Building Name: LA Fitness; West Oaks
Location: 8906 Highway 6 South, Houston, TX 77083
Building Occupant Name: LA Fitness International, LLC
Function Type: Sports club and workout facility
Size: 45,000 ft2
Number of Stories: 2 (Ground floor and mezzanine)
Owner: LA Fitness International, LLC {www.lafitness.com}
General Contractor: Ridgemont Construction (Dallas-based)
Construction Manager: LA Fitness International, LLC handles their own CM work.
Architects: Heights Venture Architects, LLP
{www.hva.cc/firm.htm}
MEP Engineers: Advanced Technologies, Inc.
{www.advtechinc.com}
Structural Engineers: BGA Engineers, Inc.
Civil Engineers: Cobb Fendley & Associates
{www.cobfen.com}
Interior Designers: Senninger Walker Architects
Dates of Construction: Start: 5/9/05 Finish: 12/9/05
Actual Cost information: $4.5 Million for building project
(not including 5 acres of land)
Project Delivery Method: Design-bid-build
Architecture: The function of this space is to serve as a temple to fitness. There are many different types of spaces such as a basketball court, a pool, an aerobics area, racquetball courts, a child care center, and a large open cardiovascular center. A goal of the designers for this space was to make it feel open and comfortable. The exercise equipment defines the paths of motion through the space. Many of the spaces are double height adding to this open feeling. There also exists a mezzanine that overlooks the center cardiovascular area of the gym.
Major Codes: IBC 2000, ADA Accessibility Guidlines, TAS (Texas Accessibility Standards), NEC 2002, ANSI
Zoning: Houston is unique in the sense that there are no zoning regulations governing the city.
Historical Information: This is a new building, and the land has no known history.
Building Envelope: The front façade is brick veneer. The exterior walls make use of tilt-up wall construction with minimal 4” stud walls furred out on the inside of the tilt. These walls have an insulation value of R-13. There is a structural steel system to support the tilt wall. The windows are 1” tinted insulated glass. There is a built up roof with an overall R-22 insulation value.
Construction: For efficiency and speed purposes, tilt-up concrete is used for part of the building envelope. Concrete is cast on site horizontally. Once it cures, cranes lift it into place on the building. This allows more phases to be completed simultaneously.
Structural: The structural system uses structural steel, concrete, and even a wood truss roof system. This LA Fitness uses a composite floor construction. The floor consists of 4-1/2” normal weight concrete slabs over 20 gauge composite steel deck which is all supported by steel beams. The envelope walls use a tilt-up construction system that is made of 8” thick normal weight concrete. There is a wood truss system in place on the roof (I will need some assistance analyzing this system).
Electrical: The service utility is transformed down to 277/480 outside the building. (4) 600 kcmil conduits are run underground and pulled into an area on the exterior façade of the building. There is one main electrical room which serves the majority of the panels for the building. In this room the high voltage panels can be served directly. There is also a transformer in this room that takes the power down to 120/208 power which serves the remaining panels. Besides the electrical room, there are panelboards located at the Juice Bar and the pool room to better serve these areas.
Lighting: There are four main lamps used in this building: fluorescent, metal halide, ceramic metal halide, and LED. However, the majority of the interior lighting is fluorescent.
Mechanical: The LA Fitness mechanical system is unique because of the diverse loads it serves. The air for the building is handled by 13 packaged roof top units that take the entirety of the mechanical load. There are special considerations that went into the design regarding the inherent high levels of humidity in Houston, paired with the challenge of properly maintaining a pool area. Issues of indoor air quality, condensation, and air balance are of utmost importance in this design.
Pool Equipment: There are also special systems in place for the pool. I will need more time to analyze and better understand these pool systems, as it is all new information.