The Thompson Hotel in Hollywood is a product of Five Chairs.  The architect of the 11 story, 200 room luxury boutique hotel is Steinberg Hart.  While only being 3 levels below grade, the mechanized parking system required taller floor-to-floor spans.  The excavation was up to 46 feet deep and was braced on three sides with tiebacks and the fourth by corner bracing and rakers.  Rakers were installed on walers to limit the number of raker penetrations through decks.  Englekirk Structural Engineers helped to coordinate the raker bracing connection to the tower’s mini-mat foundation.  To the north is a heavy concrete structure with depressed foundations.  Cefali used a continuous waler to allow for more tiebacks to be installed than just one per pile at each level and to provide flexibility when obstructions were encountered.  During construction, floor-to-floor spans were increased and Cefali had to retrofit the design to allow for the deepened excavation to commence while employing the existing soldier piles.