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J UNE 2015 | 93 Willowgrove School / Holy Family Catholic School RENDERING COURTESY KINDRACHUK AGREY ARCHITECTURE by IRWIN RAPOPORT Willowgrove School/Holy Family Catholic School T he sharing of a single building to house the newly built Willowgrove School and Holy Family Catholic School represents the third collabo- ration between the Saskatoon Public Schools (SPS) and the Greater Saskatoon Catholic Schools (GSCS). The 142,000-square-foot structure contains two, two-storey schools that are interconnected via corridors, with Willowgrove on the south side, Holy Family Catholic School on the north side and a daycare in the middle. The facili- ties share a common heating system, while each school has separate mechan- ical infrastructures. "Joint-use facilities in the city's new and growing neighbourhoods benefit the community at large," says Stan Laba, superintendent of facilities at SPS. "A joint-use facility offers significant syn- ergies and value-added features when it comes to the design, operation and programming aspects of the facility, and provides for effective and efficient use of taxpayers' money. As the first joint use elementary school constructed in Saskatoon, it will serve as an important benchmark for future school develop- ment projects in the city." John Mc Aulif fe, GSCS 's super- intendent of education, adds: "The Government of Saskatchewan promoted the original idea of sharing a common facility. There are some built-in mechan- ical redundancies that may benefit the school boards in the future and the com- munity may potentially benefit by hav- ing a dedicated after-hours entrance that provides access to the childcare centre, two multi-purpose rooms and two gymnasiums. "The schools were needed due to the tremendous growth in the neigh- bourhood," he adds. "The estimated elementary student population for both schools combined will peak at 1,300- plus students. As the adjacent schools in our division were beyond design enrolment capacity, a new school was required." Willowgrove was designed for a normal enrolment of 450 students and a peak enrolment of 600 students. When it opened in March it had nearly 400 students. The public school has a full comple- ment of classrooms for Kindergarten to Grade 8 students, all of which are arranged around an open atrium. It includes dedicated instructional spaces for science, French language instruction, English as an additional language, and the school's music and band programs. The main f loor houses a library that offers several distinct work and gath- ering places to allow for simultaneous uses, and it is also home to the school's primary technology centre. There is space on the main floor dedicated to the community's pre-school program. Willowgrove's design is based on four specific themes: health, wellness, tech- nology and sustainability. "The design- ers [of Willowgrove] incorporated the natural slope of the site into the design, limiting the use of cut and fill, and cre- ating a multi-level facility from front to back that sits well on the site," says Laba. "The most notable design feature is the soaring central atrium that allows light to flood into the heart of the school." Holy Family, with 340 students and a capacity for 500, has four learning pods with four classrooms in each pod and is designed to accept a two-storey relocatable addition. It also has art/sci- ence rooms and labs, practical arts/flex rooms, a band rehearsal area, a library, special education rooms, a chapel, tuto- rial space, itinerant offices and staff rooms. The main floor at Holy Family is designed all at one level, to optimize circulation flow, and for ease of moving wheeled carts and equipment through- out the school. Each school has its own gymnasium. To augment the joint-use nature of the project a $7.5-million contribution from the City of Saskatoon allowed for an additional 400 square metres of multi- purpose and auxiliar y g ymnasium space to be incorporated into the design. Collaboration was extremely impor- tant for the architects. "While each school desired that its own identity be expressed, it was also important that the overall building read as a coherent whole," says Jim McEwen, with Edwards Edwards McEwen Architects, which designed Holy Family. "Similar materi- als and colours including brick, metal cladding and aluminum windows were used throughout the project. Structural, mechanical, electrical, landscape and other consultants were common across the project. Both schools are designed to provide bright, open, flexible, well- supported spaces for learning." Derek Kindrachuk, principal architect with Kindrachuk Agrey Architecture who designed Willowgrove, agrees: "The goal of the exterior design was to create a cohesive overall building with clear visual facade distinctions between the schools, and the civic space and daycare portions of the building," he says. "This was achieved by using similar building materials across the entire building and varying the colours and textures creat- ing an identity for each school and the civic space and daycare." Victoria Yong-Hing, an architect with Kindrachuk Agrey Architecture, adds that quality building materials were carefully selected and applied to take advantage of the benefits of each material to optimize longevity. "In addition to reducing maintenance costs and increasing the sustainabil- ity of the building, this focus on long- wear material allowed opportunit y for esthetic design. For example, while metal cladding was appropriate for the second storey of the Willowgrove side, the masonry applied on the first storey portion of the building offers both a har- dier option at ground level and provided an opportunity to visually break up the height of the building," says Yong-Hing. "Delineation of the SPS entrances was achieved with welcoming canopies clad in wood grain phenolic panels above each set of doors. At the front of the school, an arcade creates a procession along the pathway through the main entrance of the building." Smart technologies and breakout spaces are provided throughout the school for maximum integration of learning. "A variety of practical arts rooms, a larger than standard science room, and a sub-dividable small gymna- sium offer spatial flexibility and ensure programmatic longevity for the facility. Provision for future modular classrooms was included in the design planning to accommodate natural cycles in neigh- bourhood population and avoid over- building the facility," says Yong-Hing. Mohit Lamba, the project manager for EllisDon Corporation, comments that the construction took place between September 2012 and March 2015, and therefore the team experienced the common challenges associated with building in Saskatchewan. "Due to severe weather conditions for several winter months, the project schedule was affected, however, we did our best to make up time by adding additional workforce whenever weather condi- tions were milder." Lamba adds that the booming econ- omy also made the skilled labour market very competitive. "Nevertheless, this unique project which required the co- operation and agreement of numerous parties, including two separate owners and two separate architects, was com- pleted in accordance to the plans and drawings for each school." Crosby Hanna & Associates pre- pared the landscape design with safety of children as one of the main driving forces influencing the site layout. "This includes the location of walkways and cross walks, parking, drop-off areas and fences to control traffic patterns," says William Hrycan from Crosby Hanna & Associates. Raised walkways across drive lanes give pedestrians priority and force vehicles to slow down through the drop-off areas. "It was also important to integrate the school landscape with the surrounding city park," he adds. "The adjacent park vernacular extends into and through the school site to maintain continuity through- out the landscape. Safe, accessible path connections facilitate pedestrian/cycle movement through the site, and provide easy access to the adjacent park and play structures for children. Large trees along the street and surrounding the building complement the large scale of the school, helping to settle the large building into the site, surrounding park, and wider neighbourhood," concludes Hrycan. A LOCATION 805 Stensrud Road/815 Stensrud Road, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan OWNER/DEVELOPER Saskatoon Public Schools / Greater Saskatoon Catholic Schools ARCHITECTS Kindrachuk Agrey Architecture (Willowgrove School) / Edwards Edwards McEwen Architects (Holy Family Catholic School) GENERAL CONTRACTOR EllisDon Corporation STRUCTURAL CONSULTANT WSP Group MECHANICAL CONSULTANT Daniels Wingerak Engineering Ltd. ELECTRICAL CONSULTANT PWA Engineering Ltd. LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT Crosby Hanna & Associates TOTAL AREA 142,000 square feet COST $30.6 million

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