Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/493534
A PR IL 2015 | 81 2950 Jutland Road the landscape design on esthetic and functional levels. "It is an important piece of water and the whole idea with the bulk of the landscape is, how do we deal with water?" Murdoch says. "How do we take water from the build- ing, slow it down and clean the water – almost respecting it." "The Gorge Waterway is an impor- tant marine habitat and became a driving factor in the overall landscape design," says Murdoch. "How do we restore natural functions in a brown- field site and create a beautiful land- scape? Can we manage building runoff, slow it down and clean the water, while creating an engaging and functional landscape that fits the site?" A gravity-fed rainwater feature man- ages building runoff. The water comes off of the roof through an industrial style steel pipe and pours into three cedar cisterns five-feet high and ranging in diameter from four to seven feet. The cisterns deliver water to a water feature equipped with a small orifice water jet, which is small enough to restrict flow, causing water to fill inside the cisterns and creating head pressure which forces more water out of the jet. "We incorporated a relic from the old sawmill site: a seven-foot diameter steel ring that forms a reflective pool in the water feature," says Murdoch. "Water is slowly released from the cistern and flows through a vegetated swale before pooling in a rain garden. Runoff infil- trates through the soil, is cleaned, and then is discharged to the marine envi- ronment. The landscape manages the site rainwater, creates habitat, but it is also art." The riparian area rain gardens are planted with native and site-adapted plant material like sedges, juncus and dogwoods that thrive in wet winter and dry summer conditions. "It is a multi-functional landscape in an urban setting that manages stormwa- ter, enhances wildlife biodiversity and habitat, and is part of the site's storm- water infrastructure," says Murdoch. The landscape was challenging in some capacities – the landscaping had to ensure its water management tech- niques didn't interfere with, or add pres- sure to, the site's overall water strategy. Another challenge was that the parkade lies underneath the cisterns, which have substantial weight require- ments when full. "We had to work with the structural engineer to make sure the cisterns were supported," says Murdoch. Grades were also trick y, requiring some clever fine-tuning to ensure water flowed around the build- ing across what was essentially a flat surface with relatively strict tolerances. The building is seeking LEED Gold certification and utilizes a number of unique sustainability strategies, says Jawl. "These include a high-performance building envelope system and the use of the adjacent Gorge Waterway for an ocean loop heat exchange system. The project's narrow floor plates result in abundant natural light to interior offices, and to support alternative transporta- tion there are shower and change rooms, secured bicycle storage, and for the resi- dential spaces, kayak storage." "This project is special to us as it includes a large scale interior sculp- ture called Evolving Sphere, by art- ist Bill Porteous, that hangs inside the seven-storey feature stair tower," says D'Ambrosio. "It is a landmark site at Selkirk and we leave it for others to judge whether the architecture has achieved what we set out to." A