flexiblefullpage
billboard
interstitial1
catfish1
Currently Reading

20 Times Square: Conquering Times Square

Reconstruction Awards

20 Times Square: Conquering Times Square

The 20 Times Square mixed-used project at the corner of 47th and Seventh Avenue is indicative of the great lengths Building Teams will go in order to maximize real estate and media opportunities in Times Square.


By David Barista, Editorial Director | November 13, 2018

The project involved saving the street-facing portions of the Cecil B. DeMille building to maintain its billboard rights. Photo: Ralph D’Angelo/CIG Digital.

No other place in the country generates more advertising revenue from building façades than Times Square. A single billboard can command upwards of $4 million per advertiser per year. Using the latest digital signage technology and creative building redevelopment plans, building owners and developers jockey for the primo positions to capture eyeballs along this famed commercial intersection.

The 20 Times Square mixed-used project at the corner of 47th and Seventh Avenue is indicative of the great lengths Building Teams will go in order to maximize real estate and media opportunities in Times Square. The project involved redeveloping portions of the historic Cecil B. DeMille building, pouring new foundations for the entire site, and then erecting a 42-story luxury hotel, retail, and entertainment tower on the compact, 16,000-sf property.

Demolishing the DeMille building would have been the easy route, but it would cost the developers precious billboard real estate. For new construction, the city requires a setback at 60 feet in height. This would have nearly halved the 110-foot-tall street wall that wrapped the DeMille building. To save its street wall height, the team would have to qualify for a special Alteration 1 permit.

 

20 Times Square exterior facade

 

The solution entailed demolishing 70% of the existing building, leaving a 10-story, L-shaped configuration along 47th Street and Seventh Avenue. The team took painstaking measures to save the street-facing structure of the DeMille, a plan that met the city’s requirement for saving at least 25% of the existing floor levels. It included: temporary shoring and bracing of the existing structure until the permanent foundations could be poured; removal of the small Pig & Whistle pub building and an accompanying party wall shared by the adjacent New York Hotel (different owner); the discovery of misplaced columns and undocumented structural framing that required re-engineering on a weekly basis to maintain the shoring/bracing; and the install of vibration monitors and telltales to monitor movement of the existing “L” structure during construction.

The combination of a complex project, with numerous unforeseen issues, on a tight site, in one of the world’s busiest intersections made 20 Times Square the “most taxing, yet exhilarating” project in the 40-year career of CNY’s President Kenneth Colao. The risks “were very material.”

 

Bronze Award Winner

BUILDING TEAM CNY Construction (submitting firm, CM) Maefield Development (owner) The Witkoff Organization (developer) Platt Byard Dovell White (architect) Adamson Associates Architects (interior architect) Severud Associates (SE) Cosentini Associates (MEP) DETAILS 378,000 sf Total cost Confidential Construction time 2015 to 2018 Delivery method CM at risk with GMP

 

CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE 2018 RECONSTRUCTION AWARDS LANDING PAGE

Related Stories

Reconstruction Awards | Nov 16, 2016

BD+C's 2016 Reconstruction Award Winners

St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Lovejoy Wharf, and the Bay Area Metro Center are just a few of the projects recognized as 2016 Reconstruction Award winners.

Reconstruction Awards | Nov 16, 2016

Reconstruction Awards: The Renwick Gallery of The Smithsonian American Art Museum

The renovation restored two long-concealed vaulted ceilings in the second-floor galleries and recreated the original 19th-century window configuration.

Reconstruction Awards | Nov 16, 2016

Reconstruction Awards: Massachusetts Maritime Academy

The two-story “overbuild” employed block and plank construction with drag strut detailing to connect it to the existing building.

Reconstruction Awards | Nov 16, 2016

Reconstruction Awards: The Masonic Temple

The building team suspended a new eighth-floor mezzanine and added 18 9x15-foot windows to the north, south, and west façades.

Reconstruction Awards | Nov 16, 2016

Reconstruction Awards: San Francisco War Memorial Veterans Building

The building team used a system of rocking concrete shear walls, which eliminated the need for deep foundations and reduced the shear force on each wall.

Reconstruction Awards | Nov 16, 2016

Reconstruction Awards: Arc at Old Colony

The Arc at Old Colony's vintage floor plans, voluminous lobby, and myriad elevators were perfect for redevelopment as a historically charming residential building.

Reconstruction Awards | Nov 16, 2016

Reconstruction Awards: Noble Chapel

In May 2013 the 124-year-old Noble Chapel, suffered a three-alarm fire that almost completely destroyed its 1937 crematorium.

Reconstruction Awards | Nov 16, 2016

Reconstruction Awards: Bay Area Metro Center

The structure’s 60,000-sf floor plates made the interior dark and foreboding, and BAHA wanted to improve working conditions for its employees and tenants. 

boombox1
boombox2
native1

More In Category


Giants 400

BD+C Awards Programs

Entry information and past winners for Building Design+Construction's two major awards programs: 40 Under 40 and Giants 400



halfpage1

Most Popular Content

  1. 2021 Giants 400 Report
  2. Top 150 Architecture Firms for 2019
  3. 13 projects that represent the future of affordable housing
  4. Sagrada Familia completion date pushed back due to coronavirus
  5. Top 160 Architecture Firms 2021