Situated in Birmingham Airport, on a very constrained site and with half the building coming from China, this was bound to be a challenging project. The construction of the Hilton Garden Inn Hotel for the Castlebridge Group was an excellent example of teamwork and collaborative working.
The site was surrounded by the main access road to flight arrivals and departures, Birmingham Airport Police HQ and a busy multi-storey car park and there was a no waiting restriction on all surrounding roads. Logistics planning was a major part of the project.
A long-standing relationship with client helped in the early stages of the development, as we worked side by side with them and their cost consultants through a negotiated tender process. This enabled our pre-construction team to support the client through the design and early market testing stages to achieve budget.
The project involved the construction of a £20m, 178 bedroomed hotel with two steel frame towers accommodating the stairs and lift shafts and a steel and concrete first floor transfer deck. The towers aid stability and form a spine for the remainder of the hotel – pre-finished modular units in the form of bespoke shipping containers.
The external facade was a combination of curtain walling, cladding and masonry.
Monthly design meetings were held in the UK with modular specialist CIMC and a prototype bedroom unit was available for inspection in China after 19 weeks; manufacture of the units was a 20 week process.
The units then took six weeks to arrive in the UK and only four weeks to install. This element of the build required extensive liaison and much of it was carried out at night due to access constraints at the airport during the day.
Amenities at the hotel include a 24-hour business centre, fitness room and changing facilities, a large reception area, bar and restaurant.
