Last issue we reported on the world’s tallest modular hotel nearing completion in New York City (NYC). We follow up with a quick overview of the 6th Avenue Marriott AC NoMAD approach by Henry Mickleburgh, Executive Vice President at Skystone LLC.
Skystone is acting as the general contractor and approved Marriott modular manufacturer for the Marriott AC Nomad on 6th Avenue. The project consists of 168 rooms over 26 storeys and is located on 6th Avenue, Manhattan – between 29th and 30th Street. With modular and pre-furnished guestrooms plus a modular roof and modular rooftop bar, Skystone is proud to deliver what will be on completion the world’s tallest volumetric modular hotel on a turnkey basis.
The existing site contained a typical Manhattan low-rise 1980s commercial building that required demolition by Skystone’s expert team and considerable underpinning of adjacent buildings.
As an approved Marriott modular manufacturer, we maintain a
strong relationship with Marriott’s senior management team, who are spearheading their modular initiative across their construction footprint. For a number of years, we’ve worked closely with Dave Walsh, Senior Director, Project Management, The Americas and Jennifer Abuzeid, Senior Director Global Design Strategies at Marriott International, so when the opportunity arose to deliver an AC on 6th Avenue – just around the corner from our NYC offices – Skystone put everything on the table from Day 1 to realise it.
From a general contracting perspective the project is challenging, but reasonably generic. Consisting of four reinforced concrete storeys and central lift/stair core, the overall project budget split is roughly 65% vs 35% base build to modular methods.
Whilst we work in a transparent, collaborative and negotiated manner, our mantra is based upon being ‘civilised megalomaniacs’ and this usually requires our remit to cover the entire project, or ‘turnkey’. We own all of the validation, inspections and approvals for every part of the supply chain to suit each project’s geographical and legislative context. In the US, we are licenced general contractors on both East and West coasts. For the UK, Ireland and some of mainland Europe, we provide turnkey solutions via our joint venture with macskystone.
We have embraced digital tools to make each step of the construction process as streamlined and efficient as possible. The Skystone app allows real time viewing of all modules. QR codes are embedded to each module that allows necessary inspections, logs and progress to be instantly viewed and checked against the lifetime of the modules. A ‘cradle to grave’ paint by numbers process, based upon self-improving iterative stages, that’s linked to collaborative software and a fiercely guarded ‘knowledge bank’ of continuously improving microstructures, forms the backbone of Skystone’s controls. Our patented ‘Skystone Microstructures’ are highly developed, multi ‘D’ BIM models, linked to collaborative software, which allows us to manage our global supply chain partners across time zones.
In order to put 6th Avenue into context, one needs to understand the Skystone production operation. It’s necessary to provide an understanding of our business model and how this alters from the generic, industry paradigm that volumetric modules are produced by ‘a factory’. Many years of volumetric experience has provided us with a unique understanding of the best and worst aspects and it’s this understanding that informs the premise of our business model.
We understand that our modules are highly complex, manufactured products and like any product of this nature – a car or smartphone – it’s about identifying, managing and harnessing the best supply chain and maintaining overarching controls and accreditation for that product. As per the smartphone/car analogy, it’s necessary to consider this paradigm shift in production methodology against our approach to various regional markets, as this model allows us to source the best ‘parts’ of our product over global supply chain options. This approach allows us to control every aspect of the supply chain, ensuring quality and validation under our protocols.
Mainland Europe to the USA
For 6th Avenue, we have used our Polish supply chain. The volumetric modular remit is divided into the following seven constituent parts.
Like the chassis of a car, the structural cages are the most critical portion of our modules. STP Elbud, provided us with the enthusiasm, capacity and quality required to meet our requirements. Together we developed a rotating jig that enables full weld access without resorting to manual rotation increasing productivity and maximising robotic welding. Full inspections have resulted in all cages being produced within a +/- 3mm X, Y and Z directional tolerance. Added to this we used Aluprof – a global leader in façade systems – that have impeccable accreditation and a strong history of high-rise facades in Manhattan and provide impeccable quality.
DMD Modular’s facility’s size allowed us to produce all 168 rooms under one roof, and securely store in controlled environments Skystone’s specialist items as dictated to by Marriott’s brand standards. This allowed Skystone to embed our team and protocols into their production facility. In consultation we improved their considerable facility to suit our standards and via the development of two full-sized prototypes, assessed, trained and developed their workforce to the demanding standards required by Marriott’s 4 Star AC Brand. The quality of finishes achieved by DMD’s workforce is undoubtedly world class. Skystone’s team and inspectors are fully-embedded into DMD’s facility and ensure that every module is produced to the exacting standards required by Skystone’s procedures.
All modules will be transported from DMD’s facility to the Port of Gdansk, then offloaded at the Port of Red Hook, NYC, staged ready for just in time installation at 6th Avenue. Each module is GPS tagged and the same methodology used at final factory inspection is used at both ports. This methodology enables Skystone to determine robust ‘themes’ informing the current and future production. The prototype rooms were transported, shipped and received in San Diego, late 2018 and this data was used to clarify robustness. We are pleased to report that very minor effects were incurred during this considerable trip.
Expected to open in late 2020, the building is proving to be a ‘gamechanging symbol’ in modular construction and displays all the positive facets that offsite manufacture can deliver. In fact it has been described as a ‘hotel that takes every advantage of offsite manufacturing but does so in a way that defies expectation’. Hopefully this project will make everyone across the globe aware of what modular construction is capable of at scale.
