The Raymond Group City Center Tree House, Las Vegas Construction #1.wmv

"The Tree House" featured in the attached time lapse video is the sculptural centerpiece of the new Sobella Retail space of The Crystals at City Center in Las Vegas.

The video reveals the structure's daily progress from start to completion, from one point of view.

The Raymond Group's role in the project included framing, drywall, taping, painting, wood cladding installation, as well as BIM components.

Below is a description of The Tree House provided by McLaren Engineering, who performed the complete structural engineering down to the main floor, the bulbed-out mezzanine floor, and support from the roof.

"This Tree House is not some rickety structure thrown together by a group of 12-year-olds from scrap lumber in dad's garage. Nor is it a pre-fabricated tree house kit with a slide, fire pole, and rope swing like those sold in Wal-Mart. No, this is altogether different."

"The Tree House is a two-story, free form, wood clad structure that seems to defy gravity, sitting precariously on a narrow base, spreading out to envelope part of the mezzanine floor, and then reaching away from its support to the skylight above. It appears to be made from horizontal and vertical slices of curved wood, and contains illuminated faces. The upper "oculus" allows light to shine inside the encapsulated bar, which bulbs out from the mezzanine."

"...Each structural member and connection experiences unique stresses, so each had to be analyzed individually. The connections of the secondary "ring" members to the primary "vertical" members were accomplished with bolts inside tapped holes, hiding the connection from view. Connections consist of four, six, eight, or ten bolts; connections with excessive forces required field welds. The shallow connection geometry (5" deep holes spaced only 2½" apart vertically) required stiffener plates to span across the primary members inside the joint, further complicating fabrication. Electrical wiring, recessed lighting units, and sprinkler pipes had to be installed along and through members without affecting the clean finished profiles, further complicating member intersections."

"The cantilevered "oculus" needed to be supported from wire ropes at the roof in order to make the framing work within the size constraints. There are four splayed wire ropes with turnbuckles, attached via ball joints to the roof truss members and via swivel hoist rings to the Tree House."

"The main floor structure was reinforced to support the Tree House's weight. The mezzanine floor was framed with steel beams and a lightweight concrete slab that receives the upper primary members and delivers these loads onto the mezzanine floor framing. These connections involved severely curved members bolted via thick base plates onto receiving beams."

"The Tree House is a very ambitious design in which each piece affects every other piece, and no two pieces are alike. The fabricator produced precise steel and wood elements that fit perfectly when assembled on site, and the result is a one-of-a-kind sculptural assembly of "wood" elements that defies gravity."

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[kk69597]

It should also be known that the project Managers on this one of a kind project were Jason Harshaw of Westworks and Kevin Erickson from the Raymond Group! Great job guy's!

[clawshaw]

It should be noted that the Tree House was designed by the Rockwell Group and fabricated by WestWorks, LLC of Norwalk, CT, for whom McLaren Engineering acted as a subcontractor. This structure contains more than 10,000 parts and about 100 tons of steel.