Estefania Lascano
Architectural Engineer
Structural Option
Cassa Hotel & Residence
515 9th Ave
New York, N.Y. 10018
Photo Courtesy of Thornton Tomasetti
General Overview
Building Name Cassa Hotel & Residence
Location 515 9th Ave New York, N.Y. 10018
Occupancy Type Mid-Rise Mixed Use (Hotel, Rental, Retail)
Number of Units108 Units
Size 170,000 Gross Square Feet
Height193 Feet
Stories Above Grade 12 Stories
Total Stories17 Stories
Construction Duriation N/A - Spring 2014
Project Delivery MethodN/A
Cost $150 Million
Primary Project Team
Client 511 Property,LLC
Partner Alan Goldstein/David West
Architect Goldstein Hill & West Architects, LLP
Structural Engineer Thornton Tomasetti
NYCDOB Representative Doman Consulting, Inc.
Mechanical Engineer MG Engineering, P.C.
Landscape Architects MPFP, LLC
Construction Manager New Line Structures INC
Acoustical Consultant Shen Milsom & Wilke
Telecom/IT/Security KPJ & A
Photo Courtesy of Thornton Tomasetti
Architecture
Cassa Hotel and Residence is located in a community known as "Hell's Kitchen and Hudson Yard Alliance Area". While, Hell's Kitchen was an Irish community mostly made up of brick buildings still seen today; over the past three decades Hell's Kitchen is slowly transforming into Hudson Yards.
Cassa Hotel & Residance is a Mid-Rise building made up of residencial appartments, hotel rooms, and retail on the ground level. The building contains two basement levels which houses storage, gym, and a garage to its residence. Hotel rooms are located on floors 2-4; while, permanent residence are located on floors 5-12. Multiple rooftop sun decks are located throughout the building providing many views of the city.
Historical Requirements
Historical Requirements are not applicable to Cassa Hotel & Residence
Zoning District
C1-7A Hudson Yards
Design Codes
Building Code of the City of New York 2008
International Building Code (IBC) 2003
Photo Courtesy of Hudson Yards and Hell's Kitchen Alliance
Photo Courtesy of Thornton Tomasetti
Building Enclosure
Building Façades
Cassa Hotel & Residence features a aluminum panel exterior with large windows. There are three types of aluminum panel which include a Gray Velevet and a bright silver. The upper floors all have swing or slider operable windows while the ground level is mostly made up of vision and spandral glass.
Roofing
Crushed Gravel Ballast is what makes the surface rooing; which lays on top of rigid isulation with membrane waterproofing, and sloped concrete for drainage.
Photo Courtesy of Thornton Tomasetti
Photo Courtesy of Thornton Tomasetti
Sustainability Features
Cassa Hotel & Residency has multiple setbacks which gives life to a livable outside space. Each terrence includes green lawns which features great views of the city. The prime location of Cassa Hotel & Residency is also in close proximities to public trasportation which includes City Bikes, Subway Stations, and Bus Stations.
Photo Courtesy of New York City Public Transportation
Structural Engineering System
Foundation
The geotechnical reports have identified the water table and the bedrock to be located between 8-27ft and 8-19ft below graded, respectively. After analyzing the rest of the results multiple recommendations were provided to relieve possible hydrostatic pressures; including vertical wall drainage, under-slab drainage, sump pit, and waterproofing. Cassa Hotel and Residence will also be exposed to both static and dynamic lateral earth pressures; therefore, the basement walls were design to withstand these pressures which can be seen below. The foundation also features footings that withstand 60-40 tons per square foot in bearing capacity that does not exceed 9 square feet. A continuous footing of at least 2 feet wide was also recommended.
Static Lateral Earth Loads Photo Courtesy of Thornton Tomasetti
Dynamic Lateral Earth Pressures Photo Courtesy of Thornton Tomasetti
Structural Engineering System
Floor Framing System
This building features a typical 9" two-way flat slab reinforced concrete system; which, was cambered up to 1" at certain locations during construction, seen below in red. The image also points out the uneven column lines which were placed to complement the architectural floor slab, seen in blue.
Lateral System
The lateral system is composed of shear walls which are located around the core of the building. All shear walls except for two run from Lower level 2 till the 15th floor; they range between 10"-12" in thickness. Two of the shear walls also feature extra reinforcement around the elevator door openings.
