Rebuilding History: Sandman Hotel Fort Worth Restoration After Gas Explosion

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We responded to a, a gas explosion
about a year ago, uh, here at

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the San Man Hotel in Fort Worth.

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It happened on the, the lowest
basement level of the structure, and

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it collapsed the first floor of the
structure down into the basement.

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A little bit of the history.

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It’s, it’s an old bank building
that started to be built in 1919

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based on the old plans that we
have, and it was completed in

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1921, so over a hundred years old.

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Finally sold to be retrofitted into
a 22 story hotel with a restaurant

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space in the, in the lower basement.

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You definitely have a lot of the
unique attributes of how they

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build things back in the 1920s.

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A lot of Italian marble and Turkish
marble and very, very unique art

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deco type type structure that that
was built back in the twenties.

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As we walk in here, we’re
walking into the first floor.

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This is, this is what I would
call partial ground zero.

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And the reason I say that is because
first floor collapsed into the basement,

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which is where the explosion happened.

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Right now, right in this area.

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As you can walk in, you can
see this elevator landing.

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These are, these are elevators that were
initially installed back in the twenties.

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They were rehabbed a couple years
ago, but they kept all the beautiful.

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Marble and, and gold inlays and
other things that are unique to this

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building, including the arch ceilings
and all of all the different detail

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you can see in the ceilings and
the areas is what we’re trying to

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recreate as we rebuild this thing.

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This is the main lobby.

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This is the hub of the hotel.

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As you came in on the
first day of this event.

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He would stop right here, and all of
this area right here was completely

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collapsed into the lower level.

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And then now as you can see,
these guys are putting in our

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structural framing based on our
plans and our permits that we have.

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And hopefully here in the next couple
months, we’ll have all our drywall

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in and looking more like a, like a
hotel than a a construction zone.

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As we got further into inspecting the
areas, we came down into this space,

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which is called the Maumee Restaurant.

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So it’s a restaurant space.

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And what it is, is it’s a cool built out
bank vault from the original bank vault

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that was this building back in 1920.

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This doorway right here was completely
cut off and you could only step in

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there baby a couple feet because all
the kitchen equipment and that galley

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kitchen right through this doorway.

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Was completely collapsed down on top of.

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So all that had to be packed out, removed
so that we get the new infrastructure

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here and we can come put in obviously
new sprinklers, new water lines, new

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grease traps, new domestic water.

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Um, all the kitchen equipment, vent hoods,
uh, again, fire laps, safety aspects

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for potential fires and stuff for these
kitchens and all that stuff is in process

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being stacked up for the rebuild as we go.

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And in this area right here, we would
call, or I would call ground zero.

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All this new deck metal and all this new
steel we, we had put in about a month

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and a half, six weeks ago, that’s where
we poured the concrete floors on top.

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We spent weeks getting rid of a 12
foot pile of dirt and debris and

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explosion debris out of the building.

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In order to get to this space
where we’re finally starting to

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put in plumbing aspects, we’re
putting in our structural framing.

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We’re starting to build the
bones of the building back out.

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So we can start putting some, some
drywall in and some electrical

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and lighting and getting it
back to, to a presentable space.

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Well, a lot of our challenges, first and
foremost, were just trying to get our

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hands wrapped around the building space.

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Following, uh, an explosion
of this magnitude.

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We had to start our inspection processes.

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We work on collaborating with all the.

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The various players and professionals.

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It’s a long list, but it, it involves,
you know, fire and life safety.

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The fire departments, it involves
engineers, architects, structural

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engineers, envelope engineers, shoring
professionals to put together all the

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different, um, plans and, and processes
that we need to do in order to make

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sure the building is safe and secure
for all parties in the building.

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It is been a really good opportunity
for us to show exactly what we do

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to a client who was just starting to
figure out our, our services and how

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we provide services to, to people
that are impacted by events like this.

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And so what we’ve done moving forward
is work not only with our client,

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we also have relationships with the
insurance carriers and the insurance

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adjusters, and the different small
parts of our restoration processes.

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And it’s all come together where we
have communication between both the

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client and the insurance company.

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It is in the best interest of all to be as
diligent as possible to get the building

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up and running, operating as a hotel
and a restaurant, as well as getting the

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front and the, the areas of the blast
site cleaned up so that everyone gets back

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to a community mindset and the downtown
area continues to grow and flourish.