Times Square Tower

Construction of the Times Square Tower was the last office component of the 42nd Street Development Project, and the site and logistics made it a tough job to complete.

The Times Square subway station surrounds the site on all four sides. The No. 7 train runs along the south side of the building, the No. 1/9, 2 and 3 trains run along the west and the N, R, Q and W trains run along the east. During peak times, 10,000 pedestrians cross Seventh Avenue each hour.

"This is a world-class structure," said a jury member. "It was a tough site, with amazing logistical challenges."

The 49-story tower with 1.2 million sq. ft. encompasses a full-block site at 42nd Street and Seventh Avenue. Since 1995, the 42nd Street Development Project, a subsidiary of Empire State Development, has overseen 6.4 million sq. ft. of new redevelopment, 6,000 new theater seats in restored historic theaters, 8,600 new movie seats, 600,000 sq. ft. of new retail and restaurant establishments more than 1,300 new hotel rooms.

Among features of the Times Square Tower are a ground-floor lobby with a shuttle elevator connection to a main sky lobby, a curtain wall consisting of 11 different materials and commercial signage symbolic of the Times Square revitalization theme.

The $229.7 million project also included building a new subway entrance within the footprint of the building. As part of this project, two floors of the station had to be renovated and passengers had to be reverted away from construction without disturbing access to trains. The New York City Transit Authority required the station to open prior to completion of the base building and storefront.

Because of the logistical challenges of the site, the project team had to be in constant communication with the New York Police Department, the New York City Department of Buildings and the Transit Authority. Surrounding streets had to be closed during the picking of steel and mechanical equipment as well as erection and dismantling of cranes.

Activities were scheduled for Saturdays, Sundays and after hours to avoid interfering with the crush of pedestrians during rush hour.

Building the new subway station also required coordination and communication with the Transit Authority and 42nd Street Development Project. Full-height temporary partition walls were erected within the station to separate the passengers from the construction activities, temporary signage was erected to notify and redirect passengers and a temporary storefront was erected to open the station prior to the beginning of storefront work.

The project team also had to face obstacles in construction of the curtain wall. Continuous site visits were made to the curtain wall manufacturers' fabrication and assembly plants in Canada and Connecticut, and curtain wall performance mockup tests were performed and monitored in Florida.

Oversized curtain wall panels were hoisted using cranes, and the curtain wall was installed using "beech hoisting equipment," a mobile arm that reaches over the building and supports the cables that hoist the panel from the floor below and lift it into place.

Times Square Tower was another project that broke ground prior to Sept. 11 but faced additional security concerns in the wake of the World Trade Center attacks.

To address those concerns, all perimeter column, beam and diagonal steel sections from the ground to the second floor were reinforced after erection was completed. A separate contractor was hired so as not to interfere with erection pace.

Lobbies were redesigned to include turnstiles, better surveillance and enhanced security measures.