

Many of the LEED technologies, says Joseph Ross, executive vice president with Tishman, have been tested and implemented on the construction firm's previous projects - from the new 7 World Trade Center, to the Reuters Building and Condé Nast buildings Tishman constructed with Durst at 3 and 4 Times Square. “We looked at photovoltaics, higher efficiency glass, fuel cells, recycled and recyclable content – when therewas no LEED,” he adds.

Likewise, One Bryant Park is more than racking up LEED points. The team not only considered but tested the newest green technologies, according to Richard Cook.

“Everything was explored,” he says.

During a year-long period, Durst tested wind patterns with the prospect of installing wind turbines on a second smaller spire on the roof. The test showed, however, that New York, unlike windy Chicago, does not have consistent winds between 6 and 12 mph necessary for efficient turbine generation.

“We have a lot of wind but we have many days over 12 and under 6,” says Cook.

The team considered photovoltaic panels and even a anaerobic digester plant to convert food waste from the building's cafeterias into electricity – and while these elements proved cost prohibitive or were left up to the tenant, the tower's design allows for later additions of all three elements.

The team went beyond what was necessary for the LEED rating, according to Cook. For example, Durst's Amanda Klotz, assigned to oversee LEED compliance, watched concrete trucks being washed off right on the street and devised a settlement tank system to prevent concrete debris from washing into the city's sewers. There are no LEED points for this, yet.

Tishman, in turn, decided to implement LEED construction across the board, making it the responsibility of each team leader to work out the necessary steps on the construction site with the crew and the material vendors.

“Each of the trades had to come up with a program to meet the requirements. We made an effort to go to faults to get people on board with this thinking,” says Horowitz. “It was an educational process in doing business – not just something to do. The intent was not to short-circuit it.”

Ross points out that LEED on low-VOC finishes only extends to large gallon containers – while it would have been easy to simply ship by quart instead of by gallon, Tishman insisted on no such short cuts.

As with any new technology, some green elements were met with opposition. The waterless urinals, for example, were a hard sell, both to the skeptical public – rumors circulated in the financial community that no million-dollar investment banker will stoop down to it – and to the trades that thought they would lose pipe work as a result.

“But in a building like Bryant Park, with a recycling system, there's tons of work for plumbers,” explains Jordan Barowitz, Durst's director of external affairs. “And the idea that we flush our toilets with potable water here in New York City used in much the rest of the world for drinking should give us pause as well.”

The team's thinking behind the LEED elements was intended to take the concept of green construction from environmental responsibility to simply good practice and cost efficiency. Feasibility studies, for example, show that the 5mW co-gen plant will pay for itself in just five years. Such calculations, however, are not new in LEED design – what is different is extending efficiency maximization to the people inside.

“Bringing in more daylight deep into the building reduces electricity costs. But it also increases the efficiency of the people that work in the builidng – and that's the greatest cost savings,” says Barowitz, adding that financial firms' personnel costs are several factors higher than their energy needs. “If you're 10% more efficient on energy, it's not the same dollar amount as a 2-3% in personnel savings.”

The fact that a bank would embrace paying a premium for a greener facility also indicates a shift in thinking, says Cook.

"A major financial institution, which really focuses on the bottom line, decided to spend a little more on a seriously green building."

One Bryant Park, simply by its scope, has already changed the marketplace.

The premium alone associated with the LEED Platinum points was estimated to be around 7%; as the project is nearing completion, the cost is closer to 6%, according to Barowitz. This is due to the changes in New York's construction market just over the past four years: from the type of green materials regular vendors are accepting as standard, such as the use of 45 % blast furnace slag in concrete, according to Cook, to lessons learned on clean-air construction site maintenance. The work that went into the tower has paved the way for New York's greener buildings.

TEAM LIST

Owner – 50-50 Joint: Durst Organization, New York and Bank of America
Developer: Durst Organizations, New York
Lead Architect: Cook + Fox, New York
General Contractor: Tishman Construction, New York
Executive Architect: Adamson Associates Architects
Mechanical Engineer: Jaros, Baum & Bolles
Structural Engineer: Severud Associates
Geo-Technical Engineer: Mueser Rutledge Consulting Engineers
Construction: Tishman Construction Corporation
Code Consultant: JAM Consultants
Elevator Consultant: Van Deusen & Associates
Exterior Wall Consultant: Israel Berger & Associates, Inc.
Base Building Acoustician: Shen Milsom & Wilke, Inc.
Security Consultant: Ducibella, Venter & Santore
Exterior Maintenance Entek Engineering Consultant:
NYC Transit Consultant: Vollmer Associates, LLP
Lighting Consultant: Cline Bettridge Bernstein Lighting Design Inc.
Historic Consultant: Higgins & Quasebarth
Theater Consultant: Fisher Dachs Associates
Theater Acousticians: Jaffe Holden Acoustics, Inc.
Energy/Environmental: Steven Winter AssociatesSolar
Design/Photovoltaic Consultant: Solar Design Associates, Inc.