Conveniently located adjacent to Interstate 5 in the First Hill neighborhood of Seattle, the Ovation features two sleek 32-story mixed-use residential towers and a terrace-designed public plaza. The twin towers overlook the city’s downtown commercial area and are within walking distance of many office towers and notable parks and attractions. The Ovation brings to the area 565 new luxury apartments (including two-story penthouses), 8,400 square feet of retail, office, and restaurant space, and eight below grade levels of underground parking for 387 vehicles. Building features include electronic door entry and smart-home technology, such as Alexa-enabled lighting, thermostats, and window shades.
Ceco Concrete provided full concrete frame services for the two towers, which included complete Division 3 concrete services. From beginning to end, our team was responsible for formwork, rebar, and post-tensioning cable, concrete, and shotcrete supply, and concrete pumping, placement and finishing.
The project started before the COVID-19 pandemic took hold in the Pacific Northwest. Our work began at an amazing depth of 97 feet below the existing grade, with a 60-inch-thick mat foundation requiring 6,300 cubic yards of concrete and 973 tons of reinforcing. The perimeter walls below grade required 3,500 cubic yards of shotcrete. COVID-19 restrictions required construction to stop mid-project for a period of months, but the team came back together and again recaptured the momentum to successfully complete the task.
Each tower’s structural design consisted of a central core wall, perimeter columns, and flat post-tensioned concrete slabs. By utilizing self-climbing core wall formwork and Ceco’s perimeter barrier screen system, the Ceco team was able to pour one floor per week in both towers. This schedule helped free up valuable crane time for other project partners, and the barrier enclosure provide an added level of protection from falls and falling material hazards.
Close collaboration with our client enabled our team to pour out the roof levels on both towers one month ahead of schedule. Ceco is proud to have delivered these challenging concrete towers for JTM Construction.