The 229,274-ft² airport hotel on four levels of parking climbs 10 stories, plus a sky bar and amenity deck. With 298 guest rooms, 23,000 ft² of meeting and event spaces, and a rooftop pool and bar, the hotel site is constrained between two existing parking structures on either side and a heavily traveled airport loop at the front and back of the property.

Read more about this project in the Fall 2024 issue of Ascent.

PRECAST SOLUTION

With the hotel’s proximity to an international airport, architectural precast concrete panels offered the best solution for the building’s elevated exterior façade, providing innate thermal, acoustical, and blast-resistance strength characteristics while also meeting the minimal ground clearance needed for installation.

Architect

Rabun Architects

Owner

Nashville Airport Hotel Partners

Contractor

Crain Construction

Engineer

Gresham Smith

Precast Concrete Producer

GATE Precast

Precast Concrete Erector

Precision Stone

Key Project Attributes

• Designers looked to the airport for the hotel’s contemporary design inspiration. The hotel rooftop has a wing element to emulate an airplane.
• One challenge of the project was that the hotel was to sit on the top level of an already-designed and partially built four-story parking structure.
• Planners wanted to use materials that would allow the construction team’s schedule to move in a timely manner.

Project/Precast Scope

• Precast concrete’s inherent soundproofing qualities that enabled the airport’s sound transmission class rating to be met, the speed of installation with preglazed precast concrete panels, and the overall resiliency of the material in an environment with heavier air pollution.
• GATE Precast manufactured 400 precast concrete pieces in total, 126 of those with double-punched and eight with single-punched windows installed.
• The speedy enclosing of the hotel was due in large part to the preglazed precast concrete panels.