Photo Courtesy of Thornton Tomasetti
Mechanical Engineering System
Since Cassa Hotel and Residence is located in New York where there is a moderate climate the need to balance the load of both cooling and heating is needed in the mechanical system. A water source heat pump system (WSHP) was designed to withstand these loads. There are two 450 ton cooling towers on the roof to reject the heat from the building. One of the cooling tower operates in standby mode to deal with maintenance and for redundancy. In addition there are 3 1800 MBH Boilers that take care of the heating hot water to preheat coils and other equipment. The shared spaces of the building are serviced by WSHP air handling units, while the hotel rooms and condominium residences are serviced by vertical stack WSHP units. There are also electric unit Heaters that provide supplemental heating in necessary areas.
The system operates in a loop, with the open circuit cooling tower rejecting heat from 95 degree water and cooling it to 85 degrees, the water then goes to the plate frame heating exchanger where it transfers the heat into the pipe on the heat pump side of the system with a 2 degree approach making it 87 degree water that is supplied to the heat pumps. In cooling mode the water comes into the tube in tube heat exchanger which acts as a condenser where heat transfer takes place with the refrigerant in the unit. That refrigerant goes through the rest of the vapor compression cycle within the machine the coil acts as the evaporator in the cycle and a blower fan blows the cooled air into the space to combat the cooling load.
Because the heat pump contains a reversing valve it is able to flip the process and also provide heating. In heating mode, the heat exchanger functions as the evaporator instead of the condenser, and the coil functions as the condenser which along with the warm air provides warm air into the space.
Photo Courtesy of Watt Master WHP Control Systems
Fire Protection
Cassa Hotel and Residence contains two types of fire protection. Passive fire protection which helps slow down the spread of fire throughout the building and provides people more time to evacuate and active fire protection which include fire detection and suppression devices.
The Fire Protection System consists of several types of sprinkler heads. Concealed heads are used in the apartments and hotel rooms as well as the hotels public spaces. Sidewall heads are used as well in the rooms and corridors, as seen typically in many hotel designs. The MER and the Garage are the only spaces which uses upright heads. Below is the sprinkler head legend from the construction documents. In addition the fire alarm system has Fire smoke dampers and duct smoke detectors in the ductwork of the building. In addition there are heat detectors and Carbon monoxide detectors as per code to keep the occupants safe from any possible non-fire related incidents.
Photo Courtesy of Thornton Tomasetti
Photo Courtesy of Thornton Tomasetti
Plumbing
Plumbing/Fire Protection SystemThe plumbing system in the building is serviced by both gas and electric water heaters. The electric water heaters provide domestic water for the ground and lower levels and range in output capacity between 1.2KW and 16.6KW input. The two gas water heaters are sized at 1000 MBH each and provide the domestic water to the hotel rooms and residential areas. The residential units cold and how water piping for the sized at ¾” pipe while the bathtub/shower is sized at 1”. Below is the fixture schedule for the building.
Photo Courtesy of Thornton Tomasetti
Lighting & Electrical Engineering System (Includes Telecommunications)
The Cassa Hotel and Residence consists of various eco-friendly lighting options. Residence and Hotel areas are out fitted with both fluorescent and LED lighting, as opposed to Incandescent lighting. In addition to the LED’s there are also lutron controls integrated into the building for light and dimming capabilities. Both of these additions help cut down on energy cost; however, this means there is a higher up front cost for the owner/developer. There is also a telecommunications hookup for Time-warner and Verizon to provide the residents with their choice of cable/internet provider and for the hotel to provide guests with telecom services as well.The electrical system consists of a main service switchboard “MSS” which is a 3 phase 4 wire switchboard rated at 6000 Amps with 200,000 Amp Interrupting Capacity (AIC). This provides the power to the panels serving the building in regards to lighting, equipment, and plug loads. In addition to the MSS and residential panel boards there are also Lutron dimming panels that provide the controls for the LEDs that have dimming capabilities.
Photo Courtesy of Thornton Tomasetti
Transportation
Cassa Hotel and Residence has a total of four elevators and two stairwells. The engineer has also designated an area for a future staircase it the addition was ever needed. All the elevators have the capability of running from LL2 till the 12th floor, except for one that stops at the 8th floor. One stair case was designated for the hotel and lower lobbies use only. Finally, the 39th Street entrance features a car elevator that runs from the ground level to the lower lobby 2 were the valley parking is located.
Photo Courtesy of Thornton Tomasetti