Privatization of Army lodging is reaching a new level at Redstone Arsenal.
A four-story hotel, under construction in the former troop barracks area, will become the first in the United States built with cross laminated timber. This wood construction technology originated in Austria and Germany in the 1990s and is just making its way to North America. It has been used in Canada since 2012. But this will be the first hotel in the United States using CLT.
Katherine Hammack, assistant secretary of the Army for installations, energy and environment, toured the construction site off Aerobee Road on Thursday.
“I think this is fascinating,” she said. “I think it is the responsibility of the Army and really the whole government to kind of lead the country and try new things. This (construction technology) is safer, viable and it’s of benefit to our nation. It makes use of fast-growth lumber that’s usually not in the dimensions you can use for construction. We’re excited to see this get off the ground and we look forward to where it takes us.”
The Candlewood Suites hotel is owned by Lend Lease, developer and asset manager for the Army’s lodging portfolio. InterContinental Hotels Group, or IHG, is the hotel operations partner.
Rhonda Hayes, director of capital ventures in Hammack’s office, accompanied the assistant secretary on the morning tour conducted by Lend Lease.
“We’re actually building this to replace the lodging that’s currently on the installation,” Hayes said.
Building construction began at Christmastime and will be finished in December, according to Jeff Morrow, Lend Lease program manager for project management and construction. “Hopefully earlier,” he added. The framing for the stairwell went up Feb. 13. When completed the four-story wood building will have 92 keyed rooms which includes studios and suites, 58,000 square feet, 97 bathrooms, 1,557 CLT panels, 10 beams, 17 columns and more than 200,000 fasteners ranging from nails to screws.
The typical floor panel is 8 feet by 50 feet and seven inches thick and weighs 8,000 pounds. The stairwell walls are 37-and-a-half feet tall and weigh 3,626 pounds.
“It’s a sustainable, renewable resource,” Morrow said of the CLT benefits. “The raw material comes from a sustainably managed forest. It stores carbon because trees take the carbon dioxide out of the air. It’s a faster system to build, makes for a strong and robust structure. It has a low carbon footprint compared to most buildings.”
Cross laminated timber represents a flexible building system suitable for use in all assembly types, such as walls, floors and roofs. Made from industrial dried lumber stacked together at right angles and glued over their entire surface, it is considered an exceptionally strong product that retains its static strength and shape, and allows the transfer of loads on all sides.
Built by Lend Lease the 10-story Forte, in Australia, is the tallest modern timber frame building in the world.
“We like to innovate in the sectors and markets where we deliver our services,” Murray Woolcock, Lend Lease executive general manager for strategic business units, said. “And this (Redstone hotel) is one example in the building sector.”
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