Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/175815
randon University's athletics, sports, itness and wellness programming are about to experience a revolution as its existing 30,000-square-foot facility is transformed into an 80,000-square-foot Healthy Living Centre. The $20-million project includes extensive renovations to the existing building, plus an expansion that includes three full-size gymnasia (two new and one existing) with spectator seating, cardio itness and weight machine areas, and the irst indoor jogging track in Brandon. Funders include the federal and provincial governments and the City of Brandon. Susan Smale, executive of icer to the university's vice president, notes that university staff have been busy working with the project's integrated design team since it received the go-ahead in February 2011. The greatly expanded Healthy Living Centre will bene it BU's faculty, staff and students, and also residents of the city and the surrounding communities. "The university and the city negotiated an access agreement that gives the general public access to and reasonable use of the facility," Smale explains. "The Centre will provide students with strong sports, itness and wellness programming, making BU a more attractive destination for students considering their options. The additional space will enable the university to expand and enhance its Mini-U programming, which offers a variety of summer programs for local kids age ive to 15," Smale adds. MCM Architects Incorporated was the architect of record for the project. MCM uses an integrated design process in all its projects, which includes the interior design irm Urbanikz. The MCM team acknowledges that integrating a new addition to an existing building had its challenges. First, the building had to be inviting and welcoming to guests and users. A large canopy wraps over the Centre, and is directly aligned with the street, immediately identifying the entry to the building and highlighting this welcoming approach. Expansive glazing, the architects add, advertises the activities within the facility, and breaks down barriers between users and viewers. Architecturally, the design had to be sympathetic to the existing facility, while crafting an exciting state-of-the-art Wellness Centre used by everyone from high-performance athletes for training, to students and people from the community coming for recreational activities. The challenges applied to all aspects of the design, including building proportions, function, accessibility, materials and detailing of connections. "The existing building did not have a lot of ceiling space," the team explains, "so we had to be creative in routing new mechanical services from the equipment on the roof of the new addition into the spaces in the existing building." The designers tackled the challenges of choosing colour schemes for the multi-use facility. As you might expect, since BU's colours are blue and gold, those colours appear in places like team change rooms. The design team chose neutral toneon-tone greys for the general scheme, with bright punches of lime green in the itness area and bright orange in the reception lobby. People entering the facility will experience a dynamic statement created by the various elements coming together: the lime green itness area, a natural concrete staircase, and the bright orange reception area, all re lected COURTESY MCM ARCHITECTS INC. B in the polished concrete loor. The building's design also re lects sustainable design principles that MCM Architects applied to the entire project, with the goal of achieving LEED Silver certi ication. Part of that is ensuring healthy, inviting environments for work, exercise and teaching, for all users. The design also incorporates a variety of glazing types, both to provide a sense of openness for people inside and outside the building, and to address glare and heat gain and loss. Solar re lective roof membranes and increased insulation values in the building envelope have reduced energy loading and improved overall comfort levels for all users. "We incorporated as much glazing as possible, speci ically within the itness room, to allow as much natural daylight as possible to ilter into the building," the team notes. "There are many studies identifying the health bene its of natural light, so it seemed itting to use as much natural light as possible in the 'Healthy Living Centre.'" In Manitoba, approximately 50 per cent of the energy used to heat and cool a building is directly attributable to conditioning the outside air to comfortable temperatures. MCM conducted a rigorous inancial analysis that indicated the optimum system for heating and cooling outside air would be reverse- low heat-recovery ventilators. The installed systems provide an average of approximately 85 per cent energy recovery from exhaust air in winter, peaking at 90 per cent. The mechanical systems in the HLC take ef iciency a step further. Ventilation codes allow the volume of outside air to vary with the number of people in the building, so the systems monitor trace gases in the occupied areas of the facility, and use this information to increase or decrease the amount of outside air for optimized indoor air quality. Speci ications also called for natural materials and products with low VOCs to reduce and eliminate off-gassing, further enhancing overall air quality. The heart of the heating system is three condensing boilers that are up to 96 per cent ef icient. They also provide the domestic hot water used by showers, sinks and lavatories. All plumbing ixtures are ultralow low, water-conserving models, while variable-frequency drive pumps on water transport systems limit the electrical power required. Domestic water consumption models indicate that the water used at the HLC will be about 42 per cent lower than at a comparable facility using standard ixtures. The new gymnasium in the HLC has a clear ceiling height of more than nine metres (30 feet) from the high-performance hardwood loor, enabling the facility to host a variety of national and international tournaments for basketball and volleyball. When fully retracted, the spectator seating provides space for another regulation size basketball and volleyball court. Joggers and walkers looking down at the playing surfaces and the bleacher seating in the gym might not appreciate the effort the designers made to get the colour scheme right. Applying BU's blue and gold colours to the gym seating required adjustments. The design team reviewed the university logo's Pantone colours against the scheme for the bleacher seating, and determined it was too much of a good thing when translated to a larger ield of colour. Adjusting the Pantone blue for the seats was a tricky process, because Pantone chips – like paint chips from the hardware store – are not necessarily precise. Among the most notable design elements are the main stair and the jogging track on the mezzanine level above the gym. The two sections of the main stair are precast concrete, separated from one another with a strip of structural glass used as looring, which occurs at the mezzanine level. The structural glass detail overlooks the new gym and the exterior stair on the east elevation. "The track is an exciting element," the MCM design team notes, "because people who often walk in shopping centres can now walk on a cushioned surface while watching other athletic activities, then participate in other itness training, and connect with the exterior through windows that bring in the warmth of the winter sun." ■ Healthy Living Centre – Brandon University Healthy Living Centre – Brandon University p.70-71Healthy Living.indd 71 by Bill Armstrong LOCATION Victoria Avenue and 18th Street Brandon, Manitoba OWNER/DEVELOPER Brandon University ARCHITECT MCM Architects Inc. GENERAL CONTRACTOR Penn-Co Construction Canada Ltd. STRUCTURAL CONSULTANT Crosier Kilgour & Partners Ltd. MECHANICAL/ELECTRICAL CONSULTANT MCW/AGE Consulting Professionals LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT McGowan Russell Group INTERIOR DESIGN Urbanikz TOTAL AREA 80,000 square feet, including renovations to existing 30,000-square-foot facility TOTAL CONSTRUCTION COST $20 million OCTOBER 2012 /71 9/11/12 12:09 PM