豪华住宅建筑完成移动in Brooklyn, N.Y. has a unique mission: creating a medically equipped structure that also is amenity-rich and features high-end design for older New York City adults. The project team on the $330-million Watermark in the Brooklyn Heights neighborhood aims to succeed by transforming 21 Clark St.—an historic hotel that spent the last several decades as office and dormitory space—into an elite 275-unit property with a collection of health, dining, fitness, cultural and other lifestyle features.

Molding a 356,000-sq-ft senior housing development from the 1928 structure—originally the Leverich Towers Hotel and later a facility for the Jehovah’s Witnesses—has entailed preserving a landmark facade, rehabilitating interiors and conducting an underground effort to carve out amenity and utility spaces.

The work encompasses preservation and reconstruction extremes, says Richard DeMarco, Montroy DeMarco Architecture’s lead architect on the project for co-developers Kayne Anderson Real Estate and Watermark Retirement Communities.

“Everything in the envelope is preserved—not one mortar joint was touched,” he says. “But we pretty much gutted the entire building from the fourth floor down, except for some of the elevators and stairs.”

The below-grade effort required not only demolition, reconfiguring and excavation, but also installation of refined features and finishes for restaurants, wellness facilities and other amenities, says Victor Tomanek, project manager for design and construction at Tishman Speyer, the owner’s representative and development partner on the project.

A two-story dining space from the original hotel—later rebuilt into office space—was a clear example, as the team aimed to “restore the classic ballroom grandeur” for the Watermark’s main restaurant by recreating a 54-ft by 37-ft opening and balcony seating, Tomanek says.

Demolition specialist Inspiron Construction and general contractor Hudson Meridian tackled delicate elements of that task, such as selective removal of a concrete slab floor—added by the Jehovah’s Witnesses to turn the top half of the old ballroom into another floor—and columns. They also erected a concrete “catwalk,” cantilevered out 5 ft, and a new poured-concrete-on-metal deck and support beams attached to existing columns.

Similarly, creating a 40-ft-long, 8-ft-wide and 4-ft-deep therapy pool with specialized heating and filtration entailed digging out between footings of existing columns and structural walls in the basement and installing the feature with tolerances down to 1.5 in.

“Having opened that area up and excavated the soil, and seeing exactly where the existing footings were, really informed us and the architects during the design process and allowed us to bring the as-built facts to the Department of Health and get the pool design approved,” Tomanek says.

It also demonstrated extensive cross-phase coordination, says Brian Hughes, senior project manager at Hudson Meridian. “The pool was a really good example of teams really rowing in the same direction at the same time,” he says.

Full Menu

Despite its complexity, the Watermark has advanced smoothly, with demolition starting in mid-2018 and an opening slated for March. The developers have secured commitments on 20 units—with monthly rents ranging from $8,500 to $20,000 for studio to two-bedroom formats across 78 layouts. Twenty-nine units are for independent living and 204 are in assisted living format, while 42 are for memory care, serving residents with diminished cognitive abilities.

进步是战略规划的结果 - 包括将拆卸和公用事业分开竞标 - 以及团队所使用的工具和技术，例如完整的3D照片扫描以及使用Interiors映射对16层W形建筑物的调查Tomanek说，来自Navvis的技术。

“At strategic points in the schedule, we performed this survey,” he says. “We’re able to go back in time and say, ‘What’s actually behind this sheetrock—a plumbing riser or a concrete wall?’”

完整的内部重建和翻新工程始于2018年12月，使用蒙特罗·德马科（Montroy DeMarco），室内建筑师Lemay + Escobar和结构工程师Robert Silman Associates的设计。现场工作人员以6300万美元的建筑预算为220名工人提供了220名工人。

Upon completion, the 50,000 sq ft of amenities will go far beyond the eateries and therapy pool. There’s also a big focus on health that is not typical of luxury residences.

In private medical treatment rooms, residents can meet with health care professionals. A wellness center will offer blood pressure clinics and massage, acupuncture and other alternative therapies. A more traditional health care presence includes dedicated trained staff on two floors of the memory care section for patients with dementia and similar issues. These floors will be secured to prevent patients from wandering and potentially harming themselves.

