May 28, 2010

MORIYAMA & TESHIMA

Steel is used extensively in all three phases of the Queenston Bridge on the Niagara Parkway. The project garnered a Canadian Institute of Steel Construction award of excellence in the architectural category.

FEATURE | Steel

Steel chosen for structural and aesthetic reasons at Queenston-Lewiston border crossing

PETER KENTER

correspondent

You only get one chance to make a first impression and for many people passing through the busy international crossing at Queenston, Ont., the border plaza is the first glimpse of Canada.

The plaza was designed for the Niagara Falls Bridge Commission by Moriyama & Teshima Architects (M&T) to create a user experience that is efficient, human — and even enjoyable — without compromising security.

The architectural firm has been working on the site for years, creating a 2005 master plan for the three-phase construction of the crossing.

Phase one included the tollhouse building and integrated parking garage, as well as steel-framed toll and customs commercial canopies and a 300-metre-long steel-framed security fence separating the plaza from the Niagara Parkway.

In the current, second phase of the project, structural steel was used on the plaza’s customs and animal-inspection buildings. The buildings are connected by steel-framed covered walkways and tubular steel truss pedestrian bridges.

The bridges are clad in perforated metal panels and glass so architecturally exposed steel trusses are visible from the exterior of the structures.

The plaza’s buildings, cladding, glazing and fences are designed to evoke the aesthetics of the region’s greenhouses and grape arbours.

The security fence, for example, supports the growth of grape vines consistent with the region’s wine industry.

Steel was chosen not only for structural and aesthetic reasons, but also because it allowed faster completion.

“This was a construction management project, so we were able to split up the tender package early in the contract so work could begin on the foundations and superstructure,” says Brian Rudy, an architect and associate with M&T. “We could get to work putting the steel out for tender early in the development process. We designed the building to be very efficient for steel construction, with regular grid columns and beams. We could work on the skin and interior either after or concurrent with steel erection.”

Typical of a working customs plaza, heavy commercial and tourist traffic flows continued while the bridge was under construction.

The third and final phase of the project will be the smallest, including relocation of a duty-free shop, paving and re-grading of the site.

“One of the greatest advantages of using structural steel on this project is that it provides future flexibility,” says Rudy.

“The structural steel and moment-resisting frames were ideal to provide a bracing-free floor layout that can be adapted over the coming decades.”

Structural engineers on the project were Halsall Associates Ltd. Steel detailers and erectors were M&G Steel/Tresman Steel Industries Ltd. and the steel detailer was Base Line Drafting Services Ltd.

The steel supplier was Vixman Construction Ltd.

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