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OCTOBER 2018 | 53 Trafalgar Park Community Centre and Fire Station 3 PHOTOGRAPHY BY LISA LOGAN PHOTOGRAPHY/COURTESY DIAMOND SCHMITT ARCHITECTS; RENDERING COURTESY TOWN OF OAKVILLE Trafalgar Park Community Centre and Fire Station 3 by ROBIN BRUNET I n theory, had the Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) method not been men- tioned during a conference in Denver several years ago, Shelly Switzer, director of faculties and construction manage- ment for the Town of Oakville, who was told of the conference, might not have considered it as a way to redevelop the Trafalgar Park Community Centre and Fire Station 3 – and the project may not have enjoyed such a relatively harmo- nious design and build process. Michael Brennan, senior manager – recreation and culture for the Town of Oakville, elaborates: "Shelly told us about the address, and we learned that David Dow, who is principal at Diamond Schmitt Architects, and Graham Construction were working under an IPD to develop a 360-bed resi- dence for St. Jerome's University at the University of Waterloo. So a group of us went out to St. Jerome's, met the IPD team, and were impressed enough with the process to go home and tell our executive managers that we wanted this for Trafalgar." The IPD model emphasizes closer collaboration to optimize efficiency through all phases of design, fabrication, and construction using LEAN princi- ples, with project changes and other elements debated and decided amongst the owner, architect, engineers, and sub-contractors, exclusively for the benefit of the project. "It's a wonder- fully collaborative delivery method, and Trafalgar became one of Canada's first municipal IPD projects," says Dow. Efficient delivery of design and con- struction was vital to the Trafalgar Park project, which would include renovations and an addition to the Oakville Arena, a new Fire Hall, and all associated site works. Built in 1950, the Oakville Arena was a single pad facil- ity with parking, community gardens, outdoor sports fields, and play struc- tures that had acted as a community hub for over six decades. The structure was a two-storey con- crete block building of 41,000 square feet with asphalt shingle roofing – and it was considered an important landmark due to being one of four remaining arenas in Ontario featuring the distinctive wood truss roof system developed by Norman Otto Hipel, an Ontario politician and builder who pat- ented the system in 1928. After seeking extensive pub- lic input, the IPD team of the Town of Oakville, the architects, and Graham Construction developed a revitalization plan that would convert the arena into a 63,000-square-foot facility with a new steel framed addition and restoration of the existing Hipel truss system. The project would include an NHL-size ice pad, a two bay garage, a senior centre with amenities, public meeting spaces, a high school sized gymnasium, and exterior washroom facilities. The design would also relocate the fire hall as well as all associated park- ing and outdoor amenities. "During previous consultations, the commu- nity made it very clear that Oakville Arena should be revitalized in a way that maintains its historical features," said Nina de Vaal, director of the town's Recreation and Culture department, in 2016 when the proposal was approved. "We're very excited to share a design proposal that respects the site's rich heritage, while addressing the future needs of the community it serves." In their design, the team pulled the facility closer to the street for "a bet- ter urban condition" according to Dow, "and this helped preserve a lot of the interior site for the benefit of a revital- ized park. We also, thanks to working so efficiently together, were able to upgrade the walking circuit into a run- ning track, something that had not been specified originally." Dow adds that the relocated fire hall (which would include a Fire Education and Heritage Room with interactive displays, public education materi- als, and historical artifacts) and the expanded arena "were designed to have a modern esthetic; and since the arena had to withstand continuous vigorous use, the main construction material used was exposed concrete block." A colour palette of whites and dark greys was shared between the arena and fire hall, with dark accents predominating for the latter and light accents predominating for the former. Interior arena colours were muted, off- set by accent colours in strategic areas and a bright wall for the senior centre. When it came to the doors for the new facility, Richard-Wilcox (RW) Canada alongside Graham Construction provided a one-stop solution for a mul- tiple doors request. Easy Lift took just two weeks to install the doors, which included four RW Slideitite 2.0 Series of Four Fold Doors, four RW Alumatite Doors for the Fire Hall, and two Raynor Doors (DuraCoil and Fire Coil) for the Community Centre. Kumbo Mwanang'onze, associ- ate, RJC Engineers, says of the Hipel trusses: "They were constructed from dimension lumber and nailed together in staggered layers to form larger members, which allowed them to be built by non-specialist labourers with- out heavy lifting equipment. They

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