Westin Diplomat Resort and Spa
Hollywood, Florida
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Westin Diplomat Resort and Spa in Hollywood, Florida, consists of five
main buildings, surrounded by additional site structures, creating a beachfront
resort complex that opened in February 2002. The original Diplomat Resort
was a popular tourist destination in the late 1950s and ‘60s. It
eventually lost its luster, and by 1990 had almost entirely shut down.
In
1998 the site was acquired by the pension fund of the United Association
of Plumbers and Pipefitters, who demolished the old Diplomat in order
to clear the way for a new world class resort.
The resort is anchored by a 41-story Westin Hotel, with a cutout in the
middle acting as a “window” to the Atlantic Ocean. The hotel
is adjacent to an 8-story convention center, including a column-free exhibition
space almost the size of a football field. The pool deck behind the hotel
contains both an elevated swimming pool and a pool at grade level, both
surrounded by cabanas.
A pedestrian bridge crosses Florida route A1A, linking the hotel to a
complex of retail stores and dining establishments along the Intracoastal
Waterway. These shops form the base of apair of 8-story parking garages.
A 2-story energy plant alongside the garage houses mechanical, electrical,
and plumbing systems for the resort. Eventually, two condominium towers
will be built, one along the Atlantic and one along the Intracoastal.
The hotel is a conventionally reinforced flat plate structure. Flying
table forms were used to cast 9-inch-thick typical floor slabs on a 3-day
cycle. In order to protect against chloride intrusion resulting
from the ocean environment, a corrosion inhibiting admixture was used
in the balcony slabs. Shear walls, varying from 18 inches to 24 inches
thick, surround the service cores and extend as outriggers to the building
perimeter, providing lateral stability. Column and shear wall concrete
was specified with a compressive strength of 10,000 psi at the base of
the building.
A prominent architectural feature of the hotel is the curved surfaces,
reminiscent of sails or waves. Sloped columns were provided to
allow slab edges to step back from floor to floor. The 10-story-high cutout
in the middle of the hotel left 24 stories unsupported above. In order
to carry these loads, four 2-story-deep transfer girders span approximately
80 feet. These girders are 140 feet above the ground, precluding conventional
forming techniques,
which would have necessitated the erection of an enormous scaffolding
tower. Instead, four steel trusses were lifted into place. These trusses
supported the girder formwork and a temporary hanging work platform, and
were encased inside the girders.
The convention center incorporates multiple structural systems.
The roof over the upper level exhibition space spans 155 feet, using steel
joists. The real challenge, however, was the floor. In order to provide
the desired flexibility for event planners, a 200-psf live load capacity
was needed. Concerns about wave action from a hurricane storm surge dictated
that this space be elevated, rather than located on grade, as is often
done with convention centers.
Post-tensioned girders up to 9 feet deep span up to 135 feet. The heaviest
girders contain 195 prestressing tendons. Steel beams were used to support
the formwork, since the weight of the girders precluded the use of conventional
shoring systems. Hollow core precast, prestressed plank spans between
the post-tensioned girders, avoiding the need to erect slab formwork 35
feet above the floor.
The ballroom level below the exhibition space spans 62 feet, supporting
150-psf live loads. Post-tensioned girders 48 inches deep were
designed to support both post-tensioned and conventionally reinforced
slabs. Parking levels below the ballroom were built using a “Key-stone
joist” system popular in Florida due to economy and speed of erection.
In the Key-stone
System, precast, prestressed joists span 62 feet between beams. The beams
have a 6.5-inchdeep precast bottom with embedded stirrups. The joists
and beam soffits were set on shoring, after which the slab bottoms and
beam sides were formed. The slabs and beams were then poured monolithically.
The two garages are separated by a glass canopy supported by a steel space
frame. This space frame sits on 48-inch-diameter concrete columns. The
space frame-to-column connections included a significant number of sliding
connections designed to allow the space frame to move without inducing
forces in the frame. This meant that the frame could not be relied upon
to brace the tops of the columns. Therefore, the columns had to be designed
as fixed-base
cantilevers. In order to make these columns more rigid, they were post
tensioned. Each column had six ducts, each containing nineteen 0.6-inch-diameter
tendons, inducing compressive force of 3800 kips.
With a combination of different framing systems, concrete provided
the much needed flexibility to accomodate the varied layouts,
functional requirements and prominent architectural features of the building
for this project.
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| Architect:
Nichols, Brosch, Sandoval
& Associates
Structural Engineer:
DeSimone Consulting
Engineers
Concrete Trade Manager:
B&R Building &
Renovation
Concrete Contractors:
Form Works
Quality Concrete
and Rental
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