The Yaamava’ Resort & Casino is a $760-million expansion that added a new hotel tower, casino and gaming area, and entertainment venue with office and retail space to the existing casino, which opened its doors in 1986 as a bingo hall. Miyamoto faced two main challenges. One was to provide smooth and visitor-friendly connections between the existing casino, new casino, and new hotel tower at various floor access points over seismic expansion joints. Another challenge was to develop a seismic design and solution with enhanced seismic performance to address the strong ground motion that could generate from the San Andreas Fault (around 50 feet away).

To meet both project budget and schedule considerations, the solution had to be creative and efficient. The new, 17-story, 432-room hotel consists of three concrete core walls with post-tensioned slabs. The new casino is a three-story, 70-foot-tall, steel-moment-frame structure on top of one story of basement parking with typical column grids of 60 feet. The new entertainment venue has 3,000 seats and 53,000 square feet of area over 50,000 square feet of below-grade parking. The lateral force resisting systems consist of steel buckling-restrained brace frames for the superstructure and concrete shear walls at the basement.

AWARDS

2024 Award of Merit in New Construction, Awarded by SEAOCC