Minoru Yasui Plaza

The complete gut and renovation of the 197,000 sf, 17-story Minoru Yasui Plaza office building in downtown Denver included extensive asbestos abatement and full interior demolition and renovation, new architectural finishes, interior walls, mechanical, plumbing, fire protection, electrical and telecom systems. The structural repair of certain elements and re-roofing the building was also included.

Pinkard originally built this building, the old Downtowner Motor Inn and Hotel, in 1969. Because it was originally designed as a hotel, deck-to-deck heights only allowed 9 inches of space for fire protection, electrical, HVAC, and extensive amounts of data cable. A special European hydronic radiant panel system that uses only four inches of ceiling space was installed to make room for the other systems.

The ceiling-height/hydronic radiant panel system created some unusual phasing problems. All data cable had to be installed before the ceiling grid, and some of the radiant panels and requisite piping went in before the walls were constructed.

Staging was severely limited, allowing for only a single delivery truck at a time. As a result, deliveries were conducted strictly on an "as-scheduled" basis, creating what was described as "airplanes in a holding pattern circling over an airport." A single truck would pull up to the loading area, materials go into the single exterior elevator and then directly to the floor under renovation.

There was no room for the usual exterior trash chute or dumpsters. To solve the challenge of disposing of demolished materials, a 3' x 6' existing interior duct chase was expanded to 6' x 6' to serve as the trash chute for the project. As demolished materials accumulated at the bottom of the chute, they were moved by a Bobcat-type front-end loader into dumpsters inside the building.

Winner,

Associated Builders and Contractors' 1st place, National Excellence in Construction Eagle award.