New 22-Story Marriott International Headquarters Towers over Bethesda, Maryland

At 22 stories, the new Marriott International headquarters towers over Bethesda, Maryland. As the new home for Marriott International, the 785,000-square-foot building will house over 3,500 employees. Developed by Boston Properties and designed to meet LEED Gold standards, the new workplace offers state-of-the-art technology and an abundance of modern amenities to its employees. These amenities include a childcare center, fitness center, rooftop space with outdoor seating and a public plaza with outdoor seating to host community concerts and cafeteria. General contractor Hensel Phelps’ scope of work contains the core and shell building, the 354,000-square-foot, five-level parking garage, plaza and landscaping and coordination with the tenant contractor. The building’s exterior façade, designed by Gensler, consists of unitized aluminum curtainwall, metal panel and terracotta.

With substantial completion achieved, Hensel Phelps will continue coordinating with other contractors to fit-out tenant spaces leading to occupancy in summer 2022.

Open March 1, the Marriott International Headquarters Hotel sits adjacent to the new Marriott International headquarters. Developed by The Bernstein Companies, the 14-story hotel features 245 rooms and offers more than 8,000 square feet of meeting and ballroom space, five elevators, restaurant, fitness center and rooftop dining terrace. The new hotel has more than 7,000 square feet of event space, including a 2,808-square-foot ballroom for banquets of up to 160 people, six smaller meeting rooms and pre-function areas.

Some property design details celebrate Marriott’s history, including root beer-colored glass (a nod to the company’s start as a root beer stand) and a laser-cut mural illustrating five of Marriott’s original hotels. Among the new guest room features are walk-in showers that replace bathtubs, hard-surface floors and open closets to alleviate leaving clothes behind. Public spaces have a residential-style feel, with tech-enabled areas for work or socializing.

A five-level, below-grade parking garage with space for 811 cars connects to both the hotel and headquarters building. This below-grade structure required an excavation of over 140,000 cubic yards of soil and rock, adjacent to multiple structures that were to remain in place within feet of the excavation.

Given the layout of the building and the close vicinity to other buildings, the excavation required a complex support of excavation design. Due to the depth and complexity of the excavation and adjacent structures, unconventional SOE systems had to be implemented. Major elements of the SOE system included:

• 170 total soldier piles (70 feet deep)
• 60,000 square feet of lagging
• 458 tiebacks (drilled up to 80 feet deep)
• 24 cross-lot braces (24 inch diameter by 80 feet long)
• 18 rakers (14-24 inch diameter)

Source: Hensel Phelps

Photo credit: Matt Good/Matt Shoots for Good