A new 13-story tower straddling one of Manhattan’s busiest roadways, the FDR Drive, an addition to pre-eminent facility for orthopedics, HSS.
The building adds private in-patient floors, physician offices, exam rooms, and on-site imaging, as part of HSS’s campus modernization. The building rises above piles located on the esplanade and west side of the FDR, connects to the hospital’s main building via a third-floor sky bridge over E. 71st Street, and ties into the HSS Pavilion Building to the west.
This structurally and logistically complex project required extensive coordination with engineers, City and State agencies, and other contractors. The structural framing system was designed for off-site modular construction of the first two floors, due to the tight work area and crane pick limitations, as well as to minimize disruption to the FDR; construction involved barging prefabricated modules of the first two floors up the East River, then lifting them into place above the FDR, with the remaining steel delivered via barge and lifted into place by tower crane.