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86 | FEBRUA RY 2017 FIMS and Nursing Building – Western University FIMS and Nursing Building – Western University by MARTHA UNIACKE BREEN A cademic buildings often provide an opportunity to showcase the latest advances in both architectural and academic technologies, ideally with a measure of esthetic drama (or at least, consistency with their previously built neighbours). But more than any of these, it's critical that they be tailored as closely as possible to the needs of the faculty and students who will be using them, in order to be judged a success. All of these factors had a strong influence on the design of the new building for the Faculty of Information and Media Studies and the Arthur Labatt Family School of Nursing (FIMS and Nursing Building) at Western University in London, Ontario. At the beginning of the project, according to principal architect McMichael Ruth of architects Tillman Ruth Robinson, the design team conducted an extensive fact-finding mission consisting of digital and face-to-face workshops, seeking to uncover common ground between the two user groups and to uncover the needs and wants of those who would be using the building the most: students, staff and faculty. The workshops uncovered two paramount directives. One was state- of-the-art common classrooms, usable by either discipline, that connect to large volumes of communal space equipped with amenities like laptop ports and other modern necessities. "How these spaces 'talk' and interact with each other, and how the building as a whole provides that interaction, became very important," says Ruth. Other amenities include highly flexible classroom spaces built on flat floors, which can be configured in a variety of ways to accommodate modern teaching methods, such as learning pods where small groups can interact with each other and the instructor using TV monitors incorporated into each pod. The other priority was natural light and views. Studies have consistently shown that this has a strong effect on productivity, and it turned up consistently in the workshops. However, says Ruth, "One of the challenges with the kind of deep floor plates in a building like this is getting daylight into the interior." The solution was an elongated U shape, with the FIMS faculty on one side, Nursing on the other, communal space on the connecting bar of the U, and a landscaped inner courtyard within the arms. As icing on the cake, the common area faces directly out on a sports field and in the distance, trees and a river, providing a pleasant vista all seasons of the year. Making a new, state-of-the-art building consistent visually with older buildings – ranging from mid- 20th century and later edifices to the Ivy League-style Classical buildings on the campus, with their stone and limestone facades, church-like Gothic features and other traits known colloquially as Collegiate Gothic – was an interesting challenge. "Collegiate Gothic is a style that emerged from Gothic Revival, which takes its cues from traditional academic buildings, since it became so associated with universities," Ruth explains. Even though it's definitely a 21st-century building, certain elements consciously make reference to this classical style: limestone facings, columns, heavy precast windowsills and a sense of verticality through decorative features such as "vanes" or bars on several elevations. The design also takes inspiration from newer buildings, such as the adjacent Health Sciences Building, creating a continuity along the street. LOCATION Corner of Huron and Lambton Drive, Western University, London, Ontario OWNER/DEVELOPER Western University ARCHITECT architects Tillmann Ruth Robinson GENERAL CONTRACTOR Norlon Builders London Ltd. STRUCTURAL CONSULTANT Hastings and Aziz Limited MECHANICAL/ ELECTRICAL CONSULTANT Vanderwesten Rutherford Mantecon LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT Ron Koudys Landscape Architects Inc. TOTAL SIZE 130,000 square feet TOTAL COST Undisclosed and enhanced with landscape to provide intimate and group seating opportunities. The plant material placement and species selection enhance the horizontal description, with strategic vertical punctuation. "The layout of the courtyard was developed with the use of coloured banding to again enhance the linear feel of the architecture," Berkvens continues. "Placement of movable benches creates group and individual seating opportunities. With the ability to move the benches, the courtyard space can enable the users to entertain larger group events." The new FIMS building also features, as is a priority with new university buildings at Western, state- of-the-art energy efficiency, and in fact meets LEED Silver certification, with features such as operable windows, sensors that adjust room temperature when the windows are opened, daylight-sensing lighting and highly sophisticated HVAC systems. But for several of the team members who participated in the design and construction of the building, the single most beautiful feature is the atrium at the centre of the layout. "I think there's something particularly striking about looking through the atrium, the courtyard and down through the building, with its series of crisscrossing stairs," says Ruth. "It seems to sum up the entire philosophy of the building in one view." A There are some more literal references to the site's history as well, according to Jason Wedlake, project manager with Norlon Builders London Ltd. The services building that formerly stood on the site featured a pair of gargoyles at its entrance, which were salvaged and incorporated into the atrium of the new building. However they almost didn't make it to their new home. "As we were approaching the last month of construction, the site was broken into, and someone badly vandalized the two gargoyles, breaking off their tongues and noses," says Wedlake. "Our mason did an amazing job reconstructing the gargoyles from past pictures, and today they look as good or better than before they were installed." Among the most distinctive features of the new building are its cantilevered wings extending from the north and south end of the building. The wings shelter the entrances and provide a sense of drama on the corner. They also reference another nearby campus building, the Support Services Building. Interestingly, the wings presented an engineering challenge simply because of their size and extent, particularly the larger southern one. "The biggest challenge structurally was the sheer length of the cantilever, coupled with the fact that the walls were predominantly glazed, thus limiting our structural solutions," says Murray Cholod of Hastings & Aziz. "Most modest cantilevers can be supported by individual beams, however this cantilever [18-metres long] was too long for this. Individual beams were not stiff enough to keep deflections within code limits, so a two-storey deep truss [built within the outside walls] was required. "Since the walls were mostly glazed, a traditional truss with diagonal members was not desired architecturally, so a structural steel Vierendeel truss was employed. These trusses have horizontal members at the floor and roof lines with rigidly connected vertical members along the length of the truss." Outdoor space, of course, was as important to the idea of community as the configuration of the interior. As Martha Berkvens of Ron Koudys Landscape Architects explains, the linear expanse and expression of the FIMS building became the starting point for the landscape design. "The linear theme was brought down to the ground plan with the use of banding in the concrete surfaces, site furniture design and plant material species selection and layout," says Berkvens. "Site furniture design scale and placement emulates the linear expanse and expression of the building, strategically placed PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY ARCHITECTS TILLMANN RUTH ROBINSON Tillmann.indd Vanderwesten

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