Building:   New York City, N.Y.
Client:   Tishman Realty
Architect:   Arquitectonica
Structure Type:   45 Story / Steel and Concrete Structure
Project Category:   Hotels
Photos:   Click photos to enlarge

Project Award

BEST OF 2002 AWARD New York Construction News

Project Description
The Westin Hotel, located on the corner of 8th Avenue and 43rd Street, is a 49 story high-rise building designed in structural concrete. Its foundation is firmly planted in a base of 40 ton rock, by rock anchors that resist lateral load moment.

The main entrance of the building leads to a 5 story atrium, housing several runs of escalators. The lower floors of the building provide spaces for meeting rooms, restaurants, and a ballroom, made column-free by long span floor framing.

Part of the hotel structure, called the “bustle,” is supported by the existing E-walk Building that runs along 42nd street. It consists of one-story steel trusses that transfer gravity loads to the building below. In order to separate the hotel from the E-walk Building in terms of lateral loads, special seismic isolators were designed to transfer vertical loads only, allowing the avoidance of an expansion joint between the “bustle” and the main tower building. The “bustle” also houses a 7 story atrium surrounded by meeting and hotel rooms.