Carnegie Hall Studio Towers

The three late 1800s buildings comprising Carnegie Hall are the six-story original building that contains the Isaac Stern auditorium, the 12-story South Tower, and the 14-story North Tower. The structural system in the original building consists of unreinforced masonry bearing walls and cast-iron columns that support steel beams and trusses. Both towers were constructed with steel columns and beams.

The complex renovation of non-performance spaces within both towers created a world-class environment for the institution’s music education programs; a new 61,000 sf education wing now extends across the upper levels of the towers. The project also refurbished the concert hall’s backstage areas and upgraded archives within the education wing. Performances continued uninterrupted while the carefully phased construction was underway. This project is LEED Silver certified.

Main Hall Roof: The roof over Stern Auditorium is supported by seven steel trusses spanning 110 feet. As part of this project, the space between trusses was converted from leased tenant space to administrative offices. A portion of the roof needed to be raised to accommodate an expanded mezzanine area. The roof also needed to support the added weight of saturated soil, trees, pavers, and assembly occupancy of the new 10,000-square-foot rooftop terrace.

North Tower: The existing floor construction in this area did not provide the ideal acoustic mass required for the new ensemble rooms in the top seven floors. There was also the need to preserve existing double height ceilings in some areas and to maximize ceiling heights in other areas. Temporary internal bracing was installed so that seven existing floors could be removed. In the zones of new ensemble rooms, TYLin added concrete slabs on steel decking supported on new steel beams.

South Tower: The new ensemble room at the 10th floor required the removal of significant portions of the 11th floor, three interior columns, and transfer girders to support the columns that remained above the 12th floor. To avoid increased loading and additional reinforcing of the existing structure below, TYLin developed a scheme to recapture load from the existing floor assembly by removing cinder fill and replacing it with lighter-weight polystyrene.

Image credit: Jeff Goldberg/Esto