Award

Luna he Luna condominium building is the third and tallest of three residential towers running west to east on a block just a few minutes from Calgary's downtown business district. The 32-storey tower from QualexLandmark Developments Inc. has an outdoor 5,300-square-foot landscaped courtyard and Zen garden located on the podium roof, which has terraced seating surrounding an open-air gas ireplace. On the same level is a gym and dedicated yoga studio. The Luna lounge, for relaxing and socializing, is adjacent to the courtyard and includes a wet bar and ireplace. Suites range from 665 to 1,081 square feet. In common with the earlier two towers, Stella and Nova, the building has some townhomes at the base, the biggest of which is 1,810 square feet. "Luna is geared for downsizers, young couples, irst-time home buyers and investors. All three projects are mixed-use with retail below," says Parham Mahboubi, VP of marketing and new development at Qualex. Condo residential projects like the Luna it well into a sustainable urban living model, he suggests. "There's access to public transportation and many key services are within walking distance." With its eight-foot, 10-inch ceilings, modern appliances, more sophisticated design, and use of more high-end materials, "Luna is at least a notch up in terms of inishes," he says. With 98 per cent of the units sold prior to the June occupancy, it has T LOCATION 1111 10th Street SW Calgary, Alberta OWNER/DEVELOPER Qualex-Landmark Developments Inc. ARCHITECT BKDI Architects DESIGN ARCHITECT Rafii Architects Inc. GENERAL CONTRACTOR ITC Construction Group STRUCTURAL CONSULTANT Read Jones Christoffersen Ltd. MECHANICAL CONSULTANT Olsen Engineering Ltd. ELECTRICAL CONSULTANT Nemez (S/A) & Associates Ltd. LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT Matrix Landscape Architecture INTERIOR DESIGN Insight Design Group TOTAL AREA 244,566 square feet TOTAL COST $70 million Luna p.66-67Luna.indd 67 turned out well, considering how inauspicious the economic climate was at the start of the project. In the wake of the 2008-2009 downturn, a raft of highrise projects in Calgary had either been temporarily shelved or simply cancelled. Construction on Luna started in 2010. "We kept our promise and stayed the course by moving forward with Luna," Mahboubi says. "We were likely the only condominium highrise that started construction at that time." The concept or scope of the Qualex projects on the south-facing block has evolved slightly over time. When the irst two towers were being planned the developer owned space on the block for two, not three, towers. "But when the extra space was bought, this allowed for knock-out walls on the original parking lot, so no extra parking ramp was needed," says Foad Ra ii, principal at Ra ii Architects Inc. Floor plans are very similar to those for the second tower, but the overall design of the new building is more geared to emphasize elegance and height, and Ra ii says that the use of vertical glazing and the height of the tower itself make it appear slender. At the same time, the townhomes at the base provide connection with the neighbourhood. "The townhomes at Stella, the irst tower, were among the irst to be set at the base of a condo tower. They give more contact with the street. Also, although people collect their mail from the lobby, there are patios facing the street. Therwe are more eyes on the street, and doors facing out. This helps animate the street," says Ra ii. Besides the downtown of ice highrises and professional buildings, art galleries, theatres, shopping, grocery stores and restaurants are nearby. The suites, which have either work stations or den areas that can double as of ices, mesh well with a city plan for the neighbourhood that encourages live/ work spaces. "With a Co-op supermarket a block away, it's geared for accessing a lot of amenities on foot," says Jean Guy Beliveau, a director at BKDI Architects. The main-f loor storage, which accommodates 135 bicycles, is another area in which the tower's location and amenities mesh well with the city's push to encourage area residents to use non-motorized transport – unless it's a bus or light rail transit. "The city requires that bike storage is either on the main loor or one loor below. Also, the city only requires 0.5 storage units COURTESY QUALEX-LANDMARK DEVELOPMENTS INC. by Godfrey Budd per suite, so we're slightly above that," says Beliveau. Although the A/C in all three towers uses a fan coil system, "There are some subtle differences in the mechanical because of the height. Luna is more of a stand-alone building than the other two towers. The other two shared gas, water and sewer, but HVAC was separate. This is a stand-alone building in all those respects," says Keith Olsen, president of Olsen Engineering Ltd. Luna has high-ef iciency condensing boilers for domestic water and heating use. "The chiller and boiler systems are reasonably low-maintenance and easy to operate. For all three towers, there's a one-pipe distribution system for heat and domestic," says Olsen. With two towers to the west already built and occupied, Luna's loor plate and location at the east end of the block didn't leave a lot of room for staging. There's a side street to the east but the avenue that the Qualex towers face is a busy one-way thoroughfare, providing access to downtown and high-density residential neighbourhoods. Street usage permits were needed and a detour was implemented – for two days of installation and four days for removal. A 500-tonne crane was used to install the tower crane. "It involved a lot of planning and logistics. We needed to have the detours along a very narrow road," says Curtis Abramson, construction site superintendent with ITC Construction Group. Part, and sometimes all, of the stretch of side street to the east had to be rented at times during construction. "It's a tight site so it required lots of coordination with the city," he says. The city administration people, though, were good to work with. And although a saw-cut had to be made between the existing parking for the earlier towers and the parking for the new tower, it had been planned for. "So it was not a challenge. All things considered, it was one of the smoother jobs I've worked on," says Abramson. ■ JUNE 2012 /67 5/25/12 12:10:43 PM

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