Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/493534
A PR IL 2015 | 99 UBC Library PARC PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY DGBK ARCHITECTS UBC Library PARC T he University of British Columbia (UBC) Library is expanding its on-campus storage capacity this summer with a brand new LEED-compliant facility on the south end of the main campus. The Library Preservation and Archives (Library PARC) will mainly house little- to no-use items, freeing up space in the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre – the main campus library. There, high circu- lation books will still be readily avail- able, with the added benefit of providing additional student and research services, informal learning spaces, multimedia labs and spaces for scholarly exchange. Library PARC, meanwhile, will not only warehouse books but it will also be a cen- tre for preservation. "Following a model developed at Harvard University and now being used throughout libraries in North America, Library PARC and facilities like it are designed as a highly developed system to store, organize and preserve collec- tions," says Robert Lange, partner at DGBK Architects, the project's architects. The Harvard model provides the most efficient and cost-effective way to house books, using high-density shelving. "Libraries are running out of space to house existing collections with new materials being added year by year, increasing the need for effective storage," continues Lange. "The shelving units can be mobile or static, and are 30-feet high in an environment of 10 degrees Celsius and 30 per cent relative humidity. It's this environment that extends the life of the collection from 30 years in a typical library environment, to 300 years in this highly specialized one." This first module of the storage building is one of seven future modules planned for the site, with each holding up to 1.7-million volumes, for a potential storage of 11.9 million books. Given that space is at a premium, this is to be a High Density Library (HDL). Retrieval and restocking of books is the fundamental key to the system, books will be organized not by topic as in tra- ditional libraries, but by book size. Each work will be barcoded and stored in a tray with a barcode. The tray itself is then placed on shelves that are again bar- coded. "Through this system of organiza- tion the library is able to function with rapid and highly-effective retrieval, or LOCATION 6049 Nurseries Road, Vancouver, B.C. OWNER/DEVELOPER UBC Properties Trusts ARCHITECT DGBK Architects CONSTRUCTION MANAGER Wales McLelland Construction STRUCTURAL CONSULTANT Axis Engineering Ltd. MECHANICAL CONSULTANT Integral Group Inc. ELECTRICAL CONSULTANT MMM Group Ltd. LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT HAPA Collaborative TOTAL AREA 22,500 square feet TOTAL CONSTRUCTION COST $9.7 million picking, of material," says John Johansen, director of communications at DGBK. The 22,000-square-foot building's facade will recreate the barcodes so cen- tral to the organization of the millions of works it will hold. The front facing wall of the main storage module will have the linear effect created through cladding. Before starting construction, the site needed to be cleared and levelled as it had previously been a dumping site for soils from other UBC construc- tion projects. "All the soil on the site was not usable from a geotechnical and structural standpoint, so it had to be removed," states Nick Maile, develop- ment manager, UBC Properties Trust. "The soil was trucked off-site to various dump sites around the Lower Mainland." Upon completion, the initial project for this site will include an administra- tive processing area, the first storage module, and loading docks, with the possibility of adding up to six more stor- age modules in the future. "This first module has been designed primarily for the preservation of paper- based materials, with the proper temper- ature, humidity and lighting controls," explains Rue Ramirez, associate univer- sity librarian at UBC Library. "It has been planned to hold approximately 1.7-mil- lion volumes, but we know there are more items than that in the Library's current holdings that could be put into storage." The electrical consultants on the proj- ect at MMM Group Ltd., led by senior proj- ect manager, Andrew Tashiro, needed to keep that in mind during the design phase. "A strategy was required to opti- mize the electrical equipment provided now, versus what would be provided in the future," says Tashiro. "This way the equipment would be reasonably loaded initially and not operating inefficiently by being very lightly loaded." An extra challenge was provided by the planned eight-metre-high storage area as the height and storage racks will impact the lighting design. LED light fixtures were carefully selected to illuminate the narrow aisles and high shelving, minimizing energy consump- tion and reducing maintenance with the extra long lamp life. "This was an impor- tant factor to consider when the light is mounted eight metres above the floor," notes Tashiro. Occupancy sensors will also be used to reduce energy usage. "The storage module space had be maintained at a certain temperature and humidity level to preserve the life of the books," explains Gordon Ma, associate at Integral Group Inc., the mechanical consultants for Library PARC. "To maintain these space condi- tions for such a large volume of books, a specialized and dedicated mechanical heating, ventilation and cooling system had to be designed." In order to optimize shelf perfor- mance, the storage module required spe- cialized concrete mixtures. "Additional time and materials have had to be focused into this space as extra forms, rails, sur- veys, and testing were required to ensure this slab will meet the required flatness," says Matthew Walmsley, project co-ordi- nator at Wales McLelland Construction, the general contractors on the project. "If the slab is not within the minimal to non-existent flatness tolerance, this could ultimately result in the shelving installa- tion being out of line which reduces the effectiveness of the storage shelving." Since Library PARC is meant to be more than a simple warehousing facil- ity, the building will also house a read- ing room for on-site patron use, classes and meetings. More importantly, how- ever, are its preservation features. The building will include a quaran- tine room and a large walk-in freezer for the treatment of infected materials. "All materials coming into Library PARC will be inspected for mold, insects and other potential dangers," states Ramirez. "The administrative processing area will also include space for a planned conservation lab, an area where items can be stabilized and treated for their long term storage." While a lot of research informa- tion is becoming more readily avail- able online, the large amount of print materials the university has already invested in for decades is still a valu- able resource and needs to be carefully preserved for the future. "An analysis was conducted on the business case for building a new facil- ity versus paying to store the material," says Maile. "It was deemed to be viable." Indeed, according to Ramirez, find- ing the right location was one of the greater challenges the project faced. "Ty pically, these t y pes of facilities are built at a distance from the cen- tral librar y in order to take advan- tage of lower land costs," he explains. "However, with real estate costs in the Greater Vancouver Metropolitan Area being as high as they are, the project was having to look fairly far afield to f ind reasonable proper t y, which would have raised transportation and shipping costs." Having found an appropriate site 2.7-kilometres away from campus centre, UBC Library PARC will provide efficiency and efficacy while limiting its carbon footprint and still provid- ing lower storage costs for the precious materials it holds. A by ZUZANNA WODZYNSKA 3:20 PM