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[GK86]

Link.

Overview of the Hudson Yards today:

There are more people, buildings, and landmarks per square inch on Manhattan than any other chunk of geography in America. And the island has never been shy about squeezing in more wherever it can find the space. Even so, it’s hard to imagine anywhere the city can fit six sky scrapers, 100 shops, 20 restaurants, a school, and 14 acres of parks. How about on a platform over the country’s busiest commuter rail yard? Go ahead and add superlatives to the list of things New York can’t get enough of.

Hudson Yards is the largest private development project in U.S. history, and it’s being built without footings or foundations. Instead, the project is going to sit atop 300 concrete-sleeved, steel caissons jammed deep into the underlying bedrock. Work on the platform broke ground last week, and will take roughly two and a half years to complete. In that time, there’s a lot of engineering to do.

Caissons are a technology borrowed from bridge building, and they are what makes this project possible. The engineers will drill them anywhere from 40 to 80 feet into the Manhattan schist (the dense, metamorphic bedrock that supports the city’s soaring skyline). The caissons are meticulously arranged in the narrow spaces between the tracks. Above, the they will connect to deep-girdle trusses – some up to 8 stories tall – that control and redirect the towering weight overhead. Finally, the slab. “The total punishment is somewhere in the neighborhood of 35,000 tons of steel and 50,000 cubic yards of concrete,” says Jim White, the lead platform engineer. And that’s before they start loading buildings on top.

Building an elevated platform over an active train yard requires clockwork scheduling. White used computer models to coordinate the tempo of his drilling and truss-laying around the rhythm of the rails. “We look at the area of the yard and model in the train traffic, when it moves on an hourly basis and actually design the connections so we can install these 100 foot long trusses when have a window of opportunity,” says White. For the two and a half years it will take to complete the platform, there are only four scheduled track closures.

The 26-acre hole on Manhattan’s west side has been a mote in the city’s eye for nearly 30 years. Before the yards were expanded in 1987 (the site has been a rail yard at least as far back as 1910), trains waiting for their next load of passengers had to head out to Long Island. Back then, the neighborhood had no real identity, other than as the sketchy, warehouse district between Chelsea and Hell’s Kitchen.

The city started eyeing the rail yards for development around the same time they were expanded and reopened in 1987 as a staging area for Penn Station. In the 90′s, George Steinbrenner made a decade-long push to move the Yankees from their Bronx home to a stadium over the rails. (He even went so far as to threaten to move to New Jersey.) Public discord put Steinbrenner’s dream to bed. Manhattanites will put up with a lot, but 81 days a year of home game congestion is a line they weren’t willing to cross.

Soon after Steinbrenner’s dream was crushed (he elected to keep the team in the Bronx), other groups started scheming for a football stadium for the NY Jets that would also be part of the city’s bid for the 2012 Olympics. This time, it was the owners of Madison Square Garden that drove the project away, fearing a new stadium would steal away all the concert and event revenue from their aging arena. The city changed tack after the the failed stadium projects, and made a push for mixed-use development.

In some ways, Hudson Yards wouldn’t be possible without the stadium bids. As part of the Olympic/Jets stadium plan, the city council approved extending the 7 subway line from Times Square to north west corner of the rail yards. This plan survived and will provide crucial connectivity to the area, which is currently a half mile from the nearest subway stop.

The city has also done a lot of heavy lifting for above-ground connectivity. The final phase of the High Line (like the 7 train, it is also expected to open later in 2014) will snake directly into Hudson Yards. For people who want to walk the elevated parkway end-to-end, Hudson Yards will be one of the most convenient starting points. The city isn’t taking any chances on walkability, and plans to build a 4-acre green boulevard that will extend from the north of Hudson Yards, through Hell’s Kitchen and will end in Times Square.

Related Companies, the developer of Hudson Yards, believes that the entire project will be completed in 2024. That gives the city’s planning geniuses time to think of the next engineering marvel. Bike highways, anyone?

 

[antonz]

Looks like a pretty interesting project. Certainly a creative use of space.

 

[jayhawker]

Chicago did the same thing a long time ago. There was a huge building suspended above the train station I arrived at. Smaller scale, I guess.

 

[Gallbaro]

More office space than all of Portland, OR.

 

[antonz]

35,000 tons of steel and 50,000 cubic yards of concrete

is mind-blowing when that includes zero building construction and just the platform to build on.

 

[SteveWinwood]

i dunno they look like they touch the ground a lot to me

 

[Stinkles]

More office space than all of Portland, OR.

