Austrian vibration solution sets the standard in New York

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"The Touraine" is a fifteen-storey luxury condominium building containing 22 exclusive apartments located on the historic Upper East Side in Manhattan, New York. The building stands on a site surrounded by three very busy subway lines. On a typical weekday, more than 1000 trains run along this stretch of track. These heavy traffic volumes create vibrations that could have a negative impact on the living standards in the luxury condominiums. Getzner Werkstoffe – an Austrian company specialising in vibration isolation – provided the solution and the high-tech materials required to effectively protect the apartments from ground-borne noise and vibrations.

The Touraine was not just the first building in New York City to be given a full-surface bedding based on Sylodyn®; to date it is also the largest completely decoupled building in the USA.

Luxury residential living standards despite proximity to subway

The construction project managers used Sylodyn® – a high-tech material developed and produced by Getzner – to provide an innovative and comprehensive bedding for the high-rise building: elastic floor and wall supports provide effective protection from the vibrations emanating from the neighbouring subway lines. "The material provided met the requirements in every way, which enabled it to be installed quickly and easily without any problems. The effect is just amazing: no vibrations at all can be felt inside the building", summarised Joseph Clark, Senior Project Manager from general contractor Falcon Construction LLC, before adding: "Getzner was the only company to come up with a feasible and cost-effective solution."

High-tech material and specialist know-how

In addition to the know-how and the decades of the experience of the vibration experts, other key factors in the decision to award the contract to Getzner were the features of the Sylodyn® material itself: ist very high elasticity, ist durability, which was verified by an independent laboratory, and ist proven isolation properties – even under pressurised ground water conditions. Handling of the material is also refreshingly different: nothing had to be adapted to accommodate the product, so there was no disruption to the construction process – an important factor for future-oriented urban planning projects. Getzner is not just a developer and manufacturer of specialist vibration reduction materials. In this instance, the company developed a custom-built solution for the luxury condominium building and was involved in the project from the planning stage through to ist implementation: As the vibration specialists, Getzner coordinated all the necessary steps during and after the installation. "Normally, individual components are specified separately. On this project, Getzner took on an important role as a central point of contact that managed and coordinated all the processes relating to vibration protection", commented Benjamin Sachwald, Director of Acoustics, Noise and Vibration at AKRF, a leading consultancy for engineering, environmental and planning matters with headquarters in New York City.

Paper presented at InterNoise 2012

At the end of August, AKRF and Getzner presented the joint paper "Building isolation for luxury condominium adjacent to New York City subway" at InterNoise 2012 – an international trade fair and conference for noise protection taking place in New York City. The Getzner specialists discussed ways of decoupling buildings to prevent vibration. With over 1700 visitors, this was the largest international noise protection trade fair to date.

Factbox

The Touraine luxury condominium building, New York City

• Building: 15-storey luxury condominium building with 22 apartments
• Location: Lexington Avenue and East 65th Street, Upper East Side, Manhattan, New York City
• Vibration isolation: Getzner Werkstoffe GmbH
• Customer and investor: Toll Brothers City Living
• Acoustical Consultant: AKRF
• Solution: Full-surface bedding of building using Sylodyn®

Getzner Werkstoffe GmbH

Getzner Werkstoffe is a leading vibration isolation specialist and was founded in 1969 as a subsidiary of Getzner, Mutter & Cie. The materials on which the solutions are based are Sylomer® and Sylodyn®, both of which developed and manufactured in Bürs, Austria. They are used in the rail, construction and industrial sectors. The company markets ist products throughout the world.