sEPTEMBEr

9/11: A decade later

September 2011

As the new World Trade Center rises from the rubble of Ground

Zero, Halcrow Yolles’ expertise in design is helping improve safety

conditions for the 2,000 plus workers making it happen.

The World Trade Center, a decade later:

Contents

Project showcase:The World Trade Center, a decade later: Innovative safety methods and construction phase analysis support the rebuilding effort in lower Manhattan

Ritz-Carlton Hotel, Toronto: Meeting structural challenges in style

Bow Tower: Award-winning sustainable project soars above the Calgary skyline

Rio Metro Line 4 Project, Brazil: Progress on a new rail line to support the 2016 Olympic Games

Expanding expertise:New leaders create a foundation for expanded growth in the Americas

Spotlight on:Power and energy services Halcrow helps in Japan: National disaster specialists recruited by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) survey marine structures post-earthquake and tsunami

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We are happy to bring you the September edition of our Americas magazine.

Each quarter it comes to you full of information about what’s going on with Halcrow’s people, places and projects, and how we’re helping to solve some of our clients’ greatest challenges through planning, design and management services for sustainable infrastructure development worldwide.

PROJECT SHOWCASE

Innovative safety methods and construction phase analysis support the rebuilding effort in lower Manhattan.

September 2011 marks the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 tragedy, and Halcrow Yolles is proud to be a part of the rebuilding effort that continues to take place in lower Manhattan. Since April 2009, the team has been involved

in construction engineering aspects of two of the towers that will eventually reconfigure New York’s cityscape, raising buildings of sober and distinctive architecture into the sky. As engineer of record for structural steel contractor DCM Erectors, Halcrow Yolles is helping to heighten safety conditions and improve construction access as the new complex’s skyscrapers grow.

The World Trade Center, a decade later: Formerly known as the Freedom Tower, for the tallest of the World Trade Center skyscrapers – One World Trade Center (WTC1) – construction is well underway and approximately at the 80th floor when this article was published. Visitors craning their necks to view the building’s apex will have spotted one of Halcrow Yolles’ contributions – a three-dimensional cocoon, external to the

building structure, wrapped in blue mesh protecting the upper levels of construction. The team designed the mesh-clad structure to provide secure platform worker access to the exterior perimeter of the structure and to prevent falls and protect those working below from tumbling tools and debris. As the 105-story WTC1 tower incrementally reaches skyward, the whole cocoon is lifted by crane to the next level, enabling construction to continue safely.

Halcrow Yolles’ team also designed a sixteen story tall single unit access stair that hangs off the face of the building. Materials and equipment are safely delivered to the various upper levels of construction via a Halcrow Yolles designed drawbridge system of platforms, which services three stories simultaneously. The drawbridge platforms allow flush and unencumbered deliveries to the work floors using carts with stepless roll-off roll-on ease. This

Main photo: WTC1 with mesh protecting the upper levels of construction Bottom left: WTC1 Opposite page: Architects rendering of WTC1

The team is also making their mark on the transportation hub, designed by famed

architect Santiago Calatrava. When completed, it will be home to the city’s third-largest train

terminus. A series of Halcrow Yolles-designed temporary platforms are enabling the installation of the sweeping subterranean roof structure, which spans five rail lines and will support several meters of soil and a landscaped park with numerous trees.

Due to the extremely complex design, The Calatrava designed roof structure of the Port Authority Trans-Hudson (PATH) train station, had to be deconstructed by Halcrow Yolles working initially for DCM Erectors and subsequently for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Consisting of more than 65 distinct steps, the roof was then reconstructed analytically by Halcrow Yolles’ team, step by step, to determine the loads and stresses of each piece were calculated properly for sound erection.

As the new World Trade Center rises from the rubble of Ground Zero, Halcrow Yolles’ expertise in design is helping improve safety conditions for the 2,000 plus workers making it happen.

For more information on our structural engineering expertise, contact Pierre

Desautels at (212) 608-3990 or email Pierre.desautels@halcrowyolles.com.

PROJECT SHOWCASE

component, like the other structures, is raised up the building as it takes shape. Similar safety techniques, consisting of a cocoon safety structure and access stairs designed by Halcrow Yolles’ team, are also being used on Tower 4, which will be as high as approximately the 40th floor at the beginning of September. Image courtesy of SOM

Halcrow Yolles served as the structural engineer on Toronto’s first five-star hotel, the award-winning Ritz-Carlton. This project combines classic and contemporary architectural elements in a tapered 53-story reinforced concrete tower structure that gestures towards Lake Ontario, offering lake views to the south and city views to the north.

