by Frank Poverello
Like nature, the New York City skyline hates a vacuum. To many who worked on the project, the Time Warner Center in Manhattan represents a counterpoint to the destruction of the World Trade Center (WTC) on September 11, 2001. The 2.8-million-square-foot, mixed-use project now being completed by the Related Cos., The Palladium Company and Apollo Real Estate Advisors, ranks as one of the largest developments if not the largest to come out of the Manhattan ground since the terrorist attacks. Thesimilarities between the two landmarks are striking. Like the WTC, the twin-towered Time Warner Center will be acombination tourist destination, shopping mecca, office complex and hotel. Unlike the WTC, however, the new twin towers will also boast an entertainment venue Jazz at Lincoln Center and luxury residential housing. And it will boast a major, defining anchor tenant in Time Warner, which plans to use the office portion of the complex as its future world headquarters.
Designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, the center sits on the corner where Central Park South and Broadway meet Columbus Circle. Where the long-abandoned New York Coliseum once served as a makeshift shelter to the homeless of the city, the towers now rise above a sweeping four-story curvilinear shopping atrium that already boasts such retailers as Williams Sonoma and Godiva. Above the shopping complex, Jazz at Lincoln Center is situatedbetween the towers with CNN studio space and restaurants flanking it to the south and north respectively. The south tower will be home to Time Warner and 34 floors of residential, with additional office space in both towers. In the north tower, above the 11 floors of office space, the Mandarin Hotel rises 19 floors, and above that, on the tower's top 22 floors, are luxury condominiums. The towers each rise a total of 80 floors.
Various stages of the Bovis Lend Lease-managed project are now nearing final build-out. The hotel and office spaces were delivered this fall with Jazz at Lincoln Center set for sometime in 2004. To all involved, the project's role is clear in the revitalization of a city still reeling from September 11, and an economy still laboring in recession. In terms of employment alone, an estimated 2,000 construction workers were on site at the project's peak. And the revenues it will represent in terms of retail sales, rent and tourist dollars are mind-boggling. In all, the economic and psychological spark that the Time Warner Center will deliver to New York City is undeniable.
Managing the movement of hordes of people workers, shoppers, music lovers and residents will be no small feat. Based on surveys conducted by elevator consultant firm Jenkins & Huntington Inc., a major assist in traffic control comes from the configuration of some 75 elevators and 18 escalators throughout the space. ThyssenKrupp and Otis won the job, with Otis producing and installing equipment for the Time Warner space some 19 elevators in all and ThyssenKrupp landing the remainder of the massive job.
"Although the Otis portion was smaller in size than our competitor's, we were delighted to have received the Time Warner office portion of the project," commented Bo Hish, Otis general manager. "In fact, this was one of the five major projects totaling over US$100 million that Otis was awarded in 2001." Providing equipment for the exclusive use of Time Warner, Otis manufactured and installed a total of 16 passenger units: eight low-rise gearless units (rated at 500fpm) to service nine floors and eight high-rise gearless units (700fpm) to service 13 floors. All passenger cars can carry up to 4000 pounds. Otis also provided two freight units the geared unit, serving seven floors, is rated at 15,000 pounds and 100fpm while the gearless, serving 25 floors, logs in at 9000 pounds and 500fpm. A 5000-pound gearless service car (500fpm) serves 25 floors of the Time Warner space. The two banks in the office tower are arranged in a fairly standard four-across-from-four configuration.
That's pretty much where standard layouts end, and the remainder of the building is a massive, carefully orchestrated patchwork of designs and configurations, differing based on whether the elevators are servicing the hotel, residences or the retail space known throughout the construction as the Banana because of its long, curving configuration:
-- For residential access, ThyssenKrupp manufactured and installed a total of five elevators in the south tower and eight in the north. The seven traction elevators are rated from 700 to 1,400fpm while the hydraulics range from 40 to 125fpm. Capacities in the residential portion of the towers range from 700 pounds (three residential lifts) to 4000 pounds (service).
-- Eight traction models and three hydraulics service the hotel, with the tractions rated at up to 700fpm and the hydraulics at up to 125fpm. Weight capacities here range from 2000 pounds (the spa cab) to 4000 pounds for the ballroom service unit.
