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FEBRUA RY 2018 | 47 Sarcee Operations Workplace Centre Administration Building PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY THE MARC BOUTIN ARCHITECTURAL COLLABORATIVE INC. Sarcee Operations Workplace Centre Administration Building by ZUZANNA WODZYNSKA T he City of Calgary is building a new municipal public works depot to service the western region of the city. The Sarcee Operations Workplace Centre (OWC) will have various equipment and maintenance struc- tures once completed in full, with the Administration Building being one of the first to be constructed. "Providing operational services from within the southwest region decreases the response time to deliver City services to those communities and decreases windshield time, further reducing costs," says Darrel Bell, manager, building infrastructure at the City of Calgary. "The facility is currently planned to house City of Calgary Roads and City of Calgary Parks business units." The three-storey Administration Building will be the central hub for the overall yard and serve as public interface, staging area for crews, and office space for administrative staff and personnel. "Responding to vary- ing user groups, the building is divided programmatically, which is exhib- ited through the material tectonic of the project massing," comments Nathaniel Wagenaar of The Marc Boutin Architectural Collaborative Inc. Marc Boutin, the principal architect, elaborates further: "The design was inspired by the utilitarian nature of the site; the need for the building to func- tion and aid in the performance of the overall OWC, and the desire to expose and highlight the structural, mechani- cal, and electrical systems." The main floor is a gathering space for crews where the tasks are admin- istered before the daily work begins. The gathering areas are primarily on the perimeter of the building and con- nect to the outside space with large expanses of curtain wall glazing. "The utilitarian nature of the activities on the main floor demanded robust mate- rials and a design that facilitated heavy traffic and transparency to the outside," notes Wagenaar. To that end, the entire exposed concrete floor is raised, provid- ing views onto the adjacent work yards. The central feature stair consists of a folded steel plate. "This results in a very clean, architecturally exposed steel underside," says Ian Washbrook, the project principal and a senior asso- ciate at Entuitive. "The south stair is an emergency exit stair and the architect wanted it to be a design feature." The stair and landings are hung from canti- levered steel beams at the roof level. "The second and third floors are conceived of as a solid box floating atop the main floor to facilitate an overview of the entire OWC," com- ments Wagenaar. This cantilevered box needed careful timing and sequenc- ing of materials during execution. "We were bringing together precast con- crete, structural steel, cast-in-place concrete, building foundation and exte- rior envelope elements simultaneously during this phase of construction," remembers Michael Lavender, proj- ect manager from Stuart Olson. "As an example, the structural steel schedule relied on having the precast panels in place. The precast panels could not be installed after the structural steel as the majority of them are situated under the cantilevered steel, which would later receive a slab-on-deck." Natural lighting, LED lighting and a solar photovoltaic (PV) array all played a contributing role in the building's tar- geted LEED Gold certification. With an annual average of over 300 days of sun in Calgary, the PV array could account for approximately 15 percent of the building's overall energy use. "What I find most exciting is the quality of the natural light within the building," reflects Bell. "The light on the west elevation is tempered through a static solar fin and is one of the first things you notice on the facade." The Administration Building also uses LED lighting exclusively to sub- stantially reduce the amount of electricity used for lighting. "The LED lighting is very easy to direct exactly where you design to," comments Ben Douglas, project manager at Mulvey & Banani (Alberta) Inc. "This eliminates light trespass and helps our client remain Dark Sky Compliant." Construction-related LEED cred- its will also be achieved, including incorporating regionally sourced materials and high recycled content. "We had a waste management program established during construction that separated recyclable material from waste," says Lavender. "The building is on track to achieve over 80 percent recycled material from the waste man- agement program." The Sarcee OWC operates on a 24/7 basis, but not all of the building is used 24 hours a day. "The office spaces on the upper floors needed to be isolated so we wouldn't have to ventilate or con- dition unused areas," says Kyna Low, team lead from Stantec Consulting Ltd. "In addition, energy conservation mea- sures in the control sequences as well as doing things like having the dedi- cated outside air system glycol cooling coil function as a heating coil and a dry cooler reduces the energy consump- tion of the building." The building site itself is located over an abandoned gravel pit quarry that was operational from 1950 to 1991. Over time, the pit was filled with 40 feet of variable types of back- fill material. "Shallow foundations placed on this fill were not an option as the amount of differential settlement would have been excessive and beyond building serviceability limits," explains Washbrook. "A deep foundation sys- tem was chosen, which consisted of approximately a hundred 14-inch steel H-piles driven up to 60 feet below- grade to support the building columns and the main floor structured slab at grade." Since the slab is designed to be structured, it won't settle with the set- tlement of soil below. To further reduce the costs of deep foundations, a lighter struc- ture was envisioned and structural steel framing was selected over rein- forced concrete. "Long-span deep deck was considered at the early stages to eliminate the need for sec- ondary steel beams, but the material and labour needed to come from the U.S. and would drive up costs," notes Washbrook. "As a result, a more con- ventional floor framing system was implemented." As a public project compounded by challenging soil conditions, deliver- ing a top-quality building while being fiscally responsible was a challenging factor. "By minimizing interior finishes, and maximizing the area by exposing building systems, the design team was able to create a well-considered, robust and functional workplace within the project budget," comments Wagenaar. The floor-to-floor exposure did, however, create other challenges. "The mechanical systems are in the open so we had to work with the structural engi- neers for solutions like notching beams so it would be functional but still be esthetically pleasing within the space," explains Low. "All the main services run around the perimeter of the building." Bell concludes that despite the utilitarian approach, the design has achieved a simple and striking presence on the site. A LOCATION 5851 Richmond Road Southwest, Calgary, Alberta OWNER City of Calgary ARCHITECT The Marc Boutin Architectural Collaborative Inc. CONSTRUCTION MANAGER Stuart Olson Construction Ltd. STRUCTURAL CONSULTANT Entuitive MECHANICAL CONSULTANT Stantec Consulting Ltd. ELECTRICAL CONSULTANT Mulvey & Banani (Alberta) inc. SUSTAINABILITY/LEED CONSULTANT Perkins+Will TOTAL SIZE 3,500 square metres TOTAL COST $17.6 million

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