Project 1 Introduction

My proposed building for my project is the Hearst Tower located in New York City. The Hearst Tower is owned by the Hearst Corporation who is one of the largest media conglomerates in the world. They own various media companies which include magazines, newspapers, and many television networks (i.e. ESPN, A+E, etc.). The tower is located at the intersection of 57^th and 8^th in New York City, New York. Initially the building was only 6 stories tall and was commissioned by the founder of the Hearst Corporation, William Randolph Hearst. The architect of the building was Joseph Urban, and the original building was design to be expandable to 3 more stories if necessary. The new tower was completed in 2006 and was built within the inner core of the original building in order to keep the cast stone façade. This new tower was designed by Norman Foster of Foster + Partners. The Hearst Tower was LEED Gold certified and became the first “green” high rise office building to be completed in New York.

Figure 1: Hearst Tower

Figure 2: Original 6 Story Corporate Office

The Hearst Tower is approximately 600 ft tall with a rectangular base that is about 160 ft x 120 ft. The tower has 44 stories, and an 80 ft lobby that contains 2 sets of large diagonal braces and 12 mega-columns. The existing 6 story structure has a footprint of about 200 ft x 200 ft. One of its main features is the exposed lateral bracing system on the building’s outer wall called a Diagrid. It uses triangular elements in the brace to resist any lateral and gravity forces on the structure and remove the exterior columns to give a more open look from within the tower. The Diagrid system is only located on the 44 stories exterior walls and each row of triangular elements spans 4 stories on the tower. There are 9 sets of these triangular rows. The mega-columns in the 80 ft lobby support the Diagrid system and 44 stories in the tower. They are equally spaced from one another and set of large diagonals that are attached to them, are only located on the inner three mega-columns that are on the 160 ft side of the tower.