Canada’s first LEED Platinum high-rise office building is complete—Eighth Avenue Place in Calgary, Alberta is the first of a two-tower development that is a landmark project for several BCWCA members and tradespersons across North America.
Thanks to the building’s structural construction, high-performance envelope, and high-efficiency mechanical system, the stampede city is in for 1.8 million of the greenest square feet of commercial office space it has ever known.
Several key players in the Canadian wall and ceiling industry were involved in the construction of the 49-storey building, owned by the Alberta Investment Management Corporation, and the second tallest building on the Calgary skyline.
“Calgary is Canada's energy capital and energy companies place particular emphasis on sustainability and responsible energy consumption,” says Avi Tesciuba, vice-president of Hines, the project's developers. “The emphasis on sustainability and responsible stewardship of energy consumption in the Calgary market motivated the project's owners to raise the bar to a level never achieved before in a large commercial setting in Canada.”
The project was originally pre-certified Gold in the US Green Building Council's LEED for Core & Shell rating system, but was pre-certified for the second time at the Platinum level because of a series of building innovations including a highly efficient curtainwall and its green roof, which is the largest in Canada at 30,000 square feet.
Another of the project's more remarkable features is its air distribution system. It distributes heat through the same overhead perimeter air delivery system that is utilized in cooling during the summer months, instead of using a more traditional radiant heat system that flows hot water into occupant spaces along base boards at the perimeter wall.
Other sustainable features and that contributed to the LEED Platinum certification include the use of environmentally sensitive refrigerants, a 40 percent reduction in water use through features like ultra-low-flow washroom fixtures, and ample bicycle parking with adjacent showers. The construction team diverted 50 percent of its onsite waste from the landfill, and used low-emitting paints, adhesives, and sealants for optimal indoor air quality.
The architectural firm responsible for these and other design features was Pickard Chilton, an international architectural practice noted for its expertise in the design of large, complex buildings. James Fullton, project architect with Pickard Chilton, explains how the building was designed to respond to its environment.
“The towers’ design metaphorically references the peaked and faceted Rocky Mountains that provide such a compelling backdrop to Calgary’s skyline,” says Fullton. “The towers’ diagonal and asymmetrical siting creates a dynamic composition and, more importantly, maximizes the panoramic views of the Rocky Mountains.”
Structurally, EAP is the first high-rise in Canada since 1984 constructed with a concrete core and a structural steel frame. The exterior of the building’s two-story podium is clad in limestone and glass and the interior walls are clad with the same limestone. Above the podium the sculptural tower is clad in a state-of-the-art aluminum and glass curtainwall and extended fins on the vertical mullions add texture to a stunning façade.
The focal point of the interior, the three-storey lobby and the winter garden floors, features a light-coloured marble and blue-green Vals Quartzite imported from Switzerland. The use of glass both as a bridge and as a sloped structural wall provides continuity and complements the marble interior finish. Nearby, two grand staircases connect the ground floor of the winter garden to the plus-15 level.
“One of the nicest aspects of the project is its incorporation of daylight-filled grand public spaces. The winter garden is a jewel within the remarkable development,” says Fullton.
Some of North America’s finest sub-trades worked collectively to construct the significant landmark. Trades and designers involved with EAP came from Connecticut, Texas, New York, BC, Alberta, and Ontario. On the wall and ceiling side of things, Flannery Inc., a manufacturer of specialty drywall and stucco trims based in California, partnered with Pacific West Systems Supply (PacWest) for this significant job. Flannery shipped over 3,000 lineal meters of Drywall Reveal Trim (DWR 50-75) and 500 pre-fabricated intersections to PacWest, a supplier to the wall and ceiling industry for the past 25 years.
“The sales personnel at PacWest are among the best at recognizing and assisting local contractors with the many products that Flannery manufactures,” says Gary Jayne, Flannery sales manager. “In most cases, PacWest is able to order Flannery trims on the same business day that a contractor inquires about them.”
Other materials supplied by PacWest included steel studs, drywall, acrylic finishes, and T-bar, as well as160,000 square-feet of Roxul insulation and 245,000 square feet of elevator shaft walls, all of which were installed by BC Drywall Installations Ltd. — a British Columbia Wall & Ceiling Association member that started in BC, but expanded into Alberta and Saskatchewan in 2006.
Rod MacIntosh, sales rep at PacWest, says it was a privilege to have been selected by BC Drywall, a company that PacWest works with frequently, on such a landmark project. “Overall I was quite impressed with how swiftly BC Drywall's work on such a large project was carried out. We enjoy working with such an experienced and organized group.”
With a floor plate of 24,500 square feet, BC Drywall’s scope of work included all interior and exterior metal stud framing, metal door frames, and specialty metal ceilings, as well as over one million square feet of custom acoustical ceilings, custom curved bulkheads in the lobby entrance level, and all of the drywall for the project.
“This was such a massive job; it was the biggest jobs we've ever done,” says Young Lim, senior estimator at BC Drywall Installations Ltd. “At one point, we had up to 80 people or so on the building site, along with a thousand others from different sub-trades. This required us to have present a site foreman, a floor foreman, and a sub-floor foreman. Controlling that much manpower was our biggest challenge,” he adds.
The second challenge BC Drywall faced was the physical space the team had to cover. Everybody was spread out thinly, and finding time and space to deliver a tremendous amount of building materials required most of the materials drop-offs to be done outside of the business day so as to not compete with the other sub-trades for space.
For BC Drywall, this project spent two years in the planning process, which led to a well-organized and efficient project completed on time and on budget.
“We handled this project one by one and day by day,” says Lim.
“The suppliers worked hard, and the management of EllisDon was very good. In fact, all of the sub-trades were good. When imagining a job that big, you think about what could go wrong, but in this case things went quite smoothly. Again, this was the biggest job our company has done so far and everything went well, including the budget, quality, and schedule.”
In addition to Eighth Avenue Place, BC Drywall has built three other towers in the downtown of Calgary in the last four years.
This article was written by Julie McManus and originally appeared in the Oct/Nov issue of The Trowel magazine.
