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A PR IL 2019 | 45 Sustainable Energy and Engineering Building (SE3P) – SFU PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF REVERY ARCHITECTURE Sustainable Energy and Engineering Building (SE3P) – SFU by NATALIE BRUCKNER LOCATION 10285 University Drive, Surrey, B.C. OWNER/DEVELOPER Simon Fraser University PROJECT MANAGER Colliers Project Leaders ARCHITECT Revery Architecture (formerly Bing Thom Architects) GENERAL CONTRACTOR Bird Construction Company STRUCTURAL CONSULTANT WSP MECHANICAL CONSULTANT AME Consulting ELECTRICAL CONSULTANT AES Engineering LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT PWL Partnership CIVIL CONSULTANT Aplin & Martin Consultants TOTAL SIZE 220,200 square feet TOTAL COST $116 million S imon Fraser University's new five-storey Sustainable Energy and Engineering Building (SE3P) not only represents the University's first major step in expanding beyond its Central City campus but is a huge investment that positions Canada as a global centre for innovation. Funded with significant invest- ments by the Federal Government's Post-Secondary Institutions Strategic Investment Fund (SIF), and matched by the Province of British Columbia, the facility has been purpose-built to house the new Sustainable Energy and Engineering (SEE) program that offers an integrated, multi-disciplin- ary approach to energy engineering education to support the clean tech, renewable, and sustainable energy sector. It will also accommodate labs for the existing Mechatronic Systems Engineering program. The Sustainable Energy and Engineering Building, located on the University's Surrey campus, is the first phase of a three-phase academic expan- sion plan developed for SFU Surrey. "Surrey has been SFU's top priority for expansion," says SFU president Andrew Petter. "This state-of-the-art facility will enable our students and researchers to gain the knowledge and skills required to help B.C. and Canada become an innovation leader in the clean tech and sustainable energy sector." Located at University Drive and 102 Avenue, across from the present campus, the 15,000-square-metre build- ing is one of the last building's to be designed by the late architect Bing Thom (of Bing Thom Architects, now Revery Architecture), considered to be among Vancouver's most admired architects. The L-shaped building's striking and award-winning facade offers a glimpse into the amazing thought and talent involved in the project and also at what is happening inside. Composed primarily of high-performance, undulating framed precast concrete sandwich panels and reflective glazing, Revery Architecture chose a design that cleverly hints at the building's purpose. "The design, derived from abstracted circuit board imagery and replicated on the wooden panels lining the lecture hall, symbolizes the tech- nological subject matter that will be taught within the building and creates an eye-catching landmark in Surrey's City Centre area," explains Revery. The custom panels, around 330 of them, were supplied by Surespan Structures and their brilliance can be attributed to the use of Mexican white cement and white sand from Ontario. The heavier precast concrete elements with reflective glazing help to animate the facade and are juxtaposed with the transparent glazing at the building's ground plane, which extends the out- door public realm into the interior public space, engaging the local community. Jerry Woykin at Bird Construction Company says that pre-fabricating the precast panels off-site helped ease and speed up their installation, while also minimizing any debris or noise impact on site. He adds that these panels are secured to the building by embeds that are cast into each floors' slab edge and stacked on top of one another. In addi- tion, custom field measured curved glazing frames and reflective glazing is also supported from embeds cast into the concrete. "The panels were then cast using several speciality liners that created elongated lines and wave pat- terns," says Woykin. The expedited schedule during what was a very cold and snowy B.C. winter, as well as building extremely close to a neighbouring high-rise tower to the north that was also under con- struction created some challenges, but nothing that the Bird team wasn't experienced at handling. "Due to the accelerated schedule, Bird implemented a strategic plan to enclose the building in order for crews to work on the interior of the build- ing whilst the exterior was also being completed," says Woykin. "Bird con- structed a hoarding system inbound of the exterior edge [10 feet] on every level that reduced temporary heat loss from the building and also allowed the precast concrete wall panels and curved glazing systems to be installed. Bird also constructed a temporary roof system over the large atrium to allow the roofing and glazing crews to work below and out of the weather. This took extremely detailed management, plan- ning, and co-ordination of all trades working on the site as well." Inside the building, the sweeping staircase and five-storey open atrium divides the structure into two areas; one side is dedicated to research and laboratory space, while the other side features classrooms and office space

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