Marriott Residence Inn - Office and Parking Garage

As real estate prices continue to skyrocket, using space efficiently has become a key driver for developers and building owners. Making the best use of available space not only raises revenue per square foot, it also frees up more room for green spaces and open areas, enhancing employee satisfaction and the corporate image.

Such considerations were a key part of the architect's plan for a new hotel and office building in New Rochelle, New York, which were constructed on top of a new six-story above-grade precast concrete parking structure.

A significant factor in ensuring the project's success was the pre-construction services agreement entered into with the precaster, Blakeslee Prestress. In this arrangement, Blakeslee became part of the design-build team providing input on framing and design solutions, constructabilaty issues, scheduling and value engineering conducted before the design was complete. This early involvement ensured every advantage and efficiency the material could provide was considered at the initial design phase.

"The new structure was simply too large to try to put into the ground, especially with concerns over the water table," explains Robert J. Vitelli, senior vice president at Blakeslee Prestress Inc. in Branford, Connecticut, the precaster. "There would have been a significant premium for going into the hole."

The 2,200-car parking structure was built on the site of a 30-year-old precast parking structure also built by Blakeslee that was removed to make way for the new construction, he notes. The new structure was designed to compensate for the additional load that would be required to support the construction of the office and hotel facilities on top of its top floor. These design calculations in particular resulted in heavier columns and stronger lateral wind bracing.

The 120-room cast-in-place hotel was built to cover about one quarter of the parking structure’s footprint and measures about 286 feet long and 113 feet wide. The office facility, featuring the same dimensions, was built on the opposite side of the parking structure’s roof. This allows the center section of the parking structure to include a central light well, leaving it open to the air on top.

The parking structure’s all-precast structural system and cladding includes double tees that were designed to provide a two-hour fire rating and a thicker-than-normal flange, to meet codes related to the office and hotel. H-frames used along the exteriors also were specially designed to provide the additional lateral bracing required and to open up the interiors to provide a better layout and better security.

The structure includes a variety of precast components, including beams, columns, girders, shear walls, H-frames, light walls, spandrels, precast walls and double tees. This approach ensured the owner’s goal for achieving a user-friendly design that was secure, light and bright could be met. The exterior design was created to be both functional and cost-efficient, explains Vitelli. The spandrel panels provide multiple functions by offering an aesthetically pleasing exterior finish, the vehicle barrier railing and the structural support for the floor’s double tee.

The architectural firm, PEG/Park LLC, designed a detailed reveal pattern with a combination of light and medium sandblasted finishes as well as a waterblast exposed-aggregate finish to create visual interest. All of the exterior spandrels and columns were cast using local red Connecticut sand, which provided a color compatible with the red brick buildings in the rest of the downtown development.

In all, some 1,622 pieces of precast concrete were used, including 620,000 square feet of pretopped double tees. Erection of the structure took six months, after which the upper facilities followed quickly. The result of this integrated design with the precaster ensured the project achieved the best quality, durability and design flexibility possible at a competitive cost.