The tower rises out of a five-level podium steel structure, and functions as both a hotel and residential space, with an

Ritz-Carlton Hotel, Toronto: Meeting structural challenges in style

This project combines classic and contemporary architectural elements in a tapered 53-story reinforced concrete tower structure that gestures towards lake ontario, offering lake views to the south and city views to the north

PROJECT SHOWCASE

amenity center for residents and facilities for hotel guests. At story 26, the tower’s south wall begins to slope outward in a striking architectural feature designed to visually complement the sweeping curves of Roy Thomson Hall across the street.

The five-story podium at the tower’s base features a largely glass exterior designed to create a sense of interaction between the street and the lobby, and mediate between the pedestrian scale and the larger urban scale of the tower. The podium holds two large ballrooms, fine-dining restaurants, conference and meeting rooms, and a fitness center and a spa.

Halcrow Yolles was faced with many challenges within the podium structure, including the need to incorporate a column-free space for a luxury ballroom, as well as ensuring mixed-use spaces of meeting rooms and aerobic studios allowed for their required degree of vibration or solitude. A solution was found in a pair of 5m story-deep trusses that span 24m north to south above the main ballroom. The depth of these trusses provided the global podium structure with the stiffness to resist dynamic excitation due to rhythmic activities. The long-span structural system also facilitated erection—critical because of the limited staging area and the hotel’s location adjacent to a main downtown street.

One of the unique marquee features within the Ritz hotel lobby is an elegant 9m span glass bridge located in the center of the lobby that allows patrons to view the grand lobby space below. Halcrow Yolles’ unique design showcased the use of state of the glass production techniques with cutting edge design to produce continuous laminated glass balustrades

spanning 9m, and custom design fitted connections. A novel erection sequence of fully assembling the glass bridge in-house and lifting the entire structure was used to meet the onerous construction program schedule.

Within the tower structure, there was a need by the client for maximum flexibility for the condominium and hotel floors layouts. Halcrow Yolles’ solution was to provide an offset core transitioned through a two story mechanical floor at Level 21 that allowed greater flexibility for the planning of the residential floors without compromising the planning of the hotel floors below.

The top of the tower culminates in a chiseled profile, tying together the hotel’s overall architectural expression. To address the substantial and constant wind loads, the material solution selected by the engineering team had to be strong and fatigue-resistant. It also had to be sufficiently light and modular to allow quick and safe erection, and allow for ongoing upkeep and limited maintenance. Structural steel was the best option to satisfy design requirements.

For more information on our structural engineering expertise, contact Rob Ellis at (416) 363-8123 or email rob.ellis@halcrowyolles.com.

Main and small photographs opposite page: The Ritz Carlton Hotel exteriorTop right: View from one of the luxury bedroomsBottom: The hotel lobby with glass bridge

Award-winning sustainable project

soars above the Calgary skyline

Bow Tower:

PROJECT SHOWCASEPROJECT SHOWCASE

Halcrow Yolles was the structural engineer on the award-winning The Bow, one of the largest steel-framed buildings recently constructed in the Americas. The Bow is a striking presence on Calgary’s skyline, with its iconic crescent-shaped, inversely curved form. This innovative 58-story mixed-use development is a groundbreaking structure, representing many ‘firsts,’ as well as providing an environmentally sustainable headquarters for leading Canadian corporation Encana, and a generous social space for Calgary.

The Bow is Calgary’s tallest building and first steel skyscraper. The project is known for the top-down construction technique used by Halcrow Yolles on the ground floor, an innovation that allowed for an improvement in project schedule. It also incorporates the first use of a triangular diagonal grid (diagrid) system in a curved building design in North America. Visually, the diagrid pattern is repeated on the building’s exterior every six stories, and provides superior structural efficiency while

significantly reducing the overall steel weight, as well as the number and size of interior columns.

The innovative skyscraper derives its name from the nearby Bow River, and from the tower’s heavily- windowed, bow-like shape, which was used to maximize perimeter office space, greatly reduce wind loads, maximize natural light, harness the sun’s heat energy, and provide unobstructed views to the majestic Rocky Mountains to the west.

One of the first examples of a truly modern and sustainable high-rise tower for Calgary, The Bow successfully fulfills owners’ goals of a distinctive tower that is both a progressive and sustainable office space and a vibrant cultural, civic, and shopping destination for Calgary residents and visitors.

For more information on our structural engineering expertise or this project, contact Ian Washbrook at (403) 532-1133 or email ian.washbrook@halcrowyolles.com

Halcrow’s Brazilian team, based out of Rio de Janeiro, has been hired by the Brazilian government to work on the second phase of the Rio Metro Line 4 Project. This project will improve and prepare the city’s transport system for the 2016 Olympic Games, which will be hosted by Brazil. Halcrow will be overseeing the basic design for a brand new metro line, including tunnels, operations and systems.

