HARBOR CENTER

PROJECT DETAILS

• Design Criteria:
  • Provide state-of-art hockey facilities.
  • Design to meet LEED Silver requirements.
  • Compliment historic features of Buffalo’s canal areas.
• Architect: Populous
• Associate Architect: GSB
• Developer: HARBORCENTER Development, LLC
• General Contractor: Mortenson Construction
• Epoxy-Coated Reinforcing Steel: 1250 ton
• Total Project Cost: $170 million

Date Opened: Scheduled for September 2014

The $170 million Harbor Center project will feature two National Hockey League-size rinks and training facilities, a full-service 205-room hotel and a two-story restaurant, plus street-level retail space and a five-level, 850-space parking ramp. The project site, Webster Block, consists of a 1.7 acre site, located in close proximity to Canalside, two major sports venues and the Peace Bridge.

This center will become the home of the Buffalo Jr. Sabres and Buffalo Regals youth hockey organization. Canisius College, an NCAA Division I College Hockey program in Buffalo, will also make this building their home. Once complete, the facilities are expected to create 350 full-time jobs and generate $4.1 million in state and local taxes or $48 million over the next ten years.

HARBORCENTER Development, LLC officially broke ground on April 13, 2013. The design complements the historic architecture of Buffalo using modern architectural materials and elements, including glass and geometric volumes clad in metal panels.

The project is designed to achieve LEED certification, with a goal of LEED Silver. The development is one of the most expensive for any privately funded single building in the city of Buffalo history.

Epoxy-coated reinforcing steel was used in the project to provide corrosion protection at the parking levels of the structure.

Working closely with the contractor and mechanical contractor, Studio Gang Architects found the high number of shape variations in the floor slabs could be achieved without increasing the building’s construction timetable. The balconies’ shapes also provide protection against wind loading, minimizing the amount of damping required to ensure stability even in high winds.

The 1.9-million-square-foot project features epoxy-coated reinforcing bar in all of the balconies as well as in the five-level, 500,000-square-foot below-grade parking structure. Epoxy-coated reinforcing bar was used in these strategic areas to ensure no corrosion induced damage would occur. Approximately 2445 tons of epoxy-coated reinforcing bar was used.

To accommodate the fluid nature of the balconies’ designs, the contractor ordered reinforcing bar in three different lengths rather than fabricate bar to custom lengths in the field. The savings in labor costs and field adjustments easily compensated for the cost of the added steel.

Flexible steel edge-forms were sculpted into the prescribed shape for each balcony and reused on each floor to minimize formwork material waste. The balcony slabs, averaging about 2,600 square feet each, are 9 inches thick along the façade and become thinner as they cantilever further from the facade, aiding drainage.

The project features retail and office space on the lowest three floors, hotel rooms on the fourth through 18th floors, luxury rental residences on floors 19 through 52 and condominiums on floors 53 and up. A green roof, one of the largest in Chicago at 80,000 square feet, includes various plantings as well as an outdoor pool, running track, gardens, fire pits and a yoga terrace.