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A PR IL 2016 | 59 Lazaridis Hall – Wilfrid Laurier University RENDERINGS COURTESY DIAMOND SCHMITT ARCHITECTS Lazaridis Hall – Wilfrid Laurier University by PETER STENNING T ypically, institutional projects are long in development with regard to fundraising: it's the nature of the beast. But barely six months after Diamond Schmitt Architects in association with David Thompson Architect submitted a concept for Wilfrid Laurier University's new Lazaridis Hall (formerly the Global Innovation Exchange Building), the University phoned the architects to say that substantial financing had been secured from the Government of Ontario and the project was a go. David Thompson still remembers that day fondly. "It's not uncommon for such a process to take several years, so it was a big surprise," he says. "Diamond Schmitt principal Birgit Siber and her colleagues and my office immediately began modifying the design based on the funding." As Bondfield Construction Company nears completion on the $103-million project, it's easy to see why Lazaridis Hall was appealing to the provincial government. The four-storey, 220,000-square-foot facility, which is being built to LEED Gold standards, was designed to house the School of Business and Economics and the Department of Mathematics, and includes seven lecture halls, a two-level 1,000-seat auditorium, computer and math labs, meeting rooms, and support spaces. While all this may seem unexceptional on paper, the design and execution of these components is spectacular. For example, a 300- seat lecture hall on the second floor is shaped like a massive drum and cantilevers over the top of the facility's cafeteria – a signature feature and also an exceptional feat of engineering, designed by structural engineers VanBoxmeer & Stranges Engineering Ltd. using multiple steel trusses, set in a triangulated pattern, to cantilever the roof of the hall and bear the weight of the second and third floors above (the drum, which also functions as a curved roof over the east entrance, is wrapped in a natural FSC-certified veneer laminate). On the west side of the building, another cantilevered roof serves as a protected entrance to the new auditorium (technically an oratorial hall, designed with the appropriate acoustics and fan shape); the engineering of this roof includes a 12-foot-high truss that slices through the building to support the cantilevered design; the underside is wrapped in wood laminate. Diamond Schmitt's extensive use of glazing at street level is majestic in scope and contributes to the University's desire for Lazaridis Hall's entrance areas to blend with the exterior sidewalks. Plus, the glazing also enables visitors stepping into the main entrance to have a clear line of vision through the glass doors at the back of the building, thus enhancing the sense of seamless transition from inside to out. Glazing comes into play again with full-length windows covering the length of the building and punctuating the charcoal-coloured zinc-panelled walls. "It was a priority to provide daylight and view to all occupied spaces, including the very significant number of offices," says Siber. Siber goes on to note that Lazaridis Hall originally began as a courtyard building to fit the budget parameters, but it evolved into an atrium building to accommodate structured and unstructured student space; providing a dynamic experience was a prime consideration throughout the design process. "A central part of our design was a 138- by 69-foot atrium with a custom freeform skylight that would serve many functions," she says. "It would bring daylight into the core of the building, interconnect the academic facility and provide a significant amount of student space at the ground floor as well as within student areas." To make Lazaridis Hall as sustainable as possible, the architects designed high albedo rooftops to mitigate the heat island effect and to gather and divert rainwater to a below-grade cistern for reuse in toilet flushing and irrigation (the roof also houses a 540-panel photovoltaic solar panel); other green elements include a highly efficient building skin; less than 40 per cent window-to-wall ratio; energy conserving strategies such as low lighting density both indoors and outdoors; radiant heating and cooling; a radiant slab at the base of the atrium; displacement ventilation within the auditorium; and all teaching spaces with tiered floors to provide the best possible air quality. Thompson notes that due to the complex nature of Lazaridis Hall, Revit was used throughout all phases of design and construction. BIM allowed the project team to refine the design and all disciplines to interact in a way that ensured their various needs and any discrepancies were addressed. A major setback in the project was entirely beyond human control and came in the form of two excessively cold winters during the construction phase. "The deep freeze came early and left late with no relief in between," says Thompson. "There were many days in minus 25 degree working conditions, which must have been absolutely miserable for Bondfield crews." Preferring not to dwell on the adverse weather conditions, Bondfield project manager Errol Dube calls Lazaridis Hall, "One of the first projects I've seen where the steel is so thoroughly integrated into the concrete, and that includes the drum- shaped lecture hall whose form work was extremely demanding." As of mid-March, Lazaridis Hall was nearing completion and on target for partial occupancy in May. "It would have been fabulous to finish earlier, but the extensive use of wood, high-end finishes, highly decorative stairwells, the unique structural components, and all the other elements meant that the construction process could not be rushed," says Dube. Thompson echoes the sentiments of his colleagues by expressing excitement over the impending opening of the facility. "It's been seven years in the making from concept to completion, but the outcome is well worth it: Laurier University will have a building that fulfills all of its academic requirements, is a model of energy efficiency, and provides outstanding visual appeal." A LOCATION 64 University West, Waterloo, Ontario OWNER/DEVELOPER Wilfrid Laurier University ARCHITECTS Diamond Schmitt Architects / David Thompson Architect Ltd. GENERAL CONTRACTOR Bondfield Construction Company Limited STRUCTURAL CONSULTANT VanBoxmeer & Stranges Engineering Ltd. MECHANICAL/ ELECTRICAL CONSULTANT Smith + Andersen CIVIL CONSULTANT MTE Consultants Inc. BUILDING ENVELOPE/ SPECIALTY GLAZING CONSULTANT Read Jones Christoffersen Ltd. LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT DTAH TOTAL SIZE 220,000 square feet TOTAL COST $103 million

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