The Rio de Janeiro Metro network - also known as Metro Rio – has two lines serving half a million travelers each day, or about five percent of the number of passengers travelling in Rio de Janeiro.

The team previously worked on the first stage of this project, completing the concept design.

For information on the work Halcrow is doing across Latin America contact Guillaume Lucci at +54 11 4311-4911 or email luccig@halcrow.com

Rio Metro Line 4 Project, Brazil: Progress on a new rail line to support the 2016 Olympic Games

Halcrow recently presented at the Better City/Better Life: The South – North Initiative conference held at the United Nations in New York City on May 18, 2011. The goal of this conference was to showcase best practices and successful programs being used by South American countries in the areas of affordable

housing, transportation, infrastructure and the application of information communication technologies.

Halcrow’s work around the world in both developed and developing countries has offered our experts a first-hand look at how innovation and new technologies are a catalyst for urban development.

Participants at the conference included governments, academia, NGOs and the private sector/industry. The event was organized by UN Habitat for a Better Urban Future, American Institute of Architects New York Chapter, Consortium for Sustainable Urbanization and South-South News.

around

PROJECT SHOWCASE

ExPAnding ExPERTiSE

new leaders create a foundation for expanded growth in the Americas

Aluizio Margarido has joined Halcrow as country manager, Brazil. In this role, Aluizio will lead Halcrow’s operations in Brazil. Aluizio has more than 25 years of experience in the engineering and construction industry. He has led projects across Argentina, Brazil, Germany, Mexico and Venezuela. He is skilled in project and contract management, and has been involved in the construction of a variety of high-profile infrastructure projects, including subways, tunnels, bridges, buildings and roadways.

Prior to joining Halcrow, Aluizio worked at a leading Brazilian engineering

and construction firm for 17 years, most recently as a director. Over the course of the past eight years, he has resided in four different countries in support of his project work. Recent projects include the Ayrton Senna Tunnel Project in Saõ

Paulo, Brazil; Odebrecht Bau Aktiengesellschaft in

Berlin; Lines 2 and 5 of Metro de Saõ Paulo, Brazil; Lines 3 and 4 for Metro de Caracas, Venezuela.

Robert “Bob” Ulrich has been appointed managing director of the Americas region. With over 30 years of experience in the industry, he has focused on infrastructure development, operations and maintenance. Bob previously served as director of business development for the region. Prior to joining Halcrow, Bob developed and led major marketing and sales programs for federal agencies, multilateral development agencies and state and local government. He also directed a global business development program for a major internal engineering and construction and program management firm.

SPOTLIGHT ON

halcrow.com

They were recruited to study the effects on port structures after the March 11, 2011 9.0 magnitude Great Tohoku Earthquake and resulting tsunami, which wrought massive destruction along the nation’s Pacific coastline. The team took an up-close

Halcrow’s seasoned natural disaster specialists Marc Percher and Bill Bruin, hailing from our Oakland, California office, spent a week in Japan as part of the American Society of Civil Engineers’ (ASCE) earthquake reconnaissance teams.

look into the design and construction of ports and harbors located further to the north of Japan, where extreme tsunami heights resulted in significant waterfront damage. They also investigated the impact the earthquake and tsunami had on coastal engineering structures such as tsunami walls, breakwaters, seawalls – coastal engineering structures that are used for navigation, flood control and life safety. The teams made extremely valuable observations of port vulnerabilities, as well as highlighted waterfront structures that performed very well during this major earthquake.

Halcrow helps in Japan

and energy strategy expert, who has developed leading tools and strategy frameworks; and others.

Our expertise spans the specialty of power and energy services from power generation to retail market analysis, including:

• Power and Natural Gas Asset Advisory, including M&A due diligence, owner’s engineer for power plants and natural gas pipeline

• Infrastructure Planning and Assessments, including utility asset

The issue of renewable energy has recently become a focus for industries and individuals worldwide. Closer to home, the Obama administration has made great strides towards improving America’s energy future. Here at Halcrow, our power and energy experts are actively assisting our clients in achieving their own energy goals. Halcrow’s team is composed of Tom Stringfellow, a nationally recognized biomass and renewable energy expert, with more than 40 years of experience in the industry; Tony Georgis, a sustainability

risk audits, utility operational assessments, and system planning and modeling

• Sustainability and Energy Strategy, including triple bottom line business and utility strategy, renewable, distributed, efficiency feasibility, and optimized energy resource plans

• Business and Management Solutions, including stakeholder engagement, financial/proforma analysis, rates and regulatory, and strategic planning

• Independent engineering services to the financial community

Power and energy services