GEORGE BROWN COLLEGE WATERFRONT CAMPUS BY STANTEC / KPMB

George Brown College, an urban community college with three campuses in downtown Toronto, is expanding its properties with a fourth campus dedicated to health science. The new Waterfront Health Sciences Campus, a 507,000 s.f. integrated vertical campus, will be located in the heart of Toronto’s developing waterfront.

A single, purpose-designed facility will consolidate George Brown’s schools of Dental Health, Health and Wellness, Health Services Management and Nursing, encompassing a student enrolment of 3,500 students, 500 faculty, continuing education and clinical programs.

The overarching vision of the campus is to realize an inter-professional education (IPE) delivery model through the creation of an environment where students from different professional programs can learn with, from and about each other to understand the importance of collaboration and its impact on quality of care.

The design optimizes the lakefront site, drawing on waterfront typologies from pier buildings and industrial lofts to create a new paradigm of health sciences education. The overall composition is grounded by a flexible academic loft bar building along the west side.

Facing south, east and north, a three-storey, highly transparent glass podium element is programmed with retail, food services, clinics, student amenity space and an auditorium.

Above this, cantilevered on the south-east corner, a floating two-storey element denotes the Library. An exterior terrace on the roof of the Library offers a warm and inviting atmosphere with wood decking, pergola, and green roof landscape.

On the north-east corner, a pair of stacked lecture hall volumes floats above the podium. The highly transparent façade expresses the program, maximizes view and connection to and from the adjacent Sherbourne Park and Lake Ontario.

A fluid 'learning landscape' is embodied within the building section creating a legible vertical circulation from ground plane up to the accessible green roofs. Informal gathering spaces are the physical manifestation of the IPE model, providing the opportunity to nurture inter-program collaboration.

A transparent podium houses public program components further elevating the project's vision to become an intercommunity education model.

In addition to a LEED Gold target, the design prioritizes the essential principles of sustainability, inclusive of maximum exposure to fresh air, natural light, and views; access to public transit and alternative modes of transportation; and a commitment to building for the long term.

 

 

 

 

 







Location: Toronto, Canada

Architects:  Stantec / KPMB

Stantec Project Team: Michael Moxam (project principal), Stuart Elgie (principal / project architect), Trish Piwowar (associate / health science team lead), Rich Hlava, Gerard Dourado, Ko van Klaveren, Mick Dobbin, Stacy Fleming, Sarah O’Connor, Pani Eslami, John Ciarmela, Nancy Lindsay

KPMB Project Team: Bruce Kuwabara (project principal), Mitchell Hall (principal / project architect), Roland Ulfig, Elizabeth Paden, Brent Wagler, Priscilla Yeung, Fang Hsu, Lilly Liaukus, Frances Lago, Richard Wong, Nariman Mousavi, Mohammed Soroor, William Rohde

Consultant Team: Stantec Consulting Inc.(Structural, Mechanical, Electrical, Civil/Urban Land Development, Sustainability/Energy), BA Consulting (transportation planning), Educational Consulting Services Corp. (functional programming), Hanscomb Limited (costing), Leber Rubes (code consulting), Kaizen Food Planning (food services), Phillips Farevaag Smallenberg Landscape Architects (landscape), The Sextant Group (functional program), Soberman Engineering (vertical transportation), SPH Planning and Consulting Ltd. (accessibility planning), Isherwood Geostructural Engineers (geostructural), SHAL Consulting Engineers Limited (marine engineer), Trow Associates Inc. (geotechnical environmental)

Area: 507,000 s.f.

Cost: $130 Million

Year: 2012

Client: George Brown College

CANADIAN MUSEUM OF NATURE BY KPMB ARCHITECTS

The Canadian Museum of Nature (CMN) was the first purpose built museum in the country. It is now recognized for the interdependence of its learning and research components and a collection that includes 10 million specimens gathered over 150 years.

The original building – known as the Victoria Memorial Museum Building (VMMB) – was designed in the Beaux-Arts Style by David Ewart. Shortly after its completion in 1912, the stone tower began to sink into the ground.

In 1915, the upper part of the tower was removed to de-load the structure, leaving the base as the main entrance vestibule but consequently diminishing the building’s original composition, and impacting the original clarity of the Beaux Arts plan. The revitalization project showcases the original heritage building, using contemporary architecture to generate a dialogue between past and present.

