Harvey's Hotel and Casino

Lake Tahoe, Nevada

This Harvey's Resort Hotel/Casino expanded in the fall of 1987. The program requirement included the construction of a new 18-story hotel to be linked to the existing 11-story hotel tower. In addition, 400,000 square feet of public space was also required to house the gaming, back-of-the-house and convention facilities.  The structural system for the new hotel utilizes a moment frame system which also serves as a gravity Vierendeel truss transferring tower columns over a 29- foot bay in the public space.

With the immediate need for new space, a "fast-track" approach was adopted for the project.  The "Foundation Only" package was issued in just two months, and the structural steel package for the super-structure was issued shortly after. Every established milestone date of the schedule was met accordingly.

Linking the new tower to the existing hotel also posed major structural challenge. To match the floor-to-floor height of the existing concrete hotel, the structural steel floor framing system of the new tower was carefully designed and coordinated with the mechanical and plumbing systems.  The new tower also had to span 150 feet across an existing 5-story low-rise structure in order to interface with the existing tower.  An elaborate steel plate girder system was used to accomplish this. The plate girder system is supported on 10 columns which extend 75 feet down through the existing building, and is founded on new caissons drilled next to existing footings.