Hilton Garden Inn

Owner: The Ferchill Group, Cleveland

Designer: Kraemer Design Group, Detroit

Contractor: Turner Construction Co., Detroit

Precaster: Kerkstra Precast Inc./Spancrete Great Lakes, Grand Rapids, Mich.

Looking for “a better way to skin a cat,” the contractor hired to build the new Hilton Garden Inn in downtown Detroit decided to make some last-minute changes to the construction plan. In order to speed completion time, he replaced the concrete block in the original structural-system plan with precast, prestressed concrete components. The result was a two-month time savings.

Plans for the 10-story structure had called for block-and-plank construction, using reinforced masonry walls with precast plank floors. “We originally planned to build with concrete block, but after doing two dormitories for Wayne State University in Detroit, we decided there had to be a better way to skin this cat,” says Greg Mersch, project executive for Turner Construction Co. of Detroit. “Those jobs took forever, waiting for the masons.”

Hilton officials had a tight timetable for opening the project so it could begin generating revenue, so the design was changed to an all-precast structure for the walls, as well as for the floor planks. The switch to precast for the load-bearing walls, cut the erection time in half, from four months to only two months, Mersch says.

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