The area of Seton at the southern edge of Calgary is being transformed into a community designed for working professionals, localizing similar amenities of a large metropolitan area with major retail centers while featuring Calgary’s newest hospital. A thriving destination like Seton expects premium accommodations and meeting facilities for visitors. To meet these expectations, The Superior Lodging Corporation developed a combination Marriott Residence Inn for long-term guests, which include 97 spacious, one and two bedroom suites and The Courtyard by Marriott, which includes 4 suites, comprised of 124 rooms for shorter stays. This combined facility enables the two hotels to provide a wide range of luxury amenities to all hotel guests; featuring an indoor pool and waterslide, conference rooms, restaurants, a full-service spa, and discrete executive suites on the top floor with a view of the Rocky Mountains. Fully accessible units are also provided to accommodate guests utilizing healthcare services of the Calgary South Health Campus, primary care hospital due to close proximity. The Seton Marriott Hotels and Conference Facilities fill an important need in the community by enabling residents and visitors to access services without having to travel further afield.
At the beginning of the project, it was known that Marriott design standards would be updated to a new hotel concept before the hotel construction was completed. To allow the new hotel prototype standards to be incorporated into the hotel design, the project team sequentially tendered the scopes of construction to defer tendering of the interior design until part way through construction. The design and construction team were successfully able to incorporate the new prototype design while construction of the hotel was ongoing.
WE addressed key technical structural, mechanical and electrical design challenges such as the large open spaces and high ceiling on the main floor for the conference rooms, lobby and restaurants, which were facilitated using a concrete transfer slab on the second floor where the structure changed to a load-bearing steel stud and metal deck system.
Marriott heating and ventilation standards require a high quality system to ensure guest comfort for their entire stay. While not a high rise building as defined by Marriott, The Alberta Building Code required life safety systems to meet high rise design standards including smoke control for each zone of the hotels. A cost-effective combination of systems was designed to provide a high quality guest experience and to satisfy the safety code standards.
Marriott lighting standards are designed to provide a luxurious experience while also being cost-effective. The evolution of LED lighting allowed the lighting in these hotels to be of a high quality, while reducing operation costs and still fitting within the construction budget.
The positive outcome of this complex project was a result of ongoing communication between Marriott, the Owner, as well as the construction and design teams. The consistent and frequent engagement of all stakeholders ensured the hotel was completed on time and the scheduled grand opening of Christmas 2015 was a great success!