-- In the office portion of the north tower, seven traction models range in speed from 350 to 700fpm, while the one hydraulic unit (which accesses the parking level) clocks in at 125fpm. Maximum weight loads in this portion tip the scales at 10,000 pounds for the service elevator.
-- While four hydraulics service retail, there are also 11 traction models with adjacent motor rooms. Two of these are underslung configurations. Speeds in retail top out at 350fpm and carry up to 5000 pounds.
-- Two more adjacent underslungs (300fpm) service Jazz along with five additional traction units (100 to 350fpm) and two hydraulics (125fpm). Maximum loads in Jazz elevators top out at 20,000 pounds. There is one additional hydraulic unit that runs to the below-grade subway station. The 3500-pound-capacity machine is rated at 100fpm.
-- Finally, 18 100fpm escalators service the lower levels of the complex, including all retail levels and Jazz.
"Only a few jobs like this come along in a lifetime," commented Michael Bonardi, president of ThyssenKrupp's New York Region. "Why do I say that? It was a two-year, US$20-million-plus project. But it's not the number of units, it's the logistics of the location and the two towers standing above a huge atrium. The challenges of moving millions of pounds of equipment through the building and strategizing how to stage the materials was itself a massive project."
In terms of the unique configurations, "There's only one bank in our portion of the complex that's three across from three," noted Gerald R. Matawa, ThyssenKrupp's branch construction and modernization manager. Matawa and Mike DeNardo, project supervisor, oversaw the field operations on a daily basis for the firm. Also, the elevators "start at various levels throughout the building. For instance, the three hotel cars start at the hotel's lobby level, which has an elevation of 400 feet. An express car takes guests to the hotel lobby on the 18th floor. The hotel also has a two-stop elevator that's up in the heart of the building known as the spa car."
In the course of engineering the project, ThyssenKrupp ultimately employed "every application we manufacture," said Matawa. "We have overhead two-to-one, we have basement traction, we have adjacent, we have underslung, we have twin post. Five of the seven traction elevators servicing the residential spaces are high-rise, gearless AC machines imported from our parent company in Germany." The project represents the first use of the German equipment in the U.S., he also commented, adding, "Think of it, at 1,400fpm, they can take you from the lobby to the 80th floor in roughly 30 seconds."
And there were other firsts. Frank Cleek, ThyssenKrupp's technical specialist, explains that safeties are now rated at 2,000fpm. Based on a NASCAR brake-system design, "the safety shoes provide a shorter stopping distance 22 feet and won't gouge the rails," he explained. There were also changes in door operators, which now sport interlock rollers manufactured of special polymers and beefed up with additional bearings. The design "may become the standard for high-performance operators," said Michael A. Faid, project manager. Cleek added that the new doors are specifed to open in less than two seconds.
The motor rooms are also the focal point for some innovations. All 28 rooms (not counting the four retail cars) provide laptop-computer connectivity and built-in monitors for communication between the operator, the lobby desk and the security station. Matawa explained that the system is rigged via fiber optics. "The CPU is in the keyboard, and there are two ports one for a floppy, one for a disk. Each room is also fitted with a 15-inch, flat-screen color monitor. So the maintenance people can come in and identify a problem without carrying laptops around."
Interestingly, the building was designed to such a level of security that not much needed to be done in the wake of September 11, added Matawa. Included in these innovations were card readers, thumb readers and access codes especially on the residential side of the building. But "the most innovative application was the technology associated with communications for cell phones and firefighters' two- way radios," he noted. Leaky cables three-quarter-inch coax cables so named due to pinholes in the sheathing run up the length of the elevator shafts to capture cell phone signals.
Not surprisingly, a slew of one-of-a-kind considerations went into the interior design aspects of the project as well, and each cab cluster and lobby sport their own custom design, some featuring custom-made wood panels and high-gloss finishes and others sporting a range of metals from basic stainless steel to gunmetal and MT0Z panels with inlays and hand tooling. The custom designs extend to such details as the position indicator lamps.
