The Hub on Causeway – citizenM Hotel Completed

State Electric recently completed the electrical core & shell, fit-out, and tel/data scope at the new citizenM hotel at The Hub on Causeway while working in partnership with John Moriarty and Associates (JMA). The 10-story, 272 room hotel entrance is located directly on Causeway St. with the rooms/amenities areas encompassing floors 4-13 on top of the podium. The cutting edge pod-like guest rooms, spread over 9 floors, have modern technological amenities such as iPad room controls for lights, temperate, TV, and shades. As a boutique European hotel chain focused on creating an affordable luxury experience, they identified Boston as a prime opportunity to develop their third hotel in North America.

Our Commercial project team, headed up by Project Manager Luke Rebisz and General Foreman Tom Page, began working in November 2017. They did an outstanding job delivering this dynamic hotel project and our client was very satisfied with their performance. The scope included the complete installation of the branch power and lighting for the 1^st floor hotel lobby, 4^th floor amenities areas, 5^th thru 13^th floors guest rooms and common corridors, and 14^th floor penthouse; lighting controls package (first citizenM hotel in the North America to use an entirely custom-designed Lutron controls system), 350kW roof-mounted diesel generator, and hotel fire alarm system, smoke pressurization, smoke purge, and integration with existing North Station campus fire alarm system. Also, our Commercial Division worked as an integrated team with our Utility-Power Division’s Project Manager Bobby Jones and General Foreman Ron Flanagan to complete the installation of the Eversource vault and collector bus that now serves the new Hub50House residential tower and citizenM hotel at The Hub on Causeway.

As for all of State Electric’s residential/hotel jobs, we implement our progressive prefabrication process to efficiently deliver the project, increase cost control, and maximize quality. At the citizenM hotel, our project team identified the assembly of the 120v and 277v distribution panels, conduit bending, and kitting of all room finish devices as tremendous opportunities to utilize our prefabrication team. Additionally, all citizenM hotels have sophisticated guest room controllers, which control the RGB lighting, heating/cooling, security, shades, and wall switches. These controllers require citizenM’s own commissioning team’s involvement to properly deploy. Instead of having their team go onto a congested jobsite to execute the commissioning, they came into our Supply Chain Facility to be as productive as possible. With the required low voltage cabling for the guest room controllers, our prefabrication team custom-built control cabling harnesses with European connector pins for a seamless installation.

Similarly, to our Rapid7 job at The Hub on Causeway, there were numerous challenges our team had to overcome which included logistics, condensed job site, and custom light fixtures and controls. With the lack of a man hoist, we had to move large amounts of equipment and materials with State Electric’s C3 crane when necessary. Additionally, we utilized the onsite tower crane to load all distribution equipment to each designated floor which reduced handling time. There was a requirement to use hotel brand standard light fixtures and guest and conference lighting controls. State Electric worked with TDE-lighttech (Netherlands) and Saia-Burgess Controls (Switzerland) to obtain the majority of the UL listings. However, several fixtures could not obtain the required UL listing. So, our team engaged with a few local custom fixture manufacturers to build them locally, which reduced the need for overseas shipping and additional customs/duty taxes. Over 95% of the light fixtures were classified as low voltage fixtures. General Foreman Tom Page and Lighting Foreman Ron Dow worked extremely hard with the design team and millwork company to limit the amount of required ceiling and millwork access panels by grouping drivers in strategic locations.

Low Voltage Systems (LVS) Project Manager CJ Quinn and Foreman Mike Pelton led a crew of State Electric technicians to complete the installation and testing of the robust tel/data scope at the citizenM hotel. All of the guest rooms on floors 5-13 were cabled back to an MDF on the 5th Floor. By utilizing these Category 6 backbone cables, in-room wireless access points were patched to Ethernet circuits that allowed the tenant to fully integrate and remotely control VOIP phones, AppleTV devices, and IP Video.  Also, the proprietary “T5” devices connected to the guest room lighting and environmental control systems via the clients’ IP network. The tel/data infrastructure also provided connectivity to the building’s security system, amenities spaces on the 4th and 5th Floors, and the restaurant’s back of house and office space on the first floor and BO Level. 

Additionally, General Foreman Rob Panasuk led the installation, fusion splicing, and testing of an RCN carrier circuit extension from the building’s demarc of The Hub on Causeway’s Podium to citizenM’s MDF. This tel/data project required flexibility and close coordination with the client’s IT staff as they worked to ensure proper system functionality as they commissioned and turned-up guest rooms on the lower floors in parallel with the ongoing rough construction on the upper floors of the building.  As a result of close coordination between Commercial General Foreman Tom Page and Low Voltage Systems Foreman Mike Pelton, this complex low voltage systems project was delivered on time and under budget.