At the intersection of culture and community you’ll find the MC Hotel, Montclair’s first full-service hotel in 80 years. McLaren Engineering Group served as the structural engineer-of-record and contractor’s engineer for this 159-room, 120,000 square-foot culturally driven boutique hotel that opened in the heart of a thriving artistic community in Montclair, New Jersey.
The 8-story steel tower hotel features guest rooms branded as a Marriott Autograph Collection, 12,000 square feet of conference space, and 10,000 square feet of food and beverage space that includes a ground floor restaurant and rooftop bar/restaurant designed to accommodate extensive green space.
The close proximity of other structures in this high traffic area required the use of underpinning and mini piles on the zero-lot-line. As the Structural Engineer-of-Record, McLaren engineered the foundations, concrete basement and vehicle drop-off and loading dock at grade level (above basement), 2-levels of structural steel for amenities and transfer, 6-levels of light gage bearing wall construction above steel transfer for luxury hotel rooms and 1-level of structural steel framed roof-top bar over light gage bearing wall construction accommodating a roof top screen wall.
The 8-story steel tower at the boutique MC Hotel required resisting hydrostatic. McLaren worked closely with the project’s civil engineer to reduce the magnitude of hydrostatic pressure and ergo the quantity necessary to ballast the building against “buoyancy” during a 50-year storm event.
As the Contractor’s Engineer, McLaren designed calculations for pan metal stairs, and detailed shop drawings for structural steel above transfer level and panelized light gage bearing wall superstructure. During the project, an electrical duct bank was found that could not be disturbed or shut down through the duration of the project, and the steel fabricator was removed from the project halfway through construction. McLaren was able to alter the design to accommodate construction sequencing and complete an extensive review of the shop drawings to ensure the contractor could find a replacement fabricator.
Image Credit for Image 1: Google Maps; Image Credit for Image 2: Avison Young; Image Credit for Image 3: DYAMI Architects; Image Credit for Images 4 and 5: Posch-Engineering