Take Flight Amusement Park
Case Study
Project Scope
The Take Flight Theater is a one of a kind five-story steel and cold form framing building for a 60 seat interactive ride built onto the existing Wilderness Resort. The total building area equals approxicmately 24,000 square feet and features the largest screen ever built in the United States at 65’ wide x 45’ tall. The 4-D theater ride gives guests the sensation of flight as the seat moves while they fly over some of the United States’ landmarks and national parks as well as aerial footage of Wisconsin Dells.
Type of Construction: New Construction
Size of Project: 24,000 square feet
Duration of Project: 11 Months
Project Details
The Wilderness came to Holtz Builders, Inc. with a vision of building what would be a one of kind amusement ride. The Take Flight Theater is a five-story steel and cold form framing building for a 60 seat interactive ride built onto the existing Wilderness Resort which HBI was also remodeling at the same time.
The screen is the largest one to ever be built in America. Talk about a unique project!
The Challenges
We began preparing five floors of concrete pours on steel decking which came with its own challenges since it was now the middle of winter, and the building was not 100% enclosed. We needed to get the concrete poured. So, with the ceilings as high as 65 feet, we knew that heating was not going be easy, but we were up for the challenge. Our team was able to get a design for temporary heating and dehumidification on this project before winter was even a thought. Inspections completed and a plan in place, all that was left to do was execute the plan. The concrete pours on all floors went smoothly with no issues.
Then, COVID-19 hit mid-project and many things changed. We could not get our STC rated doors and frames since they were made in California. Nor could we get the theater company (SimEx) on site since they were based out of Canada and the borders were shut down. In person meetings went to ZOOM, daily foreman huddles became small groups of people with face masks and social distancing as well as only a limited amount of people were allowed on the project. Yet, through all of this our team continued to persevere with these changes.
Our Solution
Holtz Builders knows that planning is the key to a successful project. So, our team made sure to interview many contractors and vendors upfront and selected only those who would exceed expectations. We also utilized a lean pull planning schedule for this project to overcome the various moving items. Pull scheduling focuses on the end goal and identifies each predecessor activity in the proper sequence of events.
This proactive method had us meeting multiple times throughout the project to ensure that the even flow of work never stopped– especially with the large number of people on this project who had different working hours. It may seem like a lot of extra effort, yet when you get every trade and vendor in the same room, work is accomplished. It was great to see our team members working collaboratively towards the end goal.
The Possibilities Are Infinite
Licensed in
Wisconsin • missouri • tennesee • alabama • florida
