Aces High
A cornerstone of Outrigger’s redevelopment of Waikiki Beach Walk, the Trump tower is a post-tension cable concrete structure with hotel units located on floors eight to 23, residential units on floors 24 to 34, “Trump level” units on floors 35 to 37 and penthouses on the 38th floor. Each penthouse unit also has its own private area on the roof. The units feature floor-to-ceiling windows; gourmet kitchens with Wolf, Sub-Zero and Bosch appliances as well as under-counter wine cellar storage; five-fixture marble baths with soaking tubs and the latest entertainment technology.
Beyond the individual units, amenities also include a sixth-floor infinity pool with an expansive lanai deck, personal Trump Attaché services, The Spa at Trump, a state-of-the-art fitness center, lobby bar and library as well as a number of indoor and al fresco dining options, one of which will be Hawaii’s first BLT Steak, a nationally renowned restaurant.
In keeping with its location, behind the building’s modern façade, the interiors — from each of the residentially designed units to the two-level, open air lobby and all the public spaces — draw from a variety of Hawaiian influences, including traditional tapa patterns to accent wood paneling, tropical deco style furnishings and koa finishes.
To achieve the tower’s both world-class and intimate atmosphere, the materials used in its construction were, according to Russell Young, president and CEO of Albert C. Kobayashi, Inc., “brought in from all over the world.”
Being more specific, Kiewit engineers Liane Fujii and Jared Sakamoto provide a short list: granite countertops from Madagascar (sixth floor bar and café) and Brazil (unit kitchens), Brazilian quartzite tile (pool deck), Isis Gold stone, a limestone/marble material, from Egypt (sixth floor lanai and first and sixth floor lobby), marble tile from Italy (unit bathrooms), African mahogany (wood paneling, ceilings and planter boxes in various common areas) as well as koa finishes for the valet station, porter station, reception and bar counters.
Jokers Wild
Most of the challenges in the construction of the Trump tower stem from the size of the site, says Young. “It was a very tight site with very little room for a staging area. We had to do everything within the confines of the site itself, continuously moving things around.”
“The building footprint takes up two-thirds of the site,” add Fujii and Sakamoto. “There was not much room to stage materials and equipment to perform the necessary work. As such, planning was of the utmost importance to ensure that materials were brought in as they were needed without having to store anything in the limited amount of space we had to work with.”
Because the project is located in the middle of Waikiki, Fujii and Sakamoto continue, “It (also) was important for the project team to maintain a good relationship with all of the businesses in the surrounding area and to mitigate construction impacts on their daily activities, whether it had to do with noise, traffic, dust, etc. In order to keep all of the neighbors informed of work that would affect their businesses, monthly neighborhood meetings were held and points of contact were made available to them 24/7 to ease their concerns.”
“Safety, as always, was an issue as well,” says Young. “Being close to the road, we had to make sure nothing fell off the building as we climbed up.”
“The work on site had to be carefully planned and proper safety precautions had to be taken, i.e. posted signage to redirect pedestrians away from construction zones and installed covered walkways around the jobsite,” continue Fujii and Sakamoto.
As mentioned, the structural portion of the building consisted of post-tension cables and beams. “Much coordination had to be done in order to avoid interference or damage to these post-tension cables,” say Fujii and Sakamoto. “If items needed to be embedded into the slab after the concrete was poured and cables were placed, the slab had to be scanned to locate the post-tension cables to be sure they were not damaged.”
Full Deck
The extensive team of experts involved with the construction of the Trump tower includes:
A-American Custom Flooring; Acutron Co.; Affiliated Construction; Albert Chong Associates; All Pool and Spa; Associated Steel Workers; Baldridge & Associates; Beachside Roofing; Bontempi USA; Brownlie & Lee; Center Glass Co.; Closet Systems of Hawaii; DCI Draftstone Co.; Division X; Dorvin D. Leis Co.; Dragon Hill; Foo W. Lim & Sons; Gima Pest Control; GPRM Prestress; Grace Pacific Corp.; Group Builders; Guerin Glass Architects; Gysum Floors of Hawaii; Brett Hill Management Co.; Island Flooring Co.; Island Pacific Distributors; Jayco Hawaii; JBL Hawaii; Koga Engineering & Construction; Morris-Shea Bridge Co.; Notkin Hawaii; Pacific Architectural Resource Group; Pacific Coast Flooring & Design; Plas-Tech; Reflections Glass; Schindler Elevator Corp.; Swanson Steel Co.; Takano Nakamura Landscaping; Timberland Hawaii; Waltz Engineering; Wasa Electrical Services; Weber Co.; Wichert Tile; Wilson Okamoto Corp.; Benjamin Woo Architects and The Zelinsky Co.
