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OCTOBER 2015 | 97 VivaNext Operations Maintenance Storage Facility (OMSF) PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY ARCHITECTURE49 INC. VivaNext Operations Maintenance Storage Facility (OMSF) by PETER STENNING N ewcomers on a drive-by may well mistake the sprawling facility on Leslie Street and 16th Avenue in Richmond Hill, Ontario, with its blue glazed curtain wall curving elegantly inward at mid section, for the kind of futuristic headquarters that gaming developers are accustomed to. Only when buses roll out of the garages does the truth set in: this is the new VivaNext Operations Maintenance Storage Facility (OMSF); a 481,679-square- foot jewel in Headford Business Park that maintains and stores up to 250 York Region Transit (YRT)/Viva vehicles. To say the LEED Silver facility sets a new standard for rapid transit opera- tions centres would be an understate- ment. "I've worked on other such facilities in Ontario, but this is by far the most extravagant that I've seen," says Peter Aw, senior project manager for PCL Constructors Canada Inc. Situated on a nine-acre site, the $135- million OMSF consists of three main components: a storage facility; a 26-bay repair garage; and administration offices for 338 staff members. The head- quarters incorporate a host of energy- efficient and environmentally-friendly features, such as a reflective white roof to save on cooling costs, and storage for 500,000 litres of rainwater recycled for use in the bus wash. The project was funded by the federal and provincial governments as well as York Region. The decision to go ahead with the project was reached in 2011, helped along by a Regional Municipality of York report that Viva ridership increased 26 per cent since its launch in September 2005. The report also showed that from January to April 2011, overall ridership for both YRT and York Viva Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) services increased 10.5 per cent when compared to the same period in 2010. The development of the OMSF is part of a larger plan that includes the purchase of 39 bus rapid transit vehi- cles and the construction of Cornell Terminal in Markham. Going for a big and bold transit facil- ity made sense on a number of fronts, says Dale Albers, chief communica- tions officer for the York Region Rapid Transit Corporation. "Our region is home to a huge and expanding fleet and we needed a garage to properly accom- modate it," he says, adding, "We thought it was logical to develop as attractive a building as possible, based on sustain- able principles." Former chief designer for York Region, David Clark (now retired) is credited for the dramatic visual appeal of the project, and Architecture49 (then PBK) carried through his design objectives. "When we were handed his drawings it struck me as one of the most beautiful bus facilities I'd ever seen, with its curved cornices, sloped glazed walls and the administra- tion area wrapped around a spectacu- lar courtyard," says Albert Paquette, Architecture49 principal. One of Architecture49's main chal- lenges was realizing the myriad details of the facility. "The initial budget was very tight, so we consulted extensively with suppliers and worked out value engineer- ing strategies in order to deliver what York Region wanted," says Paquette. In fact, when Architecture49 was initially given the RFP documents, it proceeded under the assumption that the total budget was $80 to $90 million. "Our bid submission as well as every- one else's was too high, so there was a scramble to eliminate components of the project," Paquette recalls. "Fortunately, by the time we won the OMSF, the own- ers found money from other projects that would enable us to fully realize the facility, without design compromises." The Aquila Group played a key role in helping the OMSF achieve its LEED Silver designation. "Our main task was to provide mechanics at the highest level in order to achieve optimum indoor air quality," says president Jorge Osorio. This was especially trick y, con- sider ing t he garage and storage warehouse were located beside the administration complex. "We couldn't risk contamination from bus idling or bus washing, so airlocks and vestibules had to be incorporated into the design, and special attention was paid to the location of air handling equipment," says Osorio. These and other measures created a positively pressurized admin- istrative interior that emitted clean air instead of admitting bad air. Ventilating units and heat recovery plates with smart monitoring controls were a few of the many other elements comprising the mechanical portion of the project. Construction began in 2012. "This was not a typical design-build proj- ect," says PCL's Aw. "The OMSF is an ambitious structure, and we carefully sized the concrete and structural steel elements as well as assessed material samples with the owners and consulted with them extensively during our devel- opment of the curtain wall." Adverse weather conditions were another challenge. "We started just before a huge rainy season, and this impacted excavation," says Aw. "Later, there was a full-out ice storm when we were constructing the roof; it came down as wet snow and the temperature dropped, and the result was a half metre of ice that we had to remove manually. However, we made up for lost time and finished the project on schedule, in March of this year." At peak, upwards of 300 crew members worked on site. The OMSF will play a critical role as the $1.7-billion bus rapid transit project is completed over the next five years across York Region. "It really does raise the bar in terms of appearance and functionality," says Paquette. "York Region is committed to maintaining high quality design and construction in its jurisdiction, and even though it's located in a business park, OMSF is a striking addition to Richmond Hill." A LOCATION Leslie Street & 16th Avenue, Headford Business Park, Richmond Hill, Ontario OWNER/DEVELOPER York Region Rapid Transit Corporation ARCHITECT Architecture49 (formerly PBK Architects) DESIGN-BUILD CONTRACTOR PCL Constructors Canada Inc. STRUCTURAL CONSULTANT Entuitive MECHANICAL CONSULTANT The Aquila Group ELECTRICAL CONSULTANT Racon Engineering Inc. CIVIL CONSULTANT A.M. Candaras Associates Inc. LEED AND BUILDING ENVELOPE CONSULTANT WSP TOTAL SIZE 481,679 square feet TOTAL COST $135 million

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