STRUCTURE magazine February 2006

New Yorks
Hearst Tower
A Restoration, an Adaptive Reuse
and a Modern Steel Tower Rolled Into One
I
n the late 19
th
century, William Randolph Hearst envisioned a headquart-
ers building for his newspaper empire and began acquiring real estate
in and around 57
th
Street and Eighth Avenue. The site was originally
intended to hold a two-story, mixed-use structure with stores, ofces and
a 2,500 seat auditorium.
In the 1920s, a six-story structure was commissioned to house ofces for the
Hearst Corporations twelve magazines. Located between 56
th
and 57
th
Streets, the
horseshoe shaped structure contains 40,000 square feet and was originally named
the International Magazine Building. The building was designed in 1926 by Joseph
Urban and George P. Post & Sons to accommodate seven additional oors which
were never built.
The building included an
auditorium and features six
sculptural groups executed
at the buildings corners,
main entrance on Eighth
Avenue and the 57
th
Street
entrance which was
later altered for commercial
use. The precast limestone
faade is comprised of a four-story setback above a two-story base. Its design
consists of columns and allegorical gures representing music, art, commerce and
industry. The main entrance is anked by Comedy and Tragedy on the left
and Music and Art on the right. Sport and Industry are above the corner at
56
th
Street and Printing and the Sciences are located on the buildings major
corner at 57
th
Street. Construction began in 1927 and was completed in 1928
at a cost of $2 million.
The building was designated as a Landmark Site by the Landmarks Preserva-
tion Commission in 1988 and was considered to be an important monument
in the architectural heritage of New York.
In early 2001, the Hearst organization commissioned Foster and Partners,
Architect and Cantor Seinuk, Structural Engineer, for the design of its new
headquarters at the site of its existing building. The new headquarters is a 44-
story ofce tower, approximately 600 feet tall with 856,000 square-feet of area,
and two underground levels.
By Ahmad Rahimian, Ph.D., P.E., S.E., and Yoram Eilon
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STRUCTURE magazine February 2006
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STRUCTURE magazine February 2006
Landmark Faade
One of the major design requirements was the preservation of the
six-story landmark faade and its incorporation into the new tower
design. The existing six-story building had a horseshoe-shaped oor
plan with a footprint of approximately 200 by 200 feet. The new
design was based on removing all the existing construction, except
the landmark faade wrapped around the three exterior faces of the
building at 56
th
, 57
th
Street and Eighth Avenue.
The design called for a new tower, 44 stories above ground level
and with a footprint of 160 by 120 feet. This was to be situated on
new foundation rises behind the existing six story landmark faade.
The new design also required a seven story high interior atrium,
formed by the existing faade and the tower above.
Maintaining the existing faade without the existing supporting
structure meant a larger unbraced height, a feature not originally de-
signed for. This necessitated a new framing approach for the structur-
al stability of the existing wall, addressing the new design condition
as well as construction phase issues. In addition, the existing faade is
reinforced and upgraded for new seismic requirements contained in
the current New York City Building Code.
Along with the mason-
ry faade, the supporting
perimeter steel columns
and spandrel beams
were also maintained.
The spandrel beams and
columns provided full
vertical support for the
faade system. The lat-
eral stability and seismic
requirements for the fa-
ade construction were
studied, and as a result
an additional grid of
vertical and horizontal
framing was provided
behind the existing fa-
ade. The new and ex-
isting framing are in
turn laterally supported
by the new towers 3
rd

oor framing system, as
well as skylight framing
system at the top of the
seventh level which co-
incides with the top of
the existing faade.
Foundation
The boring tests indicated a sharp drop in the elevation of the
rock at the site. The rock elevation varied from a few feet to 30
feet below the basement level. Therefore, almost half of the tower is
supported on spread footing on rock and the other half on caissons
of equivalent strength embedded into rock below.
STRUCTURE magazine February 2006
26
A diagrid system
wrapping around all four
faces of the tower was
proposed...
