As long-time on-call Structural Engineer for One New York Plaza, an iconic 50-story tower at the tip of lower Manhattan, SUPERSTRUCTURES was tasked with a flood mitigation project now nearing completion.

For GPR fans.

We noted with interest, Habitat’s recent article touting boom trucks: “A New Way to Cut the Cost of Facade Inspections.” Boom lifts are indeed invaluable for facade inspections, but they are not a recent development.

SUPERSTRUCTURES architect Gaither Pratt recently led the first in a planned series of City Walks presented by the New York City Chapter of the Congress for the New Urbanism.

The roof replacement designed by SUPERSTRUCTURES for the Savoy Manor building at Hostos Community College is now substantially complete. The existing roofing was removed down to the metal deck – the new roof is a low-maintenance green roof, planted with pre-grown sedum vegetation. Green roofs offer many benefits: conserving energy, improving stormwater management, mitigating the urban heat island, and increasing the longevity of roofing membranes, as well being more aesthetically pleasing. Client: Dormitory Authority of the State of New York.

The DOB’s new website mapping out all the sidewalk sheds in NYC was highlighted in the Times this week -- and with over 8,000 of these necessary protective structures now in place, they are indeed ubiquitous.

As specialists in façade restoration SUPERSTRUCTURES has met many unique challenges. In the case of the curtain wall restoration at the 20-story A.C. Powell Jr. State Office Building, each of the 1,042 new windows to be installed weighed 300 pounds. We worked with glazing manufacturers on special details to prevent shifting in the frames during handling and deflection in the window sill members owing to the weight of the glass. The project also included stone repair and cleaning and reinforcement and reconstruction of 6 monumental “supercolumns.” Client: NYS Office of General Services.

SUPERSTRUCTURES’ exterior restoration of this 1914 C.B.J. Snyder school involved the removal and resetting of 270+ lineal feet of parapet wall comprising 100+–year-old decorative terra cotta and brick masonry. Most of the historic terra cotta was salvaged and reinstalled -- some damaged units were replaced with architectural precast-concrete units. Steel pinning was introduced to provide additional support. Client: New York City School Construction Authority.

SUPERSTRUCTURES provided architectural and engineering services for this $10 million exterior restoration of iconic downtown Manhattan office tower One New York Plaza – completed a year ahead of schedule! The project involved complete curtain-wall sealant replacement, and selective cleaning. The building is owned by Brookfield Properties; the contractor for the restoration was Benjamin Maintenance.

Nearing substantial completion, SUPERSTRUCTURES’ project at George Westinghouse Career & Technical Education High School in downtown Brooklyn is the exterior restoration of this 1908 historic “Snyder” school building and its 1963 addition. A highlight of the restoration is the replacement in kind of the street-facing parapet, notable for its detailed ornamental outline. We were retained by the New York City School Construction Authority as the Architect/Engineer for the project; the contractor is Lo Sardo General Contractors.