还将有一个瑜伽工作室，水疗中心和健身房以及其他与健康相关的较小的美食：屋顶休息室和花园，享有海港和天际线，剧院，图书馆，美术馆，艺术家工作室，美容院，美容院和带有大门大厅和长廊。

DeMarco说，度假村风格的高级生活设计目标旨在富裕的居民。他说：“这不是居民只是想找到一个进入的地方。”“通常，是希望在更舒适的环境中有一个父母或父母在他们附近的孩子。”

That’s a reasonable market to target in high-density enclaves like New York, though not likely a broader national phenomenon, says Patrick McCormick, partner in the senior care and living practice at Plante Moran, a consultancy. Luxury housing will be a niche part of the larger demand for assisted and independent living facilities from a rising population of older adults—a cohort that won’t peak until next decade, he says.

“There are people willing to spend on a higher-end product with more amenities, so a lot of developers are creating one-stop communities,” he says. “Many of them are trying to appeal to a younger influencer like a child or even a younger senior.”

Planned Demolition

Splitting early bid packages was a major contributor to the project’s early progress, both on design and future construction phases, Tomanek says.

他说：“我们知道我们必须做大量的演示和结构性工作，因此我们加快了包裹以竞标。”“这确实使我们能够在最终确定完整的施工文档包时进行演示。...从时间表的角度和价值工程的角度来看，有很多优点我们仍处于设计阶段和出价阶段。”

该公司总裁兼首席运营官彼得·蒙特（Peter Monte）说，尽早完成这项工作也使哈德逊经络清洁内饰与之合作。

“The typical experience of unknown, hidden conditions was substantially reduced to the point where it was negligible,” he says. “The ability to start coordinating the project knowing that you’re looking at the bones of the building was a major factor in the success of this project.”

这也使团队提前了解了奇怪的特征，例如高架梁，管道管和电线在意外的位置以及近几十年来安装的剪力墙，以减少地铁列车的振动。

The team used a similar approach for selective upgrades to the building’s heating and cooling units, such as installing new high-efficiency boilers and chillers early in the project before decommissioning the old ones, while still reusing original equipment that was still functional, DeMarco says. That work, completed in November 2018, allowed the renovation to proceed with hookups to the new systems.

“It’s a good business model to reduce your exposures if you have the time and opportunity to do it,” he says.

Big Bathtub

该团队使用类似的战略规划r major task: installation of a new electrical vault for the property. It could have let Consolidated Edison handle all the work, but that would have left no guarantees on the work schedule, Tomanek says.

“So we did as much of the work as possible, and just counted on Con Ed to supply the vaults, the transformers—do the work to bring the power into the building,” he says.

这项工作是广泛的，涉及创建100英尺乘20英尺的结构“浴缸”。演示船员首先在地窖中挖出了1,200英尺的空间，并在子细胞中深处15至30英尺的螺旋螺旋式螺旋微孔钻头，并在其顶部添加了五个大桩帽。从那里开始，建筑团队安装了10列（每个桩帽），以支撑浴缸，通过人行道的开口倒入结构的墙壁，并完成了大部分电气连接工作。

托马尼克说：“这些柱子坐落在运营商的房屋办公空间，进入交换机房间。”“我们确实必须从战略上放置这些，因为它们在设计过程中没有预料到。”

The massive 11-ft-deep structure now holds the five-sided transformer vault and switchgear, with capacity to also hold rainwater and a fire truck’s weight if necessary. The successful plan resulted in the building getting its new power connection in mid-December, Hughes says.

“I liken it to building a building within a building, between the piles and the tremendous pile caps and 12-inch columns,” he says.

Final Touches

The team used other strategic techniques to ensure construction quality and keep on schedule. One example, Monte says, was building a mock-up bathroom to show crews how the new and old plumbing systems would come together behind the walls and work with finishes for the units, which feature roll-in showers and open-pedestal sinks.

“We figured out coordination issues and the tolerances and quality control issues, and we set a standard for the subs so they could go down to the mock-up unit [to see] this is our expectation of how this is supposed to look,” he says.

That was one of many examples of the team having to marry new and old systems throughout the building across mechanical, electrical, sprinklers and plumbing, Tomanek says. “Starting the demo process early really allowed us to go in and look at the plumbing stacks and all mechanical ductwork and see if we could actually save it,” he says.

The renovation effort also has entailed adding fully compliant ADA access, including such features as movable banquette seating and wide hallways to ensure comfort and mobility for residents.

“We placed an emphasis on allowing freedom of movement and a fully accommodative setting,” DeMarco adds.