One Meridian Tower

Meridian Partners needed a Class A tower open for anchor tenants by Q3 2024. We locked scope, price and a resource-loaded schedule before breaking ground, then delivered two weeks early.

The challenge

The site sits on a tight downtown block bordered by two arterial roads and a light-rail line, with no laydown space and strict city limits on crane swing and delivery hours. Two anchor tenants had signed leases with fixed move-in dates, so a late handover would have triggered penalties from day one.

On top of that, the original design called for a long-lead curtain wall system with a 40-week fabrication window — longer than the structure itself.

Our approach

Pre-construction started nine months before ground-break. Working with Halvorsen Studio, our estimating team value-engineered the facade into a unitised system from a domestic fabricator, cutting lead time by 14 weeks without changing the architectural intent.

• Just-in-time deliveries scheduled in two-hour night windows, coordinated with the city and Capital Metro.

• A jump-form concrete core that climbed a floor every four days, with the steel frame following two levels behind.

• Weekly cost, quality and safety reports to the client, with every risk logged and owned before it became a delay.

We never had to chase STRUKT for a number. Every Monday the report was there, and every week the tower was where they said it would be.

Rebar inspection on level 14, ahead of a weekend core pour.

The outcome

One Meridian Tower topped out in September 2023 and reached substantial completion two weeks ahead of the contract date, under the agreed guaranteed maximum price. Both anchor tenants began fit-out on schedule. Across 640,000 site hours the project recorded zero lost-time incidents, and the building is on track for LEED Gold certification.