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92 | FEBRUA RY 2017 Crosstown Elementary School Crosstown Elementary School by LAURIE JONES LOCATION 55 Expo Boulevard, Vancouver, B.C. OWNER/DEVELOPER Board of Education School District No. 39 (Vancouver) in partnership with the City of Vancouver ARCHITECT Francl Architecture GENERAL CONTRACTOR ITC Construction Group STRUCTURAL CONSULTANT DIALOG MECHANICAL CONSULTANT MMM Group Limited (now WSP Canada) ELECTRICAL CONSULTANT MCL Engineering Limited LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT Durante Kreuk Ltd. TOTAL SIZE 49,417 square feet TOTAL COST $15 million T ucked into the hustle and bustle of downtown Vancouver, B.C. is Crosstown Elementary School, a four-storey structure situated near two major sports centres: BC Place Stadium and Rogers Arena. "It's a unique project in an airspace parcel that is part of an existing development," says Noel McNally, project manager, Vancouver School Board. "The Firenze, a 30-storey residential complex at the corner of Keefer and Abbott streets, includes two towers, a six-storey podium, 450 condos, commercial retail units and daycare. Crosstown Elementary School is the final piece of that development." In 1990, the City of Vancouver did a comprehensive plan for the north end of False Creek. "Originally this project was known as International Village and they had the foresight to envision the need for a school at a future date," says McNally. "The daycare was built first but in the last five years we have had increased pressure on our downtown schools." In 2013 the Crosstown Elementary School design began. "One of the challenges was to fit a student population of 510 into a footprint over the existing residential tower's parkade," says McNally. "In researching the project, the design team and the school board looked at urban schools in New York City for precedent." Alvin Martin, project lead at Francl Architecture, says, "Adding the school was a big change to residents who have been living at the Firenze. They were concerned about adverse effects to their building and individual units. Careful consideration was made in the design so views to the park and sunlight would not be blocked." Martin notes the school is in a downtown neighbourhood that has had crime issues over the years, but the whole area is under redevelopment. The hope is that the school will help revitalize the area, making it safer for residents. "Because it took so long to develop, the seismic code changed about three times. In order to put the school on top of the parkade we had to upgrade the structure underneath substantially. That alone took eight months of construction," he says. Mehrak Razavi, senior design engineer at Dialog, says the structural sequence to allow all of the pieces of this building to come together was significant. "With the additional building load, we were challenged to incorporate upgrades to accommodate the size of the existing RENDERING COURTESY FRANCL ARCHITECTURE parkade. We picked the best system that would fit into the area without penalizing the people who already had parking spaces established." To fit into the urban landscape, Martin used a basic palette of white and dark grey on the exterior, incorporating a few pops of colour with sunscreens on the east side of the building to give it a playful look. "These colours transferred into the interior as well, but the walls are bright white to keep it as light as possible," he says. "Because it's such a tight site, it was a challenge to bring light into the back reaches of the school. We only have two elevations that are exposed to the exterior on the east and south sides." Adding to the unique features of the school is a drop-down smoke curtain, one of only two in the city. "The smoke curtain is a product from Germany and is used when there is an open stairwell in the middle of a building," says Giuseppe Martorana, project manager, ITC Construction Group. "At Crosstown Elementary the stairs are fully open from ground to level four so if the fire alarm goes off, the smoke curtain will drop down and seal levels two, three and four of the staircase. This captures smoke and allows people to reach safe exit routes." Because the project was done in partnership with the City of Vancouver, multi-purpose rooms were incorporated into the design. With that, the security system was set up to allow partitioning so staff and the public could enter the rooms for activities while ensuring safety for the school. State-of-the-art mechanical systems were used for the school including demand control ventilation, heat recovery ventilation, and to enhance air quality for the children, displacement ventilation was incorporated. "Tempered air is supplied at low-level in the room but body temperatures cause air to rise, where it is exhausted from the high level leaving the first six feet of the room with cleaner air," says Ali Mostafid, senior project engineer, MMM Group. "This system helps reduce the chance for sickness to be transferred throughout the classroom with colds and flu." Landscaping for such an urban school required a high level of creativity. "The interesting thing about the school is it is right next to Andy Livingstone Park," says Peter Kreuk, principal, Durante Kreuk Ltd. "The park provides the playing fields and kids' outdoor play areas. Vancouver Parks Board is upgrading the kids play area adjacent to the school." Kreuk says the school design incorporated a series of landscaped terraces and roof decks to provide outdoor play and study areas in a safe environment. "In order to create visual separation between the terraces and the residential balconies a short distance away, a glass fence and low planting was proposed to allow the residence to view out from the patios that are located on this roof level. Conflict with school use was felt to be minimal due to the time of day when the school play area is being used." A 102 – 1637 West 5th Ave. Vancouver BC V6J 1N5 t 604.684.4611 f 604.684.0577 www.dkl.bc.ca DuranteKreuk.indd 1 17-01-20 9:59 April 2017 ANNUAL INDUSTRY FEATURE: Green Roofs & Walls Book your ad space now: Dan Chapman 604.473.0316 Alexander Sugden 604.473.0358

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