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90 | J U N E 2 0 2 5 Edmonton EXPO Centre Rehabilitation EDMONTON EXPO CENTRE REHABILITATION by ROBIN BRUNET W hen it opened in 1984, Edmonton EXPO Centre was considered an imagi- native and adaptable event space, as well as a powerful economic catalyst, but it was also one of the city's most energy intensive facilities; so when an upgrade was planned in 2021, sustain- ability was one of the main goals. Trish Kuffler, general supervisor at the City of Edmonton's Infrastructure Delivery Branch, says, "The idea was to undertake a rehabilitation that would future proof all of EXPO's 522,000 square feet, and to do that we used, for the first time, the Integrated Project Delivery [IPD] model, which brought together all the main players early in the design phase to inform the design and maximize efficiencies." Still, the scope of work was huge and required the completion of over 100 separate work scopes spanning over eight different conference halls and three common spaces. To efficiently document all of the information required for the project and make it useful through validation, preconstruction, and construction, Eng-Spire Consulting Inc. developed a master document using Bluebeam Studio as a cloud-based shared platform, to track all of the site investi- gation photos and notes on plan. This allowed other team members to find any given work scope geodetically and see all the relevant information. ACI Architecture Inc.'s strategy in addition to creating a new envelope for the facility was to rehabilitate multiple zones. This included the replacement of a central skylight, new washrooms and fixtures, revamping the entrance, and installing a new telescopic bleach- ers for Hall D. Major upgrades to the electrical sys- tems were also specified, but arguably the most ambitious aspect of the proj- ect was the addition of a 4.5 megawatt rooftop solar array – one of the larg- est installations in Canada, featuring 8,913 panels across 427,000 square feet above Halls A through H, enough to generate approximately 4,336 kilowatt hours of power annually. Kuffler says, "This in turn required what proved to be a major project in itself, the structural reinforcement of the roof, which would accommodate the solar array and new mechanical components." Kuffler adds, "ACI man- aged to balance on a very fine line of sprucing up all of EXPO Centre but leaving it recognizable as the facility so many visitors love." After a thorough seven-month vali- dation period, the team began Phase 1 of construction, which included the removal of hazardous materials, roof reinforcement, re-roofing two halls, upgrading the Hall D mechan- ical room/boiler plant, fire alarm upgrades, new telescopic bleach- ers, and a portion of the solar array. Phase 2 involved replacing the enve- lope, skylights, re-roofing, structural reinforcement, building management system (BMS) upgrades, and revamp- ing washrooms and entrances, as well as completing the solar installation The electrical upgrades were also executed in two phases and included the replacement of outdated systems such as medium voltage feeders, transformers, switchgear, LED lighting upgrades, and lighting control upgrades. All of this had to be accomplished beginning in late 2021, while the EXPO Centre remained fully opera- tional – and on that score, the COVID lockdowns created some interesting times at the EXPO Centre, as it was being used for AHS testing and vac- cinations. Project manager (Delnor Construction) Dallen Hall explains, "While there were fewer people in the building, construction was fairly regu- lated, similar to working in a hospital." Hall and his crew worked from a list of 100 critical items that required their attention, with Hall D receiving special focus "as it was the key area of EXPO that was especially showing its age," according to Hall. When asked to describe the scope of the work, Hall replies, "Working around an event space that hosts thousands of events a year isn't without its hurdles. Constant manpower fluctuations [60 to 120 at any given time, with upwards of 4,500 orientations] and ongoing pivots provided challenges, but the relationship between the construction team and facility definitely helped." Helping construction significantly was ample space at EXPO for stor- age, laydown, and parking. "Plus, we had access to several acres of the old Northlands racetrack adjacent to our site, which enabled us to store large items such as the 11,000-pound roof- top units." The rehabilitation was completed earlier this year, and Kuffler concludes, "The City's first IPD project proved to be invaluable in working through enormous complexities and logistics. Construction was simplified and we stayed on budget, so we can't say enough good things about the IPD team." A LOCATION 7515-118 Avenue, NW Edmonton, Alberta OWNER /DEVELOPER City of Edmonton ARCHITECT ACI Architecture Inc. GENER AL CONTR ACTOR Delnor Construction Ltd. STRUCTUR AL CONSULTANT Eng-Spire Consulting Inc. MECHANICAL CONSULTANT CIMA+ ELECTRICAL CONSULTANT SMP Engineering TOTAL SIZE 522,000 square feet TOTAL COST $103.65 million P H OTO G R A P H Y CO U RT E S Y T H E C I T Y O F ED M O N TO N

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