It also prioritizes the Museum’s collections and its research activities, while improving its public outreach. The original interior suffered from a fairly rigid and opaque layout, inadequate vertical circulation, and generally substandard building.

To realize a bolder identity for the CMN, the challenge was not limited to an interior renewal but extended to the exterior and site. The concrete moat of parking that surrounded the building was one of the biggest liabilities to the museum’s image.

By relocating parking to the east side of the site, space was gained to create a significant below-grade addition on the south in which the back-of-house operational functions of the museum are consolidated, including mechanical and electrical, loading, waste handling, security and catering functions. The roof is slightly elevated above the street and is adapted as landscaped terraces for the enjoyment of visitors and the public.

One of the most visible interventions is a glazed Lantern element over the truncated tower. The Lantern restores the original proportion of the main entrance and creates a super-scale display unit for replicas of large-scale artifacts or projected images.

Within the Lantern a new Butterfly Stair resolves the original circulation system which was disconnected when the tower was removed, and reinstates a continuous loop of movement around the Atrium and through all four levels of the Museum. Reception and information desks are relocated to the centre of the Atrium. Gallery spaces are reconfigured to offer a balance of black box and day-lit galleries.

The South Terrace creates an indoor/outdoor precinct for casual and formal gatherings up to 600 people. Set apart from the walls and foundations of the heritage building, the Terrace is linked to the existing building via two bridges, and creates a viewing platform from which to experience the robust masonry walls.

Its edges are defined by bosques of trees and a large scale water feature which runs parallel to Argyle Street. The 12 foot high and100 foot long fountain features a diagonal grid of stainless steel cables over a gently sloped wall of black granite.

Location: Ottawa, Canada

Architects:KPMB Architects

KPMB Project Team: Bruce Kuwabara (design partner), Brent Wagler (project architect), Luigi LaRocca, John Allen, Bill Colaco, Yekta Pakdaman-Hamedani, Shabbar Sagarwala, Andrew Gunn, Brian Lee, Jose Emila, Jill Greaves, Bruno Weber, Walter Gaudet, Thom Seto, Tomislav Knezic, Virginia Dos Reis, Carolyn Lee, Lauren Abrahams, Lang Cheng, Bradley Hindson, Norm Li, Lilly Liaukus, Tyler Sharp, Esther Cheung, Meagan Gauthier, Francesco Valente-Gorjup, Anna Baraness, Taewook Eum

Barry Padolsky Associates Inc.: Barry Padolsky (PKG project manager), Louise McGugan (project/heritage architect), Mike Kelly, Eric Fruhauf, Elizabeth Saikali, Ursula Clarkson, Danica Lau, Mike Labine, Jason Lowe, Grant Stewart, Peter Elliott, Crystal Eryuzlu , Rene Mariaca
Gagnon Letellier Cyr Ricard Mathieu Architectes Project Team: Marc Letellier (parter-in-charge), Michel Gagnon (partner-in-charge of construction documents), Simon Brochu, François Paradis, Pierre Michaud, Suzanne Castonguay, Vincent Lavoie, Réal St-Pierre, Jean-Sébastien Laberge
PKG Resident Site Architect: Paul Dolan

Consultants: Halsall Associates Ltd. (structural), Genivar Consulting Group (mechanical/electrical), Delcan Corporation (civil/transportation), McRostie, Genest, St. Louis (geotechnical), Dan Euser Water Architecture Inc. (water feature), Morrison Hershfield Ltd. (code), Gabriel Mackinnon (lighting), T. Harris Environmental Management Inc. (environmental), GHE Greenhouse Engineering (greenhouse), Glaswal Systems Inc. (structural glazing), Hanscomb (cost and scheduling), Soberman Engineering (elevators), Marshall and Murray (quantity surveyors), Peeta Consultants Inc. (scheduler), IRC Sears Batten Group (roofing), Keller Engineering Associates Inc. (building conservation), Corush Sunderland Wright (landscape), Yale Corbin (hardware), Leber Rubes (security), A. J. Watts (food services), Engineering Harmonics (audio visual), J.S. Models (model design), Gottschalk+Ash (signage)

Project Manager: PCL Constructors Canada Inc.

Size: 30,000 sqm

Cost: $150.0 million

Year: 2010

Client: Canadian Museum of Nature