Pre-Fabricated EIFS Panels Speed Hotel Construction

Ready in time for next month's Super Bowl LII, a Minneapolis, MN hotel and convention center project team focused on completing the building envelope to adhere to the construction schedule.

When the NFL announced in May 2014 that the Super Bowl LII would be played in at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, MN, a race was on within the hospitality, commercial real estate, and construction industries in the Twin Cities to capitalize on the future economic infusion from the big game. Now, with the NFL championship game less than a month away (February 4), the final push was on this past fall to complete construction of new restaurants and hotels to accommodate the influx of football fans and the throng of media attending the big game.

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Mystic Lake Center in Minneapolis, MN opened in October 2017.

One of the largest NFL championship-fueled projects was the expansion of the Mystic Lake Casino Hotel which involved construction of Mystic Lake Center, a new 180 room, 12-story hotel tower connected to a 70,000 square foot, convention center. The deadline imposed by the Super Bowl compressed the timeline for design, permitting, and construction of the project and placed a premium on creative approaches.

“We needed what I like to call our own ‘special teams’ unit to enable us to complete the project in time for the big game,” said Isaac Kendall, project superintendent with PCL Construction Services, Inc.’s Minneapolis district, the general contractor that led the Mystic Lake Center expansion project.

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Mystic Lake Center in Minneapolis, MN during construction

For any large-scale construction project, an effective way to accelerate construction is to complete the shell of the building as soon as possible so the facility can become weathertight to allow interior work to begin. The design of Mystic Lake Center called for use of an Exterior Insulation and Finish System (EIFS). This continuous insulation (CI) system is among the most widely used exterior cladding materials in commercial construction. Many prominent buildings in Minneapolis have exterior walls built with EIFS, including the Mall of America.

PCL turned to Swanson & Youngdale, a 70 year old Minnesota contractor specializing in EIFS construction, to assess options on the fastest and most effective way to construct the building envelope. Kevin Halvorson, Vice President of Swanson & Youngdale’s drywall division, showed PCL how they could cut months off the construction timeline if they used pre-fabricated EIFS panels that were built off site in a weather-controlled environment and brought to the construction site for faster installation.

Halvorson was confident in his company’s ability to meet the tight timeframe thanks to his partnership with the Lutz Company, a Minneapolis-based company that distributes EIFS components for Dryvit Systems, Inc., the largest EIFS manufacturer in North America.

Super BowlPCL and the Mystic Lake Casino Hotel team did their homework before giving a green light to the plan for pre-fabricated panels at Mystic Lake Center. “We had other companies build panels before for other jobs but never in as complicated a design,” said Kendall. “The Mystic Lake project required floor to ceiling panels that incorporated the windows. We didn’t want to give up quality that I knew we could count on with traditional field applied EIFS, but we also knew that we didn’t have the luxury of time to use the traditional approach on the entire project.”

To assure PCL that the pre-fabricated approach would provide the same quality as field applied EIFS, yet in a fraction of the time, Swanson & Youngdale worked with the Lutz Company to develop a full section of exterior cladding with an integrated window system. After seeing the wall section, PCL was convinced. The completed section was then shown to the design team and owner, both of whom signed off on the accelerated construction approach.

It took 37 working days for a five-man crew to install 30,000 square feet of panels on the 12-story hotel tower. For the 70,000-square foot convention center, where traditional field applied EIFS had to be used because of a curved wall design, 10 workers spent five months completing the job.

“I was amazed at how fast the panels of EIFS were installed on the hotel tower,” said Kendall. “Speed wasn’t the only major benefit of this approach. If we had gone the conventional way with field applied EIFS on the hotel tower, we wouldn’t have been able to install the windows until all of the EIFS was completed and the scaffolding was down. Thanks to panelization, as soon as the installation crew completed a section, I could have a caulking team come right behind them to secure the windows in place. Having multiple trades working on the project at the same time was a huge time saver.”

Halvorson estimates that the use of pre-fabricated panels shaved six months off the construction timeline.

Tim Lutz, commented on the finished product: “I’m proud to have teamed with Dryvit in providing Swanson & Youngdale with a solution that gave PCL and Mystic Lake Casino Hotel the time savings they needed to get this project done in time for the ultimate game in sports.”

Dryvit Tech 21 Initiative Plays Role In Project Timeline

Helping to meet the construction deadline for Mystic Lake Center was a Dryvit program that the company introduced in September 2017 — Tech 21 Initiative. The program aim is to make it easier for building owners, general contractors, and architects to use or specify prefabricated panels of Dryvit’s Outsulation®systems with Dryvit’s traditional EIFS finishes or its NewBrick cladding.

Dryvit hired Rick Bunting, a construction professional with more than 35 years of industry experience, to head up the initiative. In his newly created position as national renovation and panelization manager, Bunting is working to expand the growing ranks of contractors already prefabricating Dryvit panels to help ensure a readily available supply across the United States. As part of its Tech 21 initiative, Dryvit launched a Partner Fabricator Network that provides premium warranty coverage for prefabricated panels manufactured by participating contractors. Contractors who undergo additional training and meet other qualification standards are eligible to participate in the Partner Fabricator Network.

“Accelerated installation of a building’s exterior cladding through panelization enables a property to begin generating revenue much earlier than if traditional, field-applied construction is used,” said Bunting. “The added value of overcoming labor shortages by prefabricating Outsulation panels in areas of the country where skilled labor is more plentiful is also a huge bonus.”