AER The Essential Element
St. Petersburg, Fla.
Award of Merit

Owner American Land Ventures
Lead Design Firm ADD Inc., a Stantec Company
General Contractor DPR Construction
Civil Engineer George F. Young
Structural Engineer ONM&J
MEP Engineer Steven Feller Inc.

Located in downtown St. Petersburg, the AER project is a 625,394-sq-ft, 17-story residential tower and a five-story parking garage with 596 spaces. The site, which contained an ancient sinkhole, challenged the project team, which opted to go with a spun, prestress concrete pile system in lieu of traditional auger-cast piles or drill shafts. The facility required in excess of 100,000 linear ft of piling to drive through the underground anomaly.

Constructing the rooftop pool and amenity level posed logistical and scheduling challenges. Trees and associated materials had to be flown to the pool deck level earlier than normally required in order to accommodate access constraints. After the project’s tower crane had been removed, the team used a large hydraulic crane to place materials on the 19th-floor amenity level.