Winter Garden Restoration

Cost: $50 million

Development Team

Owner and Developer: Brookfield Financial Properties, NYC
Construction Manager: Turner Construction Co., NYC
Design Architect: Cesar Pelli & Associates, NYC
Production Architect: Adamson Associates, Ontario
Structural Engineer: Thornton-Tomasetti Engineers
Engineers for Curtainwall: Gilsanz Murray Steficek, NYC
MEP Engineers: Flack + Kurtz Inc., NYC
Scaffolding & Shoring Contractor: Atlantic-Heydt Corp., Maspeth, N.Y.

The resurrection of the Winter Garden was of great symbolic significance to New York City. It was the first major building damaged in the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 to be completely restored.

The imposing 10-story, 45,000-sq.-ft. glass and marble atrium and performance space owned by Brookfield Financial Properties was severely damaged by falling debris from the north tower and buried under a 55-ft. pile of steel, concrete, glass and dust. There were broken roof arches, destroyed floor framing and a damaged lateral support system. In November 2001, Brookfield hired the Winter Garden's original architect, Cesar Pelli, and his son Rafael of Cesar Pelli & Associates to design the reconstructed facility. Turner Construction Co. was hired as the general contractor.

The development team was given a mandate to restore the Winter Garden to its former glory by Sept. 11, 2002 - a goal that it achieved.

Thornton-Tomasetti Engineers, structural engineer on the project, designed shoring towers, which were installed by Atlantic-Heydt Corp. This allowed for the weight of the structure to be safely transferred from the debris.

Once the structure was secured and the debris removed, Turner installed an overhead portal erection crane over the roof arches, which made it possible to erect the glass roof panel while simultaneous demolition and repairs took place.