Caissons are a technology borrowed from bridge building, and they are what makes this project possible. The engineers will drill them anywhere from 40 to 80 feet into the Manhattan schist (the dense, metamorphic bedrock that supports the city’s soaring skyline). The caissons are meticulously arranged in the narrow spaces between the tracks. Above, the they will connect to deep-girdle trusses – some up to 8 stories tall – that control and redirect the towering weight overhead. Finally, the slab. — wired.com
6 Comments
i thought this image
from an earlier Bloomberg article quite illuminating
would this sort of thing qualify as a megastructure?
And the cold, dark, perpetually shadowed space created will be ... ?
@ Miles - isn't it train station, tracks, etc? Just using this to lift buildings off the ground will simply create pilotis, which would mostly be dark and terrible. In this specific instance at HY, however, it leaves the train yards undisturbed below while (I believe) creating new station(s). I think there's a grocery store getting shoved under one of them, too.
@miles what the orange menace said...
I had to read that sentence three times before I realized it said metaMORPHIC bedrock not metaphoric. Metaphoric bedrock exists in NYC, too. Tons of it.
Can't wait for electomagnetically floating buildings.
Block this user
Are you sure you want to block this user and hide all related comments throughout the site?
Archinect
This is your first comment on Archinect. Your comment will be visible once approved.