Te Arikinui Pullman Auckland Airport Hotel is a 5-star hotel investment by Auckland Airport and Tainui Group Holdings to meet growing global demands for accommodation within walking distance of both domestic and international airport terminals. Located at the gateway to New Zealand, the 10-storey building features 311 luxury guestrooms spread over the upper nine levels, as well as various engaging environments that reflect local culture and provide guests with a personalised and authentic experience, such as the informal lobby hub, roof-level bar, and a restaurant featuring a selection of New Zealand’s finest cuisine.
Local Māori architectural designs feature throughout the hotel, which were developed in close collaboration with Tainui. The exquisite designs provide a unique and lasting experience for visitors.
Working with Warren and Mahoney architects, AECOM was engaged by the joint venture client to provide structural and civil engineering design and construction observation services for the hotel building.
The building design includes many complex structural engineering features, including:
- Long span transfer structures and mega columns at the ground floor level. This provides large column free areas for ground level facilities.
- Feature cladding to the underside of the building. This required a complex support structure and extensive collaboration between architectural and structural teams to resolve design.
- Innovative structural solutions to address the complex building footprint and to ensure integration with architecture and building services.
- Buckling-restraint bracing system to provide improved resilience through a seismic event.
- Complex building foundation design due to challenging ground conditions and complex soil/structure interaction challenges.
- Construction stage analysis to determine potential instability issues during the construction. This was deemed necessary for the project due to the complex transfer structural arrangement through the lower levels of the building.
AECOM’s global experience in modular construction enabled AECOM to work with the client early in the project to evaluate several modular construction options.
