Bank of America Tower (New York City)

Bank of America Tower
The Bank of America Tower, with its spire, as viewed from the New York Public Library.
Alternative names	One Bryant Park BofA Tower at One Bryant Park
General information
Type	Commercial offices
Location	Sixth Avenue & 42nd Street New York City, New York
Coordinates	Coordinates: 40°45′19″N 73°59′03″W / 40.755278°N 73.984167°W / 40.755278; -73.984167
Construction started	2004
Completed	2009
Cost	US$1 billion
Height
Antenna spire	365.8 m (1,200 ft)
Roof	287.9 m (945 ft)
Technical details
Floor count	58 (7 mechanical)
Floor area	2,100,000 sq ft (200,000 m2)
Elevator count	51
Design and construction
Owner	Bank of America
Main contractor	Tishman Construction Corporation
Architect	Cook+Fox Architects Adamson Associates Architects
Developer	Durst Organization
Structural engineer	Severud Associates
References
[1][2][3][4]

Bank of America Tower at One Bryant Park is a 1,200 ft (366 m) skyscraper in the Midtown district of Manhattan in New York City, in the United States. It is located on Sixth Avenue, between 42nd and 43rd Street, opposite Bryant Park.

The US$1 billion project was designed by Cook+Fox Architects to be one of the most efficient and ecologically friendly buildings in the world. It is the second tallest building in New York City, after the Empire State Building, and the fourth tallest building in the United States. Construction was completed in 2009.^[5]

In June 2010, the Bank of America Tower was the recipient of the 2010 Best Tall Building Americas award by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat.^[6]

Details

The tower's architectural spire is 255.5 ft (77.9 m) tall and was placed on December 15, 2007. The building is 55 stories high and contains 2,100,000 square feet (195,096 m²) of office space, three escalators and a total of 51 elevators manufactured by Schindler Group – 50 to serve the offices and one leading to the transit mezzanine below ground.^[7] Several buildings were demolished to make way for the tower. Among them was the Hotel Diplomat, a 13-story structure which occupied the site at 108 West 43rd Street since 1911^[8], and Henry Miller's Theatre, which was rebuilt and reopened under its previous location.

Environmental features

The design of the building makes it environmentally friendly, using technologies such as floor-to-ceiling insulating glass to contain heat and maximize natural light, and an automatic daylight dimming system. The tower also features a greywater system, which captures rainwater for reuse. Bank of America states that the building is made largely of recycled and recyclable materials.^[9] Air entering the building is filtered, as is common, but the air exhausted is cleaned as well.^[10] Bank of America Tower is the first skyscraper designed to attain a Platinum LEED Certification.^[9]

The Bank of America Tower under construction in October 2007.

The Bank of America tower is constructed using a concrete manufactured with slag, a byproduct of blast furnaces. The mixture used in the tower concrete is 55% cement and 45% slag. The use of slag cement reduces damage to the environment by decreasing the amount of cement needed for the building, which in turn lowers the amount of carbon dioxide greenhouse gas produced through the normal cement manufacturing process. Each ton of regular cement produced creates about one ton of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.^[11]

Temperature control and the production of some of its energy are accomplished in an environmentally friendly manner for the tower. Insulating glass reduces thermal loss, lowering energy consumption and increasing transparency. Carbon dioxide sensors signal increased fresh air ventilation when elevated levels of carbon dioxide are detected in the building.

The Bank of America Tower Exterior Lobby/Subway View

Conditioned air for the occupants is provided by multiple air column units located in the tenant space that deliver 62 degree air into a raised access floor plenum. This underfloor air system provides users with the ability to control their own space temperature as well as improving the ventilation effectiveness. When building churn occurs, workstation moves can be performed easier with lower cost and less product waste.

The cooling system produces and stores ice during off-peak hours, and allows the ice to melt to help cool the building during peak load, similar to the ice batteries in the 1995 Hotel New Otani in Tokyo, Japan.^[12] Ice batteries have been used since absorption chillers first made ice commercially available 150 years ago, before the invention of the electric light bulb.^[13]

Water conservation features in the tower include waterless urinals, which are estimated to save 8,000,000 USgal (30,000,000 l) of water per year and reduce CO₂ emissions by 144,000 lb (65,000 kg) per year (as calculated with the Pacific Institute water-to-air model).^[14] The tower has a 4.6-megawatt cogeneration plant, which provides part of the base-load energy requirements. Onsite power generation reduces the significant electrical transmission losses that are typical of central power production plants.^[15]

In June 2008, the New York Academy of Sciences launched a podcast which highlights these green features.^[16]

Height

Height comparison of the Empire State Building (right), Bank of America Tower (center), and the Chrysler Building (left).

Bank of America Tower construction site, seen from across 42nd Street and 6th Avenue, 2006

When comparing building height, only the structural height is used according to rules and regulations of the World Council on Tall Buildings.^[17] Currently, the New York Times Building and the Chrysler Building are tied for the position of the third tallest buildings in New York City. With the architectural spire^[18] included, the structural height of the Bank of America Tower is 1,200 ft (370 m), making it the second tallest building in New York City.

