Javits Center Expansion Aims to Defy Conventions

摘要

The government agency overseeing a $1.2-billion expansion of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center on Manhattan's far West Side took an unconventional route for a major New York City project: It bid its two-city-block-size effort as a design-build job.The atypical move almost immediately led to major program changes to the four-level truck marshalling facility that makes up half of the 1.2-million-sq-ft expansion, scrapping deeper foundations and switching the superstructure from steel to cast-in-place concrete. Those changes saved time and money compared with the original plan, while also improving key features of the overall project, which was ranks No. 5 on ENR New York's Top Starts list (see p. NY9).That was the whole idea, to tap into the collaborative thinking that design-build can afford, says David Thurm, executive vice president and Javits Center project lead at Lehrer, which is serving as owner's represen-tative for the Convention Center Development Corp.