The new 7,300-square-meter Okanagan College Centre of Excellence in Penticton is a $28-million project that paves the way for the future of sustainable trades training.
Designed to meet Living Building Challenge (LBC) requirements of net zero energy, natural heating and cooling, and pervasive daylight penetration, the building, designed by Vancouver’s CEI Architecture Interiors Planning, will act as a living classroom for students in a variety of trades programs.
As LBC brings commercial and institutional spaces into the future of sustainability, trades contractors are also becoming quick studies on the LBC system and ways to reinvent their typical processes to meet the program’s stringent requirements.
Drywall and framing contractor Empire Drywall, based in Kelowna completed the drywall finishing on the project using ProRoc gypsum board from CertainTeed, Sheetrock from CGC, Inc., and Beadex paper-faced metal corner beads also from CGC, Inc.
The company also installed fire walls, completed some steel framing, and installed aluminum Prelude Plus XL acoustic ceilings from Armstrong. Ecobatt insulation from Knauf, acoustic smoke seal caulking from Hilti, and two-inch black acoustical board for soundproofing rounded out the company’s scope.
Brian Delf, project manager at Empire Drywall says the requirements for his team went beyond eco-friendly products and recycling scraps.
General contractors PCL Constructors Westocast Inc. had an LBC consultant who advised the trades on materials and procedures relating to the green building system.
“The consultant knew what we could use and how to source materials close by,” says Delf. “The drywall, for example, had to be sourced from within 500 km of the site, so they were able to get it out of Washington.”
Finding other materials was more challenging. A key component of LBC is its Red List—a list of 14 prohibited materials that must never find their way onto an LBC jobsite. Many of the materials include those used in typical construction such as PVC, polyvinyl, and formaldehyde.
Because polyvinyl wasn’t allowed onsite, Empire wasn’t able to use its traditional choice of Trimtex beads—“a taper’s best friend,” says Delf.
“There are gulam beams every 41 inches and each one requires at least four sticks of bead. There are also six to eight sticks of bead for every window and there are probably 150 windows.”
Besides having up to 20 tapers working at one time, Empire Drywall met the challenge by opting for Beadex, an all-metal L-edge bead from CGC, Inc.
Gary McEwan, manager of special projects at PCL’s Kelowna office agrees that the Red List was challenging, at least at first.
“We quickly overcame the challenge once we understood where the products come from, where they are shipped from, and whether a closer product was available,” says McEwan.
“Many of the trades weren’t aware of the items on the list,” he adds. “They didn’t understand that they couldn’t use Neoprene gaskets or whatever because that is what they normally do.”
Materials that are allowed must be sourced between 250 and 2,500 km of the job site, depending on how much of each material is used.
“Drywall is huge because it is a big percentage of what we use,” says Delf. “Certain things like acoustic smoke seal can come from far away because there is not a huge amount of it in the building.”
The most difficult issue with materials was with ordering accurate amounts of materials that were sourced from farther away. “You have to measure well and order ahead of time, because you can’t just make a phone call and have what you need in two days,” says Delf. “You have to wait.”
One major construction challenge was steel framing rooms with poured concrete floors that had embedded geothermal heating lines.
“We couldn’t shoot into the floor,” says Delf. “We had to leave out of the floor and build into the wall.
“All of the insulation on the first floor was secured to the ceiling with power-actuated tools. One wrong shot could cost thousands if we punctured any lines.”
Taping through from November to April was tricky in Penticton’s cold winter, but PCL did a great job of warming the building, says Delf.
McEwan says PCL had energy efficiency top of mind when heating the building for the taping job.
“We find out the minimum temperature requirement and get on it the next day,” he says. “The whole idea of the project is to build green and use minimal energy, so it was exact.”
Site requirements were also more stringent, going beyond having a recycling centre on site.
“We recycled our water throughout our mixes,” says Delf. “The water we used to clean our tools we mixed into the mud. If by chance we had to dump something we used evaporation—dumping the mud into a box with a filter in the bottom, and throwing the mud away.”
“LBC is challenging,” says Delf. “It is the first I’ve ever done and it was quite the experience.
“The finish was exceptional,” he adds. “Everything takes a little longer, and I am proud of the team and of the fact we were there from September to May with no lost time due to injury. Having that many workers onsite, that safety record is quite good.”
Whether the building achieves its LBC status will depend on one year’s worth of operational monitoring to ensure the net zero energy component is fulfilled.
“That will depend on the end users,” says McEwan. “One of the biggest things during the design charette was engaging the end users and empowering them.
“One thing for me was working for a client who had a powerful and lofty dream and goal and seeing that it was possible,” he adds. “Now that we’ve built this building I truly believe we can get there.”
This article was written by Jessica Kirby and appeared in the June/July 2011 issue of The Trowel magazine.
Images supplied by CEI Architecture Planning Interiors.
Staff and management at Empire Drywall would like to acknowledge the hard work and dedication to this project shown by Rafael Heredia. Rafael started as a general labourer with Empire Drywall in 2007, and quickly progressed to lead hand in just three years. Rafael passed away half way through the job at Okanagan College Centre for Excellence. He put a lot of work into this job and was definitely an asset to the company and to the project. He is sadly missed and deeply appreciated by his co-workers.