Structure
The building utilizes a composite steel and concrete oor with 40-
foot interior column free span for open ofce planning. The tower
has two distinct zones. The ofce zone starts 110 feet above street
level at the 10
th
oor rising to the 44
th
level. Below the 10
th
oor,
the building houses the entrance at street level and lobby, cafeteria
and auditorium at the 3
rd
oor with an approximately 80-foot high
interior open space. At the seventh oor elevation, the tower is
connected to the existing landmark faade by a horizontal skylight
system spanning approximately 40 feet from the tower columns to
the existing faade.
Lateral system
On three sides, the building is open to streets; however, on the
west side it has a common lot line with an existing high rise build-
ing. Therefore, from the standpoint of interior layout efciency, the
The nodes are all
prefabricated and installed
at the site using all bolted
connections.
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STRUCTURE magazine February 2006 STRUCTURE magazine February 2006
27
...an important monument
in the architectural heritage
of New York.
service core zone is placed
asymmetrically toward
the west side of the tower.
However, this reduces the
structural benet of utiliz-
ing the core as the main
spine of the tower due to
the eccentricities inherent
in the location. To ad-
dress the general stability
of the tower, the design
team decided to focus on
the opportunities that the
perimeter structure could
provide. This resulted in
the conceptual design go-
ing through an evolution-
ary process by evaluating
the effectiveness and ben-
ets of various systems. A
diagrid system wrapping
around all four faces of the
tower was proposed and
selected for its multitude
of merits.
Diagrid
The diagrids form a network of a triangulated truss system inter-
connecting all four faces of the tower, thus creating a highly efcient
tube structure. The diagrid nodes are formed by the intersection
of the diagonal and
horizontal elements.
These nodes are one
of the key design ele-
ments both structur-
ally and architectur-
ally. Structurally, they
act as hubs for redi-
recting the member
forces. Architecturally,
they were required to
not be larger than the
cross dimension of the
diagrid elements in
order to maintain the
pure appearance.
The nodes in this
project are on a 40-foot
module and placed at
four oors apart creat-
ing the diagrid system.
The chamfered corner
conditions, which are
called Birds mouth,
were the natural evo-
lution of the rene-
ment of the structural
and architectural op-
tions. This not only
accentuates the aes-
thetic character of the
diagrid but also solves
an otherwise structural vibration concern of having 20-foot cantile-
ver conditions at each corner every eight oors.
The diagrid members are typically wide ange rolled steel
sections. The nodes are all prefabricated and installed at the site
using all bolted connections. Typically there are two types of nodes;
the interior and corner nodes. The interior nodes are planar and
transfer the loads in two dimensional space, whereas the corner
nodes transfer the loads in three dimensional space and thus form
a more complicated arrangement. The nodes were designed during
the Conceptual Design phase since the actual dimension of the
nodes, although maybe an issue for Detail Design phase, could
have signicantly impacted the viability of the overall concept in
addressing issues such as cladding, aesthetics, and ultimately the
structural system.
Nodes
The alternate study of the corner nodes was an interesting process.
Even with all the available computer software, it was much more
rewarding when we switched to a time tested method of model
making. The key to the design of the node was to have a less labor
intensive design, even at the cost of marginally increased material.
The outcome satised not only the structural and architectural
requirement, but also the fabrication requirement in such a way that
the design concept was wholly accepted by the steel contractor.
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STRUCTURE magazine February 2006 STRUCTURE magazine February 2006
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...a new framing approach
for the structural stability of
the existing wall...
...the need for a
secondary lateral system
connected to the common
diaphragm oors.
The inherent lateral stiffness and strength of the diagrid provided
a signicant advantage for the general stability requirement for the
tower under gravity, wind and seismic loading. This resulted in a
highly efcient structural system that consumed 20% less steel
material in comparison to conventional moment frame structures.
