2025 West Best Projects
Award of Merit, Residential/Hospitality: Gaylord Pacific Resort and Convention Center
Gaylord Pacific Resort and Convention Center
Vista, Calif.
Award of Merit
Submitted by Mortenson Construction
Owner RIDA Development Corp.
Lead Design Firm HKS Architects
General Contractor Mortenson | McCarthy (Mortenson Construction and McCarthy Building Cos., A Joint Venture Partnership)
Civil Engineer Nasland Engineering
Structural Engineer Walter P Moore
MEP Engineer Blum Consulting Engineers Inc.
Seated on 36.6 acres on the Chula Vista bayfront, this $1.3-billion, 22-story hospitality landmark spans more than 2 million sq ft of enclosed space and includes the nearly 600,000-sq-ft convention center and the 500,000-sq-ft parking garage.
Amid post-pandemic market volatility, pricing initially came in over budget, but an extensive nine-month preconstruction effort identified around $35 million in savings while maintaining the original design intent. The most significant savings came from changes to the structure.
The original design had open web steel joists through the convention center to support the roof, which had become incredibly expensive. The joists were swapped with a prefabricated truss system composed of standard steel members, resulting in a seven-figure savings and an improved schedule.
The hotel features a 28,500-sq-ft atrium with a glass wall system and an ETFE roof, positioned below the main hotel tower. During ETFE installation, crews topped out on the hotel tower with concrete and enclosed the exterior using EFIS panels, which were prefabricated next door to the site.
To ensure an on-time delivery, the contractor developed a proactive project scheduling approach that brought all trade partners together more than six months before work began.
This provided ample time to identify schedules for each task and for seamless coordination in all parts of the project. As a result, the project was completed 6 weeks ahead of schedule in May 2025.
