![]() ![]() Photo courtesy of Woodword Engineering Group Strengthened Core ![]() To fortify the building’s core, workers reinforced more than 25,000 sq ft of the structure’s surface with carbon fiber. In addition, the use of highly detailed acoustical solutions at the glass curtain wall, floor assembly and guest room windows were necessary to achieve a high level of sound isolation from the active railroad track below the main conference and event space facilities, Kim explains. This way, the tower comes to the ground in its historic form along the street edge with the podium wings outstretched to welcome visitors, he adds. “The design solution utilized a semicircular form that wraps two-thirds of the tower base, softens the edge condition between the tower face and the podium and provides an expansive curvilinear surface opening on to the plaza and river.” ![]() It faces onto the river-facing side of the tower’s base overlooking a public plaza,” Kim says. “The new podium was prominently located to the south, east and north of the tower itself. Photo courtesy of Woodword Engineering GroupĪdding to the complexity was the fact that the new podium’s location was over three active railroad tracks, one of which had to remain in service throughout construction. Temporary bracing during construction offered structural stability while a tower crane was in place. “The new addition could not diminish the historical details of the tower itself and, due to National Park Service and State Office of Historic Preservation guidelines, the addition must be placed so that the original tower would still be seen touching the ground around its historic lobby,” he says. The approved marble was then immediately packaged and air-freighted to the project for installation in the model guest rooms.Īnother challenge for lead design firm CambridgeSeven was adding the new hotel podium space that would engage with and surround the base of the tower, explains Yongjoo Kim, principal for the firm. The designer’s vision of floor-to-ceiling marble bathrooms in the guest rooms required a trip to Carrara, Italy, to select and approve the mix of stone. Crews reinstalled a total of 324 louvers to maintain this historical element. These were restored on the lower floors and the end windows of each wing while high-performance curtain wall was integrated on the entire exterior, providing significant energy efficiency while maintaining the overall profile of the landmarked building, according to the team. The anodized finish on the louvers was so corroded that the team brought on subcontractor Glass Zinsel JV to dismantle 1,164 of the shades individually, remove the existing anodized finish and corrosion, and re-anodize them to match the original finish. Given new life as the Four Seasons New Orleans Hotel and Private Residences, with 341 guest rooms and 92 condominiums and penthouses, the structure is listed on the National Historic Register and received the Excellence in Historic Preservation award from the Louisiana Landmarks Society.Įxterior restorations had to comply with historic guidelines, which dictated that the tower shape, exterior envelope and the circular top of the building as well as the structure’s winged roof and rooftop antenna were defining elements that needed to be preserved.Īnother original design component is the iconic louvers, or sunshades. Formerly known as the World Trade Center Tower, the 33-story cruciform waterfront skyscraper, built in 1968 and located at 2 Canal Street, was eyed for redevelopment for more than 20 years by the time this project finally got underway. The metamorphosis of an iconic, midcentury office building into a luxury hotel and residential complex has been a process decades in the making. Four Seasons New Orleans Hotel and Residences New Orleans BEST PROJECT, RENOVATION/RESTORATION KEY PLAYERS Owner: Two Canal Owner LLC CM: Woodward Tishman, a Joint Venture Civil: Royal Engineers and Consultants Structural: Woodward Engineering Group MEP: Moses Engineers Construction Manager Joint Venture Partner: AECOM Tishman Historic Architect: Trapolin-Peer Architects ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |