The Homewood Suites and Hilton Garden Inn by Hilton is a dual-brand hotel in Columbus, Ohio, representing both Homewood Suites and Hilton Garden Inn by Hilton, and it is the MultiFamily first-place winner in the ICF Builder Awards. The seven-story hotel used Fox Blocks by Airlite Plastics Co. to construct a basement and 240 guest rooms joined by a common elevator lobby. The building also featured a flexible two-level banquet center that can host a single large event or four individual events at the same time.

This property has two independent hotel lobbies, one for the Hilton Garden Inn and one for the Homewood Suites, which are connected by a central elevator bank. Above the first-floor lobbies are six floors of hotel guest rooms, 24 Hilton Garden Inn rooms, and 16 Homewood Suite rooms per floor.

At the time of its construction, this hotel was the largest Property Assessed Clean Energy-financed project in the state of Ohio. PACE is a federally supported means of financing energy-efficient projects and funded 25% of the budget for this project. “The team needed to meet specific energy efficiencies of the shell, mechanical, lighting, plumbing, etc. as set by PACE,” explains Mike Kennaw, who represents ICF manufacturer Fox Blocks. “With all systems, they were able to design to a 35% +/- energy efficiency over base ASHRAE 90.1. The ICF exterior walls were a major component of that efficiency.”

It is also the tallest Insulated Concrete Form structure in Ohio that was constructed over Geopiers. Kennaw says the project took 131 weeks to complete and the ICF installation time was 136 days. He estimates the team saved two months of construction time by using ICFs, with no additional costs.

Complicated Build
The site is located along Alum Creek in Franklin County, Ohio; a wetland site. To develop the wetland into usable property, the Ohio EPA/FEMA required the project to maintain a 125-foot Stream Corridor Protection Zone on the property. The 5.48-acre wetland site needed to be leveled with a 30-foot high retaining wall at the rear of the property and an additional 15-foot high gravity wall at the street side of the property which created 4.42 acres of buildable area. “The shape of the building mimics the shape of the site, resulting in a 102.5-degree angle at the inside corner of the building,” explains Kennaw. “Fox Blocks ICFs made this corner possible because it is easily customizable in the field.”

Due to the 60,000 cubic yards of fill that was utilized on the project and the soft soils of the wetlands, 3,000 Geopiers were installed as a deep foundation system to support the hotel and retaining walls. Both of the Hilton brand hotel prototypes require extensive brand signature parapet detailing at the roof. ICF was extended above the roof line and used as the structure to support additional framing at the parapet and roof details. At the highest point, this project utilizes a 98-foot high ICF wall, which would not have been possible with traditional framing materials.

Most basements are dug, not built first. However, since the project was coming out of a flood plain, the team filled in lifts. Once the team hit the basement floor elevation with the fill operation, they constructed the 12,000 square-foot basement with 12-foot ICF walls in a period of 10 weeks, including the precast that locked in the ICF walls. The team waterproofed, then proceeded to bring the final fill lift to finish floor elevation where they completed the Geopiers and then proceeded with the tower. “The basement sequencing saved a tremendous amount of time with significant credit to the speed of ICF wall construction,” says Kennaw. “It was critical for the team to finish the fill operation before the harsh winter weather hit. If the fill was not achieved in time, the team would not have been able to compact without chemical drying. With ICF construction, the structure was able to sustain through the winter months once the foundations were set, and they did.”

There are approximately 500 door and window openings in the ICF walls. These were installed using 2x bucks that were built in the field and installed by the ICF installer, says Kennaw.

Sustainability & Impact
From a structural perspective, ICF was the ideal solution due to its fire-resistive properties. The project was required to be IB Construction with a two-hour rated structural frame. These requirements were easily met with the use of Fox Blocks. The sound migration qualities of ICF added another benefit and were important within the building and between guestrooms.

HiFive is a design-build contractor that has a long-standing relationship with ICF Installer HVB Inc. and Fox Blocks. They specialize in the design and construction of hotels which allows their clients a more efficient and cost-effective project. HiFive located the subject property and presented it to its customers as an ideal opportunity to build a large hotel. Middletown Management was the entity chosen to develop the property and the two organizations went to work maximizing the design and the investment. They worked together as an integral team for five years, eliminating one challenge at a time.

Kennaw says this project faced many complications and challenges in order to accommodate zoning codes, building codes, flood-zone, stormwater management, traffic, building inspection, Hilton franchisee restrictions, PACE financing, and many other requirements. “As evidenced by its many accolades and the attention received from the completed project, it stands as a beacon to those who would follow, both with energy-efficient ICF buildings and with dual-branded hotels,” says Kennaw.

According to Hilton’s own studies and anecdotal evidence from operators, hotel buildings constructed of ICF receive top marks from hotel guests for their ability to mitigate sound migration between floors and rooms.