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Higher Education
Denver contractor revamps downtown high-rise to create high-end student residence
By Mark Shaw
Haselden Construction calls the Executive Tower Inn at Auraria its toughest renovation project and one of the most difficult renovations ever completed in downtown Denver. Haselden, a general contractor based in Centennial, Colo., was contracted to transform an under-used high-rise hotel into a new student residence hall for the nearby Auraria Campus.
The new dorm, opened last year, houses 439 beds in 125 units advertised as "student lofts" for students at three local colleges. They feature high-end finishes, high-speed Internet, cable TV, all-private bedrooms and a Starbucks in the lobby.
"This is not your father's college dorm," says Jim McGibney of First Century Development LLC, the project developer. "It introduces student living to downtown Denver, so it's an important project, but it was also a difficult one."
The 30-story building occupies a half-city block on the western edge of downtown. It has been a fixture in the Denver skyline since its original completion in 1974. During the last 10 years, the top 14 floors had been uninhabited while the lower 16 floors were operating as an active hotel.
The project included the repair of significant interior and exterior structural problems, addressing public safety concerns because of the downtown location and the removal of debris from the upper floors.
In the early 1980s, the brick facade of the Executive Tower building was the basis of a major lawsuit brought against Dow Chemical for its use of a mortar-strengthening additive called Sera Bond. The lawsuit alleged that once Sera Bond was combined with water, it would begin to crumble, making the structure unsafe. To solve the structural challenges, Haselden worked with Denver engineering firm S.A. Miro, which had participated in government studies about Sera Bond in the building.
"To strengthen the existing exterior brick, we stitched the building with wind and gravity clips, carbon-fiber rods and epoxy injections into the brick," says Jerry Blocher, Haselden's preconstruction manager. "Those also increased the bending and shear strength of the concrete slabs and beams."
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| The new Inn at Auraria student lofts feature high-speed Internet, cable TV, all-private bedrooms, high-end finishes and a Starbucks in the lobby of the downtown Denver high-rise. |
Working with Denver renovation subcontractor Restoration Specialists, Haselden reinforced the interior structure by using Mbrace CF 160, a unidirectional high-strength carbon-fiber fabric. At the corner columns, Haselden drilled holes in the slab and literally sewed it together with carbon fiber, allowing it to handle the new calculated weight loads.
The existing columns were built close together and concentrated in the center of the building, leaving large bays of sagging floors at the corners. Additionally, because of the initial structural design, the drill coring could only be done in certain areas, putting the building's plumbing lines in odd places, making it difficult to maximize livable space. Haselden and Denver architectural firm RNL had to be creative in devising a floor plan that allowed for 32 bedrooms per floor.
The scope of the demolition for the upper 14 floors was so large that conventional trash hauling through elevator cars to dumpsters would have been too slow for the 12-1/2-month schedule, so Haselden used a trash chute that ran the 300-ft height of the building. The bright yellow chute could be seen for miles.
"We think it's probably the longest trash chute ever erected in the United States," Blocher says.
The upper 14 floors of Executive Tower Inn, aptly named The Inn at Auraria, has set the stage for the rebirth of Denver's 14th Street corridor and is bringing affordable student living into downtown Denver.
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