NEW YORK CITY – Tapped by Brookfield Office Properties to build an Entry Hall Pavilion at recently re-named Brookfield Place (The World Financial Center), Plaza Construction is pleased to announce the opening of a magnificent new Entry Pavilion with the capacity to accommodate an estimated 100,000 commuters daily.
The Entry Hall Pavilion enables PATH commuters and subway passengers to walk through the newly opened West Passageway to Battery Park City’s Brookfield Place, Goldman Sachs’ headquarters and the NY Waterway Ferry Terminal.
As Construction Manager, Plaza oversaw the construction of the Entry Hall Pavilion, a distinctive 8,000-square-foot, 55-foot high glass cube which houses six escalators and two glass elevators that descend from the Pavilion 46 feet down to the entry of the passageway.
“We are very excited that this long-awaited stunning passageway, a project with many moving parts which required complicated logistics, is opening today providing convenient, safe access for pedestrians who work in and visit Lower Manhattan,” said Richard Wood, president of Plaza Construction.
Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects, led by Rafael Pelli, the son of Cesar Pelli whose firm designed the original World Financial Center, is the design architect, Spector Group is the architect of record, Thornton Tomasetti is the structural engineer and WSP Flack & Kurtz is the engineering/environmental consultant.
Eco-friendly and energy efficient with a radiant floor, the glass Entry Hall Pavilion features two full height structural columns which support the glass edifice, artistically rendered in a sculpture fabricated from 6” curved tube steel that resembles a giant open-weave bouquet of wheat.
The Entry Hall Pavilion represents the first phase of Brookfield’s $250 million dollar renovation which includes a new market hall and dining terrace, new retail stores and restaurants.
“The Entry Hall Pavilion project was challenging a logistics perspective,” said Peter Hulbert, project executive from Plaza Construction, “requiring that we devise a multi-purpose common work platform enabling our subcontractors to proceed with construction of the Entry Hall Pavilion directly above the passageway so trades people could safely perform their work below grade. We built a structurally reinforced watertight enclosure at the base platform from which a scaffold was erected above to the Entry Hall Pavilion roof, and from which we could hoist and rig the six escalator trusses below. A temporary stair tower and material hoist were installed in the elevator shafts to provide trade access and facilitate material deliveries from the West Side Highway without World Trade Center access.”
The below grade portion of the Entry Hall Pavilion’s north and south walls are clad with Caldia marble and the escalators’ side walls in stainless steel panels which complement the all glass and stainless elevator enclosure. Basaltita floor pavers are installed throughout both the Entry Hall Pavilion and in the passageway.
About Plaza Construction
Established in 1986, and headquartered in New York City, Plaza Construction www.plazaconstruction.comprovides construction management, general contracting, and project consulting services nationally with offices located in Los Angeles, Miami and Washington DC. Consistently ranked by Engineering News Record as one of the nation’s leading construction management companies,Plaza was ranked by Crain’s New York Business as the eighth largest contractor in New York City in 2011. As anindustry leader in sustainability,Plaza has executed more than $2.3 billion of LEED rated projects, and in the past six years, the Company’s revenues have averaged almost $1 billion annually.
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