Case Study
Flagler Station Marriott: Miami, Florida
Charged with the design of a
business class hotel, with a
small footprint in a densely
populated area, Architect
Bernardo Sandoval, Associate
Project Manager for
Beame Architectural Partnership needed to make
the best use of every square foot of buildable space.
He accomplished this by removing the need to
build enclosed elevator lobbies with the Smoke
Guard system.
The five-story Marriott Courtyard project constructed
in Miami, Florida was required, by the
Florida 2004 building code, section 707.14.1, to
provide an enclosed elevator lobby on floors two
through five. Instead of building the code-prescribed
vestibule into his design, Mr. Sandoval
specified the Smoke Guard system at the elevator
hoistway, enabling him to add an additional sleeping
room on every floor, increase the size of every
unit by six to eight inches, and provide more space
in the back of the house.
"Using the rolling magnetic gasketing system,
instead of an enclosed elevator lobby, I was able to
dramatically reduce the size of the corridor and redistribute
the saved space in ways that made the
building more valuable" explained Mr. Sandoval.
"The four extra hotel rooms I was able to add will
generate additional revenue for the hotel owner
throughout the life of the building and the product
that made it possible had a payback period of less
than six months."
Prior to this, local building officials had yet to
apply the more recent provisions of the building
code that defined options for providing elevator
smoke protection and were not familiar with the
ICC Evaluation Service reports. A meeting at the
building department with all stakeholders–architect,
building owner, building officials, and the
Smoke Guard representative was arranged. We
were able to gain approval of the installation at the
Flagler Station Marriott following review by the
building department.
The elevators in the Flagler Station Marriott are
located at a central point in the core of the building
and open directly onto the corridor. By using the
Smoke Guard system, the elevators could have
been moved anywhere on the corridor and the project
would still meet code. Smoke Guard systems
require less than one foot of space, from the bottom
of the housing to the top, an important consideration
as hotel properites tend to build tight slab to
slab.
As Mr. Sandoval and the owners of the Flagler
Station Marriott Courtyard learned, Smoke Guard
is a valuable solution to have in your design when
smoke containment is required by the building
code. The Smoke Guard system enables architects
to refine floor plans, enhancing the long term value
of a property by reallocating space otherwise consumed
by an enclosed elevator lobby to more profitable
areas of the building.
