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S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 1 | 71 Grandview Heights Secondary School R EN D ER I N GS CO U RT E SY S TAT I O N O N E A RC H I T EC T S GRANDVIEW HEIGHTS SECONDARY SCHOOL by LAURIE JONES A s the City of Surrey contin- ues its rapid growth, the need for a new secondary school was inevitable. The new three-storey Grandview Heights Secondary School has the capacity for up to 1,500 stu- dents attending grades 8 through 12, and its unique design will be a stand- out structure in the community. "Because there was no secondary school in the Grandview Heights area, students had to cross over Highway 99 to attend Earl Marriott, Elgin Park, or Semiahmoo, each of which was already over capacity with portables being used to supplement space," says Dave Riley, director, capital projects office for Surrey School District. "This new school features a learning pod design with multiple classrooms that open up to a common collaborative area, and electives are spread through- out the facility. This creates a much more collaborative teaching environ- ment allowing everyone in the school to share their experiences together." Riley adds some learning studios have extra services like gas and sinks to provide easy expansion of elective teaching. "Most teaching spaces are designed to be as flexible and open as possible, with all services at the perim- eter of the rooms allowing the full use of the interior floor space. The exception would be rooms like the science labs where more fixed cabinets are required for the built-in services. The theatre is designed as a full black box style for actual professional performances, giving the students more options and preparation for real life experiences." For safety purposes, the school is constructed with a variety of non- combustible products like concrete and steel. "Where steel is exposed, an intumescent paint coating is applied, which in the event of a fire will expand to encapsulate the steel and protect it," says Riley. "Large smoke evacuation fans and the use of special horizon- tal fire shutters also help protect the occupants from the spread of smoke in the event of a fire. All this is combined with a full coverage sprinkler system." In addition to a high-efficiency building envelope and energy effi- cient lighting and lighting controls, there are a considerable number of mechanical energy efficient mea- sures incorporated into the school resulting in a 50 percent reduction in energy use and 42 percent reduc- tion in greenhouse gas emissions over a LEED Gold baseline, Riley explains. "The major ventilation systems in the academic block, in addition to variable volume supply air, are also provided with air-side 65 percent efficient heat recovery of all building relief air." The three-storey atrium that greets students, staff, and visitors at the main entrance is a major fea- ture of the school. "The structure in the atrium is mostly steel, but for the actual roof planes themselves, we used DLT [Dowel Laminated Timber] that is placed together to create big roof ties, and they are fastened together with roof decking on top," says Greg Byrne, senior associate at Station One Architects. "The DLT pieces have grooves on the bottom that have acous- tical properties. The atrium walls are all curved, and we've added light grey acoustical panels there as well." Byrne says they included natural light as much is possible, and where budget allowed. "We use a lot of glazing in the central classroom wing, which is three storeys, and we included white walls to reflect the light down to all the interior spaces." Being a secondary school, the exterior colours were fairly neutral to make it look like a collegiate building. "We included whites and greys, and we introduce pops of colours such as yellow and greens, which were included in some of the flooring colours. We added natural wood on almost every interior corridor." Within the layout of the school, the north wing of the building has the more industrial classrooms like metal shop, wood shop, a dance studio, and the gymnasiums. "The larger of the two gyms has a special ceiling called Reveal Series Decking that has a higher acoustic rating," he explains. "Normal NRC rating is 0.7 and this acoustical decking has a rating of 0.9 so you can go in and clap your hands and not hear any type of feedback. We also use a lot of acoustics on the walls." Both gyms have spring-loaded wood flooring. Students, staff, and community members are all anticipating the opening of the latest education facility in Surrey. A LOCATION 16987 25th Avenue, Surrey, B.C. OWNER /DEVELOPER School District #36 (Surrey) ARCHITECT/L ANDSCAPE ARCHITECT Station One Architects GENER AL CONTR ACTOR Yellowridge Construction Ltd. STRUCTUR AL CONSULTANT Bush, Bohlman & Partners LLP MECHANICAL CONSULTANT Rocky Point Engineering Ltd. ELECTRICAL CONSULTANT Jarvis Engineering Consultants BUILDING ENVELOPE CONSULTANT CSA Building Services Western TOTAL SIZE 147,000 square feet TOTAL COST $57 million