For all of the technical advances, much of the Time Warner project was pure muscle, necessitating at its peak some 86 ThyssenKrupp personnel on site at one time. Five of them including Michael Faid were shipped in from other regional offices specifically for the job.
"We didn't stop for anything," said Matawa. "We had shop crews and a chop shop, complete with drill presses and band saws. You could take any problem that arose from a structural bracket to a cab down to the shop, have it modified, spray painted and back in place as soon as the paint dried." And, given the size and scope of the project, problems did arise. "On the fourth floor we have four adjacent underslung arrangements," commented Matawa. "There was a structure outside that motor room that we used to facilitate support members for the overhead sheaves. But there wasn't enough room for our secondary sheaves; something had changed. As it turned out, there had been a design change in the floor above and that increased the steel size, dropping it by two inches. We went to Bovis with the situation, and they changed the structure that was supporting the secondary sheaves."
Not surprisingly, such on-site changes are commonplace in a job of this size, and it was among Faid's responsibilities to interpret construction changes for the shop. "Every time there was a drawing change a Bulletin we would receive a rack of new spec drawings impacting such things as electrical, structural and architectural considerations. We had 7 days to review them and provide Bovis with cost and time estimates to work the change. That part of the job was mind-bending to say the least."
Monthly meetings were held among Bovis and all the contractors to review all Bulletins. Once the work was approved, "it became what was called a Change Event," noted Faid, "and it was approved to be built."
Project Coordinator Rachel Yturregui was responsible for tracking the flood of paperwork that flowed throughout the project cycle. In fact, from May 2001, six months before the elevator portion of the project ramped up, she was on site for the pre-installation work. "I finally left to come to our 35th Street office in May of this year," she reported. Throughout, the toughest part of her job was "staying on top of the paperwork, the drawings and submittals." She currently has 30 binders of data in archives.
The physical staging of the project was also a challenge, especially given the narrow side streets that flank the project and the heavy foot traffic that's simply a part of life in upper Midtown Manhattan. Here, the physical shape of the building worked in ThyssenKrupp's favor. Matawa explained that they pulled flatbeds into the curving Banana retail space and unloaded parts and equipment from the ground floor.
"The worst thing was making sure you had people out of the way," recalled Faid. "We had coordinated truck deliveries from our New Jersey warehouse to bring shipments directly into the Banana. With the help of Dino Garbaccio (one of the first foremen on the job), we devised a plan to construct a hoist beam on the fourth floor so we could move materials in and out quickly." Equipment was brought in through the then-empty escalator holes and indexed and warehoused on the fourth-floor slab until they were ready to be set in place. Some seven miles of rails were included in that warehousing process.
Organization and planning at the corporate level fell to Joseph Braman, New York regional vice president. "There was so much going on, it was my responsibility to coordinate our activities with Related and Bovis. It was imperative that we took a global look at what we were doing and manage our field forces to focus on completion of the job." This included tracking the Change Events, working closely with Bovis Lend Lease on all tech issues and coordinating activities with Matawa, DeNardo and Faid. "We met weekly to plan the activities in the elevator shafts and coordinate the shifts. We created charts tracking the different trades the iron workers and communication people and the electricians that were scheduled to work on different cars so we wouldn't have three trades showing up at once." Scheduling boards hung in the crew shop tracked trades as well as ThyssenKrupp's own workers coming and going through the duration of the project.
Matawa notes that the project is more than a display of ThyssenKrupp products. It also represents the teamwork and the passion of the company's people, including Mike DeNardo, project supervisor; Dennis Chatfield and Garbaccio, who shared foremen duties; Al Jennings, south tower foreman; Joe Majersack, north tower; Bill Lowen and Jeff Matawa, low-rise foremen; and Mike Gaghan, escalator foreman and Ernie Meyer, adjuster foreman.
Otis also credits the team work of its people with the efficient completion of the project, and Bo Hish cites the work of Erv Lauterbach, vice president; Mike Boles, sales manager; Bill Cassidy, regional field manager; and Tom Unsinn, on-site project manager.
"We often said that someday after September 11 there would be another job like the World Trade Center," said Matawa. "When this job began, we all knew what it meant. The TKE Team went to work and met the challenge."