Ritz-Carlton project introduces new level of luxury to Texas

The market remains hot for condo-hotel projects, rather than simply hotels. The concept has caught on with the Ritz-Carlton, which is introducing its brand of hospitality and luxury living to locations around the globe including downtown Dallas.

by Jennifer D. Duell

Ritz-Carlton hotels and resorts are known for unsurpassed luxury and customer service. These trademarks are evident in the design and construction details of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel and Residences in Dallas.

A 3-D rendering shows the Ritz-Carlton Dallas. When it opens in July, the destination hotel will boast Dallas’ largest luxury ballroom. (Image courtesy of Ritz-Carlton.)

“Ritz-Carlton’s image is important to it and it’s meticulous about its facilities when it comes to quality and the level of construction and finishes,” says John Hood, director of business development for Manhattan Construction Co. in Dallas, which is serving as the general contractor for the Ritz-Carlton Dallas. Close to 87,000 man hours a month were spent on the project.

Located in Dallas’ Uptown area on McKinney Avenue, the Ritz-Carlton Dallas is the first Ritz-Carlton property in Texas and one of 30-plus Ritz-Carlton projects under development worldwide.

Developed by Fort Worth-based Crescent Real Estate Equities LP, the 575,911-sq-ft, 21-story building offers 217 hotel rooms, as well as 70 private condominiums ranging from one-bedroom apartments to penthouse duplexes, each with its own balcony.

Residences begin at $700,000, and residents will be able to access all the services of the hotel including housekeeping, catering, room service and concierge. The facility also features 14,000 sq ft of meeting space, a nearly 20,000-sq-ft spa and fitness center, an outdoor swimming pool and upscale restaurant.

The building's handsome exterior is clad in a variety of stone materials. (Photo © John W. Davis, DVDesign Group Inc.)

The hotel, which broke ground in August 2005 and topped out in July 2006, will welcome its first guests in July, and condo residents will be able to move into their new homes in October, says Clay La Grone, senior construction manager with Crescent. “The people who are buying in this property are buying the Ritz-Carlton lifestyle, and the hotel must be ready to serve them,” he says.

Skin-deep beauty Designed by the renowned Robert A.M. Stern Architects of New York, the Ritz-Carlton Dallas is a buff-colored brick and limestone tower detailed in a simplified Regency style. The design is reminiscent of the landmark hotels built in the 1920s in New York and Chicago.

“When this project was first conceived in early 2001, it was important that the building look like it had been in the neighborhood for years,” La Grone says.

In particular, the new hotel-condo project was designed to integrate with the well-known Crescent complex in Dallas, which was designed by famed Texas architect Philip Johnson and developed by Rosewood in the mid-1980s. “The Crescent has a timeless look, and we wanted our project to make a similar statement,” La Grone says.

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Unlike many high-rises constructed today, the Ritz-Carlton Dallas has a cruciform rather than rectangular silhouette. “The form really makes a statement and greatly increased the exterior costs because there are so many different facades and elevations,” La Grone adds.

Crescent chose to use precast brick masonry and cast stone to set the building apart from other structures that are built of glass curtain wall. Roughly 42,000 cu yds of concrete and 3,900 tons of steel were used for the building’s skeleton and skin.

The design incorporates a level of detailed scrollwork with numerous recesses and curves that required Stern to design the precast molds, La Grone says. He adds that only a few architectural precast companies could handle such an intricate design.

An elevation shows detailed scrollwork and the numerous recesses and curves in the pre-cast brick and cast stone. (© John W. Davis, DVDesign Group Inc.)

“These aren’t off-the-shelf, plain panels,” Hood says. “They’re extremely detailed – very custom.” Arkansas Precast Corp. worked with Stern and Manhattan to fabricate the panels. The Little Rock, Ark.-based company is well-known for fabricating and installing the dome on Oklahoma’s Capitol.

Because the precast panels required a lengthy fabrication period, Jennings Glass of Dallas designed a system that allowed the windows to be installed prior to the masonry. “The windows were prefabricated to be installed onsite and to be watertight once the Tyvek was put on the building so we could start working on the interiors,” La Grone says.

In addition to the design challenges, the precast pieces needed to be treated carefully, Hood says. “We took extra care to cover them to make sure they didn’t get damaged or stained from the work going on around them,” he adds. 

Customized quality Combining a hotel and residences under the same roof made for a more challenging design and construction process. “The Ritz-Carlton is significantly more complicated because of the different uses,” Hood contends.  

For example, separate entrances, lobbies and elevators for both the hotel and the residences establish a distinct identity for each component. Moreover, the hotel and residences do not share the same entry and exit points in the parking garage because many projects that combine hotel and condo space run into problems with the parking structures, La Grone adds. 

The cruciform silhouette design makes a bold architectural statement. (© John W. Davis, DVDesign Group Inc.)

From a structural standpoint, the different uses influenced the column spacing significantly, requiring a transition on the ninth floor as the uses moved from hotel to condo. Multiple soundproofing techniques were also used to buffer the condos from the hotel space, including double walls and heavy-duty insulation. 

 “We have tried to separate the people who are going to reside in this project,” La Grone says. “We didn’t want to throw them into hotel operations.”

The different uses also impacted the interior design, La Grone adds. “Ritz-Carlton is the most recognized brand in the world, and when you think of that brand, you envision a certain look,” he says.

Well-known designer Frank Nicholson of Boston handled the interior design for the hotel portion, while Dallas-based Hayslip Design Associates Inc. oversaw the interior design for the residences.

“We’ve found that Crescent wanted it designed with a level of quality commiserate with the Ritz-Carlton level of quality,” says Sherry Hayslip, president & principal designer of Hayslip Design Associates. 

To that end, Manhattan built full-scale mockups of the hotel rooms, completely furnishing them with fixtures, moldings and furniture. Additionally, the company pulled together a team focused specifically on coordinating the interior materials for the residences.

“We have a whole team dedicated to working with the buyers,” Hood says. “With such high-end condos, there’s a certain level of customization.”

The level of comfort and luxury of the interior can be seen in the full-scale mock-up room shown here. (© John W. Davis, DVDesign Group Inc.)

Most of the interior finishes are custom designed and each residence features high-quality materials such as marble and granite, Hayslip says. Her firm designed the moldings, doors, marble fireplace mantles and cabinetry. “We worked hard to make the standard unit luxurious and so a buyer would have a beautiful home,” she adds.