New York Times Tower, NY, USA

The New York Times Tower is a new development being constructed on the east side of Eighth Avenue. The tower is the product of a series of joint ventures between the New York Times (NYT), Forest City Ratner Company (FCRC), ING Real Estate (part of the ING Group of The Netherlands) and the State of New York.

DESIGN COMPETITION

The design phase started in 2000 when NYT launched a private design competition by inviting 16 well-known architects to submit designs for the new tower; the final design was unveiled in late 2001. Land acquisition began in 2001 and the construction started in April 2004.

The tower is due to be completed by 2007. The estimated cost of construction is predicted to be $850 million; part of this has come from the Empire State Development Corporation (from a post-9/11 city regeneration fund, in the form of government Liberty bonds).

The 52-storey tower will be 1,142ft (319m) high (including its spire), making it New York's second highest building. The tower will have 1.54 million ft² of office space, a 350-seat auditorium on the ground level overlooking a garden area, a rooftop conference centre, a glass enclosed retail complex on the ground floor and two restaurants along Eighth Avenue underneath the proposed NYT newsroom.

There will also be a landscaped birch and moss garden on the eastern side of the site accessible to the public and a rooftop garden with full-size maple trees for exclusive use of the tenant, which will be fully glazed and offer panoramic views of New York City. The glass panels of the facade will extend above the rooftop garden to 801ft 10.5in.

NYT LAND ACQUISITION AND AGREEMENTS

The land for the 200ft × 400ft site (80,000ft²) site was provided by the State of New York through the condemnation of the buildings on ten parcels of land occupying an entire block along Eighth Avenue. The 55 businesses on the existing site were relocated.

The acquisition and the subsequent leasing agreement is the result of three simultaneous deals between the interested parties. There is an agreement between NYT and FCRC for the purchase of the site and the construction. There is a separate deal between FCRC and ING Real Estate regarding the finance of the construction.

Finally, there is an agreement between NYT, FCRC and the State of New York regarding the leasing of the site for 99 years by the State to NYT and FCRC for $85.6 million.

The actual amount paid by NYT and FCRC to acquire the land was $106 million in an up-front payment; the difference will be refunded to NYT and FCRC as a credit against the future rent for the site. The leasing agreement gives NYT and FCRC the option to buy the site outright after a period of 29 years have elapsed.

The project will also benefit from $26.1 million in government incentives, which will include sales tax exemptions on the purchase of equipment and materials, a waiver of mortgage-recording tax and discounted electricity.

In a deal valued at $175 million, a Tishman Speyer Properties-led limited partnership acquired the NY Times current building, the 750,000ft² building at 229 West 43rd Street. The NY Times will stay in that building until its new headquarters is ready for occupancy in early 2007.

HOW THE NYT BUILDING WILL BE DIVIDED UP

The New York Times will own 800,000ft² of floor space on floors two to 28 with the Times newsroom occupying floors two to seven. FCRC and ING Real Estate will own approximately 600,000ft² of floor space on floors 29–50 and 20,000ft² of the ground floor area as retail space.

The top floor (52) will be a conference centre. Floor 51 will be reserved for plant installations such as elevator gear, lighting, air conditioning systems, telecommunications and building control systems. The five-storey bustle behind the tower will contain the ground floor garden and a 350-seat auditorium with the NYT newsroom above.

NYT DESIGN AND ARCHITECTURE

The design competition was entered by 16 invited architects, including: Norman Foster, Cesar Pelli, Frank O Gehry, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, Renzo Piano and Fox & Fowle. The design chosen in December 2001 was by Renzo Piano and Fox & Fowle. The 52-storey building itself will rise 748ft.

In addition, ceramic screens along the outside will extend to 850ft and a spire will rise to the full height of 1,142ft. At the top will be a small grove of full-size maple trees in an arboretum outside a rooftop conference room. The lightweight spire will have no broadcasting or technical function, and has been designed to sway in the wind.

Two skins will clad the steel framework of the building. The first will be a glass curtain wall designed to give the building a transparent appearance while taking on the changing colours of the sky during the course of the day as light focuses on it from different angles.

The second skin will be made of extruded white ceramic tubes carried on an aluminum frame, which shields the building's glass walls from the direct sunlight and energy-wasting heat gain that would normally require tinted glass. The irregularly-spaced horizontal tubes bounce daylight up to the ceilings, throwing it into the tower's interior.

Work space and office partitions will stop shy of the ceilings allowing even interior offices to get some daylight. On each panel the tubes are interrupted at eye level, creating an open viewing space so the building occupants will not see the city from behind bars.

There are 28 elevators in the building but the flow of people will be enhanced by stairways located on the side facades.

NYT CONTRACTORS

The New York State architectural consultant for the project is Robert A.M. Stern Architects. The architects are the Renzo Piano Building Workshop and Fox & Fowle Architects. AMEC Construction Management, Inc. are the project managers. Thornton-Tomasetti Engineers are the structural engineers and the mechanical engineers are Flack & Kurtz, Inc.

The vertical transportation engineers are Jenkins & Huntington, Inc. Sub-surface investigations were carried out by Muesser Rutledge Consulting Engineers. The landscape architect is H.M. White Site Architects. The lighting designer for the building is to be OVI (Office for Visual Interaction) while the acoustical consultant will be Cerami & Associates.

The electrical installation is being carried out by E-J Electric Installation Company. The preconstruction advisor was AMEC Corporation. NYT has appointed Insignia / ESG as their real estate advisors, The Clarett Group as development consultants and Gardiner & Theobald and Gensler Associates as designers and suppliers for the interiors of the building.

Heitmann & Associates, Inc. were the building enclosure consultants for the project. Rowan Williams Davies & Irwin Inc. were the wind engineers and environmental consultant for the project. Benson Global contributed to the curtain walling and external cladding for the project. Viracon were the fabricators of the architectural glass for the project.

DAYLIGHTING AND ECO-CONSCIOUSNESS

The Environmental Energy Technologies Division (EETD) of Berkley Laboratories was approached by the developers to discuss how to make commercial buildings more energy-efficient, comfortable and productive places in which to work.

Research focused on integrated technologies to reduce electric lighting energy use through daylighting, while controlling glare and cooling loads in this highly glazed building. Researchers tested alternative hardware and control solutions in a newly constructed, 4,500ft² mock up of a portion of the building.

Daylighting requires a high level of system integration; there has to be a flexible and responsive control system to lower or turn off electric lights when daylight is available, and visual and thermal comfort must be maintained.

Daylighting can reduce perimeter-zone lighting energy by as much as 60% to 70% of the annual electric lighting energy with additional reductions in electric demand. Overall building energy use can be reduced by 10% to 30%.

The New York Times instructed the architects to make the tower 'both humane and eco-conscious'. The daylighting system and the partition height are only part of the larger program, which includes a more efficient under-floor air conditioning system, superior air filtration and a commitment to non-toxic finishes and furniture.

The building will also have a cogeneration system that will allow the tower to produce a portion of their electricity on-site via a natural gas turbine. Other sustainable systems are still under consideration.