WINTER 2015

Ask an architect
EIA tower study
Trends in LEED-EB
San Telmo artspace
Wonderful in Winnipeg
THE BEAUTY OF RETROFIT

MISSION

POSSIBLE

HOW A CAR PARK BROUGHT LIFE

TO CALGARYS FOURTH STREET

EPLS ONE DESK

Stanley Milner Library
revises its service stance

REBUILDING AN EMPIRE
NYCs tallest landmark
gets a deep retrofit

OFFICE SPACE
Cubicles are a thing
of the past

ISSUE #2
WINTER 2015

CONTENTS
14

How a simple
change to an
existing parking
structure helped
rejuvenate
Calgarys Fourth
Street

10 Seeing the

possibilities in an
outdated facade

11 Ask an architect:

embodied energy
broken down

12 Why property

managers, owners
are embracing
LEED (EB)

18 Its whats on the

The 1800
building

inside that counts

26 The Avenue gets

a fresh start in
Winnipeg

34 Koreas Hanwha
headquarters
saves face

36 Stanley Milners

One Desk is futurefriendly

Cover photo:
BOOKSTRUCKER

is repurposed as a
leading library

22 The ugliest
building in
Denver
loses title

30 The Empire State

Building becomes a
deep retrofit leader

39 A 16th-century
museum
embraces its
natural side

42 EIA floats renewal

for its aging tower

winter 2015

Contents photos:
BOOKSTRUCKER,
Fred Fuhrmeister,
ESRT Empire State
Building L.L.C.,
Fernando Alda
Lara Swimmer

6 A Walmart store

reimagine
ISSUE #2 WINTER 2015

MANASC ISAAC ARCHITECTS

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Vivian Manasc
ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Kent McKay
GRAPHIC DESIGN CONSULTANT
Lisa Mentz
VENTURE PUBLISHING INC.
PUBLISHER
Ruth Kelly
DIRECTOR OF CUSTOM CONTENT
Mifi Purvis
MANAGING EDITOR
Shelley Williamson
ART DIRECTOR
Ryan Girard
PRODUCTION MANAGER
Betty Feniak Smith
PRODUCTION TECHNICIANS
Brent Felzien, Brandon Hoover
DIRECTOR OF CIRCULATION
Sharlene Clarke
CIRCULATION
Karen Reilly
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Matt Beauchamp, Tiffany Shaw-Collinge, Martin Dover, Lindsay Farr, Richard Isaac,
Jen Janzen, Shafraaz Kaba, Vivian Manasc, Nadia Moharib
CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS AND ILLUSTRATORS
Bookstrucker, Fernando Alda, Brice Ferr, Heather McIntyre, Lara Swimmer
Reimagine is a biannual publication produced by Venture Publishing for
architectural firm Manasc Isaac. Manasc Isaac is a Canadian leader in integrated
sustainable building with deep expertise in the reimagining of existing buildings,
primarily those built between 1950 and 2000.
Reimagine showcases the best of reimagined spaces and promotes sustainable
building practices in the community, and strives to be the authoritative business
voice on the value of reimagined building practices.

Contents 2014 by Manasc Isaac. No part of this

publication should be reproduced in print or on websites
without written permission.
Non-deliverable mail should be directed to:
10225 100 Avenue, Edmonton, Alberta T5J 0A1

FSC LOGO
PLACED BY PRINTERS

reimagination

THE PURPOSE OF
REPURPOSING

Vivian Manasc
Editor-In-Chief vivian@miarch.com

winter 2015

or decades, Ive been thinking about

ways to repurpose existing buildings.
In the latest issue of the Economist,
admittedly the only news magazine that
I usually enjoy, was an article entitled Bringing
the House Down, about new technology for the
demolition of existing towers in compact urban
conditions. Discussing the whiz-bang innovations
and enhanced recycling in the demolition of
towers in Frankfurt, Hong Kong and Lyons, one
question is missing: why tear down perfectly good
towers when they can be repurposed at a fraction
of the capital costs, with significantly lower
environmental impact? Lets talk about why we
need to reimagine and also, why now?
We are inspired to reimagine in both grand
gestures and small interventions at the small scale,
this issue of the magazine showcases the dramatic
benefits of the modestly reimagined workplaces (including our own) that enable companies to enhance
productivity, creativity and the number of team
members who can effectively occupy a given floor
plate.These refreshing design ideas and solutions
highlight the results of transforming existing spaces
and creating flexible creative environments.Why?
To make better use of existing space, so we dont
have to demolish and build new. And that is just
the beginning.
On the urban design front, our cover story talks
about the value of investing in a community, especially after major challenges.The 1800 - 4th Street
project in Calgary, located near one of the hardest hit
spots of the Calgary floods of 2013, was completed
in the fall of 2013, and represents Strategic Groups
commitment to the community.We worked with
an old parkade to create a new face, and a renewed
sense of community. Refreshing the face of a parkade seems a modest intervention until you see the

