MetroPointe Lofts

Owner: Technology Housing, Atlanta
Location: Atlanta
Contractor: W.G. Yates & Sons Construction Co., Atlanta
Architect: Ai Group, Atlanta

MetroPointe Lofts is a 1,216-bed student housing project designed to serve the Georgia Institute of Technology, Georgia State University and Atlanta University System students.

The eight-story building consists of two- and four-bedroom loft-style apartments. Amenities include a swimming pool; volleyball and basketball courts; business center; night/maintenance facility; and seven-story, 1,786-space parking deck connected to the building with three cast-in-place concrete bridges.

Notably, the first footing for the 559,000-sq.-ft. project wasn't poured until July 2004, and the construction team was still able to complete the contract by Aug. 5.

The first challenge was to complete the project - including installation of all furniture - prior to students arriving for this year's fall semester. This prohibited any schedule delays.

Also, a shift in the building just as footings were to begin created a hurdle, as well as a "pinch point," and caused the finished grade to be 12 ft. below the adjacent property - and leaving only 7 ft. between the building and the adjacent property.

This building shift caused a change in the location of the footings and also affected site utilities and site logistics. To resolve the problem, the footings were accelerated and work was resequenced due to the limited site access.

The team also design-built a zero-lot-line, cast-in-place concrete retaining wall to expedite resolution and protect adjacent fiberoptics.

Poor subsurface conditions had initially caused the owner to consider deep foundations as a requirement for the project. However, Yates suggested utilizing dynamic compaction to improve the soil. Ultimately, this method won out and the team was able to use spread footings as a foundation, which reduced this portion of the overall budget by $500,000.

The building was designed to have a loft-style atmosphere, with exposed concrete floors and an exposed MEP system in the ceiling. A chain-link fence corridor ceiling was designed during preconstruction to limit student access to the exposed MEP systems. This system proved to be not only cost effective but also visually appealing and a complement to the loft atmosphere.