Navy Pier’s First Hotel Features Steel Framing to Reduce Weight

Jul 28, 2021 | Load Bearing Steel Framing

In an engineering achievement, the Navy Pier’s first hotel is now open for business. The 233-room Sable* at Navy Pier in Chicago features the use of cold-formed steel (CFS) floor joists and structural framing on the hotel’s top 5-floors to reduce the weight on the historic pier.

“A 70-Story Building Lying on Its Side”

The $100 million construction job had to allow for numerous factors on a pier dating from 1916. Promoters call it Chicago’s first hotel built “on top” of Lake Michigan, says the Chicago Sun-Times.

“At roughly 800 feet long, the seven-story hotel is like a 70-story building lying on its side,” says Robert Habeeb, CEO of Chicago-based Maverick Hotels & Restaurants, developer and operator of the Sable.

Crews used light-gauge, CFS bearing walls and a floor joist system designed to spread the weight on the pier, beneath which 51 micropiles were driven into two feet of bedrock.

Design/Build Used for Collaboration of Trades

James McHugh Construction Co., one of the country’s largest commercial contractors with a concentration in high-end hospitality, along with its joint venture partner Powers & Sons Construction Co., a minority-owned Midwestern general contracting firm, were awarded the contract to build the hotel.

  • McHugh/Powers used the design/build method for select trades
  • Mechanical, electrical, plumbing, fire protection and structural CFS framing trades collaborated well before construction began

This approach allowed design and construction to proceed in a more seamless fashion, while these trade partners were able to procure materials with a long lead time to improve the overall project schedule, according to Taylor Johnson.

Steel Reduces Weight on Historic Pier

In an effort to reduce the amount of weight on the historic pier, McHugh/Powers worked with the design team and its specialty subcontractor partner, Denk & Roche, to design and install a light-gauge CFS bearing wall and floor joist structure to frame the hotel’s upper five levels.

“A project like this comes around once in a lifetime, and it’s the exact type of complex construction – from building over water to working around Navy Pier’s 9 million annual visitors – that we excel at and like to execute,” said John Sheridan, executive vice president of McHugh Construction.

More Information

Pound for pound, C-shaped steel studs have the highest strength-to-weight ratio of all commonly used construction materials, according to the Steel Framing Industry Association.

The following projects report how CFS framing reduced the weight of structures:

* The hotel’s name refers to the USS Sable, a Navy training ship that docked at the pier during World War II.

Article cited by BuildSteel.org