June 11, 2009

STURGESS ARCHITECTURE / MANASC ISAAC ARCHITECTS

Calgary’s Water Tower Centre is the first and largest building to exceed the city’s minimum LEED Silver standard.

Design

Alberta Steel Design Awards winners shine

Canadian Institute of Steel Construction’s regional gala

BRADLEY FEHR

staff writer

Alberta’s best steel projects were in the spotlight at the 2009 Alberta Steel Design Awards of Excellence.

The Water Centre in Calgary won the Architectural Award, one of five winners out of 34 entrants at the Canadian Institute of Steel Construction’s Alberta Region awards gala at the Shaw Conference Centre in Edmonton.

The Water Centre is a distinctive building with a curved steel roof over a four-storey green and blue curtain wall. It is the first and largest building to exceed Calgary’s minimum LEED Silver certification requirement.

“We wanted to maximize the amount of sunlight coming in but needed to temper it so the sun is never a source of irritation to the work spaces,” said architect Jeremy Sturgess, who worked on the project.

“The curved steel roof acts as a blanket protecting the building from the north wind and sheltering the south side like a visor.”

All 700,000 kilograms of reinforcing steel used in its construction came from recycled sources. The architects were Sturgess Architecture/Manasc Isaac Architects.

The Calgary Courts Centre earned the Engineering Award. The structure includes a 27-storey glass and steel atrium that connects two concrete towers, which are 21-storeys and 25-storeys tall.

“The challenge is that the atrium roof rises eight or nine metres above the towers, almost like a head on top. Because the two towers move differently – at different speeds and magnitudes up to as much as six to ten inches – we had to build in tolerances both for wind and earthquake activity,” said Fabrizio Carinelli, VP with Cana Management Ltd., the general contractor on the project.

The buildings are tied together at each floor by a series of steel trusses that support the weight of the curtain wall and absorb lateral forces. The towers interiors were also tied together by a series of steel walkway bridges.

The steel fabricator was Triangle Steel Ltd. and the structural engineer was Stantec Consulting Ltd.

In the Industrial category, ASU (air separation unit) Cold Box - Opti-Canada took home top honours.

The challenge was to design a cold box to house the air separation unit for a facility that would be the largest oxygen producing unit in the world.

A trussed steel structural system was used. The complete project is an air-tight structural steel rectangular box measuring 8.5 metres by 10 metres by 64 metres and is fully clad with steel plates. It weighs about 333 tonnes.

“It is basically a giant wind sail. With a structure of that size it would have been impossible to weld at that height,” said Carl Boutin, associate with SDK and senior project engineer on the project. All structural connections were field bolted, and the only welding required was to attach the cladding over the splice connections.”

The structural Engineer was SDK et associés inc. and the fabricator was WF Welding & Overhead Cranes Ltd.

The Capital Health Centre in downtown Edmonton won the Steel Edge Award, an open category for excellence in on of steel design, fabrication, detailing or finishing for the renovation of a 1970s office complex for use as a new headquarters.

It features a dramatic cantilevered steel and glass canopy. The design maintains the same footprint as the original structure, but uses a single span, allowing for vast column-free spaces. The canopy is designed much like a suspension bridge, with few vertical supports.

“The natural tendency of a sloped structure is to sag,” said Jason Collins, general manager of Collins Industries Ltd., steel fabricators on the project. “The tensile rods were used to support the huge cantilevers and counter that.”

It has four primary beams supported by two primary mast columns in hollow structural steel. The primary beams are supported at mid-span by tensile rods that splay outward from the mast columns.

The steel fabricator was Collins Industries Ltd. and the structural engineer was Protostatix Engineering Consultants Inc.

CISC Alberta also handed out a new award for sustainability for the renovation of the University of Alberta’s Triffo Hall. The two storey steel structure was built in 1915 and designed to work with natural light.

The building passed its first review for LEED Gold certification and is undergoing its second review.

Original steel trusses were retained, as was a load-bearing brick wall. New steel elements included beams for second floor structure modifications, stair structure, lintels in the brick wall, and the exterior canopy. Of the existing steel, 99.5 per cent was retained; of the new steel material, 100 per cent is recycled.

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