The work designed and administered by architect Beyer, Blinder, Belle is known as The World Diamond Tower. In the diamond district it is considered a high-profile high-rise building. The first four stories of the building were demolished, and the mezzanine floor level was removed to create a 2-story flagship retail space and a new building lobby off 5th Ave all while keeping the 1920’s limestone facade in place. The limestone’s brick substrate was repaired from the interior, the limestone was restored from the exterior and was closely overseen by the architect’s historic restoration team.
The lobby was relocated to a 47th Street entrance and the existing 5th Ave entrance was converted to a retail entry for the new flagship tenant, Sephora. The ground floor boutique retail was converted in to a 2-story retail flagship space by demolishing a mezzanine level and raising existing first story spandrel beams and interior steel to accommodate the increased interior volume.
The second and third floor structure were removed, lowered, and replaced with new steel and CIPC slab to accommodate a new tenants structural need for the anticipated weight of vaults and new private elevators for the multistory tenants. The tenants on each of these floors had signed long term leases with the building owner and each had specific structural and MEP requirements we built to.
This project was part of the $40mm in upgrades performed to the building also including the new 2 story palladian storefront on 5th Ave & 47th Street. A new vault for Brinks Global Services in the basement, the new lobby relocated to 47th street, the new elevators throughout the building and the facade repair (local law 11) work up to the 35th story for which we had to scaffold the east and southern faces of the building.
The high-profile nature of the building, the neighborhood, and the work spanning the holiday shopping on 47th St, plus the countless unforeseen conditions in the 1929 era building presented many engineering and architectural challenges that we met alongside Beyer Blinder Belle and AKF Group engineers.
