Talk of the Town

Anticipation Builds as Talking Stick Resort Nears Completion

By Scott Blair

Casino Arizona entices visitors with its first resort hotel property near Scottsdale.

A new resort is taking shape at the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community in spite of the economic downturn.

The $400-million Talking Stick Resort’s hotel tower takes shape near one of the project’s two precast concrete parking structures. The 15-story hotel’s structural steel was erected by subcontractor Schuff Steel in approximately six months. Steel decks topped by concrete slabs round out the structural system. (Photos by CAPS)

Located east of the Loop 101 on Indian Bend Road in Scottsdale, the $400-million Talking Stick Resort is poised to open in early 2010 with 497 hotel rooms, a casino and conference center. “People in this community have been waiting a long time for this,” SRP-MIC President Diane Enos said when the building topped off late last year.

The property was designed as “a place that is comfortable and compelling for everyone in a modern sense, not a themed version of the past,” says Kevin Mass, AIA, senior associate with design firm FFKR Architects of Salt Lake City. Spaces include a 750-seat showroom, 240,000-sq-ft gaming floor and 100,000-sq-ft conference center.

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The project’s two parking garages were located partially below grade to minimize their visibility. That meant that more than 300,000 cu yds of earth had to be removed, and the mix of undisturbed native earth with several existing underground features required some demolition work.

Mass excavation began in May 2007 with Phoenix-based general contractor Chanen Construction Co. at the helm. The firm has worked continuously for Casino Arizona for 14 years on all five of its gaming properties. “The community’s main water system was in the exact location where the hotel building is now, so it had to be relocated (by others) and was expanded at the same time,” says Steven R. Chanen, president of Chanen.

Talking Stick’s foundation is made up of approximately 400 concrete pilings, on average 5 ft in diameter and drilled to a depth of 45 to 60 ft.

The building’s foundation consists of 400 concrete pilings drilled to a depth of 45 to 60 feet. Prior to the start of construction, the existing water system around the site had to be relocated while still maintaining service to the existing facility. (Photo by Patti Reznik Photography)

“We couldn’t tie into the existing storm sewer, so we have a significant retention system for stormwater underneath the building,” Chanen says. The StormTrap water management system consists of three precast concrete tanks ranging from 104,000 to 1 million gallons augmented with filters to remove dirt and pollutants from the water before it is released.

A 750-ft-long, cast-in-place reinforced concrete tunnel was constructed underneath the complex to be used for secure transport of supplies between buildings. The tunnel is fitted with electrical substations, a breathable air-replacement system, communications and a freight elevator. The tunnel was designed to be large enough so that a minimum 80,000-lb fire truck could fit through it, Chanen says.

The parking structures are precast concrete, while the 15-story hotel and the low-rise casino are steel-framed structures with steel decks topped by concrete slabs. Steel erection began in June 2008 and was completed in just six months by Phoenix-based Schuff Steel, which also assisted with the design.

The exterior is fitted with a combination of glazed curtain wall, EIFS, stone and Alucobond metal panels. Rather than mounting heavy stone blocks onto clips, the team chose to use thin ¼-in.-thick stone bonded onto panels to increase control and safety.

The exterior system includes painted EIFS, glazed curtain wall system, metal panels and ¼-in.-thick stone which is bonded to panels for added safety and stability. (Photo by CAPS)

A central plant provides redundant heating, cooling and electrical for the project. Conditioned air is fed through raised-access flooring throughout the gaming floor of the casino.

Instead of having one firm do all the sheetrock on both the interior and exterior, Chanen divided it into 10 different bid packages and ended up with five firms doing the work.

“I did it that way to maximize opportunities for different project participants,” Chanen says. “We have a process where we let tribal members who own businesses participate as subcontractors, so we want to make the packages in smaller bites so more participation could occur. We also worried about available labor and knew that if we got more subcontractors dividing up the work, we would have more crews because they compete with each other.”

The plan was successful and helped the project create approximately 300 new jobs for the community.

Chanen says he takes cultural awareness seriously, even relocating his office onsite to oversee the project. “Before I let anybody work at the SRP-MIC, I give them a primer on what they need to do in terms of working on Indian lands so that they don’t go out there and make a cultural mistake,” he says.

“While the brick and mortar is to build a hotel casino and conference center, the people that are members of this tribe see this project as an economic development tool. They don’t view themselves as being in the casino business. They see themselves as being in the guest-service business.”

Mass says sustainability was important to the community, but more in a traditional sense rather than from a LEED-based model. Efficiency is bolstered through appropriate desert-site orientation, the use of thick exterior walls and deeply recessed fenestration. “The project also uses a heat recovery system to reduce the cooling loads on the building,” Mass says.

Safety is also highly prized by the community, Chanen says, adding that with 1.5 million work hours and over 4,000 employees spending time onsite, there have been no disabling injuries or significant incidents.

The interior design mixes high-end glass, metal and stone finishes. “The project was designed in a unique order, in that they designed the guest rooms first,” Chanen says, adding that bedding was picked out before almost everything else. “The whole focus was on making the guest comfortable and creating a more modern guest-room experience.”

Amenities for the hotel and casino will include retail shops, full-service pool, 13,000-sq-ft luxury spa, eight restaurants and 10 entertainment lounges. The project also includes a 100,000-sq-ft indoor/outdoor conference center with a 25,000-sq-ft grand ballroom and 21 meeting rooms. (Photo by CAPS)

The hotel corridors are unusual in that there are small alcoves for every two guest rooms, so the room doors open to the alcoves rather than long corridors.

The interior has abundant natural light, even in the casino. An airy, two-story atrium greets visitors when they enter the building.

“The point is to create a place for play and relaxation by seeing and experiencing the outdoors,” Mass says. “The building design takes advantage of the traditional resort design where entry is above the garden level, which allows for vistas from the gaming floor to the casino gardens, the golf course and the mountains beyond.”

Key Players

Owner: Casino Arizona
General Contractor: Chanen Construction Co.
Architect: FFKR Architects
Subcontractors: Kinetic Systems; Schuff Steel; Hardrock Concrete Placement; Tpac; Pete King; Canyon Plastering

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