While diagrid systems have inherent strength and stiffness
comparable to a triangulated structure, the diagonal elements are
required to be braced at the oor levels between the nodal levels.
This necessitates the need for a secondary lateral system connected
to the common diaphragm oors. The secondary lateral system
should account for the stabilizing requirements, considering the
total gravitational loads at each level and the customary inter-
story construction tolerances. The secondary lateral system in this
project is dened by a braced frame at the service core area.
The highly redundant diagrid system provides a structural net-
work with multiple load paths that provides resistance to progressive
collapse. This structure provides a higher standard of performance
under extreme stress conditions that national and international
codes are striving to achieve. At the 10
th
oor, the diagrids are sup-
ported by a series of mega columns around the perimeter. The lat-
eral system below the 10
th
oor is achieved by a robust composite
core shear wall comprised of steel braced frames encased in rein-
forced concrete walls. The core wall lateral stiffness is enhanced by
the two sets of super-diagonals.
Mega Columns
The typical ofce tower starts at 110 feet above ground, at the 10
th

oor. The design calls for an interior open space between the 3
rd
and
10
th
oor with a height of approximately 80 feet.
The structure below the 10
th
oor is designed to respond to the
large unbraced height by using a mega column system around the
perimeter of the tower footprint, supporting the tower perimeter
structure. Mega columns are primarily made out of built-up steel
tube sections and strategically lled with concrete. In order to
create the interior open space, two of the tower interior columns
are also transferred out to the perimeter of the tower via a series of
super diagonals below the 10
th
oor.
Additional interior super-diagonals are provided below the 10
th

oor to assist the composite core wall system for general stability.
Mega columns are continued down to the foundation.
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STRUCTURE magazine February 2006 STRUCTURE magazine February 2006
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Design
The structural software used was ETABS, RAM and SAP2000.
The controlling lateral load was primarily wind. Seismic
analysis was in accordance with the New York City Building
Code, Seismic Zone 2A.
Construction
The existing faade was laterally reinforced and is supported at
the 3
rd
and 7
th
level which is equivalent to the top of the wall by the
new tower structure. However, to erect the new tower, the existing
structure which provides stability for the existing faade needed to
be removed. Therefore, the retained faade had to be stabilized by
temporarily keeping the rst bay of the structure all around the
perimeter, including its columns and oor framing, as a ring ele-
ment. This also provides a working platform for existing faade wall
reinforcing.
Nevertheless, the analysis of the one bay ring structure under
the temporary loading condition showed that it also temporarily
required to be laterally stiffened. This necessitated placing bracing
members within the temporary remaining one bay ring structure
prior to removal of the balance of the existing building. These
temporary bracings remained in place until the major permanent
structural work was completed up to the 10
th
oor, and the nal
stability of the existing faade wall was restored.
The structure is planned to open in June 2006.
Ahmad Rahimian, PhD., P.E., S.E. is president of WSP Cantor Seinuk, Structural Engineers, New York division of WSP Group. He is an
internationally recognized expert in tall buildings. Dr. Rahimian is the recipient of numerous awards from engineering societies for various
exemplary projects that he has engineered, including the ENR Excellence Award as one of the Top 25 Newsmakers of 2003 and 2005 ASCE-CERF
Charles Pankow award for innovation. Dr Rahimian holds a US patent for seismic protective design, has authored numerous articles and lectured
widely on the design of tall buildings in professional societies and universities.Yoram Eilon is an Associate with WSP Cantor Seinuk Structural
Engineers, New York division of WSP Group. He has designed ofce, residential, stadium, industrial and parking structures in United States and
overseas. Mr. Eilon is currently completing work on the Hearst Building and working on the design of the Freedom Tower in New York City.
Project Team
Owner
Hearst Corporation
Development Manager
Tishman Speyer Properties
Architect
Foster and Partners
Associate Architect
Adamson Associates
Structural Engineer
WSP Cantor Seinuk
MEP
Flack & Kurtz
Construction Manager
Turner Construction Co.
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