Photo: Aerial Photography Inc.

Park Seventeen, a project larger than 1 million sq ft and more than $100 million in value, overcame several challenges. The project is bound by roadways on all sides, and its location yielded a zero lot line and little to zero laydown area for storage. The project team was further squeezed by a popular restaurant across the street from the project that had to remain operational throughout construction.

Another major issue—and a common occurrence during high-rise construction—involved air rights. The tower cranes used on the project had to coordinate swing stages over multiple existing buildings, which lead to several air rights issues with multiple owners. All of the problems were worked out satisfactorily during the project.

The GC/CM, Austin Commercial, met with each affected building owner to explain the process, safety plan and general flow of work.

Austin Commercial worked closely with city of Dallas personnel to coordinate all lane and street closures for nearly two years during construction. The closures took place on all four sides of the project at various times during construction for cranes swings/picks, material delivery, concrete pours and safety of the general public.

Austin Commercial managed three different General Management Plans on the project, and all had to be tracked separately. The GMPs included the Gables office tower budget, the Gables residential tower budget and shared space/commons areas for which both Granite and Gables split costs.

The Austin project management team carefully monitored each GMP and provided weekly reports to both owners to show where the project was valuewise at all times during the project.

Key Players

Submitted by: Austin Commercial
Developer/owner: Granite Properties, Plano, Texas
General contractor/construction manager: Austin Commercial, Dallas
Architect: Good Fulton & Farrell, Dallas
Civil engineer: Pacheco Koch, Dallas
Structural engineer: L.A. Fuess Partners Inc., Dallas
MEP engineer: James Johnston & Associates, Dallas