Award

78 | FEBRUA RY 2018 Molson Building – Edmonton Brewery District Molson Building – Edmonton Brewery District by ROBIN BRUNET J ust three years ago, the historic Molson Brewery loomed over 104th Avenue in Edmonton like an aban- doned castle; derelict, decaying, and seemingly beyond repair. But then city council agreed with developer First Capital Realty Corp. that it was worth saving and committed $4.2 million to assist in transforming it into the cen- trepiece for what would be known as the Edmonton Brewery District. As of January 2018, the building is about halfway towards First Capital's intention of it being home to a micro-brew- ery, restaurant, and four floors of office space. More importantly, it completes the developer and Dialog's effort to cre- ate a new mixed-use, pedestrian oriented quadrant whose retail, commercial, and residential elements have a "developed over time" appeal thanks to the resto- ration of the historic structures on site, the re-use of brick harvested from build- ings that were too compromised to be restored, as well as the industrial themed design employed throughout the project. While the brewery building was always recognized as having good bones, it was decided to save its resto- ration for last to allow the development to mature before committing to the anchor element of the project. This is according to project manager Dave Embury, associate for Dialog whose colleagues include Lauren Staples (design architect), Sean Chen (job cap- tain), and Darrell Halliwell (partner in charge). "First Capital's idea was to build the success of this district and then tackle the Molson restoration, as it was the most difficult building by a long shot to bring back to life," he says. One of the problems of the res- toration was the building's original construction in 1913, which Embury describes as "platform construc- tion whereby the walls are built, the platform is laid, and work moves pro- gressively upward with the walls getting progressively thinner. Instead of being a facade, the walls are load bear- ing brick with purloins every six feet." Moreover, the walls in places had been punched out for the removal of heavy equipment and re-blocked with no regard to matching original mate- rials. "Complicating the restoration further was that portions of the building had been painted over, and then sand- blasted – but the sandblasting had only removed some of the paint and damaged the brick underneath," says Embury. Embury adds, "The steel and its interface to brick was a structural con- cern, so the beam pockets had to be analyzed and fixed where required, plus the masonry had to be repointed. This in itself was a huge undertaking." The building was just another com- ponent of a significant structural undertaking for Protostatix Engineering Consultants Inc., which was tasked with co-ordinating with the archi- tect and owner over requirements for space layouts, tenant utilization of each space, architectural intent for the over- all consistent appearance of the site, and practical budget limitation – with each space posing unique challenges as well as the Molson structure being tied directly to a new 250,000-square-foot underground parkade. To generate additional revenues, First Capital decided to add an extra floor to the Molson building, and Staples points out that "this posed fenestration issues in a structure whose window pockets were different from wall to wall." But instead of undergoing what would have been a complex fenestration redesign, Dialog LOCATION 104th Avenue Corridor, Edmonton, Alberta OWNER/DEVELOPER First Capital Realty Corp. / Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada ARCHITECT DIALOG GENERAL CONTRACTOR Chandos Construction Ltd. STRUCTURAL CONSULTANT Protostatix Engineering Consultants Inc. MECHANICAL CONSULTANT KFR Engineering ELECTRICAL CONSULTANT SMP Engineering TOTAL SIZE (ENTIRE DISTRICT) 320,000 square feet TOTAL COST (ENTIRE DISTRICT) $150 million turned the irregular patterns into a design strength. "We realized they would help create unique character spaces, with windows in some areas close to the floor and up high in others," says Staples. As for the overall esthetic of the Molson building, Staples says, "The interior finishes are consistent through- out the whole development and were inspired by the historic building and the history of the site. We've used a kind of 'clean - modern - industrial' esthetic to layer over the space. Exposed steel and exposed brick are used as a counter- point to the newer glass, stone, and tile." Todd Baker, project manager for Chandos Construction Ltd., says he began his job "by becoming intimately acquainted with how buildings were con- structed back in the early 20th century. From there, installing a modern interior was a huge task because we couldn't just tear down the walls and rebuild; instead, we had to slide structural steel members and other components for the new floors through the window pockets." As such, Chandos, which began con- struction last August, redeveloped the building from the top down, and as of January Baker offered a progress report: "As we speak, the fifth floor is finished, the fourth floor is being sandblasted, the third is being demolished, and the second and first floors are full of shoring. That leaves the basement, which was filled with six feet of water and will require being dug out to make room for the micro brewery." John Kuperus, electrical engineer for SMP Engineering, has found the restoration to be conventional in some areas and challenging in the best sense of the word in others. "Demolition and installation of the new distribution system was straightforward enough, consisting of ripping out the old elec- trical system completely and installing a new distribution; on the other hand each step of the design of exterior ele- ments was painstaking and in-keeping with heritage standards," he says. For example, the appearance of new lighting fixtures had to be downplayed wherever possible. "We did our best to conceal the exterior linear facade fix- tures that lit the cornices, including junction boxes and conduit; this was accomplished either through location or in other cases finding finish colours to match the brick or the colour of the ledge the device was sitting on," says Kuperus. "Minimizing damage to the masonry was also all-important, so wherever we could we ran power to the fixtures through the mortar." Although the Molson Building resto- ration won't be completed until later this year, Embury is satisfied with the prog- ress to date and credits First Capital "for sitting with us at the table daily and being an active player in the proceedings." To which Ralph Huizinga, VP, acqui- sitions and development, Western Canada for First Capital Realty, adds, "We had always intended for the Molson building to be the design inspi- ration for the Brewery District as well as a viable and repurposed building in its own right. The cost of restoration is more than double the cost of building new, so this project would not have hap- pened without a financial contribution from the City. We're looking forward to throwing a party when we're ready to reopen this historic icon to the public later this year." A Cree-Con Construction.indd 1 2018-01-24 3:17

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