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A PR IL 2017 | 59 Okanagan Correctional Centre PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANDREW LATREILLE/COURTESY DGBK ARCHITECTS Okanagan Correctional Centre by NATALIE BRUCKNER-MENCHELLI T he new Okanagan Correctional Centre (OCC) in Oliver is quite something to behold. As the largest state-of-the-art provincial correctional centre in B.C. and the first in the country to be built through a P3 partnership on First Nations land, it was essential for Plenary Group, the builders and the operators of the facility, and the teams with staff from two ministries, to not only understand the needs of the community but to bring the community's culture and weave it into the project design. Plenary Justice was selected by the provincial government as the private partner on this $192.9-million facility, with PCL Constructors Westcoast Inc. as the design builder and Honeywell as the facility manager. "Plenary Justice implemented an integrated project team to ensure all aspects of the project were considered. Doing this helped to ensure that the facility was efficient and cost effective over the long term," explains Tedd Howard, chief project officer, Okanagan Correction Centre Project. When it came to the design, construction, operations, maintenance and corrections operations aspects of the OCC, there were a number of considerations. "Some of the significant elements included negotiating the first ever land lease between the Province and a First Nations on Federal Reserve lands, overseeing the site development, including a new access road and land swap with BC Parks, and ensuring that both provincial and federal environmental and species- at-risk applications were completed, adhered to, and monitored throughout the site development and construction phases. It was also essential to design and deliver a facility that meets the needs of BC Corrections, including providing improved safety for staff and inmates, and significantly increasing the Province's correctional capacity," adds Howard. DGBK Architects' approach to the design of the building focused first on the importance of how a correctional centre operates at its best and how the design of the facility supports the operational philosophy of the client. "The building is designed to present a positive civic identity, one that merges into the landscape from a distant perspective, but one that is familiar, welcoming and comfortable upon approach. Its public persona is one of an office building, tech centre or even a school, while its correctional nature is sheltered from public view and oriented to the natural environment," explains Greg Dowling at DGBK. The result is a high-security facility that blends naturally with the terrain using simple materials and indigenous colours, and is comprised of approximately 29,000 square metres in total area, including 11 living units and 378 cells. "The form of the building is a series of varied rectilinear volumes that break up the overall mass of the facility. The intent was to create a low linear planar expression that reflects the broad horizontal nature of the valley floor of this desert location," explains Dowling. "The OCC consists of four main buildings that are interconnected," adds Ken McCabe from PCL Constructors Westcoast Inc. "There are three storeys of cells and a high open common dayroom. The main services building for the staff, inmate support and kitchen is three and four storeys." McCabe adds that one of the more unusual aspects of the facility is the fact that the majority of the cells were built off-site and assembled in a modular construction process. Around 240 pre- cast modular units ensured high quality and precise construction, as each cell was built to the exact same standards. "There were so many different systems used for the OCC including precast wall panels, structural steel, mechanical modules, tilt-up areas, combined with cast-in-place, which all worked together to create a secure and safe environment," adds McCabe. Close attention to detail was paid to wayfinding and the arrival sequence, the entry plaza, a resilient planting strategy and use of local materials. Custom metal traffic bollards feature a cultural motif marking key entrypoints and align the walkway to the front door. Eliminating curbs improves site porosity and allows the desert to reach into the site, and painted crosswalks with a simple diamond pattern take inspiration from the protected rattlesnakes in the area. "We wanted to emulate the rolling terrain and seamlessly integrate the facility with surrounding desert 8:26 AM 12:43 PM

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