Now rising in the Big Apple, the 70-story Central Park Marriott will be the tallest hotel in the Western Hemisphere when completed by CNY Group. The $200 million project, with structural engineering by WSP, reflects the generally upbeat mood in the hospitality market.
“Globally, hotel operating fundamentals are poised to remain strong in 2013,” says Mark Wynne-Smith, Global CEO of Jones Lang LaSalle’s Hotels and Hospitality Group. Despite some economic stressors, JLL believes supply and demand, availability of investment capital (especially from private equity funds), and REIT stock prices all point to “an attractive environment” for hotel business worldwide.
TOP HOTEL ARCHITECTURE FIRMS
2012 Hospitality Revenue ($)1 Gensler $69,090,0002 WATG / Wimberly Interiors $54,713,0003 HKS $32,000,0004 Leo A Daly $19,999,6215 RTKL Associates $19,730,0006 Hnedak Bobo Group $17,425,0007 Perkins Eastman $11,600,0008 Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates $11,251,8009 Cuningham Group Architecture $10,019,86510 HOK $10,011,000
TOP HOTEL ENGINEERING FIRMS
2012 Hospitality Revenue ($)1 AECOM Technology Corp. $100,190,0002 Parsons Brinckerhoff $28,900,0003 Buro Happold Consulting Engineers $16,165,0004 Rolf Jensen & Associates $7,600,0005 Thornton Tomasetti $7,218,7316 KPFF Consulting Engineers $6,000,0007 Arup $5,527,3718 Michael Baker Jr. $4,340,0009 Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates $2,880,00010 WSP USA $2,696,642
TOP HOTEL CONSTRUCTION FIRMS
2012 Hospitality Revenue ($)1 Manhattan Construction $290,769,0002 Structure Tone $250,908,0003 Lend Lease $234,975,0004 Swinerton Builders $227,431,9505 Mortenson Construction $209,550,0006 Tutor Perini Corporation $209,216,1267 Brasfield & Gorrie $163,774,5588 Flintco $155,600,0009 Messer Construction $147,695,12810 Yates Cos., The $144,700,000
San Francisco, Los Angeles, Houston, Chicago, New York City, Hawaii, and Washington, D.C., are pinpointed as strong markets in the Americas (http://bit.ly/JLLHotels).
Adaptive reuse for hospitality is producing some particularly interesting remakes of historic properties. The strategy dovetails with travelers’ growing taste for local authenticity—a particular interest of Millennials, according to Tom Ito, Principal and leader for Gensler’s global hospitality practice. “For this generation, avoiding the norm is all about being true to yourself,” says Ito. “As this consumer group grows in spending power, hoteliers will need to provide personalized experiences that reflect the spirit of this demographic.”
Related Stories
| Nov 16, 2010
Architecture Billings Index: inquiries for new projects remain extremely high
The new projects inquiry index was 61.7, down slightly from a nearly three-year high mark of 62.3 in September, according to the Architecture Billings Index (ABI). However, the ABI dropped nearly two points in October; the October ABI score was 48.7, down from a reading of 50.4 the previous month. The ABI reflects the approximate nine to 12 month lag time between architecture billings and construction spending.
| Nov 16, 2010
Brazil Olympics spurring green construction
Brazil's green building industry will expand in the coming years, spurred by construction of low-impact venues being built for the 2016 Olympics. The International Olympic Committee requires arenas built for the 2016 games in Rio de Janeiro meet international standards for low-carbon emissions and energy efficiency. This has boosted local interest in developing real estate with lower environmental impact than existing buildings. The timing couldn’t be better: the Brazilian government is just beginning its long-term infrastructure expansion program.
| Nov 16, 2010
Green building market grows 50% in two years; Green Outlook 2011 report
The U.S. green building market is up 50% from 2008 to 2010—from $42 billion to $55 billion-$71 billion, according to McGraw-Hill Construction's Green Outlook 2011: Green Trends Driving Growth report. Today, a third of all new nonresidential construction is green; in five years, nonresidential green building activity is expected to triple, representing $120 billion to $145 billion in new construction.
| Nov 16, 2010
Calculating office building performance? Yep, there’s an app for that
123 Zero build is a free tool for calculating the performance of a market-ready carbon-neutral office building design. The app estimates the discounted payback for constructing a zero emissions office building in any U.S. location, including the investment needed for photovoltaics to offset annual carbon emissions, payback calculations, estimated first costs for a highly energy efficient building, photovoltaic costs, discount rates, and user-specified fuel escalation rates.
| Nov 16, 2010
CityCenter’s new Harmon Hotel targeted for demolition
MGM Resorts officials want to demolish the unopened 27-story Harmon Hotel—one of the main components of its brand new $8.5 billion CityCenter development in Las Vegas. In 2008, inspectors found structural work on the Harmon didn’t match building plans submitted to the county, with construction issues focused on improperly placed steel reinforcing bar. In January 2009, MGM scrapped the building’s 200 condo units on the upper floors and stopped the tower at 27 stories, focusing on the Harmon having just 400 hotel rooms. With the Lord Norman Foster-designed building mired in litigation, construction has since been halted on the interior, and the blue-glass tower is essentially a 27-story empty shell.
| Nov 16, 2010
Where can your firm beat the recession? Try any of these 10 places
Wondering where condos and rental apartments will be needed? Where companies are looking to rent office space? Where people will need hotel rooms, retail stores, and restaurants? Newsweek compiled a list of the 10 American cities best situated for economic recovery. The cities fall into three basic groups: Texas, the New Silicon Valleys, and the Heartland Honeys. Welcome to the recovery.
| Nov 16, 2010
Landscape architecture challenges Andrés Duany’s Congress for New Urbanism
Andrés Duany, founder of the Congress for the New Urbanism, adopted the ideas, vision, and values of the early 20th Century landscape architects/planners John Nolen and Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., to launch a movement that led to more than 300 new towns, regional plans, and community revitalization project commissions for his firm. However, now that there’s a societal buyer’s remorse about New Urbanism, Duany is coming up against a movement that sees landscape architecture—not architecture—as the design medium more capable of organizing the city and enhancing the urban experience.
| Nov 16, 2010
Just for fun: Words that architects use
If you regularly use such words as juxtaposition, folly, truncated, and articulation, you may be an architect. Architects tend to use words rarely uttered during normal conversations. In fact, 62% of all the words that come out of an architects mouth could be replaced by a simpler and more widely known word, according to this “report.” Review this list of designer words, and once you manage to work them into daily conversation, you’re on your way to becoming a bonafide architect.
| Nov 16, 2010
NFRC approves technical procedures for attachment product ratings
The NFRC Board of Directors has approved technical procedures for the development of U-factor, solar heat gain coefficient (SHGC), and visible transmittance (VT) ratings for co-planar interior and exterior attachment products. The new procedures, approved by unanimous voice vote last week at NFRC’s Fall Membership Meeting in San Francisco, will add co-planar attachments such as blinds and shades to the group’s existing portfolio of windows, doors, skylights, curtain walls, and window film.
