COVER STORY: TUTOR PERINI – HUDSON YARDS
Perini topped off the
» Tutor
52-story 10 Hudson Yards
building in October.
THE CITY IN A CITY
T
New York City is getting the first look at its largest-ever private development. BY JIM HARRIS
he first piece of a project said to be
the largest privately funded real estate development in United States
history is nearing completion.
Construction manager Tutor Perini in October topped off 10 Hudson Yards, a 52-story,
1.7-million-square foot office building on
the far west side of Manhattan along the
Hudson River.
The company is performing interior
finishes including completing the building’s lobby and elevators, and is placing a
150-foot-high steel crown on the top of the
building. The building will open its doors
at the end of the first quarter of 2016, Tutor
Perini Vice President Joe Perini says.
The 10 Hudson Yards tower sits on a
26-acre parcel of land that, up until the
building’s groundbreaking in 2012, was the
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CONSTRUCTION-TODAY.COM JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2016
Tutor Perini – Hudson Yards
www.tutorperini.com
www.hudsonyardsnewyork.com
• Location: New York City
• E mployees on site at peak: More
than 1,000
•S
cope of work: Mixed-use urban
development
“We’ve built our reputation
doing very large and complex
projects.”– Joe Perini, vice president
ly – was previously rezoned for commercial
and residential use.
Over the next several years, the entire
28-acre property will be transformed into a
multi-building office, residential and retail
neighborhood with roughly 14 acres of open
public park space. Related Companies, in
partnership with Oxford Properties Group,
is developing the project, known as Hudson
Yards. When completed in 2024, the Hudson
Yards development will attract more than
24 million visitors annually.
Solid Foundations
largest parcel of mostly undeveloped land
in Manhattan. The land – bounded on the
north by 34th Street, on the south by 30th
Street and on the west and east by the West
Side Highway and 10th Avenue, respective-
The 10 Hudson Yards tower is unique not
only as the first Hudson Yards building to
be completed, but also as the first high-rise
office building with a concrete frame to be
built in New York City in many years.
COVER STORY: TUTOR PERINI – HUDSON YARDS
Several of the Hudson Yards
buildings will sit on a platform
above a rail yard.
The building has a curtainwall exterior
featuring floor-to-ceiling windows that will
offer office tenants panoramic views of the
city and the Hudson River. Several leading
fashion, technology, consulting and beauty
brands will call 10 Hudson Yards home
including Coach, Inc., L’Oreal USA, SAP, the
Boston Consulting Group and VaynerMedia.
The building’s design, by architects Kohn
Pedersen Fox Associates, is intended to meet
LEED Platinum standards.
Tutor Perini used the filigree wideslab
method to complete the building’s concrete
structure. This method involves placing
precast concrete forms on top of shoring
PAL AMG, Inc. is a preferred installer of Tutor Perini helping them
to meet challenges as well as provide solutions for the Tower C Hudson Yards project. PAL was contracted to furnish both structural and
decorative miscellaneous steel, ornamental metal and aluminum panels
in various locations of the building, utilizing our in-house engineering
capabilities as well as our field management and certified installers.
Working on a monumental project such as Hudson Yards, Tutor Perini
and PAL have worked seamlessly together ensuring safety and efficiencies
while keeping scheduling a priority.
PAL has an impeccable reputation as a result of consistency and reliability. For more information, call 646-378-7807, e-mail info@palamg.
com or visit www.palamg.com.
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CONSTRUCTION-TODAY.COM JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2016
«
towers. The structural slab is then poured on top of this assembly.
“This building is the first concrete office building to be built this way
in the city,” Perini says.
The filigree method is a more efficient method for erecting the
structure than conventional cast-in-place technologies. “Whenever
we take on a project, we try to look at alternative systems and ways
to reduce costs,” he adds. The company also utilized post-tensioned
concrete on the building, which is also uncommon in New York City.
Using this method required Tutor Perini to overcome a few challenges. Much of the concrete work was performed during the winter
of 2013/2014, said to be one of the city’s worst on record. The use
of uncommon construction methods also required Tutor Perini to
look outside of its usual group of tradesmen. “Given that there aren’t
many concrete office buildings going up in the city, finding crews
and craftsmen familiar with these systems added another step in the
process,” Executive Vice President Mike McLean says.
Significant Coordination
The 10 Hudson Yards tower’s status as the first building to break
ground in the development also presented challenges. “Trying to
make everything fit into a master plan when you’re the first building
out of the block is challenging,” McLean says.
To meet these challenges, the company used building information
modeling (BIM) technology to map out the locations of mechanical,
electrical and plumbing systems in not only each individual building, but also throughout the development as a whole.
“We’re building a brand-new area of the city, there’s a significant
COVER STORY: TUTOR PERINI – HUDSON YARDS
Phase 1 Eastern Yard By The Numbers
11.2 million – The total square footage of commercial and residential space planned on the Eastern Yard of Hudson Yards.
24 million – The total number of anticipated visitors to Hudson
Yards annually.
25,000, 14,000 and 35,000 – The tons of steel, cubic yards of
concrete and total weight, in tons, of the materials used in the construction of the Eastern Yard platform, respectively.
15,000 – The total number of construction jobs created by the
Hudson Yards project.
14 acres – The amount of public open space that will be created in
the area.
amount of coordination between the buildings that has to occur because they are all
coming up together and there’s a great deal
of infrastructure that needs to be considered,” he adds.
