Luxury apartment block The Touraine, Manhattan, New York

The first application of a full-surface resilient Sylodyn® building bedding in the USA

The Touraine on the Upper East Side of Manhattan is a fifteen-storey luxury apartment block containing 22 exclusive apartments on the historic Upper East Side of New York City. The building stands on a plot surrounded by subway lines 4, 5 and 6. More than 1000 subway trains run along this stretch of track every normal weekday.

The challenges

Protecting the apartments from vibration and noise
Busy subway lines generate vibrations that can have a negative effect on the quality of the indoor environment

The Getzner solution

Prior to starting construction, acoustical consultants AKRF carried out a detailed evaluation of the vibration situation on the site. The readings revealed that the vibration and associated ground-borne noise levels caused by subway train pass-by events were above design guidelines for luxury residential buildings.

Using the Sylodyn® material from Getzner, the construction planners developed what was, for the USA, an new and comprehensive bedding solution for the apartment building: the elastic floor and wall bearings made from high-tech polyurethane now provide effective protection against vibrations from the neighbouring subway lines.

Three construction workers installing yellow formwork panels in an excavation pit, The Touraine.

Advantages for the customer

Full-surface bearings for buildings
The first application of a full-surface resilient Sylodyn® building bedding in the USA
Luxury residential living standards despite proximity to subway
Cost-effective solution resulting from seamless integration into the construction process
The Touraine was not just the first building in New York City to be given a full-surface resilient bedding based on Sylodyn®; to date it is also the largest completely decoupled building in the USA.

When this solution is implemented as it has been here, the completely isolated, 'floating' building is decoupled from the vibrating subsoil. The effect of vibrations on the structure reduces considerably. Getzner came up with a project-specific solution that not only met all the acoustical criteria but also took into account the various requirements of the construction company, the architect, the structural engineer and the site manager.

Benjamin Sackwald Technical Director and Acoustic Engineer, AKRF