New York wouldn't put a bird on it tho. and then they would go on about how good their pizza was like anyone gave a shit. And then straight up lie about how you could get exquisite sushi at 5am.

 

[zeemumu]

Pfft, who needs the ground?

 

[?oe?oe]

Sydney is planning to do something similar over a 3km stretch of rail:

 

[RomanticHeroX]

Isn't this how Midgar started?

 

[smokeandmirrors]

This is really neat

 

[Lamel]

Interesting. That's the place next to Penn station right?

I swear Manhattan/NYC metro is becoming a civilization all on its own.

 

[xKilltheMx]

it may be time to apply for an internship with this company...so interesting and I could totally say I was a part of that.

 

[Gr1mLock]

okay

 

[antonz]

Interesting. That's the place next to Penn station right?

I swear Manhattan/NYC metro is becoming a civilization all on its own.

Coruscant has to start somewhere

 

[SimleuqiR]

There is another set of new building being planned to be built on used to be the Domino Sugar plant:

http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/real-estate/domino-sugar-plan-moves-article-1.1711684

Construction in NYC is booming.

Funny how the platform development in the OP will only take two years to complete, yet the new World Trade center is not even done. I hate the red tape in my city.

 

[Chezzymann]

soon

 

[MogCakes]

My major is related to this so this is especially interesting for me....I'm not feeling those skyscraper designs though.

 

[PantherLotus]

This is so neat.

 

[Ludovico]

soon

Engineer gaf....how feasible is something like this, really?
Would love to see this in my lifetime.

 

[antonz]

My major is related to this so this is especially interesting for me....I'm not feeling those skyscraper designs though.

That's my only gripe. I hate the clash between the classics and the modern.

Looks like the tallest building is planned to be 80 stories. So from what I can see roughly 2 80 story buildings then 3 in the 45-52 story range.

 

[xKilltheMx]

Engineer gaf....how feasible is something like this, really?
Would love to see this in my lifetime.

I can honestly say if you see this during our lifetime I will eat my concrete and steel manuals, boiled, seasoned and with a grinning face.

Spoiler

I wont be eating those books anytime soon.

Seriously: It's entirely too cost prohibitive to see that. Like insanely. Any other engineer gaf wanna chime in?
First I dont even know the soil/land in this fictional area, I dont even know if it could handle all of that without sinking. Just thinking about the work is scary. This would take so long that if we started now I feel like only our children or grandchildren would see this.

 

[Tuck]

Engineer gaf....how feasible is something like this, really?
Would love to see this in my lifetime.

Pretty sure its not feasible, simply because of how close the columns would need to be to support it. Theres also the fact that the lower levels would be completely shrouded in darkness.

 

[Black Door]

Wakka: "Hey. Take a look."

Tidus: "What? Whoa!"

[Buildings lie under the water.]

Tidus: "A sunken city!"

Wakka: "A machina city -- a thousand years old! They built the city on top of
bridges across the river."

Lulu: "But the weight of the city caused the bridges to collapse, and it all
sank to the bottom."

Wakka: "Right. It's a good lesson."

Tidus: "A lesson?"

Wakka: "Yeah. Why build a city over a river, ya?"

Tidus: "Uh... Well, it would be convenient, with all that water there."

Wakka: "Nope, that's not why. They just wanted to prove they could defy the
laws of nature!"

Tidus: "Hmmm? I'm not so sure about that."

Wakka: "Yevon has taught us: When humans have power, they seek to use it. If
you don't stop them, they go too far, ya?"

 

[coldfoot]

We already have something similar on the section of I-95 that crosses upper Manhattan:

Those towers are built on top of 12 lanes of highway...

 

[zma1013]

Pretty sure its not feasible, simply because of how close the columns would need to be to support it. Theres also the fact that the lower levels would be completely shrouded in darkness.

It's okay, in the future everyone wears sunglasses all the time anyways, day or night.

 

[Black Door]

Pretty sure its not feasible, simply because of how close the columns would need to be to support it. Theres also the fact that the lower levels would be completely shrouded in darkness.

Pretty sure all the mako reactors will solve the darkness issue

 

[Flandy]

Wakka: "Hey. Take a look."

Tidus: "What? Whoa!"

[Buildings lie under the water.]

Tidus: "A sunken city!"

Wakka: "A machina city -- a thousand years old! They built the city on top of
bridges across the river."

Lulu: "But the weight of the city caused the bridges to collapse, and it all
sank to the bottom."

