Hyder Construction was awarded a silver award at the 2011 AGC ACE Awards in the category of “Meeting the Challenge of a Difficult Job” for the five-star Four Seasons Resort in Vail. The 500,000-sq-ft facility includes a full-service, 121-room hotel, 16 private residences and 19 fractional residence club homes.

Courtesy of Hyder Construction

The 500,000-sq-ft Four Seasons Vail includes a full-service, 121-room hotel, 16 private residences and 19 fractional residence club homes.

Although Hyder completed the massive project, construction began in 2007 under the management of a different general contractor. In 2009 a large banking interest foreclosed and assumed responsibility for the project. The firm began by cleaning house, terminating the original contractor and all subcontractors. They solicited proposals from general contractors to ready the partially completed building for opening. In June 2009, Hyder took over a project estimated to be 60% complete. The resort owners had an aggressive six-month schedule to finish before the 2009 ski season.

But instead of a straightforward job with a tight schedule, Hyder found a troubled project that required extraordinary measures to make right.

“There was so much work that had to be re-done. We had to tear out walls to put the concrete capitals on 27 interior columns that were missing required structural elements; we had to tear off the roof and re-do it; we had to replace 521 windows and doors – all in a partially finished environment. There are many extra measures our team had to undertake to complete new work while correcting structural defects,” said Scott Miller, Hyder’s project manager.

Despite the obstacles, the client needed the resort completed for the 2010-2011 ski season. They couldn’t miss another year of revenue on a project that had already undergone foreclosure, litigation and construction retrofits that added millions to the budget.
“Manpower and material requirements changed daily. We weren’t constructing under a normal, sequenced schedule,” Miller said. “We were constantly communicating work and schedule changes. One day, a sub might be finishing a guest room. The next, they were removing work done 12 months earlier.”

Innovative team-management brought the project to completion ahead of schedule. Hyder and its team surmounted the project’s challenges to deliver a world-class facility that captures the excellence associated with the Four Seasons brand.