New York Times Building: Role of Selected Features

Abstract

With a height of 52 stories and a steel structure visible from the exterior, the New York Times Building is the third-tallest building in the city of New York. Located on 8th Avenue between 40th and 41st Streets, it was designed by the Italian architect Renzo Piano. Two separate structures comprise the building: a 5-story podium rectangular in plan and a 52-story tower with a cruciform plan. Two interesting features of the structural system are the bracing system, located both on the perimeter and in the core, and the outrigger systems, located at the two mechanical floors. The effectiveness of these features, as well as the pretensioning of diagonals, is examined numerically in this paper by studying their influence on deflections due to wind, distribution of internal forces, and dynamic response of the building.