Posted June 2012
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| Eleven Times Square was recognized as a finalist in the 2011 CTBUH Awards Program. |
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| Other Featured Tall Buildings |
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“Eleven Times Square is the latest addition to an area of New York that has positioned itself as an exemplar of US-style sustainable high-rise office building.”
- Werner Sobek, CTBUH 2011 Awards Juror, Werner Sobek Group
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Eleven Times Square attempts to make a more sustainable model for an urban building, setting a good example of how the combination of new technologies and smart design choices can dramatically increase a building’s environmental performance. The building’s inversed tapering form takes on New York’s typical zoning—increasing the floor plate as it rises, creating a dynamic form on the skyline (with the added benefit of increasing the leasable floor area at the more desirable heights).
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| Figure 1. Tower base featuring the dramatic 13.7 m (45 ft) cantilevered corner |
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Eleven Times Square is a glass-clad commercial tower that occupies a full block front along Eighth Avenue between West 41st and West 42nd Streets in New York City. Designed to extend the vibrancy of Times Square and meet the needs of high-end corporate tenants, its form was derived from an insightful observation of the context. Three independent but interrelated components comprise the structure: a six-story ribboned base that wraps the corner of 42nd Street and Eighth Avenue; an outwardly sloped glass-clad “crystal” that preserves sight lines along the 42nd Street corridor; and a 40-story spine that anchors the commercial properties of the building. | |
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The building is an inversion of Manhattan’s zoning paradigm where buildings taper inward as they rise. Here the building is set in at its base, and then slopes out towards the street line as it progresses upward, engaging the Westin Hotel across 42nd Street to establish a new western gateway to Times Square. Its distinctive sloped form is crowned with a chiseled profile while preserving views to the landmark Candler and McGraw-Hill buildings nearby. This outward sloping form achieves a civic gesture of gateway, while simultaneously creating more floor area in the upper, valuable portion of the tower.
The building’s structure along 42nd Street rests on a six-story podium, which reinforces the street’s pedestrian-oriented scale and retail-entertainment environment. The podium terminates in a deep setback that accommodates large scale, three-dimensional LED displays, further contributing to the vibrancy and luminescence of 42nd Street.
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Figure 2. Massing Diagram
(View Larger)
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A site geometry that could not support a center-core building greatly influenced the building’s architecture. Structural engineers determined that a side-core design provided the most efficient lateral and torsional stiffness for the structure. A sloping north face sets the building’s concrete core in the crook of the L-shaped site, offset from the bulk of the tower’s mass. Steel floor framing kept the weight of the building low, reducing torsion and lateral drift induced by the 30-foot cantilever over the sloping height of the building. Due to its efficient configuration and low weight, under wind loads the tower develops tension uplift beneath the concrete core. To resist these forces, a system of rock anchors is installed under the core.
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Figure 3. Corporate Lobby
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| The building’s floor construction and perimeter gravity-supporting structure are steel, providing a flexible structure ideal for the New York office market. Above the fifth floor, column layout is closely coordinated with the architecture to provide column-free corners and façades, maximizing views of the Hudson River and midtown. The building’s southwest corner features a dramatic 13.7-meter (45-foot) cantilever to keep the corporate lobby entrance clear of columns. |
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| Figure 4. Façade detail at north west corner |
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Figure 5. Façade detail at south west corner |
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| Office buildings in this climate are almost always in cooling mode, and therefore the reduction of solar gain was a driver of the building’s form and expression. The building has varying curtain wall treatments on its north and south façades, which are strategically chosen to minimize energy use and create an optimal working environment. The south portion of the building—exposed to the most sun—has reflective glass and perforated aluminum sunshades that cut down on glare and heat. In contrast, the 42nd Street portion is sheer and more transparent, welcoming in softer, northern light. The façade is structurally glazed, meaning there are no exterior mullion caps, which can create heat transfer points. Additionally, stainless-steel spacers were used rather than aluminum between the lites at the edges of the panels, where curtain walls lose most of their heat. |
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