Award

June 2019

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J UNE 2019 | 41 Peter B. Moore Advanced Technology Centre – Georgian College PHOTOGRAPHY BY SCOTT NORSWORTHY/COURTESY ARCHITECTS TILLMANN RUTH ROBINSON Peter B. Moore Advanced Technology Centre – Georgian College by LAURA WALKER LOCATION 1 Georgian Drive, Barrie, Ontario OWNER/DEVELOPER Georgian College ARCHITECTS Teeple Architects Inc. / architects Tillmann Ruth Robinson GENERAL CONTRACTOR Melloul-Blamey Construction Inc. STRUCTURAL CONSULTANT Tacoma Engineers Inc. MECHANICAL CONSULTANT Aegis Engineering Inc. ELECTRICAL CONSULTANT e-Lumen International Inc. LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT OMC Landscape Architecture TOTAL SIZE 56,000 square feet TOTAL COST $30 million I n September 2018, Georgian College opened the doors of the new Peter B. Moore Advanced Technology Centre with the aim of bringing together industry, faculty, and students to turn ideas into products and grow the regional economy. "There's no other facility of its kind in our region," says MaryLynn West-Moynes, Georgian College president and CEO. From esthetics to function, the building is designed to celebrate and facilitate innovation. "Since many of the students who will use this build- ing are in technical programs and will one day be employed in the design and construction industries, the building's structure, services, and systems offer a 'teaching moment,'" explains Myles Craig of Teeple Architects Inc. "This came to inform many aspects of the design as it developed." The building's exterior features vol- umes that step in and out from each other with crisp, clearly expressed lines to evoke the graphic qualities of a circuit board. "In thinking about the technical nature of these programs we also became interested in the graphic and architectural qualities of circuit boards, and started to think about the building's design, both at the scale of its massing and at a finer, more detailed level, in terms of how we could utilize the language of the circuit board to give this building identity and form." Composite aluminum panels cho- sen for the exterior cladding enabled manipulation of panel depths, profiles, joint width, and layouts to support the circuit board idea, while a range of metallic and prismatic finish in various colours adds to the technical appear- ance. "We also chose translucent, insulated glazing in lieu of standard vision glass for approximately 70 percent of the glazing in the central atrium, as it provided lots of daylight, while reducing glare and summer heat loads, and its high r-value helps reduce winter heating loads," adds Craig. All that glazing provides views of the adjacent lake and an open feel inside the building. "The spaces truly reflect the changing educational land- scape – open, transparent, and filled with natural light. The entire build- ing has an energy and vibrancy that is contagious and promotes a collab- orative spirit," says Scott Robinson of architects Tillmann Ruth Robinson. "The design focuses on a three-sto- rey central hall connecting research, innovation, and collaboration labs to the remainder of the teaching labs as well as informal lounge and study spaces providing views to the campus landscape beyond," explains Robinson. Connections to adjacent campus build- ings provide further opportunities for collaboration across departments. Inside, these three floors are equipped with emerging technologies in robotics, environmental, manufacturing and assembly, GIS, CAD, multipurpose labs and classrooms, a Cisco Telepresence room, and large event space. "For durability, the college likes concrete masonry, so a lot of the pub- lic corridors are framed with CMU," explains Craig, noting that acoustic block was used in the atrium to help offset the hard surfaces throughout and improve acoustics. "Areas of acous- tic block were scattered in a graphic random pattern, inspired by the video game Tetris, to break down the scale of what is a fairly blank wall built with of a tough material. The atrium ceiling consists of a metal mesh tile in a standard sus- pension grid. "All services, fixtures and devices, including light fixtures, sprinklers and smoke detectors, are installed above the metal mesh, pro- viding a clean yet technical appearance for the ceiling," says Craig. In addition, round skylights in the roof are fit- ted with cylindrical metal extensions painted in bright accent colours to emit a tinted natural light into the atrium. 11:44 AM

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