In just two years, the new Atrium Building in downtown Victoria has added 200,000 square feet of market-leading tenant amenities and quality office space to the city’s growing business district. Several BCWCA contractors and suppliers contributed to the project during construction, which began in July 2008 and was completed on time in August 2010. The Atrium Building dominates the 800 Yates Street city block and is now home to the head office of BC Ferries – the building’s anchor tenant.
The remainder of the building includes restaurants, cafes, and retail shops on the ground floor that cover the north, south, and west sides of the building. There is also a fitness center, bicycle storage to accommodate the busy cycling community of Victoria, and 164 underground parking stalls. According to site developers, Jawl Properties, every tenant that had previously signed leases are all moved in and settled. By this time next year, the developers expect to have the entire building fitted out, and the area will surely become even more thriving and bustling with activity.
The building’s designers, Victoria-based D’Ambrosio Architecture + Urbanism, have been praised for their design that features a glass atrium intended as an impressive arrival hall and public space during normal business hours, but one that can be adapted to se
rve as a gathering place for community events such as art and theater galas, and film festivals – all of which have been hosted at the Atrium already.
“During the second half of the 20th century, the site was at the heart of an entertainment district with cinemas and theatres on three of the four corners of the intersection. It had an historical pattern of social and public use that was an inspirational starting point for this project,” says project architect, Gregory Damant. “Victoria is, to date, a low- to mid-rise city with a good mix of uses and lots of public activity at the street level in most areas. There has been a focus in the last decade on building residential buildings downtown and more recently, attention has turned back to the office market.”
The instructions given to the architects were basic. Jawl Properties knew they wanted to create a landmark space, but one that also tied in with the area. “We explored the point tower, the u-shape, slab block, and the centre-core types for their various qualities and potentials,” says Damant.
These were all tested and resulted in the selection of the atrium form. “The developers wanted this level of density. The idea of the atrium was driven by the size of the site, which was too big to create a single building without carving it up some how. We felt it was important to build to the edges of the property and carved out the centre of the building’s floor plates to create high quality work spaces with access to daylighting and optimal views. Creating the Atrium is what did that for us. It brought the sunlight in. Outside, we needed to help knit together the urban fabric and have our building tie in with the rest of the city.”
Purpose-driven exterior materials used on the understated exterior cladding included custom-cast concrete spandrels running in bands horizontally across the facade and grey zinc running vertically. Inside, decorative touches like tables, artwork, and a small grove of olive trees add to a very comfortable and pleasing organic environment, but the curved walls also add some drama to the space, says Damant. The natural material of 9Wood products has helped the environmentally-conscious Atrium in its quest for LEED Gold certification and creates a comfortable environment for the public.
The Atrium’s 9Wood Grilles were assembled on metal “flexi-backers,” which allowed the grilles to follow the curving walls in the atrium. The grilles themselves were made from 5/8” x 1” Western Hemlock members with 3/8” reveals between each member.
“The fine scale of the smaller members and relatively tight reveals contrasts dramatically with the expansive atrium they wrap,” explains 9Wood project manager, Leo Batenhorst.
Typically, 9Wood manufactures its products in the US and sells directly to acoustical subcontractors who perform the installation. In 2008, Mark Bromley, an independent manufacturer’s rep at Cascadia Design Products in Langley, BC met with the architects in December 2008 to let them know that 9Wood was capable of meeting design intentions for the walls of in a cost-effective manner.
“We were pro
ud to participate on this project because a job like this doesn’t come along every day,” says Bromley. “It’s definitely a landmark for the area.The curved facade is understated, but its construction was very complex. The end result is beautiful.”
Because the 9Wood product line attaches to industry-standard T-Bar grid or steel stud, the install process is familiar to local subcontractors, which in this case were from Parker Johnston Industries Ltd., Vancouver Island’s largest roofing and cladding contracting company.
“The panels are installed over notched 18ga. z-bars, which had to be painted black so as not to create a visual cue, [and] black acoustic duct insulation was adhered between the z-bars to provide sound deadening for the vast open space,” says Rod Parker of Parker Johnston Industries.
“Due to the short time frame, the entire atrium was completed in under eight weeks, including all custom curved sills, heads, and jambs, and erection and dismantling of scaffolding,” adds Parker. “Digital layout of products enabled layout alignment without site-fitting.”
A large part of the Atrium Bulding entailed many radius steel framing bulkheads and walls. The application of 9Wood products would not have been possible without the initial, complex groundwork of Dryco Systems Inc. from Cowichan Bay, subcontractors responsible for installing curved steel framing supplied by Bailey West, and drywall and ceilings supplied by Winroc.
The 9Wood application called for walls and framing that were rounded to create the interior’s wavy appearance, explains Cathy LaPointe, an owner of Dryco Systems. “This took quite a bit of skill to achieve.”
Because steel studs and tracks are only manufactured as linear, Dryco Systems spent hundreds of hours creating the required curved walls by carefully cutting and bending steel tracks to create the radiuses.
“We are happy with the outcome of project,” says LaPointe. “It’s always demanding to fulfill this type of schedule, but it’s also satisfying. The schedule was tight, but we didn’t mind because we’d much rather have a schedule that is being maintained.”
Dryco Systems also installed two kinds of Armstrong ceilings, including a combined 130,000 square feet of Ultima panels made with scratch-resistant DuraBrite, and an Armstrong Prelude Suspension System in metric, rather than standard imperial lengths. The elevator lobby ceilings were done with Armstrong WoodWorks Linear in Natural Variations Maple.
Jon Floyd, project coordinator of the site’s developers, Jawl Properties, says the project as a whole was completed on a tight schedule to accommodate the move-in date of the primary tenant.
“We broke ground with about 30 percent of the completed drawings, and revisions were made during the construction right up to the final fit-out,” he says. “There were critical interior design and construction deadlines, but everything was finished on time thanks to the incredible volume of work by the different trades. Much credit goes to the architects as well, whose amazing concepts have that ‘wow’ factor.”
The groundwork that was done for the Atrium by all of the sub-trades, coordinated by general contractors, Campbell Construction, continued to impress the developers throughout the project. Campbell Construction deserves much credit for keeping everyone on track, says Floyd. “Every trade involved had to come to the table to do complex things. There were truly amazing things done with the different trades involved. I really can’t say enough about the team we worked with. I give them a ton of credit because they were a pleasure to work with even when managing and incorporating an endless stream of changes.”
Given its ‘wow’ factor and the complex curved walls within, the Atrium Building is up for two NWCB Project of the Year Awards in April – one in the Interior-Commercial category, and one in the welcomed-back Light Gauge Steel Framing category. In addition, the Atrium Building was recently awarded the CISCA Gold Award for the West Region in Interior Finishes.
Article by Julie McManus
Photos contributed by Cascadia Design
This article originally appeared in the Feb / Mar 2011 Print Edition of The Trowel Magazine
