The George R. Vierno Center addition was built to relieve prison overcrowding in the New York metropolitan area. Two separate structures were erected, one six stories tall with 300 cells and the other four stories high with 200 cells.

During the design process of this prison addition, security, cost and time were three critical issues. Officials knew that they wanted a concrete building made of durable, modular units. To speed up the opening of the addition, modular precast concrete construction was used and the addition was completed in 582 days, 26 days ahead of schedule.

With modular precast construction, between 20 and 30 Double-cell modules were erected each day on Rikers Island. Once a four or six tier stack was assembled, the mechanical, plumbing and electrical lines were quickly connected.

To provide energy-efficiency, the precast modular concrete cell units were constructed with the THERMOMASS Building Insulation System. THERMOMASS was chosen because of its history of making buildings more cost and time effective both during construction and more energy efficient during operation.