When it was constructed in the 1950s, 100 Park helped New York City's Park Avenue become a desirable business address. Five decades later, The SL Green Realty Corporation, along with Prudential Real Estate, commissioned Moed de Armas & Shannon Architects of NYC to transform the once-modern steel and glass tower into a “New Modern Classic”. The design team accomplished that goal, in part, by covering the building's exterior with metal wall panels fabricated from Reynobond® aluminum composite material (ACM). In addition to transforming the building's appearance, the use of the metal wall system helped the project become New York City's first LEED®-Silver-certified commercial building renovation.
Featured on the tower's exterior is more than 125,000 sq. ft. of the Reynobond material. The material was manufactured in Eastman, GA, by Alcoa Architectural Products, and then fabricated into panels by IDA International Inc. of Derby, CT. The ACM specified for the project's façade and coping was Alcoa's 4mm material with an FR (fire-rated) core and a Pewter Kynar 500 paint finish. The panels were installed using a rout-and-return wet-seal attachment system.
“One of the engineering challenges on this project was to develop a way to anchor the panel system over a deteriorating veneer brick façade without imparting any loads on the veneer brick,” said Michael Potkay, director of engineering for IDA International, Inc. “The light weight of the ACM panel was integral to achieving the resulting suspended system. The ACM panels provided the desired aesthetic, and their light weight made it possible to re-clad the building without adding stress to the original façade underneath. The high recycled content of the material also helped with the quest for LEED certification since ACM meets sustainable design standards. The architect selected Reynobond ACM, in particular for the façade, because of his long-standing relationship with IDA and experience working with Reynobond materials.”
When the $72 million redevelopment of the 36-story, 955,000-square-foot office tower was completed in May 2008, the architects had doubled the height of the lobby and integrated new double-height retail storefronts into the lobby and building exterior. The infrastructure was upgraded too with outdated electrical and HVAC systems replaced with the state-of-the-art. New elevators were also installed.
The new metal façade had a new glass curtain wall and more than 2,000 new insulated windows. All work was done with the tenants still in place. Tishman Construction Corp., of New York, New York served tas the general contractore on the project.
Additional sustainable amenities include 14 green roofs, which employ a low-maintenance/water consumption Xero Flor® mat system; enhanced recycling capabilities; and an energy management program that includes the installation of low-flow plumbing fixtures that reduce water consumption by approximately 50 percent a year.