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Building Statistics


Architecture

246 West 17th Street is a 10-story residential building featuring 34 condominium units. The original structure – a 3 story brick garage built in 1925 – has been largely preserved as a means to blend with the historical context of the surrounding neighborhood. Seven stories have been added atop this original structure, adding a modern feel while simultaneously bringing 246 West 17th Street to match the heights of the adjacent structures.

As with the original building, the cellar of 246 West 17th Street contains garage parking with added mechanical and storage spaces. The 1st floor has been altered to include three condominium units and two recreational spaces. The 2nd and 3rd floors of the original garage building each accommodate five condo units. The 4th floor – the start of the new construction – steps back from the brick structure below, providing residents in each of the three units on this floor with a personal terrace space. The 5th, 6th, and 7th floors have identical floor plans; each holds four units, and each unit features a balcony. The 8th floor again steps back, providing terrace spaces for each of the two condo units. The 9th and 10th floors feature two condo units as well, each with personal balconies. the floor-to-floor heights range between 10’-7 ½” on a majority of the middle floors to 16’-6” on the first floor.

Systems Overview

Structural
 
 
Foundation

Due to the increased foundation load, the original slab and numerous existing footings were removed and replaced by spread footings and a mat foundation system. Spread footings measuring 3’-10” thick were placed on a 2” rat slab on gravel on the southern half of the cellar, while a 3’-10” thick mat slab was placed on the same 2” rat slab on gravel on the northern half of the cellar.

Existing Floors


The existing garage structure of 246 West 17th Street includes the cellar and floors 1 through 3. The original roof and any walls above the 3rd floor level have been demolished. These original floors consist of an 8” concrete slab on a steel moment frame. The beams, which are generally spaced at 5’-6” O/C, are typically 20’-8” in length and frame into 35’ girders. The size of the beams was unable to be determined, because the top flange is embedded in the original slab,     whereas the girders were measured to be 26” in depth. Girders frame into steel columns on the interior of the building and into masonry piers on the exterior of the building. These piers are part of the original mass masonry exterior wall system.

Steel W14 columns have been added below each girder at the exterior end, directly in front of the masonry piers. These new columns and the existing girders and beams have been encased in concrete as a means of reinforcement and fireproofing. The interior column line supporting the other end of the girder has also been encased in concrete for reinforcement and fireproofing purposes.

Girders of the 3rd floor – which act as transfer beams to support the set-back of the structure above – have been doubly reinforced through the addition of side-by-side W27 long-span beams below. Diagonal bracing consisting of 5” steel angles has also been added between beams on this level.

New Floors

The new floors consist of a concrete moment frame with two-way flat plate system. Bays in the east-west direction are typically 20’-8” while bays in the north-south direction vary in length. Rectangular columns run along the exterior walls and circular columns sit within the interior of the structure. The rectangular columns are 12”x16” or 12”x18” in size; circular columns are either 14” or 16” in diameter. Exterior walls systems are supported at the slab edge.

In addition, four concrete shear walls (10” thick) have been added for lateral load resistance along the entire height of the building; two run east-west at lengths of about 20’ along the central elevator shaft and stair tower of the structure, and two run north-south at lengths of about 21’ and 14’ along the east and west building walls.


Mechanical 
 
Residences utilize private radiant heating and air conditioning systems that are controlled locally by adjustable thermostats. Four gas fired boilers and four direct-fire hot water (DHW) heaters are located in the cellar of 246 West 17th Street to be used for heating and hot water provisions, respectively. The boilers operate at 1.25 million and 2.0 million BTUs (two each); the DHW heaters have capacities of 72 gallons and 119 gallons (2 each).
The condenser for all individual AC systems is located on the roof, while the evaporator cooling coil is positioned locally within the apartment. This system operates between 230 and 740 cfm with a maximum capacity between 12,000 and 24,000 BTUHs depending on the residence size. All air handling units for these systems are suspended above the hung ceiling. The heating system is a hot water radiator system, utilizing baseboard and mounted panel radiators. These units will operate at a minimum pressure of 125 psig.

Electrical 

The building electrical feed is a 208 Volt, 3 phase, 4 wire system with service provided by Con-Edison. All residences have individual 208/120 Volt, 1 phase, 3 wire panel boards with ground fault interrupted (GFI) type circuit breakers typical and arc fault current interrupted (AFCI) type circuits to the bedrooms. Utility and mechanical areas are fed by 208/120 Volt, 3 phase, 4 wire “house” panel boards located in the cellar and on the roof.  Electricity for the private HVAC equipment is fed by respective local apartment panels; house power equipment located in the cellar and on the roof is fed by the nearest house panel board. 

The control panel for the fire pump will have a circuit breaker interrupting capacity of 100,000 Amps symmetrical, at 208 volts and with a trip setting of 600% of the motor’s full load amps (FLA).

Lighting 

The lighting fixtures used in the private residential and shared areas of 246 West 17th Street are primarily wall-mounted and recessed luminaires. The lobby features indirect, wall-mounted, up-lights and recessed channel down-lighting above the entrances. The private residences also feature indirect, wall-mounted up-lights.

Information regarding the details of these lighting fixtures could not be found at this time.

