Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/137453
photos courtesy ONPA Architects Edmonton Remand Centre by William Mbaho he new Edmonton Remand Centre (ERC) is a piece of architectural history in the making for Alberta. Not only is the $580-million energy-efficient facility the largest correctional centre in Canada, but its design is considered to be the newest concept in correctional facilities. Originally built in 1979, the previous ERC was designed to accommodate 332 men and women. Since that time the remand population has increased to the extent that the existing downtown ERC and the Provincial Correctional System found they were significantly over capacity. The new facility is two-storeys high and spreads across 16 hectares. The facility has 640,000 square feet of building space made up of six inmate pods and one healthcare pod (that can accommodate 1,952 male and female inmates) and an administration building that are all connected by a two-storey link structure. Each pod is self-contained, has four living units with 72 beds in each unit and has its own secure fresh-air exercise room. To alleviate capacity issues, the new ERC was constructed with a design that would allow further expansion. In fact the facility has the capability to support the expansion to 2,800 inmates. Areas such as admissions and discharge, food services, laundry, healthcare, administration, materials and facility management have been programmed to support the expanded institution. To put the size of the ERC into perspective, the facility, including staff, has the population of a small town! Due to the complexity of the project T Edmonton Remand Centre p70-75Remand_Dood YMCA.indd 71 it has been in development for nearly seven years. In May 2006 ONPA Architects was hired by SOLGEN and Alberta Infrastructure to complete a feasibility study and Program Document on the ERC. Design of the facility began in January 2007 with construction commencing in October 2007. The construction of the seven podular three-tier housing units began in spring 2008. The construction of the building is a mixture of in-situ concrete frame, steel external walls and masonry, and steel internal walls. Inmate spaces inside the facility consist of highly-durable surfaces of concrete and steel with rubberized flooring. There is also a specialized corrections ceiling system with good acoustic properties to enhance safety and ease of maintenance. "This has resulted in inmate and staff spaces with surprisingly low-reverberation properties," says Jason Said, ONPA Architects Partner and the project architect. "This in turn reduces the effects of fatigue and increases alertness levels for staff, providing heightened safety and a positive work environment." Said adds that it was also imperative that the facility was connected visually to the outdoors with plenty of natural light. "During my visits to many corrections facilities in Canada and the U.S., my number one concern was for staff at those facilities to have to work in sometimes dark and oppressive environments. I knew that for the new ERC we had to get the environment right," he says. ONPA was successful in achieving the objectives through the use of custom curtain walls, clerestory lighting and strategically utilized corrections glazing throughout the facility. This consistent connection to the outdoors is intended to maintain a sense of the passage of time, create a lighter environment, foster optimism within the facility and assist in creating a safer environment for both staff and inmates. One of the biggest challenges with the site was the conditions which were found to be less than ideal with a high water table, unstable soils, and nearsurface conditions that were highly variable. The largest disadvantage included being located adjacent to a wetlands site inventoried under the City of Edmonton as an environmentally sensitive and significant natural area. "Due care and attention was used on the new ERC site to maintain the natural charging of the adjacent wetlands area," Said explains. All of this resulted in the design of a complex forebay system to allow for stormwater from the new ERC to recharge the wetlands area as opposed to moving it into the City of Edmonton stormwater system. "From the onset of project discussions, the project team was very aware of the site conditions," recalls Said. In 2007 Stuart Olson Dominion (SODCL) was awarded the construction management contract for the project. Approximately 150 to 180 SODCL staff worked on the project at various times over the construction period. SODCL reached out to the industry for suggestions to come up with potential solutions to any challenges that arose, including the high water table of the site. "At the time, a fairly new piling technique known as Continuous Flight Auger (CFA) was used. This reduced the construction schedule to eight months – a thirteen-month savings – and generated project savings of $1.1 million," says Ben Aitchison, project manager for SODCL . Building over five years with a progressive design model meant early start schedule benefits had to be measured and closely coordinated with later design decisions. The project had to be flexible for technology and security systems that were unknown when the building commenced. "All services had to be contained in the walls, so rough-in locations determined in 2008 had to be coordinated with fixture decisions in 2011," says Aitchison. The new ERC has the latest security technologies, including: biometric identifiers, x-ray scanners, high-sensitivity surveillance cameras, video analytics and motion detection. EIDOS Consultants, an office of landscape architects and urban designers with approximately 20 staff, was involved in the project from the initial planning and design to the completion of post construction services. "Our work on the project is still ongoing, with portions of site still under development or restoration," says landscape architect David Brown. "All completed work has a two-year warranty and maintenance period. This work was separated into two areas – the wetland area (located on the east side of the site) and areas around the building and courtyard." Final acceptance of work for the wetland area will be in 2014 and the remainder of the site accepted in 2015. "We were able to achieve a site development approach that has balance and the integration of form and function, june 2013 /71 13-05-30 2:34 PM