Award

cent re w ill be delivered by early November. "The centre and Social Street is going to exceed the expectations of the students and the faculty, and seeing climbers 50-feet above the street will be visually striking," says Ramsey, "Now that people are seeing the clad- ding and glazing going up," says Leach, "a lot of positive feedback is coming in. It's going to be a very strong link for the campus because it unites so many aspects of, and establishes a new archi- tectural landmark for the university and city." Clark Builders, the general contrac- tor for the project, began the work in November 2012. "The climbing centre was by far the most challenging part of the project because of its unique struc- ture and geometry," says Serge L'Abbe, Clark's project manager. "The construc- tion tolerances were extremely tight and our concrete and steel structure had to marry up perfectly. A point cloud survey was performed to produce a 3D model of the completed concrete structure and anchor bolt locations. This 3D, as- built information, was then integrated into the steel model, which allowed our steel fabricator to make adjustments in advance of the fabrication that elimi- nated rework on site. "Ou r In nov at ive Con s t r uc t ion department played an integral role in co-ordinating the structure and the mechanical and electrical systems with the climbing wall," he adds, "which itself has a unique geometry. Construction in a tight sight is always difficult, but ensuring that the impact on campus life is minimized was key." L'Abbe adds that while one construc- tion project was underway, the other three buildings were occupied. "Keep- ing the building systems operational and everyone's safety was our top pri- ority," he says. "Weekly meetings were held with the FPER to communicate the construction activities for the week and it gave the FPER an opportunity to inform us of any upcoming events. "Often work was performed after hours or over the summer while student traffic is at it's lowest and in some cases the design was modified to minimize the impact to the public or the facility," he adds. "Construction can be stress- ful at times and things don't always go according to plan, but we couldn't have asked for a better team to work with!" ■ Location University of Alberta, North Campus, Edmonton, Alberta owner/DeveLoper University of Alberta Students' Union architect Group2 Architecture Interior Design Ltd. GeneraL contractor Clark Builders StructuraL conSuLtant Stantec Consulting MechanicaL conSuLtant Hemisphere Engineering eLectricaL conSuLtant AECOM BuiLDinG enveLope conSuLtant Read Jones Christoffersen Ltd. hazMat/aBateMent conSuLtantS AP Solutions & Resources totaL area 101,868 square feet totaL coSt $57 million 88/ oCTober 2014 The PAW Centre – University of Alberta Providing excellence in Safety, Quality and Customer Satisfaction www.whitemud.com Whitemud Ironworks.indd 1 14-09-15 3:15 PM

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