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J UNE 2017 | 87 Shorelines Casino Belleville RENDERING COURTESY GREAT CANADIAN GAMING CORPORATION Shorelines Casino Belleville by JESSICA KIRBY N estled in a warm and picturesque corner of southern Ontario is the city of Belleville. Once a sleepy farmland town, Belleville has seen considerable growth over the past decade, while retaining its inviting, homegrown charm. This year, it is home to a new state-of-the-art casino that is the first of its kind in Ontario in over a decade. The bright, open- ceiling Shorelines Casino invites visitors to its 50,000-square-foot play centre with an exciting and timeless interior esthetic, 450 slot machines, and popular table games such as blackjack, roulette and baccarat. Mike Alivojvodic, principal with Chris Dikaekos Architects Inc. says the project site was over 21 acres, bounded by Highway 401 to the north and Bell Boulevard to the south. "We opted to place the building close to Bell Boulevard," says Alivojvodic. "As there is a relatively new hotel next to the casino, it was felt that having a similar physical relationship to the street as the hotel made a lot of sense." Placement allowed parking and circulation to the south and east of the building, and none between the casino and the hotel – this space instead features the casino's food and beverage components and a large outdoor patio. "We also extended a covered walkway all the way to the hotel property line with the idea that the hotel owners would construct the rest of the covered walkway on their property, thus making it convenient to walk between the two buildings," says Alivojvodic. Building owner Great Canadian Gaming Corporation also acted as general contractor for the project, carrying out its full construction scope. The building is a steel framed structure constructed on concrete pad and strip footings at grade level. "For the most part the project used conventional construction methods and the bedrock sits a few metres down so there was no major excavation necessary," says Great Canadian Gaming senior construction project manager, Michael Young. MCW Consultants acted as electrical consultants for the project and, thanks to an existing relationship with the owner and architects, effectively interfaced and communicated with both teams to secure their vision. The schedule of the project required the early tendering of some long lead electrical items, says Wolf Schenke, principal with MCW. "After we prepared a careful and detailed load analysis for the building we pre-tendered the generator and the uninterruptible power supply [UPS]," he says. "These are both essential to the operation of a modern casino." The project's location meant power to the site had to be received at 44,000 volts, resulting in a specialty designed main customer service and transformer. "We had some concerns regarding the external generator to beat the stringent sound level limits required due to the proximity of the neighboring property," says Schenke. "The result was an acoustically designed generator enclosure." The building's front entry has a large overhang with a porte- cochère drop-off area at the main door. Its design incorporates regional materials with locally- sourced limestone blocks stacked and protruding from the ground. This ties into the project's overall esthetic, which is derived from the desire to fit the building into its surrounding context. The grand gesture for the building form is the butterfly wing roof and its aeronautical theme – a tribute to the nearby CFB Trenton air base. The winged roof element also provides for covered areas so one can be dropped off or walk around the building and stay protected from the elements. "The soffits of the roof overhangs were very prominent and we used metal fascias to further play upon the clean and sleek aeronautical features," says Alivojvodic. "We also decided to use natural wood elements for soffits and some of the supports just to give it some warmth and provide materials that were easily related to by everybody." The building's exterior is a dynamic mix of materials including a simple EIFS system on the more non-public areas, and metal panels, curtain wall, and wood panel treatments on the public facade. The exterior wall panelling brings a modern look, and front-facing metal panelling offers a clean finish, while wood panels visually warm the building, says Young. "It is comfortable looking, and windows and curtain wall glazing bring natural daylighting to key areas of the interior," he says. The exterior lighting design using LEDs needed to comply with MOT requirements for no light trespass onto the nearby freeway, says Schenke. "The parking lot required more and better illumination than most other parking lots to accommodate design factors including customer safety, security and requirements for the CCTV cameras and license plate readers," he says. The covered walkway linking the casino and hotel was also used as a major horizontal element to provide a bit of playfulness with the waving perforated panels – the wave element also appears in the interior design, highlighting the Shorelines brand. The building's typical rectangular shape opens up with generously spanned ceilings – for the most part, the gaming floor sits at a single storey with ceilings vaulted 25 to 35 feet to the underside of the structure. Interior finishes achieve a warm, welcoming esthetic including wall coverings, veneer wood panelling, feature elements, modular arts, and interior design plaster panelling. Light coves add visual interest, and the buffet area features a market design concept with wood siding on the entrance, interior tree features, and fresh colours complemented by abundant natural daylighting. The interior lighting is all LED and highly controlled – the lighting over the gaming tables can be re-adjusted to suit a revised table layout and the gaming lighting design must respond to the numerous closed circuit TV (CCTV) cameras throughout. MCW developed a flexible and original power distribution system incorporated into the gaming area's access floor. "It is common in casinos to see some revision of the gaming layout so it is necessary to accommodate the movement of the slots bases and tables so that the circuit distribution points remain accessible," says Schenke. One of the project's key environmental features is its stormwater management system through which rain water is discharged into a swale along the west side of the building. "We made this into a feature by having a large concrete buttress wall element and then having the water spill out of this into a swale that was designed with native grasses and rip-rap stones found on the site," says Alivojvodic. The most challenging aspect of this project was the timeline, which saw the building erected and open in approximately 10 months. "Most say it would be impossible, but through progressive tendering, good scheduling, a lot of co-operation from municipal authorities in Belleville, and some concessions due to delivery issues, the building was opened as scheduled," says Alivojvodic. "It was very successful in terms of all co-ordination with all entities moving forward," says Young. "The City was great with facility reviews and the design team was on the ball and aggressive. All parties were good to work with and aligned with moving the facility forward, and that really stands out about the project." A LOCATION 380 Boulevard, Belleville, Ontario OWNER/DEVELOPER/ GENERAL CONTRACTOR Great Canadian Gaming Corporation ARCHITECT Chris Dikeakos Architects Inc. ASSOCIATE ARCHITECT Salter Pilon Architecture Inc. STRUCTURAL CONSULTANT Wicke Herfst Maver Structural Engineers MECHANICAL CONSULTANT WSP/MMM Group ELECTRICAL CONSULTANT MCW Consultants Ltd. LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT Basterfield & Associates Inc. INTERIOR DESIGN CONSULTANT Inside Design Studio Inc. TOTAL SIZE 50,000 square feet TOTAL COST $40 million (including construction and fit-out)

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