Hard Rock Hotel & Casino
The permanent Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Bristol, Virginia transforms part of a former shopping mall into a 620,000 SF destination with a 303-room hotel, a 2,000-seat indoor venue, a large gaming floor, and multiple food and beverage offerings.
DeSimone provided structural design, façade consulting, and steel detailing—three tightly coordinated services that helped bring clarity and efficiency to this multi-phase development.
| Client | Hard Rock International |
|---|---|
| Architect: | SOSH Architects |
| Size | 6 Stories | 455,000 SF (42,270 SM) | 303 Keys |
| Office: | New York |
| Completion: | 2024 |
The structural scope required both new construction and adaptive reuse. Portions of the existing mall were demolished to make way for the new casino and performance venue, while others were preserved and repurposed.
A major challenge arose where the new casino needed to sit above the grade of a former below-grade mall level. Filling the old basement was not an option due to settlement risks, so we engineered a hybrid solution: reinforcing the existing upper-level framing to serve as the new casino floor and threading new steel columns through the structure below to support the roof above.
The casino and venue are steel-framed to accommodate large clear spans, while the hotel uses hollow-core precast and Girder-Slab framing. Providing both façade consulting and steel detailing in-house, we delivered a cohesive engineering approach tailored to the project’s complexity.
