TRANSFORMER

It goes without saying that Ansay Development’s Newport Shores project, a modern building with a mix of retail, commercial and residential spaces, is changing Port Washington’s waterfront.

Not only does the project replace the low-slung former Newport Shores restaurant building and an adjoining house, it is a departure from downtown’s Old World architecture. Its facade is contemporary with a significant amount of glass and an angular design. 

The first milestone for the $20 million project, constructing the actual concrete structure, was just completed, and work on the building facade is about to take off.

“We spent 3-1/2, four years pursuing this project. To see it coming out of the ground is really rewarding,” Ian McCain, Ansay’s design/construction manager, said last week.

The building, designed by RINKA, the architectural firm whose other projects include the Couture highrise in Milwaukee, — is as tall as it will get — three stories on the west side, along Lake Street, and 5-1/2 stories on the northeast side, where a penthouse apartment marks the tallest spot and the underground parking is largely hidden on the lowest level.

“The tallest you’ll see from the city side is 3-1/2 stories,” McCain said, in large part because of the sloping site and the face of the fourth floor is set back from the street.

The building will have four retail spaces, including a first-floor restaurant with an outdoor deck and a fourth-floor pub with a rooftop terrace, as well as 29 condominium units. Ansay has purchase agreements of 17 of the units, and McCain said the list includes “very strong local interest.”

One of the things that makes the building special is the fourth floor pub, McCain said, adding the views of the city from the rooftop terrace are “amazing.” 

“The views are better than we imagined,” he said. “I don’t know of any views like it in town. You can see 360 degrees, from the Light Station to St. Mary’s to downtown, the charters boats and marina to the lake.”

Those views, he said, are why the pub is located atop the building — to give the public views of the lake and community they would not otherwise be able to enjoy. 

Until then, people have been streaming to the lakefront to get a glimpse of the construction, a process unique in the city.

That was especially true on so-called pour days, when 35 to 40 concrete trucks a day would literally parade around the site delivering concrete.

It will take roughly 4,000 yards of concrete to construct the building, along with about 171 tons of rebar and 112,000 pounds of post-tension tendons.

Each floor has about 550 metal reshoring posts, each placed about six feet apart, Jon Fuehrer, the project superintendent with Catalyst Construction, said. One of the biggest questions workers have faced while on the job — isn’t it going to be hard to have people living there with all those posts in their condos, Fuehrer said. 

They won’t be there, he said. The posts are kept in place while the concrete is poured for each floor, then removed as the tendons that run through the floors are pulled to help strengthen the concrete and the building structure.

The posts are put back in place to support the structure before the next floor is poured, he said.

The posts on the first floor are largely gone now, and on the east side the large glass windows of the first-floor restaurant are being installed. Tradesmen — carpenters, plumbers, electrical workers and more — are also working on the first floor, framing the units and corridors and roughing in the mechanicals, Nick Poppe, assistant construction superintendent, said.

As soon as the second floor is cured, possibly next week, they will remove the posts and begin installing glass and glazing there.

Then, when the fourth floor is ready, they will skip the third floor and instead move there, then work their way down. After they have completed this work, they will work their way back to the top with insulation, drywall and interior finishes.

Work on the facade, which is largely stone, stucco and glass, will also be ongoing. On the east side of the building, the facade is primarily glass while on the other sides it’s a mix of the other materials, McCain said.

To get materials to the upper floors, Catalyst is using a large crane. It’s hard to miss, its massive arm hovering over the lakeshore.

The self-erecting crane  is run via remote control, giving the operator the ability to move around the site and get a better view of what they’re doing and how best to manipulate the crane and its load, Poppe said. 

The crane, which has a 100,000 pound counterweight, has the potential to reach 130 feet but on this job won’t move more than 110 feet, Poppe said. It can lift 3,500 pounds when fully extended and 10,000 when close to the base.

The Newport Shores site is tight, Fuehrer said, making planning meetings both daily and weekly essential. 

About 60 people are on site working each day, he said, in a finely choreographed dance as they move about. But, because the building is so large, it doesn’t seem as if that many people are present.

The L-shaped building is being constructed with an eye toward energy efficiency, McCain said. Decks and overhangs will shade the interior units in summer, when the sun is high, keeping them cooler, and allow sunlight to flood in and warm the building when the sun is low in the sky during winter.

According to a third-party validated study, he said, that will save $5.5 million in operating costs over 15 years.

“It’s the right thing to do, and it’s something RINKA is good at doing,” McCain said, adding that type of energy efficiency is something Ansay’s development team is making part of its brand.

Although much of the facade consists of glass, the building, which is situated along the Lake Michigan migratory bird flyway, has also been designed to minimize bird strikes, McCain said.

In addition to using bird-friendly glass, which makes windows a visible obstacle to birds while keeping it transparent enough for humans, RINKA added horizontal banding to the design that birds can see, he said.

And, because birds primarily migrate at night during spring and fall and lights disorient them, the building lighting will be dimmed during those times to mitigate any issues, McCain said.

The Newport Shores project is expected to be completed in spring.