Award

FEBRUA RY 2017 | 85 Martensville High School Renovation and Expansion PHOTOGRAPHY BY MICHELE FRIESEN/COURTESY AODBT ARCHITECTURE + INTERIOR DESIGN Martensville High School Renovation and Expansion by ROBIN BRUNET N othing demonstrates the success of a building upgrade better than the enthusiasm of end users, and with the $23-million Martensville High School renovation and expansion in Saskatchewan, principal Brad Nichol noticed a dramatic change in students' behavior when the expansion portion of the project was finished in the fall of 2015. He told the local press, "In the old school, they were out of the building like a shot as soon as the bell rang, they couldn't wait to leave. Now, nobody leaves. They eat their lunch here and stick around. It's a whole different atmosphere." That's because the upgrades were shaped by extensive input of school stakeholders, the public, as well as the City of Martensville. Dallas Huard, principal of aodbt architecture + interior design, explains: "We began feasibility studies in early 2011, but during the preliminary design stages the community voiced its desire for a recreation facility to be built, so in 2012 the project morphed into a joint school and city undertaking. Now, instead of students having a single gymnasium, they also have access to three additional basketball courts and other amenities." The recreation facility is a $12.5-million Sprung tensioned membrane clear-span structure featuring three full-sized hardwood courts, an elevated 200-metre curved running track, a fitness area and multi- purpose spaces, constructed between September 2013 and February 2014 (see the December 2014 issue of Award). From a pedestrian's viewpoint, the onion-domed facility seems like a unique wing of the school. The 50,000-square-foot new school expansion acts as the anchor (with extensive glazing and a concrete canopy serving as the main entrance), blending with the renovated original facility located at the other end of the complex. Due to a joint-use facility agreement between the City and Prairie Spirit School Division, the provincial funds that had been allocated for a new gymnasium space was committed to a new school performing arts theatre, causing Charles Olfert, the project's lead architect from aodbt, to predict that such partnerships are the "way of the future" in school construction. Huard adds, "we moved our plans for the school gym into the rec centre and turned corridor spaces that would have been located around the gym into space for the theatre. In short, the development of the rec centre gave us lots of creativity in terms of school planning." Aodbt also designed the link between the recreation centre and the expansion as a concession zone, which blurs the transition between the two structures. In order to minimize curriculum disturbance, construction of the expansion preceded the renovation. "The students remained in the old facility while the expansion was being built, then they moved into the new building – by which time they had access to the Sprung sports components – while renovation crews focused on upgrading the old school," says Michael Spanier, manager of construction operations for Quorex Construction Services Ltd. The complex scheduling was helped by Quorex, aodbt and the owners having worked together on numerous past projects; in fact, the scheduling was so efficient that students were only required to spend an extra half hour in class during the fall of 2014 with the payoff of a longer 2015 summer holiday, in order to accommodate Quorex crews. Spanier describes construction of the expansion as "relatively straightforward", except that "the new theatre foundation was lower into the ground than the rest of the facility, so we encountered water table issues. But our site supervisor and crew had encountered this problem many times before, so it wasn't too much of a task to pump the site and get the concrete in." Doug Normand, structural engineer at Brownlee Beaton Kreke (Saskatoon) Ltd., tackled a different problem. "The new building was significantly taller than the existing high school, so to address potential snow load issues we stripped off the open web steel joist roof structure of the old school's gym, shored up the walls and installed stronger joists." The 2016 renovation phase was eagerly anticipated, as the original 37-year-old school had not received a facelift since the 1990s. "The gym was badly outdated, the entire building needed a new roof, the fixtures were outdated, and a new sprinkler system was needed to meet the latest code requirements," says Huard. PWA Engineering and Stantec Consulting provided new electrical and mechanical systems respectively, while cosmetic touches included the replacement of outdated 12x12 floor tiles. "The surprises usually associated with renovations were minimal and fairly routine, such as openings not having lintels," says Spanier. Aodbt incorporated some principles of 21st-century learning into the revamped school. "We used sliding walls to create open classrooms," says Huard. "This complemented one of the original school's great assets, namely the natural light in the learning areas." Aodbt also raised ceiling heights wherever possible and provided study zones throughout the entire school, as well as a large commons area. For the exterior, aodbt lightened the colour palette and retained the masonry components of the original high school as a textural counterpoint. The classrooms are arranged in two separate pods, each with two storeys. A specially designed music room, which would ultimately be used by the school's choir and guitar programs, served as a temporary library until the construction process was completed on all phases. As for the theatre, it was designed to be state-of-the-art, complete with high- tech sound and light boards, a raised open stage, catwalk, actors' change rooms and tiered seating levels capable of accommodating 300 people. Now that Martensville's biggest ever construction project is complete, Huard echoes the sentiments of many of his colleagues by saying, "One of the most significant aspects of the school is how Prairie Spirit and the City of Martensville came together. This provided great opportunities to maximize what we could offer teachers and students on a limited budget – and we hope it will inspire similar collaborations in the future." A LOCATION 150 Mike Sands Boulevard, Martensville, Saskatchewan OWNER/DEVELOPER Prairie Spirit School Division ARCHITECT aodbt architecture + interior design GENERAL CONTRACTOR Quorex Construction Services Ltd. STRUCTURAL CONSULTANT Brownlee Beaton Kreke (Saskatoon) Ltd. MECHANICAL CONSULTANT Stantec Consulting ELECTRICAL CONSULTANT PWA Engineering Ltd. CIVIL CONSULTANT Catterall & Wright Consulting Engineers TOTAL SIZE 100,000 square feet (original school and addition) TOTAL COST $23 million 1:09 PM

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