Innovative solutions for acoustic disturbances occurring in slender buildings

Abstract

Many tall, slender residential building have risen from the streets of Manhattan and other cities over the past decade. Numerous problems have been recently published about acoustic disturbances present in these slender buildings due to deflection, principally from wind. These disturbances occur, not due to any structural weakness of the building, but due to excessive rigidity and lack of resiliency of the interior architectural elements, such as wall studs, tracks and gypsum board. These components must be designed and installed for resiliency in order to respond to the slender building movement, which is essential in order to ensure the building’s structural integrity. This movement consists of deflection and torquing of the slabs relative to each other. These acoustic disturbances cause occupants to lose sleep and cause them to feel unsafe, as though structural failures are occurring. Additionally, interior finishes become warped and lose aesthetic quality. These issues are detrimental to the value of units within these slender buildings. This paper presents case studies of innovative methodologies to solve these acoustic disturbances present in slender buildings. These include methodologies which ensure resiliency of the interior architectural elements. These case study examples have been successfully implemented during the base-unit design and also retrofitted after construction.