Case Study
Luxury Condominium Building
The Touraine, Manhattan NYC (US)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 Side ofManhattan.

Full surface bedding for buildings.

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

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

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

rior to starting construction, acousticalconsultant AKRF carried out a detailed
evaluation of the vibration situation at thesite. The readings revealed that the vibration and associated ground-borne noiselevels caused by subway train pass-by
events were above Federal Transit Administration design guidelines for luxury residential buildings.

PUsing Sylodyn® material from Getzner, theconstruction project managers subsequently developed an innovative and comprehensive bedding for the condominium building
which offered protection from vibrations.
Speciically, elastic foundation and wall
supports made from the high-tech polyurethane were used successfully under thefoundation of the condominium 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 of references relating to the effective use of their vibration isolation materials. It wasn’t justthis that impressed the customer. The indepth consultancy carried out in advanceand the fact that Getzner was able to propose a solution tailored to the speciic requirements of the construction project bothcontributed to its successful conclusion”,
stressed Andreas Denk, the Getzner ProjectManager.
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 thematerial, its durability — which was veriiedby an independent laboratory — and its
proven isolation properties under groundwater conditions. The closed cellular structure of Getzner materials makes them highly compressible. The resulting elasticity
means the material requires no proiling or
cavities and is not, as often incorrectly
claimed, produced by air bubbles that could
delate over time.

The closed cellular structure ofSylodyn® material is therefore
the perfect choice for full surface installation in 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 work in any way. No cutting tosize 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. Getzner is
not just a developer and manufacturer of
specialty vibration reducing materials; inthis instance, the company developed acustom-built solution for the luxury condominium building and was involved in theproject from the planning stage through to
its implementation and supervision.
Overall coordination
In addition to their planning and supervisory activities, the vibration specialists coordinated all the necessary steps during andafter the installation. “Normally, individualcomponents are speciied separately. On
this project, Getzner took on an importantrole as a central point of contact that managed and coordinated all the processes
relating to vibration/ground-borne noise
protection,” commented Benjamin
Sachwald of AKRF, before adding: “We arevery impressed by the innovative solutions
developed by Getzner and look forward toworking with them again on future projects.”

What did Benjamin Sachwald of acoustical consultants AKRF say about theproject?

What did Joseph Clark from general contractor Falcon Construction say aboutthe project?

“This unique Getzner solution is ideal
for many building projects in the vicinityof the busy rail lines that are found allover New York City. When this solution
is implemented, as it has been here, thecompletely isolated ‘loating’ building
is decoupled from the vibrating subsoil
and the effect of vibrations entering thestructure is reduced considerably. Getzner
came up with a project-speciic solutionthat not only met all the acoustical criteria
but also took into account the various requirements of the construction company,
the architect, the structural engineer andthe site manager.”“The material provided met the project requirements in every way and theGetzner specialists were able to install
it quickly and easily. It’s just amazing:no vibrations at all can be felt inside thebuilding.”

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

Principle of a full surface
resilient bedding

Joseph Clark,
Senior Project Manager,
General contractor,
Falcon Construction LLC

Facts and igures at a glance

Lexington Avenue

Location:
Vibration isolation:
Solution:
Implementation Getzner:
Customer and investor:
Execution building
bedding:
Acoustical consultant:

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

THE TOURAINE

Sylodyn®

Resilient bedding for the The Touraine condominium
building in New York CityBuilding:

Sidewalk

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

SublineLine 6Subline
Line 4

SublineLine 5Construction references (extract)
Foundation:
Chief Executive Oficer:
Employees:
2015 turnover:Business areas:
Headquarter:
Locations:

Ratio of exports:

1969 (as a subsidiary of Getzner,
Mutter & Cie)Ing. Jürgen Rainalter340
EUR 77.9 million
Railway, construction, industry
Bürs (AT)
Berlin (DE), Munich (DE), Stuttgart (DE),
Lyon (FR), Amman (JO), Tokyo (JP),Pune (IN), Beijing (CN), Kunshan (CN),Charlotte (US)85 %AUSTRIA — Bürs GERMANY — Berlin — Munich — Stuttgart FRANCE — Lyon
JAPAN — Tokyo INDIA — Pune CHINA — Beijing USA — Charlotte— 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 moreJORDAN — Amman
www.getzner.com

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