With a mission to inform, empower, celebrate and advocate for British Columbia's current and aspiring business leaders, BCBusiness go behind the headlines and bring readers face to face with the key issues and people driving business in B.C.
Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/347582
P r o m o t e d c o n t e n t G A G E - B A B C O C K and no matter how long someone's been with us, the improvement of skills is constant. Currently, we have several staff members working towards their master's in ire protection engineering from the University of Waterloo." In an ideal world, GBA would be brought in during the inception of a project—and indeed, GBA's long-standing clients do so routinely. Kovacs says: "We may be contacted when the client thinks they're going to have an issue-free granting of a building permit. However, they may be faced with an unforeseen code complication that we are called upon to resolve. Typical scenarios would be a major renovation or addition or a change of occupancy classiication in an existing building." An example of a large project that recently required GBA's skills is the LEED Gold-certiied Jim Pattison Outpatient Care & Surgery Centre in Surrey, which combines day surgery, diagnostic services and specialized health clinics. As the CP and code consultant for this public-private partnership (P3), GBA helped deliver the facility on schedule with services including the development of Alternative Solutions to allow for the incorporation of wood elements; protection of glazing at parking level vestibules and corridors. At library Square in Vancouver, GBA acted as the code consultant and supported the architect's design by providing ire and life safety engineering services, including an Alternative Solution to make the library's intricate and welcoming multi-storey atrium possible. GBA was also the code consultant for the BCIT Aerospace Technoloy Campus and developed three Alternative Solutions for that project, including an occupant egress and smoke management model for the interconnected floor space. GBA recently provided full code services for the Lions Gate Hospital HOpe Centre for Mental Health & Addictions. "We enjoy challenges such as big facilities with large atria that require ire protection," says Kovacs. "We're also becoming more heavily involved in door hardware, since the proliferation of smart buildings has made this a complicated specialty." In all cases, the GBA team strives to simplify the mechanical components of a building and minimize maintenance costs for clients. "After all, the owner has to live with the facility," explains Kovacs. "Smart buildings have made it easier for us to offer Alternative Solutions, but we still have to determine if the same outcomes can be met with simpler alternative methods instead of, for example, the developer spending thousands of dollars on smoke removal fans." The growing use of wood in commercial and institutional facilities presents another opportunity for the GBA team. "In the next version of the building code, architects will be allowed to design six-storey wood buildings for the commercial sector, so we anticipate a lot of work ahead of us," says Lau. GBA was launched in 1974 as Compyromatic, a company that designed sprinkler systems for elementary schools and quickly evolved to incorporate code compliance. The name change to Gage- Babcock occurred in 1985, and since then Kovacs and his colleagues have become renowned for making designs safe while embracing architectural vision. "It's deinitely a balancing act, but at the end of the day we satisfy all parties," says Kovacs. "The objective is always the same, but the details are always different. I can't think of anything more fulilling than making properties safe and providing value to clients and architects. We are thankful that the design community continues to place trust in our abilities." This promotional feature was prepared by BCBusiness magazine's Special Advertising Features Dept. Writer: Robin Brunet. For more information contact VP of corporate features John Cochrane at 6042997311. Email: jcochrane@canadawide.com the Surrey city Hall required Gba's computer fire modelling expertise for the impressive atrium in order to reach levels of fire and life safety.