	Tip Height	Roof Height
Empire State Building	1,472 ft (449 m)	1,250 ft (380 m)
Bank of America Tower	1,200 ft (370 m)	953.5 ft (290.6 m)
Chrysler Building	1,046 ft (319 m)	925 ft (282 m)
New York Times Building	1,046 ft (319 m)	748 ft (228 m)

A formal ruling by the World Council on Tall Buildings has been released, confirming this.^[19]

Construction incidents

Since 2006, materials have fallen from the building on at least six occasions.

• August 12, 2008: A 1,500-pound (680 kg) glass panel fell onto a sidewalk. Two people suffered minor injuries.^[20]

• September 17, 2008: A debris container fell, shattered a panel of glass facade, and caused several pieces of glass to fall from the 50th floor to the sidewalk/street (West 42nd and Sixth Avenue) around 3PM. No one was injured.^[21]

See also

• List of tallest buildings in New York City

References

1. ^ Bank of America Tower (New York City) at Emporis
2. ^ Bank of America Tower (New York City) at Glass Steel and Stone
3. ^ Bank of America Tower (New York City) at SkyscraperPage
4. ^ Bank of America Tower (New York City) at Structurae
5. ^ C.J. Hughes (5 November 2008). "New Skyscraper Stars in National Geographic Show". Architectural Record (archrecord.construction.com). http://archrecord.construction.com/news/daily/archives/081105skyscraper.asp. Retrieved 2011-05-27. 
6. ^ "CTBUH 9th Annual Awards, 2010". Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat. http://www.ctbuh.org/Events/Awards/2010Awards/tabid/1571/language/en-GB/Default.aspx. Retrieved 2007-06-15. 
7. ^ One Bryant Park. Van Deusen & Associates. Retrieved on 2007-12-13.
8. ^ David W. Dunlap (7 November 1993). "An Aging Midtown Hotel That Will Not Go Gently". The New York Times (NYTimes.com). http://www.nytimes.com/1993/11/07/realestate/an-aging-midtown-hotel-that-will-not-go-gently.html. Retrieved 2011-08-10. 
9. ^ ^{a b} "Bank of America and The Durst Organization Break Ground On the Bank of America Tower at One Bryant Park in New York City" (Press release). Bank of America Corporation. 2004-08-02. http://newsroom.bankofamerica.com/index.php?s=press_releases&item=4405. Retrieved 2007-10-19. 
10. ^ Richard A. Cook with Alice Hartley (2005-06-06). "What is Free?": How Sustainable Architecture Act and Interacts Differently. United Nations. http://www.un.org/docs/ecosoc/meetings/2005/docs/Cook.pdf. Retrieved 2007-10-19. 
11. ^ "EF Technology". U.S. Concrete, Inc. http://www.us-concrete.com/news/features.asp. Retrieved 2007-11-08. 
12. ^ "Ice-cooling System Reduces Environmental Burden". The New Otani News. New Otani Co.,Ltd.. 2000-06-28. http://www.newotani.co.jp/en/group/noc/news/05.htm. Retrieved 2007-11-08. 
13. ^ Gearoid Foley, Robert DeVault, Richard Sweetser. "The Future of Absorption Technology in America". U.S. DOE Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE). http://www.eere.energy.gov/de/pdfs/absorption_future.pdf. Retrieved 2007-11-08. 
14. ^ Pacific Institute. "Water to Air Models". http://www.pacinst.org/resources/water_to_air_models/. Retrieved 2008-06-13. 
15. ^ "Times Square Wishes Blog". http://www.timessquarewishes.com/blog/stitching-the-pics/. ^{[dead link]}
16. ^ "One Bryant Park". New York Academy of Sciences. http://www.nyas.org/snc/podcastdetail.asp?id=1799. Retrieved 2008-09-11. ^{[dead link]}
17. ^ Wood, Anthony (2007-05-04). "Existing Height Criteria & Issues". CTBUH Tall Building Height Criteria – International Meeting. Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, Illinois: Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat. pp. 4. http://www.ctbuh.org/Documents/CTBUH_HeightCriteria_Issues.doc. Retrieved 2007-10-19. 
18. ^ "Photo of Bank of America Tower: Elevations". Emporis. Cook + Fox Architects, LLP. 2005-09-04. http://www.emporis.com/en/il/im/?id=393308. Retrieved 2007-10-19. 
19. ^ "100 tallest completed buildings in the world". Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat. Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat. 2011-02-03. http://buildingdb.ctbuh.org/. Retrieved 2011-02-03. 
20. ^ Hauser, Christine (2008-08-12). "At a Midtown Intersection, Another Sheet of Glass Falls". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/13/nyregion/13glass.htm. Retrieved 2008-08-26. 
21. ^ "Glass Falls 50 Floors From Midtown Building". NY 1. 2008-09-17. http://www.ny1.com/content/top_stories/85946/glass-falls-50-floors-from-midtown-building/Default.aspx. Retrieved 2008-09-18. 

Further reading

• Dirk Stichweh: New York Skyscrapers. Prestel Publishing, Munich 2009, ISBN 3791340549

External links

New York City portal

• Bank of America press release on the tower
• The Durst Organization press release on the tower
• Cook+Fox Architects
• Wirednewyork.com site photos
• The Site Selection report on the tower
• The Bank of America - Megastructure at One Bryant Park
• [1] Photo of bank of America tower - Times Square Wishes Blog
• National Geographic Channel - "Man-Made: Ultimate Skyscraper" (Television Episode)
• [2]