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FEBRUA RY 2019 | 63 Whirlpool Distribution Centre RENDERINGS COURTESY KUMLIN SULLIVAN ARCHITECTURE STUDIO LTD. Whirlpool Distribution Centre by PETER STENNING L ike so many sectors in Canada, ware- housing may be in high demand, but its profit margins dictate that cost control must be a prime consideration for any new development. Keeping costs down but main- taining a high level of quality very much informed the new Whirlpool Distribution Centre in Rocky View County's CN Calgary Logistics Park, which has the distinction of being Canada's only intermodal business park. At 425,000 square feet, the ware- house acts as Whirlpool Canada's distribution centre for finished appli- ances coming to Alberta from across North America. When ground broke on the project in June of 2017, Andrew Fuller, assis- tant VP of domestic intermodal at CN, told the press that, "By locating at our Calgary Logistics Park, Whirlpool can provide customers with the supply chain and logistics flexibility they need to service their customers and increase their competitiveness." Stephen Stewart, director of supply chain at Whirlpool Canada, added that the $45-million LEED Silver facility's location "provides us direct connection to CN's rail network and transporta- tion services, allowing us to deliver our major appliances for our retail part- ners more efficiently and reliably." The relatively quick develop- ment of the design-build Whirlpool Distribution Centre and its equally efficient construction (ahead of sched- ule and under budget) is the outcome of the facility's developers and orig- inal owners, Tribal Partners, who, with Whirlpool, worked closely with Kumlin Sullivan Architecture Studio and Traugott Building Contractors to achieve cost-effective solutions with- out sacrificing quality or durability. The timely outcome of the proj- ect was also aided by the fact that the design and development team had been responsible for the creation of the Princess Auto warehouse facing the Whirlpool site. "Princess Auto was our first building in the Logistics Park, and its success facilitated the development of what would become the Whirlpool Warehouse, with both facilities mak- ing a prepossessing first impression to park visitors and acting as a gateway into the intermodal yard," says Lance Trumble, managing director, invest- ments, at Tribal Partners. Barry Sullivan, principal at Kumlin Sullivan, notes, "CN wanted a cohe- sive architectural vocabulary for the first phase of their 320-acre Logistics Park development, to visually brand the site, so to an extent the exterior of the Princess Auto and Whirlpool ware- houses are similar." To say that the Whirlpool facility was designed to withstand consid- erable wear and tear would be an understatement. Michael Knudsen, senior project manager at Kumlin Sullivan, explains, "Because all distri- bution warehouses with their racking and forklifting are prone to take the most abuse at the eight- to 12-foot height level, the best solution was to create a facility that had precast panel walls for the first 16 feet, with insu- lated metal panel above. "The alternative, to have metal pan- elling from top to bottom, wouldn't have been economically feasible given the amount of additional framing required to protect the base from damage." To a degree, the architects began their work by designing a generic warehouse. "That is, we started in mid-2015 and had completed about 60 percent of the drawings for a shell of a building when Whirlpool signed a 10-year lease with renewals with Tribal and CN," says Sullivan. "With the new tenants on board, we revised our plans to suit their specific needs: Whirlpool wanted a cross dock facil- ity, meaning a warehouse basically divided in two in order to have import- ing and exporting of product occur at the same time." This was made possi- ble because of the huge site (28 acres) "and a company that was very savvy in simplifying the cross docking process," according to Sullivan. The architects' decision to go pre- cast with the lower portion of the warehouse proved fortuitous. "If we had gone with reinforced metal panel that meant every door would have had to have a frame, but precast eliminated this need and resulted in a considerable savings, given that Whirlpool wanted LOCATION 283080 Logistics Parkway, Rocky View County, Alberta OWNER/DEVELOPER Tribal Partners ARCHITECT Kumlin Sullivan Architecture Studio Ltd. GENERAL CONTRACTOR Traugott Building Contractors STRUCTURAL CONSULTANT TRL & Associates Ltd. MECHANICAL/ ELECTRICAL CONSULTANT DBK Engineering Ltd. LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT L.A. West Calgary Inc. TOTAL SIZE 425,000 square feet TOTAL COST $45 million 8:21 AM

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