Morton House

Project Overview

In 1923, the Morton House opened as a 13-story high-rise hotel in the heart of downtown Grand Rapids. Over the course of its life, it served as the home of Kent State Bank and eventually as subsidized housing. Nearly 100 years later, Rockford Construction turned to Kent Companies to help revitalize this historic landmark.

Kent Companies conquered remarkable logistics issues on this project by working in a congested downtown site with lane closures, traffic signs and limited area for materials staging.

Each of the Morton House’s 13 stories required careful attention. The building had over 1,500 floor openings with holes ranging from three inches to four feet in diameter. Kent’s detail- driven team drilled and reinforced each hole with the proper resteel and wire mesh. Kent’s pump operators pumped concrete up to each floor, and the team wheeled concrete into place to complete repairs.

Next, the Kent team covered each floor with approximately 10,000 square feet of 11⁄2″ average Dura-Cap®. They poured two floors per trip for a total of 125,000 square feet of installed product. Dura-Cap® boasts an impressive strength of 4,000+ psi, which The Historic Morton House Rockford Construction Concrete Pumping, Dura-Cap® Underlayments is ASTM C472* certified. We exceeded specification by reaching strengths greater than 4,500 psi. This remarkable floor strength allowed the team to pour and level the floors prior to carpentry framing. Kent met every step of a tight project schedule. The team’s commitment to productivity and quality ensured subsequent trades had a flat, smooth floor to work upon.

Today, the Morton House is the home of 111 market rate apartments and over 25,000 square feet of mixed-use commercial space.