Project Summary Club: The Tesoro Club Location: Port St. Lucie, Fla. Architect: Peacock + Lewis Architects and Planners, Inc. Interior Design Firm: Image Design, Inc. Clubhouse Contractor: Weitz Golf International Clubhouse Size: 94,151 sq. ft. Project Cost: $44 million Dates: 2002-2007 Project Highlights: • Project completed on time and within budget, despite numerous unexpected challenges and redirections. • Building represents especially strong marriage of elegant and creative design with strong structural integrity, through the use of high-end materials and rigorous testing to meet stringent code requirements. • Anticipated long-term maintenance and repair needs greatly reduced because of intensive upfront focus on “lifecycle costing” • Full-time Project Director employed by club’s parent company provided valuable coordination of extensive network of consultants and contractors.

About a half-hour into a tour he’s leading of the new Grand Clubhouse of The Tesoro Club in Port St. Lucie, Fla., J.R. Congdon, Director of Club Operations, pauses for a moment. Congdon is in good shape, but even he needs to occasionally catch an extra breath while covering the building’s three floors and over 90,000 square feet of indoor space and outdoor terraces.

“This building will wear you out,” he chuckles. “Working in it is a real test of stamina.”

The intricate detail work evident throughout the clubhouse’s interior and exterior held up to rigorous testing, to ensure the building will have as much permanence as the 15th-century Mediterranean style it faithfully recreates.

 

But building Tesoro’s Grand Clubhouse was a far greater test of endurance and perseverance. The project unfolded over five years—and while the original vision of the club developer, The Ginn Company, remained clear and consistent as it worked with a strong team of project partners to produce a building that fully delivered (and then some) on the original intent and promise, more than a few unanticipated challenges had to be met along the way.

In the period between when the concept for Tesoro’s majestic, Italianate Mediterranean-style clubhouse was first sketched out in 2002, and when its gala grand opening was held last October, these were just some of the developments that required major midstream adjustments:

• The sighting of nesting bald eagles on the property in 2003, which prompted a reorientation of the clubhouse. (Ginn decided to convert a huge parcel of land around the nesting area into a preserve—and changed the plans so the back of the clubhouse would now look out over that area. A “Web cam” now monitors the eagles’ activity; it captured the birth of two new eaglets in early January 2008, bringing the total born since the preserve was created to four.)

• Two major hurricanes hit South Florida during the project’s development and construction. In addition to short-term disruptions caused by the storms, the project team had to adjust to the residual effects of building-code revisions made in reaction to them—each of which led to increasingly stringent requirements for how the Tesoro clubhouse would have to stand up to future potential disasters. In addition, the hurricane recovery efforts had a major impact on the price, and availability, of building materials, putting significant pressure on the budget for the $44 million project.

• Then in 2007, with the project in the home stretch, a sudden opportunity arose to bring a PGA Tour Fall Series event to Tesoro, which features Arnold Palmer and Tom Watson signature courses that wind around all sides of the clubhouse site. The plans to host the tournament (the Running Horse Golf Championship, shifted from Running Horse Golf & Country Club in Fresno, Calif., after that property filed for bankruptcy) were announced in mid-June—to be held in late October.

“That’s when the burner really got turned up to high,” reports Brian Idle, Senior Vice President and Director of Hospitality Design for Peacock + Lewis, the architectural firm for the project. “We had already accomplished quite a bit as a team to that point—but it really took some extra effort to finish on that timetable.”

Navigating the full lengths, and heights, of all that Tesoro has now become keeps Director of Club Operations J.R. Congdon in top shape.

No Signs of Strain
In all, the Tesoro clubhouse project went through “no less than eight different major [design] versions” in its five years of development, reports Congdon. But by the time the grand opening was held, just prior to the PGA tournament, the building was not only completed, but dressed properly for a black-tie gala for 400 members and guests that featured a performance in the new third-floor ballroom by Liza Minnelli. (Tesoro, currently with 475 members, plans to have a total membership of over 900, balanced fairly equally between its golf and social categories, according to Congdon.)

“We had to test the building under fire,” Congdon says. “From the staff’s perspective, we were like a football team moving into a new stadium, and our first game was the Super Bowl. And of course, the original plans, to have Liza Minnelli perform outside, had to be changed at the last minute because of the weather; we made a decision to move inside at 5:00 PM, and she was on stage in the new ballroom at 8:00.”

Like every other adjustment made over the previous five years to prepare the Tesoro clubhouse for its coming-out party, this one worked out just fine. “The building performed very well [for the grand opening], and has continued to do so ever since,” Congdon said in January. “Everyone who comes through here just marvels at the architecture; the initial impact is jaw-dropping. And each time you go through, you notice something different. There are so many touches and nuances in the details, both inside and out.”

