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Design: Walsh Bishop Associates and Engineer: Ericksen Roed & Associates. Contract: Competitively Bid. Budget: $1,900,000. Supervision: Curt Thon, Randy VanHoven and Kurt DeKock. Turtle Creek Hotel was originally designed as a cast in place concrete structure. With an extremely tight schedule and a mid-winter start in Northern Michigan, precast became an alternative for the project because of the speed of construction; all weather fabrication and erection and a slightly lower cost. After the general contractor, PCL Construction and the owner were presented with the patented Precast Truss System, the decision was obvious; precast was the solution of choice. Turtle Creek Hotel was constructed using a patented precast truss system developed by Ericksen Roed and Associates out of Minneapolis, MN. This system was developed in response to a multistory developer as a solution for mixed use structures by eliminating column penetrations and opening up the structure while remaining cost effective due to its speed and indoor, plant controlled production. Turtle Creek Hotel was the fifth project in the world that was constructed using this unique form of construction. Turtle Creek Hotel’s total precast structure features 13,000 square feet of precast double tees, 1,340 lineal feet of precast columns, 670 lineal feet of precast beams, 11 precast trusses, 19,200 square feet of solid wall panels for elevator shafts, 2,000 square feet of solid floor slabs, and 79,100 square feet of hollowcore floor plank. All 841 precast pieces were shipped to the jobsite on 198 loads between 3/22/07 and 5/31/07. The building’s 9 story structure was erected in 49 working days.