Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/607779
DECEMBER 2015 | 55 aspen that create screening. At the top of the 16th floor there's also a green roof for the private penthouse. Head on inside and the general con- figuration for the suites is a stacked approach. However Ledcor wanted to provide future homeowners with as much flexibility as possible. The layouts on the transition floors shift completely and units can be combined. "We wanted to provide our homeowners with the opportunity to add their personal touch to their new home. A very rare offer- ing in concrete condominium develop- ment. While this was a difficult process to manage, it was also very rewarding as we were able to develop close relation- ships with our homeowners through- out the design and construction phase," says Woodward. From a structural standpoint, the unique layouts meant thinking outside the box: "For us the challenge was to find a way to have a column layout that was efficient and yet accommodated the different units and uses. As you go up the height of the building we tried to limit the number of column transfers to provide this flexibility and so we didn't have a lot of extra cost," adds Riederer. Sustainability was front of mind when it came to the electrical and mechani- cal system. "The way we approached this building was similar to how we approach commercial buildings. We had condensing hot water heaters near con- densing boilers; we used variable fre- quency drives on pumps to make sure we are energy efficient and a high-effi- cient water-cooled chiller in the low-level mechanical room that tied to a cooling tower in the penthouse," says Oshiro. Designing 38 custom homes meant it was a unique project in many ways and resulted in SMP Consulting Electrical Engineers and Smith + Andersen look- ing at each home separately. There's almost two design that have been mar- ried together; the base building and the stackable units. As a result, the heat- ing has two sources with the perimeter Runtal panels which are a sleek looking, low-level radiant convective panel and the secondary source of heat is from a four pipe fancoil system. "The reason we did that is because primary perim- eter heat provides high occupant com- fort, while the fancoil supplemented heat to allow for custom architectural elements," Oshiro adds. "It's a beautiful building and the archi- tects have really thought about the build- ing and the materials," says Legault, to which Dunlop adds, "A project like this doesn't happen without a great client; they've been fantastic to work with." A TheRiver PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY THERIVER LOCATION 135 - 26th Avenue, Calgary, Alberta OWNER/DEVELOPER 26th Avenue River Investments Inc. (an affiliate of Ledcor Properties.) CONSTRUCTION MANAGER Ledcor Construction Ltd ARCHITECT DIALOG STRUCTURAL CONSULTANT Read Jones Christoffersen Ltd. MECHANICAL CONSULTANT Smith + Andersen ELECTRICAL CONSULTANT SMP Consulting Electrical Engineers LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT Carson McCulloch Associates Ltd. TOTAL SIZE 141,000 square feet TOTAL COST $120 million 9:25 AM