This past summer our CEO Bernard Charles and I had the pleasure of seeing our technology in action in New York City. Formerly known as The Beekman Tower, 8 Spruce Street was designed by the world-renowned architect Frank Gehry and is being developed by Forest City Ratner Corporation or FCRC (see the picture of us with the developer, Bruce Ratner). It is a 76 story skyscraper in lower Manhattan.

When 8 Spruce Street opens next year it will be the tallest residential structure in Manhattan, with sweeping 360 degree views of the city and the harbor. The project includes a public school on the lower floors plus offices and residential space above. The luxury apartments in this building will be some of the most exclusive in New York City.

A few weekends ago The New York Times ran an article on the front page of the Real Estate section entitle “New Gehry Tower Prepares for Renters”.

Gehry Technologies’ functional enhancements to CATIA have been used in its design and construction. The dramatic design of Frank Gehry could never had been realized without Dassault Systemes products.

Don’t take my word for it. Hear Frank Gehry talk about it for yourself  here.

The panels, each one unique, were built by Permasteelisa Group using SolidWorks. You can see in one picture that each panel is laid out in sequence to be put in place. Each is bar-coded to ensure its proper placement in the construction. CATIA was also used to place supports in place (see picture) during the construction. Each support must go from the external supporting structure through only windows and not interfere with the on-going structural construction.

At the end of our visit we stood inside a yet unfinished apartment on the 55th floor and talked with Bruce Ratner about our company and what we do. I demoed 3DVIA Mobile and placed a virtual table on the floor. The result is that FCRC is considering the possibly of using 3DVIA to help them market their apartments.

It made me very proud to experience this example of our products in action. This building will be well known by New Yorkers over time for its unique design and  amazing location in lower Manhattan, just a short walk from Wall Street. This was an exciting experience for me, and a living example of the difference that our products make!

If you’d like more details, here’s a good story on the engineering of the building. It includes references to CATIA and to Solidworks. Also discover Digital Project from CATIA.

What do you think?

Best,

Al

Al Bunshaft is managing director for Dassault Systèmes Americas.