A Victory for Dallas

Concrete Project First Phase of New Urban Development

By Tonie Auer

The W Dallas Victory Hotel and Residences, slated to open in spring 2006, will rise 33 stories above Dallas' up-and-coming master-planned urban development known as Victory Park.

Building a mixed-use complex of condominiums, retail and hotel space in the W Dallas Victory Hotel and Residences created some unique issues for the project's architect and builders because of the different types of deck systems involved in the various facets of the project.

"We used several different types of deck systems. A pan slab was utilized in some parts, some are standard flat plate and some are slab-and-beam construction," said Dan Cummings, senior project manager for McCarthy Building Cos., which is headquartered in St. Louis. The firm is the 10th largest concrete contractor in the U.S. by volume of work.

Cummings said usually, one type of construction fits the entire structure.

"In this project, there are different uses and that required the engineer to select these different types," he said.

McCarthy broke ground in April 2004 on the $70 million W Dallas. The 780,000-sq.-ft. project includes 252 hotel guest rooms, 65 modern luxury residences in two towers, parking for 450 vehicles, a spa and fitness center and outdoor swimming pool.

Located northwest of downtown Dallas, the W Dallas Victory Hotel and Residences features 33 above-grade floors and one level of below-grade parking. Hotel guestrooms will occupy levels three through 15 of the new facility and condominiums will be located on levels 18 through 31. Levels 16 and 17 will house the spa and fitness center and the building's outdoor pool. The 33rd level will feature a bar and entertainment destination.

"The overall location is in the Victory complex across from American Airlines Center and the main tower works off of the AAC plaza as a beacon to that development," said Eddie Abeyta, senior design principal of HKS Architects in Dallas.

"The image is modern aesthetically with simple clean lines," Abeyta said. "The attitude and expression is a modern and sleek sophisticated design."

Along the base of the project, there is a line of retail shops, which work off of a main spine road that will connect the entire Victory development, he added. Above the retail area is a parking garage and above it is the low-rise development in the south tower.

"We're taking two primary land uses, hotel and condominiums, and stacking them on top of one another. This made the design a challenge for HKS," said Chris Peck, vice president of business development for McCarthy.

The W Dallas tower structure will consist of cast-in-place concrete with an exterior constructed of pre-cast concrete, curtain-wall glazing system, metal panels and limestone. The wedge-shape building will feature a cantilevered wing structure extending from the roofline.

"The concrete frame construction in mid- to high-rise is the most common frame type used in this area of the country due to the cost and flexibility and

the availability of talented contractors and subs to form and complete the project," Peck said.

"The materials for the project offer a distinct expression of the hotel and condo," Abeyta said. "The hotel is primarily pre-cast, and there is punched window expression as you rise to the upper parts of the tower. The condominiums are expressed primarily with floor-to-ceiling glass with large 8-ft.-deep concrete balconies running the length of the units."

The use of the pre-cast panel provides a good exterior system, Peck said.

To pursue that modernistic look, the architectural pre-cast is minimal with simple, clean flat panels resembling the look of Indiana Limestone, Abeyta said. A warm limestone color was used for the pre-cast with little filigree. It is primarily joint with accent around the punch windows in a deeper, darker color related to the base of the hotel, which was done with Lueders limestone, he added.

"We introduced stone as part of the base of the hotel because people come in contact with the building from a visual and tactile standpoint there. Stone is usually a little richer than architectural pre-cast," Abeyta said. "Once you extend above level two, that is where it turns pre-cast and from afar it has the look of limestone. Using the pre-cast also provides speed in erection time rather than stacking stone."

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The result was cost savings while still replicating the light texture of a smooth cut stone, he said.

The project also used a window-wall system expanding between the floor slabs and the curtain-wall system, Abeyta said. The system expands all the way up the building and clips onto the edge of the structure in front of the slabs creating a big, long sweep curve on the western façade of the building, he said.

The curtain-wall expression appears to slice across the pre-cast and marks the zone of the public corridors to the condominium floor plans. Additionally, the glass used in that zone was a low-E reflective coating, providing a sense of visible transmittance and reflectance to help with sun and heat, he added.

On the condominiums, floor-to-ceiling glass window walls are made of a pure low-E glass with no reflective coating permitting visible transmittance and a blue rather than silver shade, Abeyta said.

Metal panels were used as part of the curtain-wall system as a white horizontal band at the zone of the structure behind the glass wall, creating a stripe accent as part of the façade, he explained.

The cantilevered wing structure of the building will serve as a heliport. The wedge shape of the structure creates a crown at the top of the building and will be lit at night with LED lighting that can change color from white to red to blue, Abeyta said.

The W Dallas was designed as a fast-track project, so architects had to keep pace with the momentum of the everyday construction and the short timetable.

"Because this is a very modern building, it is not easy to draw in detail," Abeyta said. "A lot of time and effort was spent in studying the details and the finishes and how all the parts and pieces come together."

The design has to keep up with the construction and sometimes building can run faster because the architects have so many things to consider and coordinate, Cummings said.

"That is one of the benefits in going with cast-in-place concrete. It can improve your schedule because there is no second element going into the structure, so you can keep it moving," Cummings said.

"Structural concrete is my favorite type of building," he added. "I enjoy concrete structures and working on this building is really one of the neatest architectural features than I've done--and probably one of the coolest buildings that I've done architecturally."

"We're proud to be associated with the project and it has been a good opportunity to demo to this marketplace the capabilities and type of work that McCarthy executes across the U.S.," Peck said.

Useful Sources

• For more information on the W Dallas Victory Hotel and Residences and virtual tours of amenities and residences, log on to victoryresidences.com
• For more information on Victory Park development, log on to victorypark.com
• To learn about other W Hotels worldwide, log on to whotels.com