Getting the Go-Aheads
Representatives of firms on the Tesoro project team—which in addition to Peacock + Lewis included the interior design firm, Image Design, Inc., and Weitz Golf International, the general contractor—unanimously cite one key to being able to produce such a spectacular result, on time and within budget, despite the many significant hurdles that were encountered along the way.

From company founder Bobby Ginn on down, everyone says, those on the client side would never let any impediment stand in the way of compromising the original vision.

“It got a little bit scary after the first hurricane in 2004,” reports Matt Blackburn, Vice President of Pre-Construction for Weitz Golf. “Materials prices really started to jump, and we hadn’t yet signed many of the subcontractors that would be needed for the project.

“But Ginn is a different owner, for sure,” says Blackburn. “They insisted from the start that all budgets include enough cushion for unforeseen situations. That foresight let us still find the right people, and materials, needed to do the job as originally intended, without any of the cutbacks or squeezing that you often see on these kinds of projects when things get tight.”

This became even more critical when post-hurricane code revisions imposed stringent new testing and durability requirements on the plans for an elegantly designed building that included, among many stunning features, a three-story tower, over 100 arched windows, wrought-iron gates and over 28,000 square feet of outdoor space, including wraparound covered loggias and roofed open galleries.

“As the design evolved, the outside areas became just as important as inside for the overall experience that we wanted members to have—especially after we decided to create the [eagles’] preserve off the back,” notes J.R. Congdon. “Almost all of the inside function space is designed to be able to easily move outside whenever possible. In fact, you can almost walk around the entire perimeter of the upper floors, just using the terrace areas alone.”

But placing so much of an emphasis on outdoor experiences, and functionality, doesn’t mesh easily with a building-code inspector’s demand for assurances that everyone, and everything, can withstand Category Four storms. Here again, Ginn is given credit for not sparing any expense needed to be able to secure required permits without sacrificing the intent of the design.

“Ginn wasn’t afraid to spend for better products and materials,” says Brian Bernardo, Vice President of Construction Management for Weitz Golf. “And it’s a pretty hardy building, for sure. Structurally it’s very stout, with no synthetic materials, no foam—nothing ‘faux’ at all.”

Tesoro represents an excellent example of “a marriage of creative and beautiful design with functionality,” agrees Sandra Berg of Image Design, Inc. As she directed interior projects that included hand-painting of murals and ceilings and extensive use of imported materials, custom fabrics and furnishings, and elegant accents such as hand-blown Murano glass lamps, Ginn’s even-handed devotion to quality and structural integrity created “the best of all possible worlds” for her part of the project, says Berg.

The most challenging need for an effective blending of form and function came from the Tesoro clubhouse’s most distinctive feature of all: the central tower. “[The tower] was in the plans from the very beginning,” reports Brian Idle of Peacock + Lewis. “It was essential to the iconic look that Ginn wanted to establish not only for the club, but also the surrounding community, as something that would stand out proudly in the landscape and reflect a feeling of timelessness.

“While it’s a great opportunity to be able to design such a signature feature, especially in an historical context that would evoke 15th-century Italy, we also had to remember that the tower would need to be built, and function as, a smoke evacuation system,” says the Project Architect, Steve Pollio. “That created special challenges for us. The answer was a system of louvered slats within the window arches that are not noticeable at all, but will open automatically if needed.”

All of this upfront attention to quality and functionality, says Jon Olson, Project Manager for Peacock + Lewis, has not only paid off already for Tesoro through the initial impact made by the building, but will continue to do so for many years, through a greatly reduced need for maintenance or repair.

“The value of ‘lifecycle costing’ is an issue that often gets overlooked, especially in projects where changes have to be made as you go along,” Olson says. “I would put this project, easily, in the top two percent, in terms of its attention to detail and process.”

A huge positive contribution to that process, Olson adds, came from Ginn’s decision to have a full-time Project Director focus solely on Tesoro. Brian Lacusky, with extensive and varied construction management experience that includes work on Denver’s Coors Field, was put in charge of guiding the permitting and testing processes and orchestrating a network of over 20 key consultants and contractors.

“[Having a project director] was very valuable on a project on this size, where there’s a need to coordinate so many different elements of the team and to recognize how a change in one area will create a domino effect for the work of others,” agrees Image Design’s, Sandra Berg. “It really helped keep the project on track and preserve its character, by allowing all of us to focus on the true intent of the design.”