VIA 57 WEST | New York City, New York

VIA 57 WEST | New York City, New York
Completion Date: 2016

Project Overview

VIA 57 WEST is an iconic and award-winning addition to the New York skyline. Located at 625 West 57th Street in Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood, CTBUH has named it best tall building in the Americas category as part of the 2016 Tall Buildings Awards. With a dramatic sloping façade, the building resembles a large, perforated pyramid. Danish architect Bjarke Ingels, working on commission from the Durst Organization, designed VIA 57 WEST with a central plaza of green space and open balconies that present special wind engineering challenges.

Why CPP

The team was interested in testing VIA 57 WEST for a variety of concerns including wind loads, pedestrian comfort, snow concerns, and air quality. CPP’s engineers designed and built a 1:300 scale model of the proposed building and all significant structures within 1,400 feet. We then subjected it to a range of tests in our wind tunnel.

We tested VIA 57 WEST for static and dynamic wind loads. By evaluating how much motion occupants would experience on each floor on windy days, we offered recommendations to the project’s structural engineering team to reduce that motion. Although the structures façade generally performed well, we found several areas with design wind pressures that justified closer examination and reinforcement.

Designers were also concerned that VIA 57 WEST and its surroundings might experience gusts that would make outdoor users uncomfortable. Our study confirmed that certain ground-level areas might be unsuitable for long-duration activities, such as lounging, but that mitigation measures, like planting trees as natural wind blocks, could improve wind conditions considerably. We found the interior courtyard would perform admirably in the wind without any further redesign.

CPP also conducted scale model testing in a wind tunnel, using a snow substitute, in which we collected actual results from snowfall and drifting to identify major problem areas. We modeled ground-level snow and assessed the likelihood that it would interfere with day-to-day pedestrian use of sidewalks and exterior areas. The team offered recommendations to improve safety by increasing the values in some areas and increase efficiency, without compromising safety, by decreasing the values in other areas.

Finally, we conducted a comprehensive air quality assessment in the wind tunnel to evaluate how VIA 57 WEST would change pollution dispersion from Con Edison, the nearby power plant. This assessment was to verify Con Edison remained within regulatory standards, which would help avoid problems with its permitting process. We also examined how the construction of VIA 57 WEST would affect the air quality on three planned buildings in the immediate area.

Fortunately, we found that VIA 57 WEST would neither significantly affect, nor be affected by, the emissions from the Con Edison plant. The air quality of nearby proposed buildings would also be unaffected. Such specialized and site-specific information is a key benefit of wind tunnel modeling in urban environments.