Hensel Phelps Construction led the work on 2400 Nueces, a state-of-the-art, 16-story high-rise collegiate living facility in Austin. Owned and managed by EdR, this new community offers University of Texas students an upscale living experience in close proximity to the campus.
A year into construction, design and construction teams were faced with the challenge of increasing the rentable square footage to satisfy a prospective first-floor commercial tenant. To do that, the teams inserted a second level inside the double height shell space while maintaining 10-ft finished ceilings on the first level and 8 ft on the second for office space.
Entry sequence and reception areas remained on the southeast corner of the building, allowing the design team to take advantage of double-height entry canopies. Careful coordination was required with all primary mechanical trades in order to insert the new space and its support systems within areas that in some instances had already been roughed in on the above stories.
The contractor's approach allowed for the addition of nearly 9,000 sq ft without extending the overall schedule.
Multiple materials were used on the building facade, including a mix of plaster, metal shingles, wall panels, full-height window walls, exposed concrete and stone.
Because of the condensed site (the building footprint covered more than 95% of the site), constructing the skin with more than six different finishes proved to be difficult.
The project schedule had to be built just right in order to allow multiple trades to work from swing stages on the exterior while keeping as a top priority the safety of the public and construction personnel.
One critical path of the schedule was adding the metal shingles. They could not be installed until the building structure topped out because of sequencing. A mock-up of the skin was constructed well in advance to make sure all components meshed together while providing a weather- and waterproof facade.
Building performance and energy usage were optimized in all phases of construction and occupancy.
The project earned LEED Gold certification in addition to a 4-Star certification from the Austin Energy Green Building program.
Key Players
General Contractor Hensel Phelps Construction Co., Austin, Texas
Owner Education Realty Trust, Memphis
Lead Design/Civil Page Southerland Page, Austin, Texas
Structural Architectural Engineers Collaborative, Austin, Texas
Electrical Power Design Inc., St. Petersburg, Fla.
