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(Dec. 5, 2007) -- From the glittering gold windows of Mandalay Bay to the ersatz pyramid and Sphinx at the Luxor, the Las Vegas strip is one of the most easily recognizable cityscapes in the world. But the familiar makeup of that famous stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard is about to change in a dramatic way with the construction of CityCenter, a $7-billion venture by MGM Mirage designed to bring the aesthetics and principles of urban living to Sin City. The mixed-use, 76-acre project, located on the site of the former Boardwalk Hotel and Casino between the Bellagio and the Monte Carlo hotels, will feature six high-rise structures incorporating hotel, condominium and retail space, situated around pedestrian walkways. Using recycled water and generating electricity from its own on-site power plant, CityCenter hopes to achieve LEED certification from the U.S. Green Building Council, a designation that will make it the largest green development in the world.
After a 20-month-long design process that included input from such world-famous architects as Cesar Pelli, Helmut Jahn and Lord Norman Foster, construction officially began with a groundbreaking ceremony in June 2006. In January 2007, work began on the project’s centerpiece, the ultra-modern Veer Towers, so named because the two 37-story towers are angled so that they appear to lean toward one another. Designed by Helmut Jahn, the towers will house 400 condo units each and will be anchored at the ground level by 500,000 square feet of high-end retail space.
To achieve the towers’ unique look, they had to be constructed with a gain or loss of 10 inches in length on each side at every level. A majority of the concrete walls will remain exposed to achieve a modern, industrial look, meaning that finishing requirements were especially demanding. To help construct one of the project’s more unique and challenging structures, the Veer Towers, general contractor Perini Building Company selected Doka USA’s Top 50 large-area formwork and SKE 100 self-climbing system, as well as pre-assembled Dokamatic tables and Dokaflex S formwork to form 60,000 square feet of concrete decking for a 500,000-square-foot high-end retail development on the building’s ground level.
The twin Veer Towers lean five degrees from upright position, in opposite directions, an architectural detail that required each level to have a loss or gain of 10 inches on either side all the way up the structure. To account for this shift, Doka adjusted the slab formwork by adding or removing 10-foot segments every 11 stories. In addition to providing the buildings’ plentiful exposed concrete with a superior finish, the Top 50 system was used in conjunction with special “trailing channels” to allow the large wing walls attached to the elevator and stair cores to be lifted by crane in just one lift. In the main elevator cores of each tower, SKE100 climbing system was used to lift the entire core form and a concrete placing boom that supplied concrete to the tower’s core walls, wing walls, columns and slab.
Ceco Concrete is building the Harmon Hotel Tower for Perini. Ceco's choice for the very complicated cores on this structure was Doka's SKE 100 self-climbing system in conjunction with Top 50 gangs. The core is being poured at the same time as the deck, saving Ceco considerable time and money throughout the construction. In addition to lifting the core formwork, Doka’s SKE climbers have been designed to lift the massive concrete placing boom that services the entire floor.
Urata & Sons is also constructing a part of the CityCenter project, referred to as the retail level. Doka has helped them with this structure by designing and supplying pre-assembled Dokamatic tables which were delivered to the job site and reused for each of the three 20,000-square-foot forming sequences, saving considerably on build-up, cycle time and materials. In fact, Urata & Sons was so impressed with the Doka formwork that they also relied on Doka shoring to help them construct a tunnel junction at the Harmon Hotel. For this project, Doka used its 10K shoring system to create deep beams, and Dokaflex S formwork to form the 16-, 12- and 8-inch-thick slabs.
Detailed layout drawings supplied from Doka helped Perini plan the formwork for the concrete decking around several steel I-beams that punctuated the pour site.
Dokamatic tables were delivered pre-assembled to the job site and were reused for each of the three 20,000-square-foot forming sequences, giving concrete contractor Urata & Sons considerable savings on build-up, cycle time and materials.
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