Health Sciences Building - St. Clair College of Applied Arts & Technology
Every job has its challenges, every project its pressures. But when youre talking about creating and constructing under the federal governments recent stimulus package, even urgency takes on new speed.
In 2009, St. Clair College of Applied Arts & Technology in Windsor, Ontario received a $32 - miIlion grant from the economic action plans Knowledge Infrastructure Program, earmarked for a new health sciences facility. The kicker? The project had to be shovel ready and completed in a little over one years time, by March 31,2011 to be excruciatingly exact.
The shovel - ready aspect had already been attended to by the colleges long - sighted board. Jamie Wilson, dean of Health Science Programs, says a feasibility study was in hand to greatly expand yet concentrate in a single building the colleges offerings in nursing, paramedics, laboratory sciences, pharmacology and dentistry. The idea, according to Wilson, was to build "a real health - care facility" that not only trained tomorrows specialists in discipline - appropriate settings but could also provide public dental health assistance.
There was even a local architecture firm in place. Dan Amicone and Carmen Brunone, principals of Architecttura Inc. Architects, had just successfully retrofitted a downtown office building for the colleges new MediaPlex centre and possessed extensive industry contacts within the Windsor area, a bonus in terms of regional economic stimulation. Their team would be ideal for the new job - provided they could all hit the ground running.
To do that took an enormous amount of planning, a lot of it in simultaneous synchronicity with the actual building work. "We had 12 months of construction," says Amicone, "and prior to that, three months of design and drawings. It was a very aggressive schedule.
"The challenge in this case was getting timely feedback from the college. We were dealing with at least 10 different departments - understanding their needs, putting the plans together and getting all the necessary approvals. It was like fitting pieces into a puzzle."
To handle this puzzle, Architecttura added a space study programmer early on who met with everybody to determine classroom requirements. Outside industry consultants were also hired to select the correct professional equipment and to provide installation standards.
Contractor A.M. Razak, president of Oscar Construction, detailed two full - time superintendents to the project, one for the building itself and the other for the interior fixtures and equipment. Because Oscar Construction had worked in tandem with Architecttura before, everything from permits to laid foundations to structural steel "ran to course," says Razak, adding: "We had very close cooperation. This was an architect that sensed we were trying to get this thing done in the best yet quickest way possible, and they were planning in a sequence that really worked for us."
Piero Aleo of Aleo Associates, the civil and structural engineer of record, designed for a rapid build, opting to use structural steel construction erected simultaneously with poured above - grade structural concrete. Well aware that Oscar Construction specialized in doing cast - in - place concrete, "we elected to use poured concrete stair - shafts and sheer walls which ultimately saved valuable time," Aleo says. "We also designed the curtain wall for Contract Glaziers Inc., a local firm, and used a unitized system for faster installation and reduced field labour costs."
Bob Clifford, mechanical/electrical consultant with Vander - westen Rutherford Mantecon, calls the project "very intense" and the building group "a very tight team."
With design meetings in the morning and site visits in the afternoon, "I was pretty much on site all day, once a week. The project was almost a design - build. The architect was on the scene working out interiors they were putting the concrete shell up, with the mechanical and electrical going in as that frame was going up. Everybody was pushing for the deadline, pushing equipment suppliers and manufacturers to deliver on time.
But still, they had to leave the building flexible enough to accommodate change. The proposed diagnostic imaging area, for instance, was suddenly turned into a respiratory facility. And fresh plans had to be drawn up to accommodate the latest in medical equipment models.
A.M. Razak remembers how anxious they all were awaiting the special air - handler fan unit needed to heat and cool the building. The roofs mechanicals were left, consequently, until the last moment. In the midst of winter, with just weeks to spare before the buildings ultimate deadline, the huge piece of equipment finally arrived from Buffalo, New York. Razaks team managed to hoist it into place, join up the ductworks, and construct a surrounding penthouse, fitting this final piece of the puzzle in not on March 31, as scheduled, but on March 28, a fact of which everyone is justifiably proud.
The resulting structure could be called a designer tribute to Bauhaus Modern, only filled with warmer, human touches - particularly in the main atrium and second - floor mezzanine with their palette of butter yellow, orange and beige tones. Enlivening the exterior are extruding box shapes and eyebrow porticos - spatial separators which double as simple sunshades, as do a series of strategically set horizontal louvres and cornice - level vertical solar blades.
Dan Amicone says his design had two main priorities: "We wanted a more human scale - not the larger modular attitude of most campuses but breaking down the mass of the building into smaller scale masses within the architectural expression. And we wanted to promote student interaction within the building."
Like different neighbourhoods within a city, the building houses separate and distinct medical disciplines, with the central atrium acting as its downtown core. This is "where student interaction occurs, students associate across disciplines," says Ami - cone, pointing to the transparent glass staircases that allow internal activity to be viewed from the outside. "Theres a dynamic energy, with students coming in and out, up and down the staircases. It looks great, lit up at night."
When A.M. Razak looks at the finished building, memories of the pressure the entire team faced fades and he thinks instead of the future. "I get a personal sense of self - worth," he says, "from having helped educate our youth.
Newer news items:
Older news items:
|
The interior