Aloft Hotel – Savannah

The Aloft hotel brand is known for its clean, contemporary architecture and design. Holding true to this mission, the new six-story Aloft in downtown Savannah will include 135 guest rooms featuring lofty ceilings and a vibrant social scene anchored by the WXYZ bar, a free-flowing lounge, and a grab-and-go café. Tharpe Engineering Group provided structural design, construction documentation, and construction administration for this project. Taking a unique approach to accommodating large open areas, a hybrid system was used to provide the flexibility of steel framing and the cost effectiveness of a conventional load bearing wall systems.

This hybrid system employed on the lobby level by the design team utilized conventional steel framing for the first elevated level and a proprietary light gauge metal wall and long span deck system for the upper floors. A partial basement with swimming and fitness areas reside roughly 16 feet below grade, requiring extensive foundation and underpinning design relative to the parking garage, also a part of this project. In order to reduce large, full-height moment frames and braced frames, a rigid diaphragm analysis was performed, and the elevator and stair cores were designed with cast-in-place concrete to resist lateral loads.