Award

AUGUST 2018 | 69 Fisher River High School RENDERING COURTESY NUMBER TEN ARCHITECTURAL GROUP Fisher River High School by ROBIN BRUNET S chools are a vital component of any First Nations community, not only for the education they provide, but also for social gathering, sport, and event pur- poses. And in the case of the new Fisher River High School in the Fisher River Cree Nation (FRCN), about 200-kilometres north of Winnipeg, "we had been in need of a new facility for many years," according to Chief David Crate. The combined efforts of the Cree Nation along with capital fund- ing and the services of Number Ten Architectural Group, Penn-co Construction Canada (2003) Ltd., and a host of other trades, has resulted in a school that is the first of its kind for this region – a 50,527-square-foot structure with structural slab founda- tion, wood, steel, and masonry walls, and modular units comprising about 60 percent of the facility. Crate explains, "Modular construc- tion has proven to be of enormous benefit to our community: our hotel and community centre was developed using this method, which enables a large facility to be erected in as little as six months." Leighton Klassen is the project man- ager with Colliers Project Leaders. The company was retained by FRCN to oversee the project design and con- struction on the community's behalf. "Extensive consultation took place to ensure that the owner's statement of requirements included in the RFP fully met the needs and ambitions of FRCN, and that all stakeholders were in agree- ment and fully supportive," he says. Keewatin-Aski Ltd., the owner's technical consultant, suggests the RFP is "the technical recipe book specify- ing all the features desired by FRCN for their new school." Klassen adds, "In addition, the design-build RFP needed to contain stringent criteria – such as modular construction – that had to be met in order to secure federal Innovation Funding." Klassen goes on to note, "The foot- print area identified to accommodate the new school and site was relatively constricted for the ambitious scope of the build program. The design-build approach allowed for the extended team to work together to create the best use for the area, while ensuring all elements of FRCN's needs were met, including sport fields, outdoor education areas, geothermal field, and expansion for future education components." Crate points out that, "We also retained Destiny Seymour as our First Nations designer responsible for colour coding and mural work." Seymour's colour selections for the school's floor- ing and her design for the flooring patterns would be mirrored on the gym exterior wall finish and become one of the school's main identifying features. The design-build team examined what parts of the school program were best suited for modular construction and what areas could be constructed using conventional construction meth- ods. "We quickly determined that the classroom, administrative, and admin- istrative support areas were best suited for the modular construction, given the size and weight constraints of building and shipping the mod- ular units to the site," says Barrie Ottenbreit, partner for Number Ten Architectural Group. A typical classroom could be con- structed and shipped to the site on a flatbed trailer, and larger teach- ing spaces such as the industrial arts room were comprised of several mod- ular units. Central core area functions including the gymnasium, cafeteria, commercial kitchen, entrance lobby, mechanical and electrical service rooms that serve the entire school were designed and constructed using conventional steel frame construction. Kevin Todd, project manager for Penn-co Construction Canada, says, "In order to meet the owner's aggres- sive timeline for delivery, we planned the construction during the design and established scopes of work and delivery dates for each subcontractor. This allowed us to tweak the building design to optimize the schedule." Todd adds, "Our design team wanted to incorporate the modular constructed aspects of the building seamlessly with the conventionally constructed aspects, so that the end- users would see the facility as one school building." Effectively connecting and sealing the modular units was accomplished partly by installing the insulation and exterior finish materials on site, which meant the seams between the modular units and conventional construction could be sealed before the insulation was installed, and the exterior finishes could be installed independent of the modules to provide a continuous exte- rior expression. "The modular portions of the building are indistinguishable from the conventional construction," says Ottenbreit. It was determined that each class- room module would be serviced by its own mechanical heat pump; and heating and cooling of the school is pro- vided via a vertical loop geothermal system, with heating and cooling lines, ventilation, water, electrical, and data lines fed to each classroom from the centrally located mechanical and elec- trical rooms. Due to soil conditions and a high watertable, these systems were run not through a basement but through the clerestory window-lit corridors to the classrooms. Todd says, "Our modular supplier, Grandeur Housing, creatively suggested that we ship the modules with temporary floor fram- ing, which could be removed once they were set down on a structural slab. This ensured that we would not require a crawlspace under the mod- ular unit, and we were also able to include the in-floor heating that the cli- ent had listed in the RFPs." The program included a cultural teaching area, which was subsequently renamed to the Knowledge Keepers Room. This multi-purpose teaching area, where traditional cultural teach- ing will take place, was located at the intersection of the two main corridors in order to be visible from all areas of the school. Of the crucial landscape compo- nent of the project, Bruce Dixon, senior associate for HTFC Planning & Design, says, "We relied on substantial com- munity input to determine colours, forms, and other elements, and we positioned everything on site as pre- scribed. The school was augmented by two baseball diamonds, a soccer pitch – beneath which the geothermal unit was installed – a basketball court, and a running track encircling these amenities, with everything radiating outward from a central fire pit that is intended as a community gathering spot. As for plantings, we used First Nations medicinally-based flora exten- sively on the site." In retrospect, Todd believes the greatest challenge of the project was that only 17 months was available to design and construct the school, a process that would normally take between 24 and 30 months. "The rea- son the project was able to overcome this challenge was the synergy and per- severance of the entire project team, including the design team, construction team, and owner's representatives," he says. To which Ottenbreit adds by way of conclusion, "It is a project that we can all be very proud of and will serve the Fisher River Cree Nation community for years to come." A LOCATION Fisher River Cree Nation, Manitoba OWNER/DEVELOPER Fisher River Cree Nation PROJECT MANAGER Colliers Project Leaders OWNERS' TECHNICAL CONSULTANT Keewatin-Aski Ltd. ARCHITECT Number TEN Architectural Group GENERAL CONTRACTOR Penn-co Construction Canada (2003) Ltd. STRUCTURAL CONSULTANT Crosier Kilgour & Partners Ltd. MECHANICAL/ ELECTRICAL CONSULTANT SMS Engineering Ltd. CIVIL ENGINEER J.R. Cousin Consultants Ltd. LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT HTFC Planning & Design MODULAR HOUSING Grandeur Housing Ltd. TOTAL SIZE 50,527 square feet TOTAL COST $24 million 9:44 AM 2:30 PM 7:53 AM

• Cover