The Deconstruction of Deutsche Bank

by Paolo M. Brion

Originally published in SEAoNY Cross Sections Volume 11 Number 1, this article has been enhanced by its author for web publication.

The Deutsche Bank Building at 130 Liberty St. (Photo from Lower Manhattan.info)

A Brief History:

On the morning of September 11, 2001, the Deutsche Bank Building, immediately south of the World Trade Center, would bear witness to the full consequences of the Twin Towers' devastating collapse. As Tower 1 and 2 finally succumbed to the structural damage, an avalanche of concrete and steel came crashing down, smashing through the Deutsche Bank Building’s glass windows and obliterating its one story extension below. Larger sections of the South’s outer steel framing gouged a dramatic fifteen-story hole into the north face, taking out a perimeter column and its spandrel beams and slabs. A significant level of dust and debris laced with hazardous materials settled around the site while fire and water damage further compromised the building.

Today, well over four years since those tragic events, a vacant Deutsche Bank Building still stands, veiled in black netting, overlooking the emptiness of Ground Zero. Aside from any academic discussion on whether to restore or raze the stabilized building, litigation between Deutsche Bank and two of its major insurers, Global Risks U.S. Insurance and AXA Corporate Insurance Solutions, had served to keep the final resolution of this building’s fate in question. Coupled with the health concerns associated with the debris, the saga of the Deutsche Bank Buildings lingered on.

The Deconstruction Plan:

On September 7, 2005, after the long history of delays and setbacks, a final approved deconstruction plan was submitted for the Deutsche Bank Building, a 40 story metal deck on steel frame structure occupying an approximately 180’ by 180’ footprint with an 8 by 8 column layout. The current plan consists of a two-part mostly preparatory Phase I, which includes dust cleaning and interior asbestos abatement. Following that, the final Phase II begins, which is mostly comprised of the superstructure’s physical deconstruction. The first stage of the demolition also involves the erection of extensive scaffolding. This requires the installation of “needle beams” several dozen feet above the sidewalk around the perimeter to provide structural support. The actual scaffolding and hoists start to go up once these are in place. As the assembly rises up the building the existing netting is removed and replaced by new netting.

During all abatement work, a negative pressure region is maintained inside the building to contain any contaminated dust while the area is cleared. All workers wear haz-mat suits and entry and exit of all materials and people is done in a controlled manner. Hoist access through vestibules is set-up to prevent the release of hazardous materials. A building exterior “wipe down” also takes place.

The LMDC website offers a general overview of the deconstruction activities as well as a downloadable animation of the Deutsche Bank Building’s disassembly. Basically, after the initial Phase 1 cleanup, the main hazardous material abatement and deconstruction work will proceed from the “top down”. This consists of three (downward) traveling multi-story zones referred to as the deconstruction zone, the buffer zone, and the abatement zone “stacked” one above the other. The sequence would be for abatement work to occur several levels below where the physical deconstruction takes place, at the top of the existing structure. A buffer zone is maintained in between them.

The Physical Deconstruction in Further Detail:

After the façade has been removed, the actual demolition work can begin. The building will literally be cut up floor by floor, dismantled, and carried away. The basic sequence is to first break up the concrete slabs to the floor below, exposing the intermediate floor beams and girders which are cut and hinged (propelled by gravity to the floor below).

Interior columns are next. These too are cut and hinged. According to an animated clip from the LMDC website, the columns will be pulled down with cables hooked up to small construction vehicles. The deeper spandrel beams at the perimeter will be cut mid span so that the exterior column trees can be taken down (towards the interior) in the same way as the interior columns.

Status and Progress:

By December 2005, scaffolding had been erected up to the 20th floor while the south hoist had been erected to the 10th floor, and the hoist-way access vestibules were completed through to the 35th floor. The new netting, scaffolding, and hoist installation should be completed or close to completion by the time of this writing. The Phase 1 abatement work at the 130 Liberty Street job site is clearly underway. If all goes well, the approved deconstruction plan will be completed by Spring 2007.

A History of Delays

To Raze or Restore:

The main source of delay at the Deutsche Bank Building site was the protracted legal battle between Deutsche Bank and two of its insurance firms. Global Risks U.S. Insurance and AXA Corporate Solutions Insurance claimed that it would be far more cost-effective to fully repair and renovate the 130 Liberty St. property, refuting that the building was a total loss. This was a potential savings of millions of dollars on the insurance payout. Deutsche Bank, on the other hand, took the position that the building was far too contaminated to restore full occupancy without the potential of future health hazards… and further law suits. Restoring the building would also disrupt the renovation plans for the former Trade Center site, which included the 130 Liberty St. site (the proposed location of the new Tower 5). In response to the question of actual structural integrity, Deutsche Bank has gone on record to acknowledge that with the building stabilized there was no immediate danger or concern.

Regardless of the outcome of the legal battle, the safe clean-up and decontamination of the site was a top priority, as well as another stalling point. The main concerns of toxic contamination come from the asbestos, lead,
mercury, and the myriad of other harmful substances from the towers’ dust and debris as well as an infestation of toxic mold, which would pose a significant health problem if not properly eradicated. With the building interior exposed to the elements, the mold spread throughout the building. These issues marked the building for a long and very involved piece-meal demolition process. An implosion was out of the question for health reasons… as well as psychological.

The Long Path to Deconstruction:

The earliest work performed at the 130 Liberty St. site involved extensive repairs to stabilize the superstructure and a major cleanup supervised by the city’s Department of Health, but continued efforts seem to have been sporadic after that. The only other major cleanup since the initial work consisted of the removal of contaminated paper and desktop equipment much later on, in late February of 2004.

In October 2003, the state had appointed a mediator to resolve the ongoing legal battle. This resulted in an agreement between Deutsche Bank and its insurers whereby the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC) would purchase the 130 Liberty St. property and proceed with a plan of deconstruction. Ownership was officially passed on to the LMDC on August 31, 2004.

The LMDC acquisition of the Bank Building would finally pave the way for a first draft of the deconstruction plan to be submitted for review in December 2004. All deconstruction strategies had to be approved by local, state, and federal agencies before any work could proceed. However, the initial draft of the plan was criticized upon submission by the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) mostly expressing concerns of the lack of depth regarding health and safety procedures for the workers and general containment of the hazardous materials, which would affect the safety of the neighborhood.

The January 2005 EPA comments warned that their review of the draft demolition plan for the Deutsche Bank Building made it “evident that there is significant potential for releases of contamination" during the initial Phase 1 of deconstruction. Specifically they deemed the air-monitoring plan to be “unacceptable in its current form” and noted strongly that the “plan does not provide any information on the manner in which mold and bacterial contamination will be addressed.”

The final revised draft approved on September 7, 2005 cleared the way for work to begin in earnest. Bovis Lend Lease was contracted to do the expensive deconstruction work, which is estimated to be around 75 million, the construction of the scaffolding alone is said to cost in the neighborhood of 13 million by several news sources.

For further reading visit:

Lower Manhattan Development Corporation

Lower Manhattan Info