Case Study
Luxury condominium building
The Touraine, Manhattan NYC

The irst application of full surface
resilient Sylodyn® building beddingin the US

Luxury residential living standards
despite proximity to subway

Cost-effective solution resulting
from seamless integration into construction process

Resilient beddingof buildings

Project description

Getzner solution

Luxury condominium building The
Touraine on the Upper East Sideof Manhattan.

Full surface bedding for buildings.

he Touraine is a ifteen-story luxury condominium building containing 22 exclusive residences in thehistoric Upper East Side Manhattanneighborhood of New York City. The
challenge with this project consistedof implementing appropriate measures to protect the residences fromsubway generated vibration and associated ground-borne noise. The development site is immediately adjacentto the Lexington Avenue subway
lines 4, 5 and 6; on a typical weekday
more than 1000 trains run along thisstretch of track.

TThe Lexington Avenue subway line’s
rail trafic creates vibrations that havea negative impact on the living standards in the luxury condominiums.

“Getzner was the onlycompany to come up with afeasible and cost-effective
solution that it well into theconstruction process”,
explained Benjamin Sachwald, Director of Acoustics, Noise and Vibration
at AKRF, the project acoustical consultant.

rior to starting construction,
acoustical consultant AKRF
carried out a detailed evaluation of
the vibration situation at the site.
The readings revealed that the vibration and associated ground-borne
noise levels caused by subway trainpass-by events were above design
guidelines for luxury residentialbuildings.

PUsing Sylodyn® material from Getzner,
the construction project managers
subsequently developed an innovativeand comprehensive bedding for thecondominium building which offeredprotection from vibrations.
Speciically, elastic foundation andwall supports made from the hightech polyurethane were used to goodeffect under the foundation of thecondominium building and on the surfaces of the foundation walls.

The Touraine was not justthe irst building in New York
City to be given a full surface
bedding based on Sylodyn®;to date it is also the largest
completely decoupled buildingin the USA.
“Getzner can provide hundreds ofreferences relating to the effective
use of their vibration isolationmaterials. It wasn’t just this that impressed the customer. The in-depth
consultancy carried out in advanceand the fact that Getzner was able topropose a solution tailored to the speciic requirements of the construction
project both contributed to its successful conclusion”, stressed Andreas
Stoleth, the Getzner Project Manager.
DesignThe vibration isolation was installed
between June and September of 2011.
Key factors in the decision to award
the contract to Getzner were the deined elasticity of the material, its
durability — which was veriied by anindependent laboratory — and its proven isolation properties under groundwater conditions. The closed cellularstructure of Getzner materials makes
them highly compressible. The resulting elasticity means the material requires no proiling or cavities and isnot, as often incorrectly claimed, produced by air bubbles that could delate over time.

The closed cellular structureof Sylodyn® material istherefore the perfect choicefor full surface installationin pressurised groundwater.

Getzner facilitated a smooth integration
into the construction process.

Feedback
Handling of the material is also refreshingly different: its installation
was integrated into the construction
process without disrupting the workin any way. No cutting to size or cavities were required for the resilient
bedding. The Getzner project teammanaged the project and the excellent
cooperation between it and the construction team enabled the site work
to be carried out quickly and eficiently.

What did Benjamin Sachwald of
acoustical consultants AKRF say
about the project?

“This unique Getzner solution is ideal
for many building projects in the vicinity of the busy rail lines that are found
all over New York City. When this solution is implemented, as it has been
here, the completely isolated ‘loating’building is decoupled from the vibrating subsoil and the effect of vibrations
Getzner is not just a developer andentering the structure is reduced
manufacturer of specialty vibrationconsiderably. Getzner came up with
reducing materials; in this instance,a project-speciic solution that not
the company developed a custom-built only met all the acoustical criteria but
solution for the luxury condominium
also took into account the various
building and was involved in the prorequirements of the construction
ject from the planning stage throughcompany, the architect, the structural
to its implementation and supervision. engineer and the site manager.”
Overall coordination
In addition to their planning and supervisory activities, the vibration specialists coordinated all the necessary
steps during and after the installation.
“Normally, individual components
are speciied separately. On this project, Getzner took on an importantrole as a central point of contact thatmanaged and coordinated all the processes relating to vibration/groundborne noise protection,” commented
Benjamin Sachwald of AKRF, before
adding: “We are very impressed bythe innovative solutions developed byGetzner and look forward to working
with them again on future projects.”

Benjamin Sachwald,
Director of Acoustics,
Noise and Vibration, AKRF

Principle of a full surface
resilient bedding

What did Joseph Clark from generalcontractor Falcon Construction say
about the project?
“The material provided met the project requirements in every way andthe Getzner specialists were able toinstall it quickly and easily. It’s justamazing: no vibrations at all can befelt inside the building.”
Joseph Clark,
Senior Project Manager,
General contractor,
Falcon Construction LLC

Facts and igures at a glance
Lexington Avenue

Sidewalk

Busy subway lines vibration is effectively blocked by Getzner Sylodyn ®.

Resilient bedding for the The Touraine condominium
building in New York CityTHE TOURAINE

Sylodyn®

Building:

SublineLine 6

SublineLine 4

SublineLine 5Getzner Werkstoffe GmbH

Construction references (extract)

Foundation:— The Rushmore Building, New York (US)— Luxury apartment block “Four Suns”,
Moscow (RU)
— Central & Park Panorama Towers in
Arnulfpark, Munich (DE)— New residential complex (5-story
multi-family buildings), Munich (DE)— Drachen-Center, Basel (CH)— National Training Centre, Tokyo (JP)— Hotel am Potsdamer Platz, Berlin (DE)— Music Hall, Helsinki (FI)— Oslo Opera, Oslo (NO)— BMW-Welt, Munich (DE)— And many moreManaging Director:
Employees:
2011 turnover:Business areas:
2011 output:
2011 recycling:
Locations:

Ratio of exports:

1969 (as a subsidiary of Getzner,Mutter & Cie)Ing. Jürgen Rainalter
212 in Bürs, 87 abroad
EUR 56.2 Mio.
Rail, construction, industry
7,209 tonnes of technical PU materials
51 tonnes of residual PU materials
Bürs (AT), Munich (DE), Berlin (DE),Amman (JO), Tokyo (JP), Pune (IN),Beijing (CN), Kunshan (CN)80 percent

www.getzner.com
AUSTRIA — Bürs

GERMANY — Berlin — Munich

JORDAN — Amman

JAPAN — Tokyo

INDIA — Pune

CHINA — Beijing

CS TT en © Copyright by Getzner Werkstoffe GmbH | 08-2012

15-story luxury condominium
building with 22 residences
Location:
Lexington Avenue and East
65th Street, New York City
Vibration isolation:
Getzner Werkstoffe GmbH
Solution:Full surface bedding of building
using Sylodyn®
Implementation Getzner: June to September 2011
Customer and investor: Toll Brothers City Living
Execution building
bedding:
General contractor Falcon
Construction LLC
Acoustical consultant:
AKRF, Inc.