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Hudson Bay School by Jerry Eberts renderings courtesy aodbt architecture + interior design Location 401 Main Street, Hudson Bay, Saskatchewan owner/DeveLoper North East School Division #200 architect aodbt architecture + interior design GeneraL contractor Graham Construction and Engineering LP StructuraL conSuLtant Prakash Consulting Ltd. MechanicaL conSuLtant HDA Engineering Ltd. eLectricaL conSuLtant PWA Engineering Ltd. totaL area 5,431 square metres totaL conStruction coSt $23.8 million T he Town of Hudson Bay, located in the Red Deer Valley in northeast Sas- katchewan, is not a large city, but the need for a new school is being met with a concerted effort. By the start of the next school year, the new Hudson Bay School will be educating kids and also acting very much as the centre of the town. "It 's a unique project," says Jeff Zenner, facilit y super v isor for t he North East School Division. "We are consolidating two older schools into the new school that will include all grades from pre-K to grade 12." It is ver y much a pa r t ner ship between the community and the school division. "From the start there has been a lot of consultation with staff, students and the community," adds Zenner. "Hud- son Bay is a small town, without a lot of amenities. The new school will be the centre of the community – a meeting place like a town hall. It will be active day and night." Zenner says the proposal was first submitted in 2009. There was a period at that point when "everyone involved took a step back and asked, 'What's the big picture?' We realized it was cheaper to build a new school than ren- ovate the old ones. By 2011 we had the design approved and finally got the all clear in 2012. "The provincial ministry has really stepped up," says Zenner. "But there was a real partnership with all involved, including the community and the school division. The communit y campaign raised enough money on its own to enhance the designs for the school. For example, the applied and industrial arts area was made bigger, as well as the overlook area of the gym and fitness area on the second floor." As architect and prime consul- tant on the project, Louis Aussant of Saskatoon-based aodbt architecture + interior design says the new two-storey school is designed for 450 students in a state-of-the-art 21st-century learning environment. "Learning communit ies – early years, middle years and high school years – have been created within the 5,431-square-metre structure, while enabling older students to mentor younger students and siblings through shared facilities," says Aussant. "The interior spaces are flooded with natural light. Access to daylight is a key factor in the design of the school." Aussant adds, " T he communit y contributed to certain elements of the project such as a multi-purpose room – a 405-seat theatre – a mezzanine in the gymnasium, a larger industrial arts shop area and a student lounge for the high school students." The design of the school is meant to reference the beautiful aurora borealis so associated with Canada's North. "The clerestory glazing along the stu- dent commons – the spine of the plan – is synonymous with the Northern Lights with its use of blue and green glass. The pat tern created by the brick and corrugated metal exterior cladding is symbolic of the horizon where the grain fields meet the forest and sky. Oriented strand board panels, produced by the local OSB plant, adorn some of the larger interior spaces," says Aussant. General contractor was Graham Construction and Engineering LP, with Blair Bergen as senior project manager. Asked if there were any problems so far, Bergen says, "The winter of 2013 was cold and long. We had to do the concrete foundation work during this time. We ran two crews on an offset shift so the site was running seven days a week to make sure that the concrete was completed for structural steel in the new year. "It went pretty smoothly for mobili- zation and getting the piling contractor working. We got the award in mid-Sep- tember so we needed to get as much work on the foundations done as we could before winter set in." The land it self also presented some challenges: "The ground con- ditions in the area have a peat layer running through it," says Bergen. "To allow for the organic nature of this layer a barrier was installed under the structural main floor slab with an exhaust system to remove any meth- ane gas that may be produced from the decomposing material." Aussant agrees that the unusual ground conditions created some chal- lenges. "The site is located on approxi- mately six metres of organic material. A methane vapour extraction system was developed and installed below the building footprint to exhaust the gases produced by the decomposing organic material. And the overall building site needed to be raised in order to ensure proper overland drainage to t he town's overland drainage net work," says Aussant. Alena Sherwood was design engi- neer on the project for PWA Engineering Ltd. of Saskatoon. "We have worked on many elementary and high school proj- ects in and around Saskatchewan. This project features daylight harvesting in all the classrooms for energy savings," says Sherwood. As for the progress being made, Grant Dawson, president of mechani- cal engineering firm HDA Engineering Ltd., says, "There is new technology being used in the space. We are also building the methane collection sys- tem on top of vents above the peat moss," he says. "The school will also have high-efficiency boilers and heat- reclaiming equipment." And while the project has some unique challenges, structural engineer Bradley Johnson at Prakash Consulting says, "There are always site-specific problems that have to be addressed. But this is truly a great team." n december 2014 /79 Hudson bay School