The Onyx

New York, NY

A relatively new building in the heart of Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood, this 11-story residential condominium was completed during the Great Recession. Consisting of a modular design with aluminum-frame window-walls and a metallic-panel rain-screen, the exterior façade of the building experienced premature failure, in both the window walls and operable units, shortly after completion. This led to a building-wide window and door replacement.

Brought on to oversee the project’s phased implementation, we first devised a field-testing campaign to evaluate the performance of the window walls, casement windows, and outswing and sliding doors—both before and after the replacement work. We designed new replacement systems to address the ongoing draft and air exfiltration. The new units—manufactured by Northern Building Products, Inc. in nearby Teterboro, NJ—included thermally-broken, in-swing casement windows with clear glass and a fritted coating at selected locations, as well as matching swing and sliding doors. Our bespoke solutions improved the building envelope performance while retaining the property's modernist design character.

We also performed a critical examination of the existing building envelope, preparing a Cycle-8 Facade Inspection and Safety Program (FISP) technical report and submitting it to the NYC DOB for review and approval. As a follow up, we also prepared the Construction Documents to repair the unsafe conditions at the window walls and the guardrails, as identified in the FISP report. We then oversaw Bidding and Negotiation and Construction Administration for the FISP repairs and filed an amended FISP technical report with the DOB at project close-out to update the building’s FISP status.

Client
The Onyx Chelsea Condominium                            

Services
FISP inspection and reporting. Existing conditions assessment, Construction Documents, Bidding and Negotiation, Field Testing procurement and oversight, and Construction Administration services for the window and door replacement, and FISP repairs.                     

Size
80,000 GSF

Completion
Design, Bidding and Negotiation: 2016-2017
Window Replacement: 2017
FISP Repairs: 2019