PM Network - August 2014

CLOSING

Credit

Today, Hudson Yards is a gritty industrial zone. Ten years from now, it will be a thriving neighborhood where 65,000 people will live or work.

Much of the sprawling complex—the largest private development project in U.S. history—will be built on top of a working rail yard. The project team devised a customized platform weighing 37,000 tons ( 33,566 metric tons) that it will rest on 300 caissons precisely placed among 30 train tracks, which will continue to operate throughout construction. Once complete, the platform will support almost all of the 17 million square feet (nearly 1. 6 million square meters) of commercial and residential space.

While such an enormous project carries equally large engineering challenges, building a neighborhood from the ground up brings opportunities as well. At Hudson Yards, waste won’t be left curbside; instead, it will travel through a vacuum system via 1. 5 miles ( 2. 4 kilometers) of underground tubes at 43 miles ( 69 kilometers) per hour to a central terminal.

The new mini city will also be a smart one: Using residents’ voluntary, anonymous data and thousands of sensors, Hudson Yards will measure energy use and shopping habits to help improve air quality, noise levels and energy performance.