Spanish Peaks Lodge – AnatomicIron

LocationBig Sky, Montana

Client / FabricatorAllied Steel

Structural steel tonnage5,000 tons

Building area518,000 sq. ft.

Detailing period2018–2020

Project overview

A major structural steel package for a large mountain development.

Montage Big Sky is a luxury hotel and residential development located within the Spanish Peaks community of Big Sky, Montana. The 518,000-square-foot resort combines 150 hotel rooms and suites with 39 branded residences and an extensive range of hospitality, dining, recreation, and event spaces.

Working with Allied Steel, our team provided detailing for approximately 5,000 tons of structural steel during the 2018–2020 project period.

The project brought together hotel accommodations, private residences, meeting and event areas, restaurants, lounges, recreational facilities, and back-of-house functions within one extensive resort complex.

The size and varied program of the building required a substantial structural steel package coordinated across multiple levels and functional areas.

Project team and technical details

Owner: SP Hotel Owner LLC
Structural Engineer: Nishkian Menninger
Architect: Hart Howerton
Interior Designer: BraytonHughes Design Studios
General Contractor: Suffolk Construction
Coordination technology: Model sharing
Opened: 2021
Market: Hospitality / Residential

Detailing scope

Structural steel detailing scope.

5,000-ton resort steel package

Structural steel detailing supported a 518,000-square-foot resort combining 150 hotel rooms and suites with 39 branded residences.

Framing across multiple resort uses

The steel scope extended across hospitality, residential, meeting, dining, recreational and back-of-house spaces.

Shared structural model

Model sharing supported team coordination and the exchange of current steel information across multiple building areas.

Fabrication and erection documentation

Coordinated drawings maintained a consistent relationship with the structural model throughout the 2018–2020 detailing period.

Model to field

From coordinated geometry to the project on site.

Spanish Peaks Lodge structural model — Structural model — Spanish Peaks Lodge

Spanish Peaks Lodge steel erection — Project photography — Spanish Peaks Lodge

Technical complexity

Coordination and detailing challenges.

Steel distributed across numerous areas

The 5,000-ton package needed consistent organization across the resort’s many levels, framing zones and construction conditions.

Different building uses and framing needs

Hotel rooms, residences, event spaces and service areas introduced different structural and coordination requirements within one extensive complex.

Current information across the team

The shared-model workflow kept detailers working in different areas aligned with updated structural information and the fabrication and erection drawings.

Our approach

Model sharing supporting project coordination.

A model-sharing workflow was used to coordinate the developing structural steel package. This provided project participants with access to current model information while the detailing work progressed across the building’s multiple areas.

For a steel package of this scale, the shared-model environment helped maintain coordination between team members working on different parts of the structure and supported the continued exchange of updated project information.

The coordinated workflow supported:

Development of the structural steel model
Coordination between detailing team members
Exchange of current model information
Review of steel across multiple building areas
Preparation of fabrication documentation
Development of erection information

Managing 5,000 tons within one coordinated steel model.

The volume of steel and the size of the building required the detailing package to remain organized across numerous levels, areas, and construction conditions.

Maintaining the structural information within a coordinated model helped preserve consistency between the building’s different framing zones and the drawings prepared for fabrication and erection.

Project media

Geometry, connections and construction at full scale.

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Project result

Structural steel supporting a destination resort.

Montage Big Sky was developed as a major year-round mountain destination with direct access to Big Sky Resort and the Spanish Peaks Mountain Club.

The structural steel package supported the scale and diverse program of a resort designed to combine hospitality, residential, recreation, and event functions within a single development.

Opened in 2021, the completed facility represents one of the largest hospitality projects in the Big Sky area.