Award

august 2015 | 65 Camrose City Hall photography courtesy city of camrose; ian o'Donnell/courtesy manasc isaac architects ltD. Camrose City Hall by natalie Bruckner-menchelli T o say the old Camrose City Hall in Alberta was past its prime is an understatement. "It was around the mid 2000s that we started to notice a lot of foundation issues on the 1940s part of the building and discovered water leak- ing in. We did an environmental test- ing survey and in 2007/2008 we quar- antined off a portion of the basement. We found black mould in the walls. We ended up retrofitting an old boardroom into a staff area and moved a few staff members to the Fire Hall to free up the space. If staff needed to go into the east portion of the basement they had to get a full body suit," explains Jeremy Enarson, director of engineering, City of Camrose. For a number of years City Council debated over whether to refurbish the existing building, move to a new location or build a new structure on the existing location. It was eventually decided that the best option would be to bulldoze the existing 1940s building and its 1970s extension and build a new, bigger City Hall on the same site. Plans were finalized in 2012, but before construction could begin the original building had to be cleaned of hazardous materials such as asbestos prior to the demolition. "Excavation was interesting as we discovered the remains of an outhouse underneath the nearby parking lot and some foundations of an old house," says Mike Mackinnon, project manager at Bird Construction. "Poor subsurface conditions, a high water table, and the high weight of a multi- storey structure required this building to be founded on footings as opposed to piles," explains Nils Hahn, project engi- neer at Read Jones Christoffersen. "Drilled concrete piles were not considered fea- sible due to a significant sand stratum below the site. Driven steel or concrete compaction piles were dismissed during the preliminary design process as being too disruptive to the largely residential neighbourhood surrounding Camrose City Hall." "A slurry top mix sealed the earth cre- ating a stabilized platform and footings were then placed on top," adds Mackinnon. The focus during the design of the building was to create an almost time- less element to City Hall to ensure the facility would accommodate staff growth over the next 30 years. Manasc Isaac Architects Ltd., with the support of City Council, designed a 38,750-square- foot rectangular structure consisting of four storeys, with three floors com- pleted and the fourth floor being shelled in for future use. "The cost of building the fourth floor and the parkade was an incremental increase," says Enarson. "To do that down the road would have been very costly, so City Council was extremely forward-thinking when it came to the future needs of the building." Keeping in mind that the City wanted to create a warm, inviting space, Manasc Isaac Architects designed a concrete and steel building with a large glass facade that stretches along the entire south wall. This allows the public to see right into the building and offers a sense of transparency. "The glass facade also brings in a lot of natural light and will utilize the sun to help heat the building in the winter, while allowing excess heat to be vented off in the summer through operable windows near the top of the atrium," says Enarson. In fact, the louvred operable win- dows are connected to a Building Management System that automatically opens the windows if the interior gets too hot and shuts them if rain is forecast. The structure itself is long and nar- row, stretching east and west and features a steel roof and two towers bookmarking the building. "The exte- rior is also constructed with a rain- screen system that puts the vapour barrier and insulation on the outside Location 5204 – 50 Avenue, Camrose, Alberta owner/DeveLoper City of Camrose architect/eLectricaL/ LanDscape architect Manasc Isaac Architects Ltd. GeneraL contractor Bird Construction structuraL consuLtant Read Jones Christoffersen Ltd. MechanicaL consuLtant Clark Engineering totaL size 38,750 square feet totaL cost $17 million

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