Few American thoroughfares evoke categorical imagery like Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC, Bourbon Street in New Orleans or Park Avenue in New York City. There remains little wonder, then, that when New Jersey-based developer SJP Residential Properties purchased the Sheraton Russell Hotel at 45 Park Avenue, the organization set its sights on upholding long-standing New York traditions with the construction of a new luxury residential building.

The architect, Costas Kondylis & Partners, designed 45 Park Avenue as a “timeless” structure with state-of-the-art amenities commensurate with its prestigious location. SJP Residential Properties invited Pavarini McGovern to join the project team as construction manager during the early design development stage of 45 Park Avenue.

The 21-story building includes 105 condominium apartments, a landscaped outdoor terrace, fitness center, resident’s lounge and parking garage. The building achieves an aura of classical design with an exterior of precast concrete and precast brick panels, as well as 9ft-high windows that incorporate full height Juliette balconies.

According to Pavarini McGovern’s project executive, the construction team erected a Manitowoc 4100 crawler crane to pour the concrete superstructure and mount the panels because of “a small space between the building’s façade and the crane’s hook. We used a monorail trolley system to place the precast panels in front of the crane along Park Avenue.” This process involved manually detaching each panel from the hook and placing it onto the monorail. Each panel then slid down the monorail to its installation destination and was set in place.

Another unique element of 45 Park Avenue is its location. Situated on the southeast corner of Park Avenue and East 37th Street, the structure is five blocks south from Grand Central Station and sits adjacent to the tunnels for two subway lines and the Park Avenue vehicular viaduct. The project team faced the obstacle of eliminating vibration disturbance to the subways while completing the foundation.

According to our senior project superintendent, “Goldstein Associates (structural engineer) and Mueser Rutledge (geotechnical engineer) modified their original plan of drilling cylindrical caissons into rock to incorporate the use of a concrete strap beam-button design, which complied with NYC MTA’s regulations. The buttons support the subway’s adjoining walls and load-bearing elements for the building.”