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J UNE 2018 | 87 Transit Operations Control Centre & Westbrook Centre Renovation PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY GEC ARCHITECTURE Transit Operations Control Centre & Westbrook Centre Renovation by ROBIN BRUNET L ocating one type of transit oper- ations system from one site to another is a daunting enough challenge for any city, but in under- taking the renovation of the Transit Operations Control Centre and Westbrook Centre, the City of Calgary intended to group together its fixed route service (bus and LRT), acces- sible transit service, public safety and enforcement section, infrastructure division, and customer service con- tact centre. The new building will have a healthy degree of public appeal by moving a branch of the Calgary Public Library into a four-storey structure. This enormous undertaking required the formation of two core teams. The Calgary Transit project team consisted of Zane Hartman (overall program lead); Keely Sullivan (project engineer tenant fit out); Shakti Sarai (senior engineer operations control centre and systems); and Adam Storms (co-ordinator Westbrook transition). As part of the program, Calgary Transit hired Parsons Corporation (then Delcan) in 2013 to provide preliminary and owner's engineering services to help develop the scope of the program, which included a full business process review and systems audit. Jon Hulse, engineering director, transport systems for Parsons, explains, "It was the only way we could determine the elements of the new headquarters and how people would function not just in the control rooms, but throughout the facility. "We also had to plan the develop- ment of new tools and systems, in addressing obsolescence." From there, a conceptual design was put together, along with a budget. The City then hired a consulting team led by Hatch Ltd. in mid 2014, to lead the detailed design of the architec- tural, systems, mechanical electrical elements of the project. This team consisted of project manager Keith Adam; GEC Architecture; Macro (sys- tems); Mission Green Buildings (LEED); Morrison Hershfield (mechanical/elec- trical); and AW Hooker Associates Ltd. (cost estimating). Sarai, of the Calgary Transit team, says, "In order to meet an aggressive schedule on a fixed budget, we needed to sequentially construct the building and fit out in order to get our tenants in as early as possible, while completing the highly complex design and pro- curement of the Operations Control Centre. To that end, the City hired Bird Construction as the construction man- ager to implement four different tender packages, which roughly equated to the four floors of the Westbrook building. "This approach would allow us to move Calgary Transit Access and the Calgary Public Library [Nicholls Branch] into floors one and two while we com- pleted design and construction of floor three. Once floor three was completed, we would then move our Infrastructure and Public Safety and Enforcement teams into that level, while we completed design and construction of the Operations Control Centre on the fourth floor." Fontaine Bell, an associate with GEC Architecture, says of the first stages of the fit out: "We added a sec- ond exit stair and enclosed a portion of the elevator lobby for the library. Also, one of the user groups required a fit- ness training area and showers, so we had to design for water retention and acoustics, which resulted in the cre- ation of a waterproof enclosure within the raised floor cavity." Bell and her team worked at the top of their game to bring the fourth level control centre to life. "It had many spe- cial requirements, beginning with post disaster attributes, meaning our LOCATION 19050 40th Street SE, Calgary, Alberta OWNER/DEVELOPER City of Calgary OWNER ENGINEER Parsons Corporation LEAD DETAIL DESIGN CONSULTANT Hatch Ltd. ARCHITECT GEC Architecture CONSTRUCTION MANAGER Bird Design-Build Construction Inc. MECHANICAL/ ELECTRICAL CONSULTANT Morrison Hershfield LEED CONSULTANT Mission Green Buildings AV SYSTEM INTEGRATOR Applied Electronics Limited TOTAL SIZE 63,000 square feet TOTAL COST $35 million design had to accommodate a two hour fire resistance rating for the floor and wall spaces," she says. "We paid extremely close attention to ergonom- ics, as control room occupants would be working long shifts." GEC also had to achieve specific site lines for all the screens in the room, which necessitated 3D modelling and extensive consultations with end users. "This led us to apply an amphitheatre- style design to the control room," says Bell. "It was a tiered floor with ramps and extra wide doors, with the high point of the room being in the middle – which required us to raise the ceiling as much as possible." Bird's preconstruction services commenced in March of 2015, and con- struction of the first tender package began four months later. Of the build- ing itself, Mike Mackinnon, project manager for Bird, says, "It sits on top of an LRT station at an elevation imper- vious to flooding, which was a crucial consideration in centralizing the dif- ferent transit components." Mackinnon adds, "There was a time crunch for tenants moving into the building, so we began work without a final plan and worked our way up one floor at a time." Although Mackinnon says the most important fit outs were for the fourth floor control centre and Calgary Transit Access on the second, "the real complexity of this project was in the transition, which entailed forward planning, and thorough testing and commissioning. Moving everyone into the new facility without any hiccups was, to me, a real achievement." Calgary Transit Access moved in on February of 2016, followed by the library in April of that year; Infrastructure, Safety/Security, and the food and bever- age vendor Teaja came next in November, and then, in October of 2017, the con- trol centre opened for business in 9,000 square feet of fourth floor space, compared to the 3,000 square feet it occupied at its previous location. Hulse says of the finished facility, "We took a complete systems engi- neering approach to make sure we got everything right." From Sarai's perspective, the best compliment he received about the project came from end users. "We had people come up to us and ask, 'when are you moving your control centre?' and we would reply, 'we already have,'" he says. "That's exactly what we wanted from this project: for people not to notice the transition. So we're very happy with how everything turned out." A

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