Construction project management principles and practices

¶ … Hearst Tower on 57th and 8th in Midtown Manhattan

The Hearst Corporation is a media conglomerate that owns or controls newspapers, magazines, television stations, and cable networks. The company has been around since the early 20th century, and so has the base of the building, which was built in 1928 at the cost of $2 million then. The base of the building is a designated historic landmark. It has six stories, and comprises 40,000 square feet. Originally, a skyscraper was intended to emerge from the six-story building but the Great Depression caused the Hearst Corporation to postpone the project. It was postponed until 2006. The new tower built in 2006 was the first to be built in Manhattan since the terrorist attacks of September 11. The finished product is 46 stories tall, and offers 860,000 square feet of office space. Its defining external feature is its diagrid, made of 9500 metric tons of structural steel. It received the Emporis Skyscraper Award in 2006, the year it was completed. Moreover, the Hearst Tower is of note because it was the first "green" high rise office building in New York City. The Hearst Tower was constructed around the historical facade, a design approved by the Landmark Preservation Commission. The tower cost about $500 million to construct.

LEED Gold and Platinum Designations

The diagrid construction permits a great deal of external light to penetrate the offices inside, reducing dependence on artificially powered light. The building uses 26% less energy than the minimum average in the city. Special "low-E" windows also contribute to maximal external light, but also minimize the input of heat radiation to keep the building cool and prevent the need for air conditioning. In addition to being "green," the building's high degree of natural light is also beneficial for workplace environment and worker morale.

Furthermore, the use of structural steel for the facade reduced the total cost and amount of steel used in its construction by about 2000 tons -- an estimated 20% reduction vs. typical steel framing. Because of this and other environmental/sustainable design features, the Hearst Tower was awarded Gold by the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) of the United States Green Building Council. It was the first building in New York to earn this designation.

Other features of the Hearst Building that earned it Gold is the atrium floor, which is designed so that hot or cold water passes through polyethylene tubes for efficient heating and cooling. Other atrium features allow for natural and efficient heating and cooling. Furthermore, the waterfall in the atrium uses rainwater. It is the Tower's use of rainwater that distinguishes it from other office high rises in Manhattan. A tank in the basement can store up to 14,000 gallons, which is used for air conditioning, heating, and watering the internal landscaping. An estimated half of the water used by the tower is rainwater. A large proportion of the materials used in the construction of the tower were recycled, much of which was derived from the original building on the site.