Building Statistics

General Building Information

• Building Name
  • The Towers at CCNY
• Location
  • The City University of New York
    130th Street and St. Nicholas Terrace
    New York City, NY
• Occupant
  • CUNY Students and faculty
• Occupancy
  • Residence Hall
• Size
  • Building Footprint: 21,000 SF
  • Gross Floor Area: 185,000 SF
  • Height: 110'-0"
• Dates of Construction
  • April 2005 - August 2006
• Cost
  • Total Cost: $59 Million
  • Construction Cost: $44 Million
  • Development Cost: $15 Million
  • Site Cost: $0 (CCNY owned property)
• Project Delivery Method
  • Guaranteed Maximum Price
• Design Team
  • Owner/Developer: Capstone Development
  • Architect of Record: Goshow Architects
  • Design Consultant: Design Collective
  • Structural/MEP Engineers: Greenman-Pedersen, Inc.
  • Civil Engineer: Langan Engineering
  • Construction Manager: Turner Construction

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Architecture

The Towers at the City University of New York is a dormitory building which will house approximately 600 CUNY students and faculty. It is located at the corner of St. Nicholas Terrace and 130th Street in Harlem, New York City. Each apartment in the building consists of private bedrooms and baths, and a common living area and kitchen. The first floor of the 185,000 square foot building is primarily for common use. It houses a 24 hour reception desk, a laundry room, a fitness room, mailboxes, a lounge, a public kitchen area, a seminar room, administrative offices and 13 apartments. To ensure the safety of the occupants, all guests much check in to the reception area and be accompanied in the building by a resident.

Goshow Architects decided to use natural brown brick colors to reflect the terra cotta and local dark stone of the existing buildings on campus and in the upper west side of Manhattan. The architects also made the setbacks of the Towers to reflect the adjacent buildings in the neighborhood. The floor to ceiling glass bays are used to accentuate the corners and give the building a unique look. The L-shape of the building provides privacy and protection for the quadrangle. The existing granite walls of the buildings that previously occupied the site will be incorporated into the landscaping.

• Major Building Code
  • The Building Code of the City of New York
• Zoning Information and Requirements
  • Residential District R7-A
  • Sky Plane height limitations
  • Maximum Floor Area Ratio of 6.5
  • Maximum Lot Coverage equal to 70%

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Building Facade

The façade of the Towers is a thin brick panel system. The brick panels consist of the brick, thin set adhesive cement bed over metal lath, 5/8” glas-mat sheathing and vapor barrier. This panel is connected to 6” cold formed metal studs. The studs are insulated with R19 batt insulation.

The roof system consists of a multi-ply bitumen roof membrane over tapered R19 rigid insulation. The slope of the insulation is equal to ¼” per roof and ½” per foot within 24” of  the roof drains. The structure of the roof is a 9 ½” thick reinforced flat plate concrete slab.

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Systems Summary

Structural

The structural system for the Towers is a cast-in-place concrete. The floor slab is an 8" thick reinforced concrete flat plate with shearheads at the columns. Columns are located throughout the exterior and interior of the building, located in places to minimize the impact on the architectural floor plan. Laterla loads are resisted by concrete shear walls located around the stair and elevator cores.

Electrical

The electric power for The Towers is 120/208V, 3 phase 4 wire. Seven sets of 4 #750MCM cables are run from the service at 130th street to a 4000A service entrance located at the lower level of the building. Each apartment unit has it's own electircal panel sized according to the New York City Electrical Code. There is no generator for emergency power for the building. Emergency lighting and firelarms are powered by integral batteries inside the fixtures.

Mechanical

HVAC for the apartments is provided by packaged terminal air conditioning (or PTAC) units. The PTAC units use a 1/2 ton direct expansion cooling system and are located below each window. Heating is provided by a hot water heating coil which is served from the centeral hot water boiling plant.

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