Structural Design Challenges for The New York Times Building

摘要

The New York Times Building, currently under construction in New York City, isrna study of balance and compromise. The vision of The New York Times to create arnbuilding ahead of the times was balanced by the goals of real estate developerrnForest City Ratner to develop an economically efficient building to maximize theirrnleasable space on the upper floors. The innovative European-style architecturalrndesign of architect Renzo Piano Building Workshop was blended with thernunderstanding of local building code and practice by New York architect Fox &rnFowle Architects. One of the principal architectural features of the building, thernexpression of exterior steel, involved the compromise of aesthetic appearance,rnstructural adequacy, and fabrication and erection practicality. The thermalrnmovements of this exterior steel provided a great engineering challenge inrnattempting to balance the movements of interior and exterior steel to limit largerndifferentials. The duality of each aspect of the building design from the ownershiprnand design team partnerships to the overall balance between innovation andrnefficiency provided numerous engineering design challenges. This paper willrnoutline some of these challenges, focusing on those driven by aesthetic, erection,rnand fabrication considerations of the exterior steel.