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OCTOBER 2018 | 71 Ti'nu – Deer Lane Aordable Housing PHOTOGRAPHY BY MICHAEL WACH/COURTESY GEC ARCHITECTURE Ti'nu – Deer Lane Aordable Housing by ROBIN BRUNET LOCATION 547 Coyote Lane, Banff, Alberta OWNER/DEVELOPER Town of Banff ARCHITECT GEC Architecture GENERAL CONTRACTOR Knightsbridge Homes STRUCTURAL CONSULTANT ISL Engineering and Land Services Ltd. MECHANICAL CONSULTANT Reinbold Engineering Group ELECTRICAL CONSULTANT SMP Engineering CIVIL CONSULTANT Kellam Berg Engineering & Surveys Ltd. LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT O2 Planning + Design Inc. TOTAL SIZE 63,855 square feet (floor area ratio) TOTAL COST $23.8 million A ny builder who has worked in the Town of Banff will attest that the standards for development in this famous resort locale are tougher than most – and the requirements for the Ti'nu Deer Lane Affordable Housing project were no exception. Ti'nu, which is a translation from the Nakoda language for "come in," is a 132-unit mix of suites, studio, one- and two-bedroom units of apartment style living, and three A-frame duplexes. In addition to the units, Ti'nu includes optional photovoltaic (PV) panels on the roof, heat recovery ventilators in each suite, low-VOC paint and materials, triple glazed windows, a stormwater management system, and many other elements that go towards the project achieving LEED Platinum designation. Due to Banff's small size (limited to just four square kilometres) plus the fact it sits within a national park, the town has a long list of requirements for any building proposal, and Sharon Oakley, Banff's housing sustainability manager, says expectations were espe- cially high for Ti'nu: "We've had a zero percent vacancy rate since 2013, and the 2012 Housing Study by the Banff Housing Corporation showed that by 2022, if we continued to grow at the same rate, we would be short 455 to 750 units unless something was done." If that wasn't challenge enough, "On top of everything else, we didn't want affordable housing to look like affordable housing," says Oakley. "This would not be social housing: it would be below market residential, with the rents ultimately funding the project instead of municipal government." Fortunately, Parks Canada provided 14 residential lots, with specific terms to build perpetually affordable rental hous- ing. "We are in a fortunate position to be able to access Crown land from Parks Canada at greatly reduced rates due to the terms of release and the lease agree- ment," says Oakley. While the federal agency provided the land, the Province of Alberta provided capital investment, and the Town served as developer. An Expression of Interest (EOI) was issued in 2015 that resulted in 27 submissions. "We selected GEC Architecture and Knightsbridge Homes for the design-build team, as the for- mer had worked in Banff and the latter with Parks Canada, and both were well acquainted with the town's guidelines and restrictions," says Oakley. GEC and Knightsbridge have a long history of successfully completing design-build partnerships for multi-res- idential construction projects, and by August of 2016 Oakley was in consulta- tion with Town Council over a proposal that both firms regarded as the most creative and best use of the land. Indeed, under the design-build pro- posal, GEC and Knightsbridge exceeded the Town's goal of developing 100 units on the site by 31. They also provided 80 below-grade parking stalls, as well as 262 secured bicycle stalls. Equally important, by using con- crete instead of wood, the construction schedule could be shortened from 22 months (as proposed by the RFP) to 16 months, resulting in significant cost savings. Concrete would also have a longer lifespan and provide superior acoustic attenuation and re-rating compared to a wood-frame structure. GEC's main goal was to create a facility that felt like it was directly part of the Banff community, but would provide a sense of community within the development itself. So instead of designing one large building, it

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