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august 2015 | 81 grandview Heights aquatic Centre renderings courtesy hcma architecture + design Grandview Heights Aquatic Centre by Peter caulfield T he City of Surrey, located east of Vancouver in B.C.'s Fraser Valley, is close to completing the Grandview Heights Aquatic Centre; a 94,000-square- foot recreational complex. Construction of the two-storey facil- ity began in 2013 and is on schedule to be open for swimming and other recre- ation in fall 2015. Projected to attain LEED certifica- tion, the $54.4-million building is a con- crete structure with an exterior that transitions from a curtain wall with clear glazing to translucent panels. The centre feat ures a strik ing design by HCMA Architecture + Design (HCMA). The roof is a wooden deck on top of glulam beams that are suspended between concrete buttress structures on either side, as well as in the middle of the building in a curved formation. The beams are pinned into slotted spaces built into the buttresses. "The glulam roof is the biggest fea- ture of the facility," says Nicolas Worth, HCMA's construction manager on the project. "It's visually arresting and the defining aspect of the building. It has an elegant curved shape with a thin profile that makes it unique in North America." W hen it opens, the Grandv iew Heights Aquatic Centre will have a full range of swimming and fitness features, including a 10-lane, 50-metre Olympic- size competitive main pool. In addition to being large enough to host regional swimming competitions, the main pool can be adjusted for other uses, such as swimming lessons, aquatic fitness pro- grams, water polo, kayak lessons and synchronized swimming. It will also have a full set of dive towers ranging from one to 10 metres. Other features include spectator seating for 800 to 900 people; a steam room and dry sauna; a 4,000-square- foot leisure pool that includes spray and lazy river features; water slide; two hot tubs for families and adults; a 7,800-square-foot fitness and weight room; a large, family-friendly universal change area; and an exterior terrace and on-site food service. "This is a new centre for a growing community," says Scott Groves, man- ager of Surrey's civic facilities division. "The city is experiencing rapid growth, with approximately 1,000 new resi- dents every month." The Centre is part of Build Surrey, a plan to create new public facilities for Surrey's growing population. "That is why there is a focus on fun features, therapy features and a potential for swim lessons and exercise at all levels," Groves says. The centre will also be a regional facil- ity and attract people from outside the immediate neighbourhood. "The facility is for competitive athletes to train and compete in the lap pool, the diving centre and in other water sports," he says. Although the facility's distinctive curved roof is beautiful, its design and installation presented some challenges. Derek Ratzlaff, an associate with Fast + Epp structural consultants, says the roof is "somewhat flexible" under unbalanced snow loads. "So the move- ment of the roof had to be allowed for in the connection to the columns and in the envelope connection to the glaz- ing," Ratzlaff says. "The allowance was 200 millimetres of vertical movement to prevent the roof from getting hung up on the columns." In addition, the diving platforms are designed to high tolerances to allow competition events. "The platforms are attached to the roof buttresses and supported by a wall between them," Ratzlaff says. "We used styrofoam inside the platforms to reduce the weight to achieve the required behaviour." Dare Peklenik, project manager with Turnbull Construction Project Managers Ltd., says the assembly and erection of the structure required cre- ativity. "Almost 120 double glulams were par t ially assembled on t he ground and lifted into location with a crane," he says. "Special spreader bars were designed to provide the support required for the very flexible glulam." Due to lifting limitations, the final splice needed to be done in the air. "To install the roof members, one side was first attached to the centre concrete column structure," says Peklenik. "The other side was attached to the perim- eter buttress structure and then bolted together in the air." Because each glulam was pre-man- ufactured in the factory, high toler- ance requirements were needed for the concrete structure to maintain the designed curvature. The project presented other chal- lenges to the project managers. "Due to the building's clean design and unique roof shape, no equipment could be located on or around the building," says Peklenik. "That meant that all the filters, air handling units, pumps, compressors and other mechanical equipment had to be located in the basement and mezza- nine. This required careful co-ordina- tion between architectural, electrical and mechanical disciplines." Harold Stewart, principal at mechan- ical consultants AME Consulting Group Ltd., says that because of the free-form roof line, air is distributed throughout the pool hall at two levels. "An exhaust system that's new to Canada drains off the air that contains trichloramine gas – what you smell in a pool – from the water's surface through the pool gutters," Stewart says. "An ultraviolet sterilizing system then breaks down the chloramines." Another unusual feature is the big pool water filters called regenerative filters, which are three times more effi- cient than traditional sand filters. Andrew Goodbrand, project co-ordi- nator with general contractor EllisDon Corporation, says the sequencing flow of the project was atypical. "This was mainly due to the way the structure was designed," Goodbrand says. "The main structure is made up of three sec- tions consisting of sloped post tensioned concrete columns and cantilevered roof slabs, which are tied together with 116 glulam beams. The three sections had to be in place before glulams could be installed joining them together." Goodbrand says this meant a lot of jumping around during construction and working on several levels and areas at the same time. "This forced us to focus mainly on the structure and didn't allow us to progress too far ahead with rough-in and finishes until after the roof was fully installed," he says. "To overcome this dif- ficulty with scheduling, we held weekly sub-trade meetings and planned well in advance for any major installations, to avoid slowing down the progress on site." The landscape design of the Centre fits within a larger precinct that will include a community centre, schools, library and open space. "This was one of the fac- tors, as well as retaining the trees at the southeast corner of the site by curving the urban trail around the trees and drop- ping the grade lower," says Jim Breadon, senior landscape architect at PFS Studio. Breadon adds that the planting and high-efficiency irrigation system are part of the LEED submission. "Only the high-use areas around the pool patio are irrigated," he says. "The trees in the plaza have Silva Cells [modular frame- works for creating underground rain gardens] to provide soil volume to allow for long-term growth and health." a Location 16855 - 24th Avenue, Surrey, B.C. owner/DeveLoper City of Surrey project Manager Bull Construction Project Managers Ltd. architect HCMA Architecture + Design generaL contractor EllisDon Corporation StructuraL conSuLtant Fast + Epp MechanicaL/eLectricaL conSuLtant AME Consulting Group Ltd. LanDScape architect PFS Studio civiL conSuLtant R.F. Binnie & Associates Ltd. totaL Size 94,000 square feet totaL coSt $54.4 million 11:17 AM 2:06 PM

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