Award of Merit Residential/Hospitality: Arthaus

Arthaus

Philadelphia

Award of Merit

Submitted By: INTECH Construction

Owner: Dranoff Properties

Lead Design Firm: Kohn Pedersen Fox

General Contractor: INTECH Construction

Civil Engineer: Stantec

Structural Engineer: The Harman Group Inc. (IMEG Corp.)

MEP Engineer: Alderson Engineering LLC

The three-year project involved the construction of a 47-story condo tower with 107 units and ground floor retail.

The project team worked through a number of challenges during the construction of the luxury residential tower, located at the corner of Broad and Spruce streets in the Avenue of the Arts district. Construction was shut down for five weeks during the pandemic, and the established project schedule became a working document as the team reevaluated and adjusted the sequencing of work based on supply chain issues and disruptions cause by COVID-19.

Another challenge came during curtain wall installation; the client requested that the model units be moved to a higher floor. Despite having to halt exterior work and shift crews to enclose the model unit floors, the new marketing units were completed ahead of schedule.

The project also used some innovative techniques, both in the areas of construction methods and safety, according to the team. Concrete placements usually take five to eight days per floor. The project team was able to condense that to a three-to-five-day cycle. Two stacked slosh tanks were posted on the roof to counteract the potential sway of the tall structure during the casting.

In addition, a monorail system was installed to hoist large pieces of glass out of windows below to the curtain wall under construction at the top of the tower.