Aero-Dynamic Downtown

Streamline Tower Elevates Las Vegas

By Tony Illia

The $107 million Streamline Tower fits a 22-story condo tower into a one-acre parcel with zero lot lines.

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Streamline Tower is the newest addition to downtown Las Vegas’ skyline. The 271-ft-tall building is the first residential high-rise in the city’s Entertainment District - a 3-year-old, six-block development overlay created to attract new investment dollars. It’s also downtown’s second-tallest tower behind the 360-ft Fitzgeralds Casino & Hotel.

The $107 million Streamline will consist of 275 luxury condominiums with 12,000 sq ft worth of ground-level retail space. Developed by Barclays North Inc. of Everett, Wash., the 22-story project is situated on a one-acre parcel with zero lot lines at Ogden Avenue and the North Strip.

Designed by PGAL, Houston, the 621,000-sq-ft, horseshoe-shaped building features ground-level shops followed by a six-level, 428-space parking garage and then one, two and three-bedroom residences.

The tower’s tight site constraints, aggressive schedule and compact design have posed some tough challenges for general contractor Martin-Harris Construction Co. The Las Vegas-based firm has a guaranteed maximum price contract for construction, with a 660 working day schedule that carries $5,000-a-day in early completion bonuses and/or late penalties.

The building has a 43,000-sq-ft building footprint that leaves no room for construction storage or staging. The developer is renting 1.5 acres across the street for construction operations.

Martin-Harris is using hand-set concrete forms because “we had no room on site to fly forms,” explains Craig Colligan, Martin-Harris’ senior project manager. “Despite this, the tower still went-up a floor every six days. This is one of the country’s largest hand-set concrete projects.”

Martin-Harris achieved this by applying a special chemical additive to help concrete cure faster than normal. The contractor additionally received city approval to swing materials over a 30-ft section of Ogden Avenue, using a tower crane that runs through one of the building’s elevator corridors.

Concrete deliveries, meanwhile, are scheduled months in advance because trucks must move through crowded downtown streets. Each floor at Streamline contains roughly 400 cu yds of concrete, which equals about 40 trucks trips. The project will use a total of 38,000 cu yds of concrete and 2,560 tons of supporting steel.
 
“We went from a table napkin sketch to construction drawings in 10 months,” says Dusty Allen, Streamline’s managing member. “The cooperation between general contractor, architect and developer has really helped move the process along nicely with everyone working toward a shared goal.”

The project is currently scheduled to finish Feb. 14. 

Key Players

Developer: Barclays North Inc.
Architect: PGAL LLC
General Contractor: Martin-Harris Construction
Engineers: Walter P. Moore; Harris Consulting Engineers; Rolf Jensen & Assoc.
Subcontractors: M&H Building Specialties; Mojave Electric; Steel Engineers; Apple Masonry; Cactus Rose Construction

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