Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/1500470
J U N E 2 0 2 3 | 65 The Butterfly R EN D ER I N GS BY H AY E S DAV I DS O N / CO U RT E S Y R E V ERY A RC H I T EC T U R E Neville Doyle, senior project man- ager at Peak Construction Group, calls The Butterfly "a thinking person's project with puzzles to solve that were at an entirely new level – which was very exciting for us." Both the glass and the GFRC for the façade were produced in South Korea. "We originally specified precast concrete for the façade but were unsuccessful in finding a manu- facturer who could produce the curves and projections we wanted in such large numbers," Kokalov says. "So, we switched to GFRC, which also had the benefit of being lighter." Precast elements such as the 36 structural swimming pool ribs were made locally, and it took just one month to install all of them: 144 precast concrete sections were trans- ported by truck and craned onto their fifth level perch (the ribs will be inte- grated with mechanical air supply, electrical conduit for lighting, and acoustic panels). "The tower was typi- cal construction in terms of sequence and methodology, but the geometry of the building is complex," Doyle says. "We spent a great deal of time with the consultants reviewing design ele- ments, as well as building prototypes for proof of concept." Doyle notes that The Butterfly is designed to meet at minimum LEED Gold certification and exceeds stan- dards for energy performance with greenhouse gas reductions equivalent to a 45 percent reduction in energy use and a 22 percent reduction in energy costs. As for constructing a tower in a congested residential/commercial setting, Doyle says "We are fortunate in that two major new buildings are planned adjacent to our site, but as our project began earlier we have been able to make full use of the adjacent roadways for logistics." After the design of The Butterfly was complete, Kokalov paid respect to Bing Thom by custom-designing a Fazioli piano to reflect the typol- ogy of the architecture, as part of the Westbank Piano Program. On completion of the building, the Fazioli will sit in the lobby looking out onto the entrance courtyard. "This was Bing's final project, and he would have been proud of our attempt to cre- ate beauty and improve our city with a tower that does so much to return people to nature," says Kokalov. A LOCATION 1019 Nelson, Vancouver, B.C. OWNER /DEVELOPER Westbank and First Baptist Church ARCHITECT Revery Architecture GENER AL CONTR ACTOR Peak Construction Group (Butterfly Tower); Haebler Group (First Baptist Church) STRUCTUR AL CONSULTANT Glotman Simpson MECHANICAL CONSULTANT Introba ELECTRICAL CONSULTANT Nemetz (S/A) & Associates Ltd. L ANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS Gauthier + Associates Landscape Architecture Inc. (G|ALA) with SWA Group and Cornelia Hahn Oberlander TOTAL SIZE 605,000 square feet (including tower, church restoration and expansion) TOTAL COST Undisclosed Gauthier & Assoc.indd 1 Gauthier & Assoc.indd 1 2023-05-16 7:49 2023-05-16 7:49 2009 WEST 4TH AVENUE VANCOUVER, BC V6J 1N3 T. (604) 736.6562 F. (604) 736.9805 525 11TH AVENUE SW, SUITE 305 CALGARY, AB T2R 0C9 T. (403) 294.9027 F. (403) 294.9028 214 KING STREET WEST, SUITE 214 TORONTO, ON M5H 3S6 T. (647) 253.0086 F. (647) 253.2085 WWW.NEMETZ.COM PROUD TO BE THE ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS ON THE BUTTERFLY PROJECT. & Assoc.indd 1 & Assoc.indd 1 2023-05-08 12:46 PM 2023-05-08 12:46 PM