Construction 

The General Contractor for 246 West 17th Street was Pav-Lak Construction. The project delivery method is design-bid-build, as the contractor, architects, and engineers each held an individual contract with the owner. Construction began in February 2006 and is anticipated to conclude in January of 2009 with a total construction cost of $16.5 million.  

Typical concrete flat plate construction methods were used for 246 West 17th Street; the building went up floor by floor, from the ground up. The popular Peri system featuring reusable shoring and forms was implemented to boost cost and time efficiency. Sonotubes were also used to form the circular columns.

Fire Protection 

246 West 17th Street utilizes an intelligent reporting fire alarm system which includes a microprocessor controlled fire detection system. When a fire is detected, this system will activate a sounding alarm and an LED flashing visual alarm at the Fire Alarm Control Panel (FCAP) via the signaling line circuit (SLC). The system will also indicate the location of the alarm condition on an LCD digitized display and store the event in the system’s history. It will then initiate programmed control-by-event outputs, such as single alarm notification or alarm relays. This system will not lose power or malfunction in the event that the building experiences a single ground fault, open SLC, or a primary power failure.

The fire suppression system is a dry pipe sprinkler system, which has sprinkler heads connected to the FCAP in order to relay local-action information so that it may be displayed on the panel screen. This system has closed circuit water flow indicators to prevent false alarms. A standpipe system has also been implemented within the building.

Fire prevention throughout 246 West 17th Street includes 2 hour fireproofing between floors and residences, along with the application of spray-on fireproofing or concrete encasement to existing steel structural members. Firestopping construction (including all grouts and sealants) has been implemented throughout the building between residences.

Transportation 

Vertical egress is provided by two elevators and two stairways. The elevators, which are centrally located and accessible from a corridor located adjacent to the lobby area, measure 6’-6” by 4’-3” and serve each of the residential floors and the cellar. Two stairways are also accessible through the elevator corridor and directly off of the rear of the lobby area. They occupy a single central stairwell, running parallel to each other as they wind from the cellar to the 10th floor. Above this level, the stairwells turn into maintenance egress ways: one continues to the elevator bulkhead and to the east terrace, while the other continues to the west roof terrace. The residences in the 10th floor also have private staircases leading up to the rooftop terraces 

Telecommunications

A security system consisting of motion detector and security surveillance cameras will be implemented in the shared recreational spaces on the 1st floor. They will be connected directly to the concierge desk for monitoring purposes.


Special Systems

Seismic joints have been implemented along the east, south, and west exterior walls where neighboring buildings are of close proximity to 246 West 17th Street. These joints are designed to allow for individual movement of the adjacent structures, reducing or eliminating any seismic-induced stresses between them, and therefore minimizing overall structural damage.

Building Envelope

The first three stories of 246 West 17th Street – the original garage building – remain brick mass walls. Openings have been created in the north and south façades for additional fenestration systems, including glass and aluminum curtain wall systems and punched aluminum window systems. These glazing systems feature insulating glass units (IGUs), each with an outer lite of clear tempered low-e glass and an inner lite of clear tempered glass. The new construction of the 4th through 10th floors features brick veneer on steel stud backup with abundant aluminum and glass window walls. The same IGUs are utilized in these window systems, with the addition of some tinted units for the spandrel panels and a few textured units for aesthetics.

The typical roof system is comprised of filter fabric, insulation, drainage pad, and polyethylene roof membrane. Supporting this system is a cast-in-place concrete slab with an additional topping slab to control roof slope and drainage. On terrace roof areas, this system is topped with pavers on adjustable pedestals. On non-occupied roof areas, the pavers sit directly on the filter fabric.

General Information

Building Name: 246 West 17th Street
Location: New York, NY
Site: 236 West 17th Street
Occupancy Type: Residential
Size: 54,000 SF
Number of Stories: 10 above ground, 1 below ground

Dates of Construction: February 2006 through January 2009
Construction Cost: $16.5 million
Project Delivery Method: Design-Bid-Build
Major Building Code: New York City Building Code
Zoning: District C6-2A (contextual commercial district outside central business district), which is equivalent to District R8A (contextual high-density residential)

Owner
Anthony Leichter

General Contractor
Pav-Lak Construction
325 Marcus Boulevard
Hauppauge, NY 11788
www.pav-lak.com


Architect
Rawlings Architects
337 Broome Street, 2nd Floor
New York, NY 10002
www.rawlingsarchitects.com


Structural Engineers
Robert Silman Associates
88 University Place, 9th Floor
New York, NY 10003
www.rsapc.com


MEPF Engineers
Stanislav Slutsky, P.E. Consulting Engineers
139 Fulton Street
New York, NY


 
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Please note: While great efforts have been taken to provide accurate and complete information on the pages of CPEP, please be aware that the information contained herewith is considered a work-in-progress for this thesis project. Modifications and changes related to the original building designs and construction methodologies for this senior thesis project are solely the interpretation of Alissa Popovich. Changes and discrepancies in no way imply that the original design contained errors or was flawed. Differing assumptions, code references, requirements, and methodologies have been incorporated into this thesis project; therefore, investigation results may vary from the original design.

This page was last updated on May 1, 2009.