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90 | AUGUST 2016 Orchard Commons – UBC Vantage College PHOTOGRAPHY + RENDERING COURTESY PERKINS + WILL CANADA Orchard Commons – UBC Vantage College by NATALIE BRUCKNER-MENCHELLI O rchard Commons – UBC Vantage College at the University of British Columbia is the epitome of social sustainability. It's hard to imagine how a 19- and 20-storey tower can encourage the idea of dynamic human interactions and social cohesion, that is, until you see it in person. "The idea behind Orchard Commons was to create a sense of community and belonging, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, year round," explains Andrew Parr, managing director, student housing and hospitality services at The University of British Columbia. And that's exactly what has been achieved. Orchard Commons is the second of five mixed-use academic/student housing hubs being built at UBC (the first being Ponderosa Commons) and will be the home to international and domestic first-year students. When complete, the cast-in-place concrete and wood buildings will include student housing and support amenity space with 1,048 student beds, academic and offices space for UBC Vantage College, office and administrative space for Student Housing and Hospitality Services (SHHS), a child care centre, a 350-seat double-height dining hall and a 6,180-square-foot commercial kitchen that will service the dining room and the rest of the campus. As you look up at the two towers you are instantly struck by a ribbon effect that gently weaves its way skyward. "The cladding configuration is an important part of the project," explains Derek Newby, architect with Perkins + Will. "The request by the client [UBC] was to use the same system as Ponderosa Commons, but to provide a distinct look. We embraced that task and went back to first principles and thought about the nature of concrete being a naturally fluid medium and turned it into a motif." The system Newby is referring to is a precast insulated sandwich panel system supplied by Architectural Precast Systems Ltd. that is both economic and sustainable. "To get our design we employed a computational process to come up with a way to optimize the panels that uses as few forms as possible to achieve a non repetitive appearance. There are only 18 unique panel forms and over 1,100 panels. You wouldn't really know it looking at it," adds Newby. While the towers are almost identical, the first four storeys of the buildings differ in both function and form, with a four-storey podium at the bottom of the south tower containing the dining hall and Vantage College, while the north tower acts more like the engine with the kitchen operation, mechanical rooms, operational and back-of-house elements that are collected out of view, explains David Poettcker, development manager at UBC Properties Trust. Being situated on a sloping site meant construction manager Stuart Olson Construction Ltd. had to ensure the buildings were spatially connected below grade, while the primary entrance has been raised higher than natural grade and a level walkway runs parallel to the sidewalk, terminating at the front door. "There is traditional desire line that takes students from Totem Park Residence to Main Mall. To maintain that we pulled the buildings apart while keeping a connection at the lowest level. To add further connection, we designed a landscape stair between the buildings that draws people up. That allowed us to negotiate the five-metre change in grade from the top to the bottom of the site," says Newby. "We took that grade change and turned it into an advantage, setting the building into the slope so we have two ground floors." Head on inside the buildings and there is an extensive use of wood and glazing on the lower floors and in the dining areas. "Glulam beams span the large cafeteria area, while the roof structure is comprised of Nail Laminated Timber [NLT] roof panels that sit on glulam beams and columns," says Poettcker. Throughout the building wood has been used to announce the social spaces to encourage people to gather together. A key challenge for structural consultant Glotman Simpson Consulting Engineers was accommodating the large dining and associated areas beneath the south residential tower. "The solution we adopted involved deep transfer beams at level three which take the loads down through a very limited number of columns," says Neil Wilson, project engineer. "These beams in turn support the 20-metre- span glulam beams which support the wooden roof of the dining hall." Wilson adds that another interesting element was the atrium at Vantage College. "The bridges connecting east and west and the stairs between them was one of the signature elements of the project. We used a lightweight truss hidden inside the guardrails of the stairs to achieve the floating feel, while also controlling vibration and deflection," he explains. In contrast to tradition, the cores of the towers have been purposefully located on the perimeter to maximize light. "The idea is that if you give students a choice between using the elevator and their body, they will use their body if the option is reasonable. The stairs are bathed in light and have magnificent views; this promotes wellness and community. In fact in the north tower we have experimented with one of the exit stairs being immediately adjacent to the three- storey social lounges, so as you're exiting down you pass these resident community hubs," explains Newby. These social lounges that Newby is referencing is a particularly progressive feature. "Usually first year student residences are in low rises so we were faced with the challenge of creating 'houses' of communities within a high- rise," says Parr. "Our research has shown that around 100 students make sense as far as feeling a sense of being part of a community. Because each floor is between 30 and 33 students, three floors make a community. So we interconnected these lounges to make a three-storey lounge that features a study area, a kitchen area and an entertainment floor." Newby adds that locating these three-storey, three-sided glass social lounges at the perimeter provides a great connection to the setting and at night glow like a lantern. Careful mechanical and electrical considerations had to be made when it came to these social hubs. Due to the varying human load, Stantec selected a variable refrigerant flow system to ensure the area maintained a comfortable temperature at all times. In addition, in the residential areas each room has its own individually controlled baseboard heater with sensors that automatically shut off when a window is opened. Stantec was not only responsible for incorporating energy efficient luminaires in their design and optimized control systems for user flexibility and energy management, but was also involved in the intense demands of systems in the expansive dining/kitchen area at a very early stage. As we have come to expect with UBC developments, this LEED Gold project has gone above and beyond to incorporate sustainable features. They include connecting to UBC's district energy system, a super efficient building envelope, solar shading, skylights, low flow toilets, a landscape – designed by Hapa Collaborative – that will capture rainwater for irrigation, and a large roof terrace above the dining hall that will feature urban and edible agriculture. But Orchard Commons is different. It encompasses a new understanding of sustainability by meeting not just the environmental requirements but also the social elements that will make this a wonderfully livable home for students now and in the future. A LOCATION 6363 Agronomy Road, Vancouver, B.C. OWNER UBC OPERATOR UBC Student Housing and Hospitality Services DEVELOPER/PROJECT MANAGER UBC Properties Trust ARCHITECT Perkins + Will Canada CONSTRUCTION MANAGER Stuart Olson Construction Ltd. STRUCTURAL CONSULTANT Glotman Simpson Consulting Engineers MECHANICAL/ ELECTRICAL CONSULTANT Stantec LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT Hapa Collaborative TOTAL SIZE 41,023 square metres TOTAL COST $128 million Protec.indd Detec Systems.indd Columbia Sunlight

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