Commercial Grade

Wooden water towers are a common feature visible atop many mid-rise buildings here in New York City. I had the good fortune to observe a new tank being constructed atop a neighboring building right outside my window last week. The industrious team seen in the photograph below managed to put this thing together faster than I had thought was possible.

Here are some interesting facts about these wooden wonders:

• In Manhattan, most buildings with more than six stories need some type of water tower and pumping system to ensure sufficient water pressure.
• Water is delivered up to the tanks by electric pumps, and is then distributed throughout the building by the force of gravity.
• There are only two companies that build wooden water towers in the city: Rosenwach Tank Company and Isseks Brothers. Each has been in business for over a century.
• Towers built by Rosenwach can be identified by the four “R”-shaped pieces of wood around the uppermost portion of the tower’s central post. (As can seen in my photograph.)
• The average wood tank holds 10,000 gallons of water.
• Wood tanks have several advantages over steel tanks: They are cheaper (average cost of $30,000, compared to as much as $120,000 for steel), can be built more quickly, require less maintenance, and provide better insulation.
• A crew of six men can remove an old tank and replace it with a new one in 24 hours.
• Wood tanks have no lining or sealant keeping the water in. Newly built tanks will actually leak when first filled with water (indeed I saw this occurring with the new tower shown in the photograph), but before long, the water in the tank causes the wood planks to expand, closing up any gaps between them.

Drove by this beauty earlier this week and just had to stop for a picture. I can only imagine how a listing agent might describe it:

House for sale. Cozy one-story with walkout basement. Lots of natural light. Needs a bit of TLC.

In all seriousness, one has to wonder why the owner (assuming he or she is not flat-out broke) did not simply raze this trash heap and perhaps do a basic site clearing before putting the property up for sale. My only guess is that the local zoning may allow a higher floor-area-ratio for development involving the extension of an existing structure, as compared to what is permitted for a ground-up new construction.

I noticed this marvel of engineering on the way back from lunch today. It’s right on our own block at 63 West 38th Street (aka 62 West 39th Street), where a 12-story office building is getting a 6-story addition and being converted to a hotel. I’m sure these fine folks know exactly what they are doing, but personally I would think twice before spending any time on that scaffolding – the support beams look just a bit “sill”-y to me . . .

As the construction of Lower Manhattan’s newest crown jewel approaches completion, it has emerged that there is some controversy surrounding the uppermost section of the skyscraper. The 408-foot antenna that will bedeck the top of the tower was originally supposed to be enclosed within a geometric, ornamental shell. However, much to the chagrin of the building’s architects, the owners (the Port Authority and the Durst Organization) have recently changed course, scrapping this design in favor of leaving the antenna’s basic metal support structure exposed.

The reported reason for the change is that the planned shell would have been too expensive and dangerous to maintain. In addition, doing without the shell will shave some $20 million off the construction costs. (Considering that One WTC is already the most expensive office building ever constructed, and running nearly $1 billion over budget, that’s probably not a bad thing.)

Just last month, One WTC became the tallest building in NY State when it reached 1,271 feet, edging past the venerable Empire State Building. One WTC’s lengthy antenna was specifically designed to bring the tower up to the symbolically significant height of 1,776 feet. At that size, it would register as the tallest building on the continent. However, now that the decision has been made to do without the antenna’s external shell, questions are being raised about whether this part of the structure will actually count towards the official height of the building. (Without those additional 408 feet, One WTC’s base building height of 1,368 feet would make it only the third-tallest building in the country – close, but no cigar. However, that number might hold some appeal to China when they eventually take over the country, as construction of the current Great Wall of China began in the year 1368.)

This design change is significant in this context because under the commonly accepted rules for measuring building height, architectural spires are included in overall building height, but plain old antennas are not. With the ornamental shell, there would have been no question that the antenna’s structure would qualify as a spire. Without the shell, however, it may well be considered no more than a mere antenna. Although the building’s owners steadfastly maintain that this uppermost part of the building will indeed still be a spire, others in the know are decidedly less sure. Ultimately, the decision will rest in the hands of the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, which has yet to make the call.

Even if One WTC loses the height contest, I would submit that the building’s monolithic, octagonally tapering design is still nothing short of in“spire”ing.