bnr-8-Spruce-Street-New-York_High-Rise-EN-US
  1. WSP
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  4. 8 Spruce Street New York

8 Spruce Street

With its striking rippled facade resembling draped fabric, 8 Spruce Street is an iconic landmark on the New York skyline. The 870-foot tower provides 903 high-end apartments offering panoramic views across the city. It sits above a six-story podium including a public school and a clinic for the New York Downtown Hospital.

Location

  • New York, USA

Client

  • Forest City Ratner

Architect

Project Status

  • Completed in 2011

We played a major role into bringing to life the dramatic architecture of Frank Gehry. The greatest challenge was to accommodate the undulating façade and the fact that no two floorplates or slabedges are the same. We met this by ‘walking’ the columns at several locations and levels. The building is constructed of reinforced cast-in-place concrete. Innovative column, beam and shear wall configurations accommodate the steel curtain walls while also ensuring structural stability in high winds. Building Information Modeling design tools were used to ensure that the detailing worked coherently and the installation of complex cladding would be problem-free.

8 Spruce Street has won numerous awards since its completion. We were singled out at the World Architecture Festival 2011, for the Structure of the Year award. The judges said: "The design of Frank Gehry’s complex sculptural tower required innovative and integrated engineering by WSP. Significant structural challenges had to be overcome to deliver the tower… It is state-of-the-art tower design delivering outstanding world-class architecture."

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