Greenpoint Landing Block D

overview

Contributing to efforts to revitalize Brooklyn’s post-industrial waterfront, two iconic residential towers along Greenpoint Landing form a new gateway to the neighborhood. Resembling stacked blocks that are oriented in varying directions, the towers feature punched facades comprising precast concrete megapanels incorporating large windows. Sculpted to maximize waterfront views and react dynamically to the movement of the sun throughout the day, the towers appear as if engaged in a dance—one pulls away as the other steps forward.

We provided façade engineering, waterproofing, sustainability analytics and resilience services to OMA and Beyer Blinder Belle for the project. The two towers, rising 34 and 43 stories, contain approx. 745 housing units and sit atop a shared seven-story podium with parking and ground-floor retail. The development contributes 2.5 acres of public open space along the shoreline, and 30% of units are dedicated as affordable housing.

highlights

• The façade scope included consulting for the exterior glazing and precast concrete panel systems for the metal and glass storefront entrances, as well as above-grade, below-grade waterproofing and roofing.
• The façade consists of floor-to-floor/double-bay precast megapanels with pre-glazed windows, as well as stick-built curtain wall systems for the retail storefronts and unitized curtain wall system for the pedestrian connector bridge.
• To reduce costs, accelerate installation, and improve performance, we suggested that the precast panels be pre-glazed in the precast factory.
• The sustainability scope included comfort analysis, renewable energy potential, daylight analysis and glare potential analysis. We tested daylight autonomy for both towers to understand the annual daylight distribution with the impacts of nearby contexts such as the surrounding buildings and the adjacent tower. The team also tested conducted a shade-down study and a fisheye-glare study to determine the indoor daylight quality conditions.
• Our resilience practice provided flood mitigation consulting services which included flood risk evaluation, concept design, flood barrier review and design assist, and development of a flood emergency action plan for successful implementation of the floodproofing measures.
• We used drones to observe the GPL façade installed panels and map their deficiencies and misalignments, which were delivered to the client as both a photo report and in a 3D virtual tour.