Wakka: "Right. It's a good lesson."

Tidus: "A lesson?"

Wakka: "Yeah. Why build a city over a river, ya?"

Tidus: "Uh... Well, it would be convenient, with all that water there."

Wakka: "Nope, that's not why. They just wanted to prove they could defy the
laws of nature!"

Tidus: "Hmmm? I'm not so sure about that."

Wakka: "Yevon has taught us: When humans have power, they seek to use it. If
you don't stop them, they go too far, ya?"

:lol I got confused and thought I somehow ended up in the FFX HD Remaster OT for a second

 

[Cagey]

Pretty sure all the mako reactors will solve the darkness issue

People do want their FF7 remake after all.

 

[Mii]

I enjoy reading up on details of the Hudson Yards project. There is a less-discussed project that is trying to ride on the hype of the Hudson Yards. The realty group wants to build the Hudson Spire. It is designed to be 1800 feet tall, taller than One World Trade.

More pictures and info here, here, and here.

 

[NullPointer]

“The total punishment is somewhere in the neighborhood of 35,000 tons of steel and 50,000 cubic yards of concrete,” says Jim White, the lead platform engineer.

I didn't know total punishment was an engineering term.

 

[outunderthestars]

We already have something similar on the section of I-95 that crosses upper Manhattan:

Those towers are built on top of 12 lanes of highway...

God I find large cities so depressing. More power to those who love it, but I need more nature than that in my life.

 

[The Technomancer]

Soon...

 

[NinjaFridge]

Soon...

Viva la floof

 

[Haly]

God I find large cities so depressing. More power to those who love it, but I need more nature than that in my life.

I personally find the isolating effects of large amounts of "nature" depressing.

 

[enzo_gt]

We already have something similar on the section of I-95 that crosses upper Manhattan:

Those towers are built on top of 12 lanes of highway...

Whoa, this is crazy.

 

[Ambient80]

God I find large cities so depressing. More power to those who love it, but I need more nature than that in my life.

You can totally see a couple of trees there!

 

[Slayer-33]

Whoa, this is crazy.

10 blocks away from my parents place lol..

Cousin lives in one of those project type buildings..

Kind scary when looking out the window or from the street and seeing how high the buildings are.

 

[terrisus]

 

[Mii]

God I find large cities so depressing. More power to those who love it, but I need more nature than that in my life.

Nice thing about this project is its going to introduce 14 acres of park and public open space.

I've watched some videos regarding the design and planning of the public space. It's a long video that covers far more than just Hudson Yards, but stuff like this seriously makes me consider getting involved in this sort of work in some form.

Also it connects directly into the High Line.

As for progress on Hudson Yards itself, the article here discusses it. The first of the buildings is going up pretty quickly and should be finished by 2015, on schedule.

 

[freeofgreed]

soon

Holy shit, where is that from?

EDIT: nvm forgot google image search was a thing for a second.

 

[TwEE-N-Toast]

We already have something similar on the section of I-95 that crosses upper Manhattan:

Those towers are built on top of 12 lanes of highway...

Everything looks like it's in advaced stages of decay.

 

[uncblue]

I didn't know total punishment was an engineering term.

As a structural engineer, I've never heard this term either. It makes sense but there are so many damn terms for things.

 

[sqwarlock]

Everything looks like it's in advaced stages of decay.

Looks like it's taken in the new Google Maps with their terrible "3D" building meshes applied. Makes every building look like it's melting.

 

[DoktorEvil]

Isn't this how Midgar started?

Wakka: "Hey. Take a look."

Tidus: "What? Whoa!"

[Buildings lie under the water.]

Tidus: "A sunken city!"

Wakka: "A machina city -- a thousand years old! They built the city on top of
bridges across the river."

Lulu: "But the weight of the city caused the bridges to collapse, and it all
sank to the bottom."

Wakka: "Right. It's a good lesson."

Tidus: "A lesson?"

Wakka: "Yeah. Why build a city over a river, ya?"

Tidus: "Uh... Well, it would be convenient, with all that water there."

Wakka: "Nope, that's not why. They just wanted to prove they could defy the
laws of nature!"

Tidus: "Hmmm? I'm not so sure about that."

Wakka: "Yevon has taught us: When humans have power, they seek to use it. If
you don't stop them, they go too far, ya?"

I'm ok with living in a floating city ala Midgar. Might as well rename NYC Midgar.

Just don't make it look like this

Maybe more like this