Scott Construction Group's innovative use of glulam beams and columns and cross-laminated timbers (CLT) for the interior of the new Wesbrook Community Centre has earned it a Vancouver Regional Construction Association silver award in the general contractor undertaking a project valued at up to $15 million category.
Scott's B.C. operations vice-president Darin Hughes said the new community centre, located on the south side of the University of B.C.'s campus, is representative of the challenging buildings the company is taking on.
"The building is really pioneering in the way a lot of different components were put together. It is quite complex," he said.
The community centre will serve the growing number of residents within buildings sited in the area. It consists of a two-storey, 30,600-square-foot building that provides a large gymnasium, fully-equipped fitness centre, café, dance studio, music rooms, child minding, teen and adult centre, meeting rooms, multi-purpose rooms and administrative space. The facilities are grouped around a large central atrium. There is also a community recycling depot on site.
"We like to take on the projects that are not simply cookie-cutter," said Hughes, as Scott has been developing its expertise in working with mass timber components over the past few years.
"This project fits our company."
Hughes said that those looking at the community centre will notice the high visibility of the wood used in the structure.
"The building uses a lot of CLT and glulam and it is part of an early movement in using CLT for walls and creating an all-wood look," he said.
Architect Walter Francl designed the structure which used CLT walls in the gymnasium and throughout the dance studio which also contributed to the centre's goal of sustainability.
"This is an early example of use of these materials in a community centre," he said.
The building's hybrid construction merges heavy timber structure (glulam beams and columns, CLT panels) with structural steel and reinforced concrete for optimal structural performance and architectural aesthetics.
The building was designed and constructed to yield a high performance envelope with continuous exterior insulation, reduced thermal bridging credited to the CLT structure and less than 40 per cent glazing area.
The centre's gymnasium shows off large sweeping curved glulam beams, glulam columns and five-ply CLT walls.
The curved glulam roof beams span 21 metres across the width of the gymnasium and are cantilevered at both ends. Clerestory windows were installed across the length of the gymnasium above the CLT wall panels on the north and south side of the gymnasium, as well as in the atrium, to stream in natural light.
The atrium roof is supported on glulam beams suspended on steel rods from the cantilevered portion of the gymnasium roof above.
The construction of the dance studio showcases wood on all surfaces, with the walls, floor, and roof structure fashioned from exposed CLT panels.
The soffit of the seven-ply floor panels is exposed and forms the ceiling of the café and cantilevers out by approximately 12 feet to the east.
The hybrid nature of the building led to multiple design conflicts between disciplines, said Hughes.
However, the project used CadMakers Inc., which smoothed the process by virtually modeling it in three dimensional, prior to construction and trade crews moving on sit It provided details "right down to the nuts and bolts," said Hughes, as it pinpointed design conflicts such as where a swing door might hit a cross-bracing.
"These are smaller things but they cost a lot of time and money to fix on the construction site," he said.
As Scott was merging together two styles of construction in the centre, it was busy dealing with a site that was near a school, residences and commercial outlets and it needed to ensure no unauthorized personnel wandered onto the project.
Roofing also was installed during the rainy season because of delays attributed to design conflicts.
The construction crew also installed a Thermenex system, an energy management system, and adjustments had to be made to the roof area to accommodate the extensive pipe loops that were part of the HVAC system.
"The project bought a lot of challenges to the team," said Gani Bautista, assistant project manager for Scott.
"We had to think outside the box, be very innovative in our approach and there was a lot of collaboration amongst the owner, the consultants, our construction management team and the trade contractors."
Bautista said the ingenuity is now mirrored in the award-winning structure.
Architect Francl said: "We have worked with Scott on other projects and they always bring professionalism. They get us to the finish line."
The new community centre was built to a LEED Gold equivalency and opened in October 2015.
"It has very much become the living-room for the community in the Wesbrook area," said Francl.
The Wesbrook Community Centre moves the use of cross-laminated timber into the interior of the structure to contribute to the facility’s wood appeal. The project has earned Scott Construction a silver award of excellence in the annual Vancouver Regional Construction Association awards.
Original link - Journal of Commerce
