Combining Modern with Antique Earns Hotel a ‘Green Ovation’

Combining renovation with LEED certification, developers of Hotel Andaluz in Albuquerque have dubbed the $30 million project a ‘greenovation’.

By Neal Singer

The completion date for the $30 million renovation of Albuquerque’s former La Posada hotel, now called the Andaluz, has been set back eight months to August, but no one is complaining.

A major reason for the delay has been the effort of owner Goodman Realty Group to meet LEED silver standards while keeping the 70-year-old hotel’s appearance sufficiently antique to retain its listing in the U.S. Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places.

The lack of squabbling over the opening date shows that the difficult task of combining modern environmental requirements with historical architecture works best when owner and general contractor are part of the same company.

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Architect of record Dave Dekker of Albuquerque-based Studio Southwest Architects, says: “Stylistically, the renovation has a clear vision. It uses original Spanish Moorish influence in interior arches, fabrics and colors. Owner Gary Goodman is very hands-on. He demanded a high level of quality from the tile crews and others. The pressure is on to do it right. So he backed off on the ambitious construction schedule instead of just rushing through it.”

And project manager Richard Irland of Goodman’s general contracting arm, Albuquerque-based Integrated Property Services Construction Inc., says, “It’s the most fascinating job I’ve been on.”

Integrating old and new is a challenge, says Darin Sand, IPSC’s self-described “sustainability manager, LEED-accredited professional and historic preservation expert.”

Take windows. “From the outside, windows are important in preservation, but for an energy-efficient, four-star, upscale hotel, you need better than windows from the 1930s,” Sand says.

He says that after an extended discussion with the Park Service, “We had double-pane windows made for us by Pella that match identically with the originals but help with sound and air.”

Irland says the hotel room walls, which were basically uninsulated, 2-in.-thick plaster that transmitted too much noise, also needed upgrading.

Crews augmented wall thicknesses by using isolation clips to create space. “We stuffed that full of sound bats, put two layers of sheetrock over their tops, installed a sound-deadening elastomeric between the sheet rocks and acoustically calked the perimeter,” Irland adds. “Those walls now don’t transmit much sound.”

The rooms lost space when their adjoining walls were thickened from 2.5 to 5 in., but Irland says, “The current requirements for a four-star boutique hotel are a little different from that required when this hotel was first built.”

Since the 70-year-old Andaluz is on the National Register of Historic Places, the developer took care in matching new windows to the originals when upgrading for energy efficiency. (Images courtesy Goodman Realty Group)

Rewiring presented another issue. “Masonry tile walls are not like sheetrock partitions you can pop off and put new conduit in,” Irland says. “For a lot of rooms, we had to run a wire-mold base instead of putting new wiring inside the wall and adding wood molding.”

While the hotel already had “quite a bit of an air system,” much more remained to be done, says mechanical engineering lead Patrick Watkins of Albuquerque-based Bridgers and Paxton.

“They had a huge exhaust in the basement that took cellar air and recirculated it into the lobby, and they had rooftop towers,” Watkins added. “It was all kind of hybrid and wasn’t a true refrigerated system.

“Our goal was to make a central station with indoor mounted air-handling equipment. Removing rooftop equipment left a lot of terrace space that could be designed for hospitality.”

The work was made more difficult because the building’s exterior integrity had to be maintained for historical reasons.

“Access to the basement is gained through a street sidewalk surface-level access door,” Watkins says. “Our challenge was to select equipment that would fit through that access and be able to be taken back out over the next 50 years as needed.”

Access from the basement to higher levels was achievable only through a narrow staircase and small service elevator. “We were banging into stuff we couldn’t see,” but the HVAC work is moving ahead quickly, Watkins adds.

The luxurious lobby reflects the clear Spanish Moorish architectural influence through features such as the arches, fabric choices and finish colors.

A grease-duct upgrade for a hotel restaurant was a technical problem, Dekker says. “We had to find routes for grease ducts that met code for historic buildings,” he says. “The existing duct was not wrapped in a rated enclosure. We had to come up with a way to clean the duct, which was messy, and then get a drywall shaft around it.”

The 50-ft horizontal run impacted the kitchen ceiling and required “a high level of creativity and detailing” to fulfill technical and historical objectives, Dekker says.

An entertainment bar installed in the mezzanine required its own staircase, which meant cutting. “We had to shore up the ceiling to maintain its height, as well as install new distribution ductwork,” Dekker adds.

To add more LEED points, solar panels were installed and are expected to generate 100% of guest-room hot water needs; low-energy units have been installed in the boiler and chiller plant; low VOC finishes have been applied; and amenity dispensers in bathrooms will replace traditional small bottles of cleansers to reduce waste. Rooftop rainwater runoff will irrigate street trees and indoor plants, and high-reflecting plastic rooftop sheeting will minimize heat gain.

Building downtown helps, too. “We gained points because we’re close to mass transportation and haven’t increased the number of parking spaces,” Sand says. “We’re also in a blighted area and show community connectivity with a fitness center, theater and post office.

“It’s safe to say we’ll earn silver. We’re shooting for gold.”

Key Players

Owner: Goodman Realty Group
General Contractor: Integrated Property Services Construction Inc.
Architect: Studio Southwest Architects
Engineer: Bridgers & Paxton Consulting Engineers

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