A negative site was turned into a positive setting for the $239 million Schaumburg Convention Center and Hotel.

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The facility in the suburb 25 mi. northwest of Chicago is located in a low-lying floodplain northeast of the juncture of Meacham Road and the Northwest Tollway. Three major facilities will comprise the complex: the convention center on the site's south, the Marriott Renaissance Hotel in the center and a performing arts center - an element on hold - on the north.

Excavated ponds were incorporated into the design plans, and they will provide water retention and some drainage, said Ric Krause, vice president and Business Group manager of Chicago-based Walsh Construction Co., the general contractor.

More important, the design aim of the ponds and accompanying landscaping in front of the hotel is to give visitors the impression that they are entering a resort, said Ellis Katz, executive vice president and director of the Hospitality Studio of Atlanta-based John Portman & Associates Inc., the architect.
Amplifying the theme of a grand entry will be an extraordinary aesthetic element in circular shape called the "embrace."

The bottom of the 550-ft.-diameter feature is 15 ft. above ground and will be made up of two column-supported, 8-ft.-tall, 2-ft.-deep arcs, one north of the hotel entrance and the other south of the entrance. Between the arcs are entry and exit roads, in addition to the ponds and landscaping.

The embrace "allows the water and prairie-style, landscaped site to become an outdoor room," Katz said.

The poured-in-place-concrete embrace with painted finish will require specialty formwork to be built, Krause said. The forming started in May.

"It'll be very noticeable, especially as you are entering the building," Krause added.

An Upscale Look

Another key aesthetic element is an elliptical porte-cochere that will protect guests and vehicles from the elements.

The porte-cochere's walls are insulated glass, and the roof has a skylight with cantilevered beams that extend toward a pond, Katz said. At the end of the cantilevered beam is a feature that allows water to fall into a pond.

The convention center and hotel will be rectangular, while the embrace, porte-cochere and planned performing arts center will be circular "thus allowing these elements to act as feature points in the overall composition," Katz said.

The high style will continue inside the Marriott hotel, where guests will encounter upscale touches and finishes.

The lobby will house a pair of curved grand staircases that will provide a dramatic first impression, Katz said. Finishes include stone flooring, millwork and high-end carpets.

"The convention center's finishes will match the hotel's," added Jon Clay, Walsh senior project manager.

The curtain wall-clad hotel is topped out, and the metal panel-clad convention center is expected to come into focus. The project started in July 2004 is expected to finish in June 2006.

Creative Funding

The complex about five minutes' drive north of the Woodfield Shopping Center is being built partly to help increase village revenue and drive business.

Schaumburg does not levee property taxes but rather relies on assessments against hotels, sales and food to fund operations, said Brian Townsend, Schaumburg's assistant village manager.

The 350,000-gross-sq.-ft. convention center will hold a 100,000-sq.-ft. exhibit hall that can be divided into separate halls.

There will be about 20,000 sq. ft. of space for meetings, and a 28,000-sq.-ft. ballroom, Townsend said.

The convention center will connect to the 15-story, 500-room hotel.

To deal with noise, a frequent concern in hotels and convention centers, walls are made of insulated metal panels over insulated stud walls. On the interior, the walls surfaces will have sound-deadening insulation.

The complex will have a 1,700-space surface parking lot.

The 2,400-seat performing arts center might not break ground for five years, Townsend said.

Sitework Headaches

Preparing the site required a lot of coordination.

For instance, a lot of soft and silty soil was discovered on the 45-acre site, Walsh's Clay said. Dumping of concrete and other refuse had occurred on the undeveloped spot "for many years," he added.

Fill usually composed of clay and taken from other areas of the site was deposited in places where the ground was weak. The fill that ranged between 6 and 12 in. was laid and compacted with a roller. In a few areas, stone was laid and also compacted.

Poor weather conditions added to the sitework woes.

"We probably had one of the wettest falls in the last 50 years," Clay said. "The site was pretty much saturated."

The ground was disked so draining and drying could occur, and lime was laid so the overall project could move forward.
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Despite these efforts, the site conditions resulted in some changes to the original plans, Townsend said. Originally, about 920 steel H-piles were to support the hotel but an additional 50 piles were required.

Steeling the Project

And then there was the rising price of steel.

In addition to the hotel's steel-pile foundations, steel forms the convention center's frame, Krause said. Cost estimating was carefully watched.

"We were lucky to have found someone who agreed with what we felt the [steel] value was," he said. Southern Steel Co. in Charlotte, N.C., was selected as the fabricator.

Walsh was concerned whether Southern, which it had worked with only once before and is far away from Illinois, could meet the schedule and other demands.

"We spent a lot of time at their shop and we met with them on a constant basis," Krause said. "We've had some hitches, but so far, they've come through."