The pyramid’s low elevation sits behind the concrete Mississippi flood-protection wall. When it was a basketball arena, the main entrance was located on a mezzanine level. As part of Bass Pro Shops’ conversion, the entrance was lowered to the ground floor. “The building was already at a low elevation and we were bringing the entrance down 12 to 15 feet,” Gaskins notes. “To minimize the potential for flooding, we needed to be sure that all the water that fell on the building’s 200,000 square feet of surface area was directed away from the building. During the seismic improvements, portions of the drainage system were taken out of service, so we needed to account for that, too.”
Concrete skirt partitions were added around the building, except at the north and south entrances and loading docks. The tremendous spaces beneath the skirts accommodate the mechanical equipment and other equipment needed for the restaurants, hotel and conservation areas. In each of the four quadrants, the team installed sump pumps into the drainage system as a precaution in case any water collected under the skirts. “There’s a very large pump station near the Pyramid, so we could channel the water underground and direct it into existing pipes of the pump station. This was really fortunate because we wanted to minimize excavation onsite,” Gaskins adds.
To complicate matters further, the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) had been working on a seismic retrofit of the I-40 interchange for years. The tangle of ramps is immediately south of the project, and the pyramid’s site offered the only construction staging available for TDOT’s work. “Existing site conditions were constantly changing due to the retrofit of ramps,” Gaskins says. “Between our contractors and TDOT’s staff and contractors, it was the utmost team effort possible. We all made adjustments to minimize our impacts on each other’s work.”
Float to the Top
The pyramid had been built with a glass observation deck but no inclinator was added, making it accessible only by a 435-stair climb on one of two stairways. O. T. Marshall Architects knew it was an unrealized opportunity for the citizens of Memphis. Initially, however, Morris wasn’t interested.
“John [Morris] is a very hands-on person—he’s the most interactive client I’ve ever had,” Marshall says. “Every time he came to the site, he added something to the project. I knew if I could show him what that observation deck could be like, he’d change his mind.”
On a day when they knew Morris would be visiting, Marshall and onsite Project Manager Alan Barner hauled a team with cleaning supplies to the observation deck and made the place sparkle. After experiencing the expansive 360-degree views above the Mississippi River and downtown, Morris was hooked.
The city created the glass-enclosed elevator to the observation deck without guide wires to support it. It is the largest freestanding unilaterally supported elevator structure in the world. The elevator tower also provides structural support for a 13-foot-tall, 10,000-gallon aquarium that Morris wanted on the top floor. “We designed it as a cylinder so it’s an aquarium in the round,” Marshall says. “It was so interesting to go from solving truly technical equations in relation to flooding concerns and seismic reinforcement in one moment to this very artistic endeavor in the next. Art and science married together at each step of the project.”
Although the project was years in the making and required enormous risk from all parties, the sweeping success of Bass Pro Shops at the Pyramid surpassed everyone’s expectations. The project has been a big lure for the public, logging over 1 million visitors in the first 70 days. The plan was to pay off the $57 million in bonds in 20 years but it now appears the city may be able to amortize them in half that time.
Retrofit Team
Architect: O. T. Marshall Architects, Memphis, Tenn.
Civil Engineer: Kimley-Horn, Memphis
Materials
Sliding Doors: NanaWall
Glass: Super Sky Products Enterprises LLC
Elevators: ThyssenKrupp
Structural Steel: Quality Iron Fabricators and Tri-State IronWorks Inc.
Metal Studs: ClarkDietrich Building Systems
Acrylic Aquariums: Reynolds Polymer Technology Inc.
Bowling Lanes and Equipment: Brunswick Bowling & Billiards
Foamed-in-place, High-density, Foam-resin Artificial Trees: Cost of Wisconsin Inc.
Floating Docks: Meeco
Metal Sandwich Panels: E.G. Smith, now CENTRIA
Glass Railings: Livers Bronze Co.
Track Lighting and Heads: Lightolier
Color-changing Lights: Lumenpulse
Chillers: McQuay, www.daikinapplied.com Boilers: CleaverBrooks
Air Handlers: Haakon Industries
Chilled and Hot-water Pumping Skids: Systecon Inc.
Fire-alarm System: Simplex
Talon Control System: Siemens
Early-warning Smoke Detection: VESDA by Xtralis
Furnishings: Restoration Hardware, La Lune Collection, Old Hickory Furniture Co., and Bass Pro Fabrications
PHOTOS: O. T. MARSHALL ARCHITECTS