Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/292860
Grand Winnipeg Airport Hotel by Godfrey Budd photos courtesy Lakeview hospitaLity L akeview Management Inc.'s goal to have a hotel that stands out in a city of hotels has been achieved with the $23-million, six-storey, 101- room Grand Winnipeg Airport Hotel. Located inside the Winnipeg Airport campus, this boutique hotel boasts minimalist architecture and some very high- tech accommodation features, according to Keith Levit, president of Lakeview Management Inc. The Grand stems from an invitation to Lakeview when the airport authority was in the process of developing a stylish new terminal, which opened in 2012. The new terminal at Winnipeg's James Armstrong Richardson International Airport has received accolades and been rated as one of the top 10 airports in the world. "The Grand has been designed to maintain the look and feel of the new terminal," Levit says. The Grand's myriad wow factors no doubt played a part in this. Each of the 101 rooms has an iPad with which guests can order room service or arrange for a wake-up call. Each room is equipped with a special panel that displays a range of options. "You can use it to make a 'do-not-disturb' request or if you need to get a supply of something," Levit says. Besides LED Smart TVs with PVR recording, WiFi, Netflix and sensors for turning down the heat and switching off the lights when empty, each room has its own unique photographic wall mural, as well as a large- format print picture above the bed. All the prints and murals are originals by Levit himself, an acclaimed photographer, who comments, "Some people have said I build hotels to get wall space for photos." About half the rooms have dramatic views of landings and take-offs, but the application of a considerable amount of research and a specially-designed enve- lope that includes triple glazing on the windows keeps the noise where you want it – outside. "We achieved the sound attenuation with the glazing system and the curtain wall. We used selected manufactured products, nothing custom," says Ray Wan, principal at Raymond S.C. Wan Architect. "There's a masonry wall slicing through the main stair shaft that helps us man- age and deflect some of the noise from the airport that's hitting the curtain wall," adds Wan. Punched windows are more typical than curtain wall for hotels, he notes, but the latter was chosen so that the exterior look of the Grand would mesh well with the minimalist architecture of the new terminal. "The clear anodized aluminum colour for the curtain wall is very similar to the airport's appearance. The transparency of the hotel's envelope lets you see the interior as you approach the building," Wan says. LOCATION 1979 Wellington Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba OWNER/DEVELOPER Lakeview Management Inc. GENERAL CONTRACTOR Thomas Design Builders Ltd. ARCHITECT Raymond S.C. Wan Architect STRUCTURAL CONSULTANT Crosier Kilgour & Partners Ltd. MECHANICAL/ ELECTRICAL CONSULTANT Nova 3 Engineering Ltd. LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT McGowan Russell Group Inc. TOTAL AREA 71,940 square feet TOTAL CONSTRUCTION COST $23 million The lobby and the curved main stair- case are at the north end of the new hotel and there is a large curved canopy that overhangs the front entrance. The sightline requirements of the control tower did impose some con- straints on the design and location of the Grand, but that didn't inhibit form following function. "We tried to break down the massing of the building, and use the massing to show where the internal activities are – including the lobby," Wan says. The fact that the construction for the new hotel took place within the campus of a fully operational international air- port entailed another set of constraints. "The location of the site was next to the new terminal and the parkade. All the traffic for arrivals and departures passed by the site. With a six-storey building, we used a tower crane for a lot of the construction, and we had to position it so it did all the necessary construction, and not disrupt the opera- tions of the airport," says Trevor Miller, partner at Thomas Design Builders Ltd. Critical infrastructure for the air- port was also adjacent to the site. This included underground concrete ducts for communications and power lines. Because of this, the area above it was off-limits for staging and running heavy equipment. "We had to be cautious not to affect the ducts, so we located the tower crane near where all the traffic ran and used an exit lane to expand the staging area. As the workforce on the site increased to around 100, we needed assigned parking. We couldn't just park anywhere," Miller says. A shuttle service was used to trans- port workers between the site and a travellers' long-term parking facility outside the airport. The tight staging area left fewer options than a congested city core, Miller says, and resulted in much of the curtain wall being installed from a swing stage. "You can always get an extra lane or two downtown, but not here." Minimizing construction debris was a priority of the project's design team. "The system we opted for was hollowcore f loor panels sup- ported by steel beams. It allows for a quick construction at site," says Tom Malkiewicz, a principal at Crosier Kilgour & Partners Ltd. By reducing site work, the modular approach also helped reduce the risk of causing any vibration to the NavCanada cabling in the underground ducts, he says. n April 2014 /75 Grand Winnipeg Airport Hotel Do you have a project of interest to our readers? If you would like your project to be considered for a future issue of Award, please email: Dan Chapman, Publisher dchapman@canadawide.com AWD Project Filler 1/16 v. gs AWD Project Filler 1-16v. gs 6/3/08 3:22 PM Page 1 p74-75_GrandWpgAirport.indd 75 14-04-03 9:11 AM