Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/177297
Location 1500 Woolridge Avenue Coquitlam, B.C. Owner/Developer BCTFA and Transportation Investment Corp. Architect Merrick Architecture – Borowski Sakumoto Fligg Ltd. Construction manager EllisDon Corporation Structural Consultant Bush, Bohlman & Partners Mechanical Consultant AME Group Electrical Consultant Acumen Engineering building envelope consultant Spratt Emanuel Engineering Ltd. Landscape Architect Durante Kreuk Ltd. Total area 85,000 square feet Total cost $20 million Transportation Management Centre p52-55Transportation Centre.indd 55 surrounding ecosystem. Durante Kreuk Ltd. was the landscape architect, and in addition to the garden helping achieve LEED Gold standards, the arrangement of plants makes being on the roof an amazingly quiet experience. In addition to the glulam beams, wood has also been used to support aluminum sunshades. Esthetically, this dovetails with an extensive use of coloured glass. "All the spandrel glass is comprised of blue and green hues that give the building subtle visual depth but at no extra cost," says Fligg. Fligg confesses to being "enormously impressed by the speed with which EllisDon Corporation constructed the TMC building; it took just 12 months, and they were stellar to work with." McAllister adds, "There was a great relationship between the design team and the general contractor, and between the general contractor and the subs, who were managed extremely well." McAllister and Fligg single out the City of Coquitlam for praise. The former says, "They expedited the permitting process without cutting corners and couldn't have been more cooperative." Fligg adds, "The City eclipses all of the many positive experiences I've had dealing with municipalities." The fact that there was no time to sink piles didn't bother Clint Low, senior partner with structural engineer Bush, Bohlman & Partners. "I like fast-paced, schedule-driven projects because there's no monkeying around or testing the viability of different theories: instead, you have to come up with practical solutions, and the idea of creating a quasi-raft with big footings all interconnected was a low-tech, low-risk alternative to piles," he says. Low notes that the pre-loading phase was carried out while the building was still being designed. "Again, the schedule obliged us to move quickly, and construction of the building superstructure began as soon as the pre-loading was removed," he says. The 'quasi-raft,' which Low and his colleagues refined with Derek Lepper of which are passive rather than active." In addition to the benefits of a green roof, the development of a roof garden was conceived as both a green oasis amidst a hard-surface environment and a means to manage water runoff. The sloped portion of the roof feeds rainwater drainage pipes sandwiched between the six massive glulam ribs on the western canted side of the building, all leading to a bioswale which replenishes the the help of geotechnical engineers, will allow the entire building to uniformly settle into the soft river deposit soils. "It will settle over the period of a few years," says Low. The building design also incorporates a dramatic timber roof over the 'post-disaster' Transportation Management Operations Centre "to address sustainable design initiatives and showcase B.C. timber," says Low. At press time, the TMC building was undergoing tenant improvements on the third and fourth levels in anticipation of government service centralization. For his part, Bruce McAllister summarizes the past two years: "I can't think of another project that underwent more challenges and yet resulted in so many positive outcomes. I only hope I can work with this team of professionals again." ■ december 2012 /55 11/27/12 3:56 PM