On the Platform
Construction on the 10 Hudson Yards building coincided with the beginning of work
on other portions of the development. The
tower is adjacent to a massive 37,000-ton
platform also constructed by Tutor Perini
that covers a rail yard with more than 30
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CONSTRUCTION-TODAY.COM JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2016
active Long Island Rail Road tracks. The 10-acre platform, located
east of 11th Avenue, is one of two that will be built to support the
majority of the Hudson Yards buildings; a platform on the western
side of the development will be part of a future construction phase.
The Eastern Yard platform’s main steel structure was completed
in late 2015, but mechanical, electrical and plumbing infrastructure
placement is still ongoing, McLean says.
The platform utilizes 25,000 tons of steel and is supported by
300 concrete caissons drilled into the bedrock below the rails. The
caissons range from four to five feet in diameter and from 20 to 80
feet in depth. Roughly 14,000 cubic yards of concrete was used. The
structural steel columns used in the platform were created by welding together solid plates of steel on site, Perini says.
The Long Island Rail Road allowed the company to use four
tracks at a time to accommodate the work over the course of 34 total
weekends, giving Tutor Perini a finite amount of time to complete
the structural work. “We could not affect rail operations, so all of
our construction schedules had to be closely coordinated with the
Able Rigging Contractors is proud to work with and support Tutor
Perini Corporation on NYC’s Hudson Yards Eastern Rail project, the largest
private development in North America. Able’s primary responsibilities are
the erection, climbing and disassembly of one internal climbing and two
external climbing cranes that are being used in the construction of Tower
C, as well as the rigging of 138KV network transformers which will provide
the main electrical feed for this building. Able Rigging congratulates Tutor
Perini Corporation on this extraordinary construction project; wishes them
continued success and looks forward to partnering with them in the future.
railroad,” Perini says. “They knew what we were doing, where we
were doing it and when we were doing it.”
Breaking New Ground
With the 10 Hudson Yards tower nearly complete, crews are now
turning attention toward the development’s other components.
Tutor Perini broke ground in late December 2014 on 15 Hudson
Yards, an 960,000-square-foot, 70-story residential tower slated
for completion in 2018.
The building will offer roughly 391 for-sale and rental residences and is directly connected to the Culture Shed, a seven-story gallery and performance venue that is designed to host
art, design and special events.
The tower features a tapered design that developer Related
Companies says “will reshape the West Side skyline and offer
residents unobstructed views of the city and Hudson River.” The
building is designed by architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro and
Rockwell Group, in collaboration with Ismael Leyva Architects.
The building features a conventional concrete structure with a
curtainwall exterior, Perini notes.
Like the 10 Hudson Yards tower, 15 Hudson Yards sits on bedrock adjacent to the Eastern Yard platform. Tutor Perini is also
building additional structures on the platform, including:
• 3 5 Hudson Yards, a 1.1-million-square-foot, 70-story mixeduse tower that will feature 137 for-sale residences, a 200room Equinox luxury hotel, a 60,000 square-foot Equinox
fitness club and spa, first-class office space and ground floor
retail space. The building is slated for completion in 2019.
• T he Shops & Restaurants at Hudson Yards, a 1-million-squarefoot retail center located between the 10 Hudson Yards and
30 Hudson Yards buildings that will house more than 100
shops including New York City’s first Neiman Marcus location.
Going Deep
Tutor Perini’s work in the Hudson Yards development area
extends underground. The company in 2015 completed a
concrete casing for Amtrak beneath the Eastern Yard portion of
the project, and was recently awarded a contract to extend the
Gateway Tunnel.
The project is the next phase of a concrete casing constructed to preserve the future potential pathway of a new train
tunnel under the Hudson River into Penn Station New York. The
11th Avenue concrete casing extension will measure approximately 105 feet long, 50 feet wide and 35 feet tall, and will
extend underground beneath 11th Avenue between 31st and
33rd Streets, the company says.
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CONSTRUCTION-TODAY.COM JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2016
The eastern portion of the development will
also include six acres of public plaza space
designed by Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape
Architects in collaboration with Heatherwick Studio. The space will include an entry
garden near the subway station as well as a
tree canopy, fountain, birch tree grove and
stonework installation.
After the completion of Eastern Yard,
work will begin on Hudson Yards’ western
portion, which is projected to have 6.2
million square feet of space, and a school.
Masters of Complexity
The intricate and immense nature of the
Hudson Yards development is an ideal fit
for the extensive capabilities of the Tutor
Perini organization.
“We’ve built our reputation over the
years doing very large and complex
projects,” Perini says. “Tutor Perini is a very
interesting place to work because we do a
lot of unique projects, and our people are
attracted to that, which is the reason many
of our employees have worked with us for
well over 25 years.”
The company’s notable recent projects
include numerous hotel, casino and other
projects in Las Vegas including the City
Center, a multi-building mixed-use residential, casino and shopping development
on the Las Vegas Strip. The project, completed in 2009, was at the time the nation’s
largest-ever privately funded development
– a status that the Hudson Yards project will
soon achieve.
Shortly after completing the City Center,
Tutor Perini completed the Cosmopolitan of
Las Vegas, a resort hotel and casino directly
next to the development. The Cosmopolitan
was Tutor Perini’s first project with Related
Companies as a client, Perini notes.
In addition to the Tutor Perini Building
Group’s own self-perform capabilities, The
company also self-performs a large portion
of its work by frequently using the services
of one or more of the specialty contracting
units under its corporate umbrella. The company self-performed the concrete
work on the 10 Hudson Yards project. “We’re
more of a builder than just a construction
manager,” Perini says.
“With our capabilities, combined with
the specialty subcontractors that are in our
group, we can perform almost all aspects of
a project.”
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COVER STORY: TUTOR PERINI – HUDSON YARDS
Restaurants in the complex will include
offerings from chef Thomas Keller, featuring Jose Andres and Costas Spiliadis.