The Plaza Coral Gables – South Parcel

A 17-STORY HOTEL TOWER AND A 14-STORY OFFICE TOWER STACKED ATOP AN 8-STORY PODIUM

Coral Gables, Florida

Designed according to the Mediterranean-style design standards for which Coral Gables, FL, is famous, The Plaza Coral Gables was conceived with the business district in mind. The development is bringing a full range of services and opportunities to this long-abandoned city section, including a high-end hotel with meeting space for business and social events, Class A offices, shopping and dining, residential townhomes and apartments, and a public plaza spanning nearly an acre. Adjacent sidewalks and streets are integrated into the landscape design, creating a high-end urban pedestrian environment that ties in different components of the development with the city’s ambiance.

Ceco Concrete provided full concrete framing services for the development’s hotel and office buildings that sit atop a parking ramp, placing concrete for all foundations, columns, walls and arches as well as elevated reinforced-concrete and post-tensioned concrete decks.

The project included a 17-story hotel tower with 15,936-square-foot floors located on the eastern portion of the development and a 14-story office tower stacked on top an 8-story podium located on the southern portion. Each floor in the office tower is 22,310 square feet. Both towers include retail space with street-level access throughout the first two floors.

Once awarded, Ceco had to mobilize quickly to meet the project start date, making it challenging for Ceco’s engineers to design the construction plan of the towers’ many beams and intricately detailed terraces and arches located between floors. Three Ceco crews worked together to keep the project on schedule.

For each tower, Ceco achieved a six-day floor cycle by using the Ceco-owned Speed Deck formwork system and loose framing for lower floors and Ceco trusses (tables) for the towers. By using the two deck formwork systems, the Ceco team was able to achieve the unique structural scheme of the lower floors. The larger truss panels were then employed to expedite the repetitive levels above. Using a placing boom and mast, the team completed floors in three pours. For the garage, Ceco used four placing booms and masts, dividing the 80,220-square-foot floor into nine pours.

Work began April 2020 and the Ceco team topped out both towers in March 2021. Overall, an estimated 55,000 cubic yards of concrete was placed, along with 5,296 tons of reinforcing steel and 550,400 pounds of post-tensioning materials.

Project Documents

Project Sheet