No_9_September_1968 — Page 19

the facade. Thus each unit has a trian- gular balcony on a 2.5 metre cantil- ever at each floor level.

Aluminium sliding windows open on to the balcony; their opening auto- matically shuts off the fan coil air conditioner of the room, which is start- ed again when the windows are closed.

There are four standards of ac- commodation, the most luxurious being the Manila Bay suites which occupy the west end of the building at each floor level.

Decoration and colour schemes vary with each room type, but all are fully carpeted, as are the corridors, and feature capiz shell lamps, rattan and hardwood furniture, diamond pattern screens and locally woven bedcovers and upholstery. In most rooms the bedheads are of rattan in a peacock chair shape.

Floor to ceiling height is 8ft. The average size of room is 28 sq. metres, while a standard guest room measures 4.25 x 6 metres.

Structure

The Sheraton, located on Roxas Boulevard, Pasay City, is within the air corridor of Manila airport and was therefore limited to a height of 138 ft.

The lot area covers 4,920 sq. metres and, because of these restric- tions, the building is the first in Manila to have two basement levels. The first reaches 13 ft. deep and the second a further 11ft. 6in.

At lower level is the mechanical floor, containing boilers, generator, laundry and 300 tons centralised air conditioning plant. The upper base- ment comprises shops, storage areas and a Japanese tempura bar.

The site is on reclaimed land and after sheet piling a Moretrench dewatering system was used during the excavation, which for the lift areas went as deep as 40 ft.

To support the building, 44,000 ft. of 14in. x 14in. prestressed concrete bearing piles were sunk. These varied in length from 60 ft, to 70 ft.

The building structure consists of a

Sheraton viewed from south west

steel framework on an 8.5 metre x 6 metre module, with reinforced con- crete slab flooring cast in situ. A con- creting rate of one floor in six days was achieved during construction by the use of Pecco lightweight props to support the timber framework.

The reasons for using a structural steel framework were as follows:

A. Columns: The column size was limited to 24in. x 24in. for aesthetic reasons and this was possible with steel columns.

B. Upper basement and ground

floor: The large lateral forces against the basement walls due to passive earth pressure during an earthquake, in addition to the split level conditions of these floors, posed the problem of strutting the floors efficiently to take care of lateral forces that induce bending of the columns and dictated the use of structural steel.

C. Typical floors of the tower: With floor to floor height limited to 9ft. 7in. and with relatively large longitudinal bay spacing, it was necessary to use built-up steel girder

Longitudinal section

Far East BUILDER, September 1968.

GROUND LINE

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