When the renovation and expansion of the Carlton Hotel ― a turn-of-the-century building at Madison Avenue and 29th Street in the New York City borough of Manhattan ― are completed this summer, the most notable change will be the addition of a 17,000 sq ft (1,600 m~2) entranceway. But perhaps more impressive are the careful structural diagnosis and construction execution that have made it possible for this fast-track project to unfold without interrupting the hotel's daily business. The project required so many on-the-spot solutions to unforeseen and unpredictable structural challenges that an engineer from New York City ― based Thornton-Tomasetti Engineers was on-site almost every day. Preparing structural documents on a computer in an office would have consumed too much time, says Abraham Gutman, a senior vice president of Thornton-Tomasetti. So, instead, the engineer prepared many of the drawings the old-fashioned way ― by hand.
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