By Mark Rea

Tough economic times might be the norm throughout much of the United States, but you'd never know it in Houston.

Newly constructed Major League Baseball and National Football League facilities have given the city the chance to host both the 2004 All-Star Game and Super Bowl while the finishing touches are currently under way on a new, state-of-the-art basketball arena.

Houston is also nearing completion of its first light rail system, a huge expansion to the George R. Brown Convention Center and an adjacent 1,200-room hotel to greet visitors to Texas' most-populated city.

The $285 million Hilton Americas Houston hotel is set for completion in early November and is a much-anticipated facility for downtown. In fact, Houston has been waiting for this kind of hotel for nearly two decades.

"It was promised to the people of this city when we put the hotel tax on 20 or so years ago," said former three-term Houston Mayor Bob Lanier. "But construction of the convention center took up just about all of the hotel tax, and we were left with a beautiful center but no hotel.

"My focus then became an effort to get the hotel built through the private sector. It has taken a little while, but I think what people are going to see with the completed hotel is well worth the wait."

Lanier is now chairman of the Houston Convention Center Hotel Corp., the nonprofit corporation created in 2000 by the Houston City Council with a mandate to build the convention center hotel. Once the hotel corporation was in place, the project moved ahead quickly with some of Houston's most recognizable companies becoming involved.

Hines was selected as development manager for the project while Gilbane Building Co. became the asset manager for the hotel corporation.

"During the early conceptual stages, we assisted on site selection, infrastructure improvements and the requests for qualifications and proposals for the development manager," said Gilbane project executive Jim Springer. "Through the construction process, we have provided input on scheduling, budget coordination and change issues as a direct liaison to the hotel corporation."

The Houston offices of two other nationally known firms also have major roles in the project. Turner Construction Co. of Texas is the general contractor and Gensler & Associates is the architect of record.

Getting Started

Groundbreaking for the Hilton Americas Houston took place in September 2001 next to the George R. Brown Convention Center. The hotel's footprint sits upon what is reportedly the second-largest mat foundation in Houston. More than 12,000 cu. yds. of concrete were poured for the mat, representing just over 12 percent of the 97,000 cu. yds. of concrete to be used in the entire structure.

Texas Industries Inc. (TXI) of Houston supplied the concrete, while Houston-based United Forming Inc. performed placing and formwork. The Houston office of D'Ambra Steel Services Inc. was the subcontractor for reinforcing steel.

The hotel consists of three towers in a U-shape configuration with each tower rising to a different height The east tower features 17 floors, the north tower has 19 and the west has 24.

"From the design standpoint, the concept was to have a large ballroom in a central location within the hotel," said Sam Crawford, project manager for Gensler. "Because of the large spans required for the roof of that ballroom, it made a lot of sense - given the site configuration - to wrap the guest room tower structures around the ballroom structure. It made for a very unique design for the hotel."

It also made for some unique construction aspects.

"There are several different structural systems in the building," said Sam Latona, project executive for Turner Construction. "The first six floors are a concrete pan deck system, which offers a flat concrete slab and two different forming systems. On the podium level, we were working on three floors simultaneously, stair-stepping across from west to east. Once we got to the hotel floors, we used table forms and worked all four sections of the building at the same time."

The hotel's podium consists of the first five levels of the structure. It features all of the facility's public areas, including meeting rooms, lobby, kitchen facilities, registration, pre-function areas and two large ballrooms. The Grand Ballroom is 40,000 sq. ft. while the Ballroom of the Americas features more than 26,000 sq. ft., giving the hotel nearly 1½ acres of space in the two ballrooms alone.

"The most unique design feature of the larger ballroom is the fact that it is a column-free space with large steel trusses to span across that expanse," Crawford said. "There are also two large concrete girders that support the long-span trusses. Each of those beams are 28 ft. deep, 22 to 24 in. wide and weigh well over 1.2 million lbs."
The Grand Ballroom's central location within the facility is the focal point of the podium level. On the northwest corner of the hotel and spanning all levels of the podium is what Latona calls the most challenging part of construction.

"We call it Stair 6," he said. "It is the glass and steel frame on the north side of the building, the large open space between all six levels of the podium. It has three different radius points to build to and consists of a concrete frame and structural steel girders to help support the curtainwall and the stairways."

Combination Exterior

The exterior cladding of the hotel features precast concrete panels in combination with prefinished metal panels and glass curtainwall.

"It features a unique 'basket weave' pattern that has three basic colors - sea mist green, a copper/gold combination and gray - in addition to the precast concrete for a different kind of appearance," Crawford said.

A trio of tower cranes were used on the project, one for each of the hotel towers, while a mobile crane helped to set the large trusses for the ballroom. Two smaller rigs were also employed to remove concrete formwork while the tower crane units were in use.
The project includes a nine-level parking structure south of the hotel with enough space for up to 1,600 vehicles. The parking garage is connected to the hotel and the convention center via a network of skybridges, each consisting of structural steel and glass curtainwall.

"There are four skybridges in all," said Hines project manager Debra Rossi. "There is a two-level skybridge between the hotel and convention center, another skybridge connecting the hotel and the hotel parking garage and a third connection between the garage and the convention center.

"I think one of the most important amenities is this facility's integration with the George R. Brown Convention Center and its expansion. The skybridges will offer connections to help facilitate meetings and other events that can be held simultaneously in conjunction with the hotel and convention center."

High-Tech Amenities

The new hotel will feature the most up-to-date technological advances, including several miles of fiber optic cable, wireless capabilities and enough power to light up a town of 50,000 people.

"Our goal was to create the ultimate full-service hotel to meet the needs of the 21st century traveler," said David Villarrubia, the hotel's general manager. "We have brought in a variety of specialists to ensure we provide the latest technology to our guests at what will truly be an international gateway hotel."

Unique technology incorporated into the convention and meeting facilities includes dedicated sound systems, motorized screens and microphone plug-ins in each meeting room; a gas-blown fiber optic network that will allow for additional telecommunications lines to be added to the hotel infrastructure as needed; and 12 floor pockets in each ballroom section featuring both fiber optic and Ethernet connections.

Both ballrooms feature "smart walls" with built-in presentation screens in each section and professional show power lighting and audio connections controlled by LCD panels. All meeting rooms will feature in-room Ethernet connections for high-speed Internet access and motorized presentation screens.

Additional technology will include wireless capabilities for the front desk and a combination of wired and wireless high-speed Internet access in all public areas. In-room technology will include dual line phones, fax-modem data port access, Ethernet ports for high-speed Internet access and an onscreen interactive collection of guest services, high-speed Internet access and entertainment services.

According to Lanier, the hotel is already sold out for Super Bowl week and total bookings for the facility for 2004 already number more than 113,000.

Manpower at the site increased to about 1,300 in June as crews worked typical 6-10 schedules with some Sundays as needed toward the completion. More than 50 subcontractors have been involved in different aspects of construction, most of them from the Houston area.

"Having the majority of our subs being from the local area was something we wanted to do," Latona said. "We wanted to make sure we had the best that Houston had to offer to build this facility."