When complete in the summer of 2003, this latest addition to the Rockefeller Center neighborhood will mark a number of milestones in the New York City construction market. For their first new construction project in Manhattan, Vornado Realty Trust, the country’s largest REIT, selected General Bronze to manage the design and installation of their new custom curtain wall and windows.
The design challenge was to create transparent building envelope that took full advantage of the spectacular views of Fifth Avenue, St. Patrick’s Cathedral and the Rockefeller Center Roof Gardens for the office tenants. In order to bring the Kohn Pederson Fox vision to reality, General Bronze teamed up with Benson Industries of Portland, Oregon – Marking Bensons first time working in the city of New York.
Benson is known worldwide for their design philosophies which feature pressure-equalization and open joints, eliminating the need for exterior caulking from curtain wall panel to panel.
For 640 Fifth Avenue, the General Bronze-Benson team developed a thermally-broken, pressure-equalized curtain wall with clear Low-E glass intersected by a thing stainless steel clad mullion. The Fifth Avenue façade adds a vertical stainless steel fin that projects off the face of the wall eight inches. The spandrel condition has a painted shadow box creating depth and delineating the structural frame. A pre-set anchor detail was incorporated which enabled a fast erection sequence.
With this project, the team of General Bronze and Benson is poised to become a leader in the high-rise custom curtain wall market.
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