Sven (Queens Plaza Park)

Hunter Roberts provided pre-construction and construction management services for The Durst Organization’s latest project: a 66-story, 730-foot mixed-use building in Long Island City, New York. This development features a 940-unit residential tower, including 300 affordable housing units, and offers amenities such as an outdoor pool and first-level retail spaces. Additionally, the project encompasses a half-acre public park, advanced technology infrastructure including a large Main Distribution Frame (MDF) room, a building-wide Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) system, and a cogeneration power system. Enhancements were also made to the Queens Plaza subway station entrance. A key architectural highlight is the curtain wall on the south façade, equipped with an electronically activated film in the windows that enables the glass to change tint.

Sven is the only LEED v4 BD+C: New Construction Multifamily Platinum certified structure in existence. In addition, Sven is the largest LEED v4 BD+C: New Construction Platinum certified project in the world.

The project includes the adaptive reuse of the Landmarked Bank of Manhattan building with the historic Clock Tower. The project team provided protection and restoration of the Landmarked building while coordinating logistics with the residential tower.

The logistics were extremely complicated as the site is bordered by the elevated and underground subway trains on the east side and the north side by the East Side Access project, which was under construction by the MTA and will extend the Long Island Rail Road from its main line in Queens to a new terminal under Grand Central Station in Manhattan.