Project Description

Gaylord Pacific Resort & Convention Center

Located in Chula Vista, California, the 22 story Gaylord Pacific Resort & Convention Center will be a premier resort destination with nearly 2 million square feet of space that includes 1,600 luxury rooms, multiple restaurants, a sports bar, pool and recreational facilities. The accompanying 5 story convention center boasts a massive footprint to support tradeshows and large-scale corporate events.

Project Details

Project Owner:

RIDA Chula Vista LLC

Structural Engineer:

Walter P. Moore

Architect:

HKS, Inc.

Steel Tonnage:

7,201 tons

Location:

Chula Vista, CA

Schuff Services: Preconstruction, design assist, value engineering, BIM services, connection design, project management, steel detailing, steel fabrication, steel erection

Project Overview

Schuff Steel fabricated and erected the coupling beams in the main blade walls for the hotel structure as well as the structural steel for the restaurant, wave pool mechanical building and adult pool bar building. With an aggressive schedule to meet, we offered value engineering services to save the owner both time and money. To prevent having to buy out long lead time joist, Schuff provided an optimized solution to convert 131 long span joists to fabricated, shop assembled structural trusses. This innovative workaround required a closely coordinated effort among project management, shop, logistics, and field teams, but in the end saved the Owner $4.5MM in addition to a 5-month schedule improvement.

To further capitalize on this schedule and cost savings, Schuff also provided value engineering for the hang points in the various ballrooms, which were shown in the construction documents as field welded connections for all of the bracing. To minimize costly field work, we collaborated with the truss design engineer to convert 700 hang points and 1,400 brace locations from field welded to bolted connections.

Additional time and budget savings were realized with:

  • Tandem crane pick coordination to allow for early turn over to other trades
  • Precision delivery of loads to prevent re-handling
  • Large onsite laydown area for pre-assembly and panelization for quick erection

More than 170,000 shop and field hours were completed with safety at the forefront and zero recordable injuries. With close collaboration with the General Contractor, we created an erection plan that included temporary bracing locations and hard barricades for all our field work areas to minimize hazards between trades.

The Gaylord Pacific Resort & Convention Center facility will be open to the public in the Summer of 2025.

Zero recordables from more than 170,000 shop & field hours

“The Gaylord Pacific Resort & Convention Center project was one that was difficult to get started, as many projects of this size and complexity are. Schuff’s team was a vital part of bringing ideas to the table to value engineer the design to be cost efficient. Without this team mentality, ingenuity and outside the box thinking, this monumental project would most likely never have been built.

Throughout the planning process, the Schuff team communicated effectively and clearly to create a collaborative environment that lead to overall project success. Schuff delivered on every promise made, including finishing within a few days of the original steel top out date. All of this was accomplished with a world class safety record, with Schuff logging more than 170,000 field and shop hours with no recordable injuries. Completing a project of this size on time, with zero injuries and within budget is only possible through teamwork and tremendous people.”

Andrew Corson, Project Executive, Mortenson McCarthy JV
Maryann Skraba, Project Director, Mortenson McCarthy JV
Sean Brummer, Senior Superintendent, Mortenson McCarthy JV

Let’s talk about
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    Gaylord Pacific Resort & Convention Center

    Project Details

    Project Owner:

    RIDA Chula Vista LLC

    Structural Engineer:

    Walter P. Moore

    Architect:

    HKS, Inc.

    Steel Tonnage:

    7,201 tons

    Location:

    Chula Vista, CA

    Schuff Services: Preconstruction, design assist, value engineering, BIM services, connection design, project management, steel detailing, steel fabrication, steel erection

    Located in Chula Vista, California, the 22 story Gaylord Pacific Resort & Convention Center will be a premier resort destination with nearly 2 million square feet of space that includes 1,600 luxury rooms, multiple restaurants, a sports bar, pool and recreational facilities. The accompanying 5 story convention center boasts a massive footprint to support tradeshows and large-scale corporate events.

    Schuff Steel fabricated and erected the coupling beams in the main blade walls for the hotel structure as well as the structural steel for the restaurant, wave pool mechanical building and adult pool bar building. With an aggressive schedule to meet, we offered value engineering services to save the owner both time and money. To prevent having to buy out long lead time joist, Schuff provided an optimized solution to convert 131 long span joists to fabricated, shop assembled structural trusses. This innovative workaround required a closely coordinated effort among project management, shop, logistics, and field teams, but in the end saved the Owner $4.5MM in addition to a 5-month schedule improvement.

    To further capitalize on this schedule and cost savings, Schuff also provided value engineering for the hang points in the various ballrooms, which were shown in the construction documents as field welded connections for all of the bracing. To minimize costly field work, we collaborated with the truss design engineer to convert 700 hang points and 1,400 brace locations from field welded to bolted connections.

    Additional time and budget savings were realized with:

    • Tandem crane pick coordination to allow for early turn over to other trades
    • Precision delivery of loads to prevent re-handling
    • Large onsite laydown area for pre-assembly and panelization for quick erection

    More than 170,000 shop and field hours were completed with safety at the forefront and zero recordable injuries. With close collaboration with the General Contractor, we created an erection plan that included temporary bracing locations and hard barricades for all our field work areas to minimize hazards between trades.

    The Gaylord Pacific Resort & Convention Center facility will be open to the public in the Summer of 2025.

    Zero recordables from more than 170,000 shop & field hours

    “The Gaylord Pacific Resort & Convention Center project was one that was difficult to get started, as many projects of this size and complexity are. Schuff’s team was a vital part of bringing ideas to the table to value engineer the design to be cost efficient. Without this team mentality, ingenuity and outside the box thinking, this monumental project would most likely never have been built.

    Throughout the planning process, the Schuff team communicated effectively and clearly to create a collaborative environment that lead to overall project success. Schuff delivered on every promise made, including finishing within a few days of the original steel top out date. All of this was accomplished with a world class safety record, with Schuff logging more than 170,000 field and shop hours with no recordable injuries. Completing a project of this size on time, with zero injuries and within budget is only possible through teamwork and tremendous people.”

    Andrew Corson, Project Executive, Mortenson McCarthy JV
    Maryann Skraba, Project Director, Mortenson McCarthy JV
    Sean Brummer, Senior Superintendent, Mortenson McCarthy JV

    Let’s talk about
    your next project