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august 2015 | 75 genco 634 tower photography courtesy omicron; rendering courtesy genco development corp. Genco 634 Tower by godfrey Budd A new office building in downtown Calgary, developed by Genco Devel- opment Corp. (GDC), has taken a sharp turn away from the conventional monochrome and somewhat pinstriped look common to much of the surround- ing forest of office towers. Instead, the 11-storey Genco 634 Tower, located a stone's throw from the oil capi- tal's 24-storey main courthouse, sports a cladding of red and brushed silver pan- els asymmetrically dispersed across the south (front), west and north elevations. The office condo building's east side is adjacent to an existing building and has no windows. Windows on the west side start at the third floor. Aside from a 14-storey tower built by Genco in 2008 just south of the city's central business district, the boutique- style office condo concept has been something of a rarity in Calgary. "In the late 1970s, there were a few office condo towers built in downtown Calgary. Now, with Genco 634 added, this is only the fourth significant office condo build- ing here," says Pali Bedi, president of GDC. "The model in downtown Calgary has been to build and hold," adds Fred Clemens, VP of GDC. Like its 2008 project in the city's Beltline neighbourhood, which attracted a clientele mainly from accounting, law and the oil and gas industry, Genco 634 is selling mostly to small firms. The premise behind an office condo building of this type is that some bou- tique firms, start-ups and small compa- nies might want to buy essentially on the same basis that people prefer to buy and own their home. "Owning gives you flexibility. If you rent, you're on a lease of, say, 10 years and there is practically no way to be released from that obliga- tion. But, with a condo you own, if you want to sell the condo then you have no trailing obligations after it is sold. Or if you want to sell your business, you can still own the real estate and collect the rent," Bedi says. About 60 per cent of the building's 18 suites – two per floor – have been sold. "Most buyers have opted for full floor ownership. Increased security is a big advantage of owning the whole floor. You have tighter control over access," Clemens says. The floorplate for Genco 634 is about 6,000 square feet. The main or street-level floor includes the lobby, retail space and a gym. The second floor has a lunch cafe and connection to the Plus 15 system; a network of enclosed, above-street walk- ways servicing much of the downtown. As well as the mix of cladding panels in red and silver, "The windows on the west and north elevations, although in fact strategically located, are config- ured to give an impression that is natu- ral, playful and sporadic," says Jamily Fyith, project director at Omicron. Only the south elevation has conventional lin- ear rows of windows. The concrete building is not on a f lood plain, so a generator that uses diesel is located in the basement. Genco 634 also uses high-efficiency condens- ing boilers for heating. "Ventilation air is provided by a central heat recov- ery unit. All plumbing fixtures in the washrooms are low-flow to save water. Overall, HVAC and plumbing systems in the building are very energy and water efficient," says Jack Zhang, an engineer at MMP Engineering. The lot is only 50 feet wide. As the west side of the first and second floors are adjacent to a building, special fire rat- ing was required for the west side as well as the east. "We had to have sprinklers on the glazing units on the west," Fyith says. The tight lot space on the down- town's high-traffic 6th Avenue and the non-availability of the narrow back alley for anything more than parking a car or pick-up truck for a few minutes meant that staging for the project had to be done with the precision of clockwork – liter- ally. Staging was made possible by lane closings on 6th Avenue between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. "We had a condensed day as a result. There was zero lay-down area before 9 a.m. and after 3 p.m. Rebar had to be tucked onto the floor where it was going to be needed. To load up the roof materials, including the membrane, we had to use three or four crane days for that and to install the roof," Fyith says. Once the concrete for the building had been poured, the tower crane had to be taken down and crews were con- fined to using a mobile crane for the rest of the project. "That takes a lot of strate- gic planning with the team and trades. We had to cram lots of work on days we used the crane," says Fyith. Another challenge for the project stemmed from the varied foundation levels of existing buildings on the east and west sides. "There was no space for shoring and we wanted to avoid under- pinning. So, the solution was a 'raft' or mat foundation. But we had to crank the 'raft' so that the new foundation avoided underpinning the existing foundations on either side," says Minesh Modi, presi- dent of MMP Engineering Ltd. Also, the location of the elevator core and stairwell at the east face had the potential to compromise lateral stabil- ity. To offset this, a frame of concrete was installed that coupled the core with nearby columns. Another hurdle for the project came in the form of a previously existing duct, the dimensions of which were substan- tially greater than those suggested by the drawings. "To bypass the duct we had to do a redesign of the water, storm- water and sanitary services – and fill in the hole in the road while we did the redesign, because of the traffic on 6th Avenue," says Hussein Bhaiji, principal at Civil Engineering Solutions. Despite such challenges, says Omicron's Fyith, "It was a textbook project: on time, on budget, and nobody got hurt." A Location 634 - 6th Avenue SW, Calgary, Alberta owner/DeveLoper Genco Development Corp. architect/GeneraL contractor/ MechanicaL/eLectricaL consuLtant Omicron structuraL consuLtant MMP Engineering ltd. civiL consuLtant Civil Engineering Solutions Inc. totaL size 70,000 square feet totaL cost Undisclosed

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