30 Hudson Yards

The Challenge

Rising 1,296 feet, 30 Hudson Yards is the tallest building in the Hudson Yards development. If erecting a structure of this magnitude wasn’t challenging enough, the building and the adjoining 20 Hudson Yards retail podium were to be built atop the West Side Yard rail yard. An advanced project delivery approach was also necessary to design and construct the project to meet tenant move-in dates.

Here's How

In the Truss We Trust

Thornton Tomasetti was hired to provide structural design and erection engineering services for the tower. The location above the rail yard required that new foundations and columns be threaded between the tracks, and transfer systems be developed to support the building and retail podium on open spans over the tracks. Our design of transfer and outrigger trusses also played an essential role. We sloped the columns over five stories through mechanical spaces in the lower part of the building. This effectively created mega-trusses that transferred building columns on grid to the allowable landing spots between the tracks. In many locations, multi-story transfer truss systems were extended into the 20 Hudson Yards Retail Podium, which meant that the two buildings had to be constructed as one.

It's A Mod, Mod World

To construct the Edge, the highest sky deck in the Western Hemisphere, which cantilevers 65 feet from the face of the building at the 100th floor, the deck’s structure was first broken into 15 modules. The primary structure, façade secondary structure, soffit façade panels, and fireproofing were assembled in Italy at Cimolai’s plant and were then shipped to the site via barge. By integrating the primary structure, secondary structure, fireproofing and cladding in the shop, the team was able to minimize field labor 1,100 feet in the air, improving safety, costs and logistics.

Results

30 Hudson Yards and the structurally adjoining 20 Hudson Yards Retail Podium was a unique, challenging project that required numerous creative, complex, and innovative solutions. To comply with the project’s tight time frame, critical decisions had to be identified early and the overall schedule needed optimization by having the work typically done by a steel subcontractor completed within the design phase. The transfer systems and modular components we developed were key to the project’s resounding success.