Tysons Central A

Baker DC has a reputation for exceeding expectations, even against the toughest of odds. The Tysons Central A project demonstrates why. Tysons Central A is a 23-floor commercial building consisting of 10 floors of parking, 13 floors of office space, and ground-level retail areas. What sets this project apart is the climbing tower crane that emerges from the center of the facility. Faced with an extremely tight site, the Baker DC team opted to use an MDT 319 internal climbing tower crane design rather than an external climbing tower crane.

On a typical project, a tower crane is anchored to a footing, and tower sections are added to the crane to make it taller. In contrast, the MDT 319 can release from its anchors and pull itself up the building. This was no easy task on the Tysons project. The tower crane is threaded through slabs and vehicular ramps, which have different orientations and slopes. Four engineering companies contributed to the plan, which was almost a year in the making.