PROJECT
plumbing
PEX Quickens Renovation Gut-renovating 235 units on 10 floors, while the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel continued to operate, was no easy task.
A
ny large-scale, commercial-building renovation brings its own special construction challenges. When the structure is an 87-year-old icon—the
birthplace of the Academy Awards, the one-time residence of Marilyn Monroe, and with a David Hockney painting on the floor of its swimming pool—the game inevitably jumps several notches. “Historic renovations can be tough because of all the limita-
tions on how much you can change the existing structure, its façade, or even certain interior finishes,” commented Mark Shamim, whose Tarzana, CA-based firm, Shamim Engineering, was involved in the recently completed renovations at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in Los Angeles. Beyond historical concerns, the renovations at the venerable Roosevelt added one more layer of complexity and interest; they happened while the hotel remained open for business, operating at a capacity level of around 90%—at least for those rooms that were available. “For our engineering firm,” continued Shamim, “one of the biggest challenges of this landmark project was designing and installing a new plumbing system” as part of a piecemeal, gut renovation of an operational facility. Spanning a projected 18 months from 2013 through 2015, the work had to be done in an unobtrusive manner that would never inconvenience—or even be noticeable to—hotel visitors and guests. This reality led to the choice of plastic piping, rather than copper, to re-pipe all 235 guest spaces. Rigid, heat-fusion welded, polypropylene-random (PP-R) piping was used for larger-diameter lines in the mechanical room and for the vertical risers from the ground level to the 10 guest floors. In the corridors and inside the guest rooms themselves, flexible cross-linked polyethylene (PEX) piping connected the toilet, sink, and tub/shower to the risers. In all, roughly 14,300 ft. of Uponor Inc., Apple Valley, MN, PEX—in six different sizes, from 1/2 through 2 in.—were installed at the Roosevelt. The branch lines from the corridor piping were “straight runs with no line breaks and, therefore, no need for making connections that would slow the installation,” explained Andrew Valenzuela, director of field operations for the general contractor, City Constructors Inc. (CCi), Los Angeles. “With copper, there would have been so much more cutting and soldering, which would have added significant amounts of labor and materials. Also, with PEX, relocating a run or a stub-out because of an error or miscalculation is so much faster and easier.” Valenzuela said the decision to go with PEX significantly cut installation time on the project. “Copper has its place, but with all the tight spaces we must inevitably run our plumbing through, PEX is so much better,” he said. DECADE OF RENOVATIONS
Originally constructed in 1927 by a group that included HollyMarilyn Monroe once resided at the iconic Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, which received a new plumbing system as part of piecemeal, gut renovation that took place while the facility was operational. Shown is the renovated Marilyn Monroe suite. Photos: Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel
wood luminaries of that era—Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and Louis B. Mayer of MGM Studios—the Roosevelt Hotel is located in the heart of the entertainment district, situated on
32
COMMERCI A L A RCHI T EC T URE
APRIL 2016
commercialarchitecturemagazine.com