effect it has on the neighbourhood.We met with

the community league and they were delighted to
see that the scale and texture of the facade could
be enriched, attracting better tenants and animating
the street. From booming Calgary to the Big Apple,
we will talk about the Empire State Building and its
reimagined future, with a clear focus on the importance of extending the life of iconic buildings while
reversing decades of wasteful energy practices.
We have found great reimagine examples all
over the world and we bring these together in this
magazine, to highlight what is really feasible.We are
inspired by whats possible in our own neighbourhood and what can be realistically achieved over
the next decade or two. Every day, as I walk down
the streets of Edmonton and Calgary, Ottawa and
Montreal, I see possibilities buildings that need to
be reimagined to enrich the urban experience as
well as the environmental performance. Speaking a
few months ago at BOMA Edmontons first Energy
Conference, I was delighted to see the interest of the
property management community, in going beyond
the effective operations and maintenance of existing
buildings and exploring the added value of reimagining buildings, for enhanced energy efficiency
as well as enhanced asset value.
Recently, we looked at the opportunities to
reimagine two significant government buildings in
Edmonton as well as a residential condo building
these will be showcased in our Spring 2015 issue.
Stay tuned!
Peter Diamandis, author of the bestseller Abundance: The Future Is Better Than You Think, was in
Edmonton for E-Town 2014. His comments about
the abundance of solar energy reminded us that we
are very close to some breakthroughs in building
design and sustainable net-zero operations.We are
looking at ways to create more momentum around
the repurposing of existing buildings.This magazine
is a part of that an invitation to join us in a conversation about what you think can be done with the
existing buildings in your community.
Please drop us a line at the below email address
to share your examples or ideas. re

reframe

trends, innovations and ideas

Within the first month of opening,

new library membership jumped
23 per cent.

BIG BOXTURNED
BOOKISH
An abandoned store in
Texas becomes the largest
single-floor library

reimagine

Did you hear the one about the

abandoned Walmart store that was
repurposed as a library? Its no joke.
After a store in McAllen, Texas closed,
a team of architects transformed the
space into a funky and functional
library. Minneapolis architectural
firm Meyer, Scherer & Rockcastle
was responsible for the design-build,
which also won the 2012 International
Interior Design Associations 2012
Library Interior Design Competition.
Boultinghouse Simpson Gates
designed the exterior.
The retrofitted space boasts a
lounge and six computer labs just for

teens, as well as 16 public meeting

spaces, 14 public study rooms, 64
computer labs, 10 childrens computer
labs and a pair of genealogy computer
labs. Other new perks in the McAllen
Public Library include an auditorium,
art gallery, used bookstore, coffee
shop and self-checkouts. Whats more,
within the first month of opening,
new users reportedly increased by a
whopping 23 per cent.
Spanning 124,000 square-feet,
the revamped bookworms paradise
is now the largest single-floor library
in the U.S. As they say, everythings
bigger in Texas.

PHOTO LARA SWIMMER

L.A. TOWER HITS THE REFRESH BUTTON

Once the headquarters for the Metropolitan Water District (MWD), Los
Angeles Elysian was initially designed
by renowned architect William Pereira
in 1961 and completed in 1973. Though
the building at 1115 Sunset Boulevard
has long been lauded as an aesthetic
and engineering marvel, the tower had
been sitting vacant for nearly 20 years,
and it was in need of a reboot.
When Linear City Development, a
partnership of Leonard Hill and Yuval
Bar-Zemer that focuses on high-density
mixed-used projects, purchased that

DID YOU
KNOW:

buildings iconic architecture while adding the latest technological innovations

including 240-volt EV charging stations.
The Elysian, whose rents are expected to range from $1,500 to $6,500, also
features upgrades including a solar thermal system for the buildings hot water,
LED lights and double-pane high-E glass
throughout.
The buildings pair of 1,700-squarefoot penthouses, built above the original
roof of the building, are punctuated by
20-foot floor-to-ceiling windows allowing spectacular views of Los Angeles.

One of just three architects to grace the cover of Time magazine (along with
Frank Lloyd Wright and I.M. Pei); Pereira is acknowledged as a mid-century
Modernist pioneer. His works include the TransAmerica Building in San
Francisco and LAXs central theme building. Pereira also won an Academy
Award for his work on special effects in the 1941 film Reap the Wind.

>

winter 2015

PHOTO LINEAR CITY DEVELOPMENT LLC

aging marvel, the Elysians reimagining

as a 96-unit residential tower began.
Flanked by Chinatown and Echo Park,
and overlooking Sunset Boulevard, the
tower is well placed and characterized
by clean lines and wrap-around balconies. The project architect for the
$30-million adaptive reuse was David
Lawrence Gray, who consulted with the
MWD General Counsel to recover the
original plans for the building to help
with the retrofit.
In a press release, Linear City states
that the Elysian preserved much of the

reframe

PHOTO (VOLTAIC)
FINISH IN BANFF
ONE OF MANASC ISAACS EARLY SUSTAINABLE DESIGN PROJECTS
IN THE CANADIAN ROCKIES JUST GOT SLIGHTLY GREENER.
Banffs Town Hall was designed by Manasc Isaac and Sturgess
Architecture in 1996, pre-LEED certification, but was crafted to C 2000
standards the first of its kind in Alberta. Last year, the building got a
sustainable boost with the advent of 72 solar panels to its roof, making it the
most extensive photovoltaic panel installation in the whole Bow Valley.
Chad Townsend, the towns environmental coordinator, predicts
the system developed by Calgarys SkyFire Energy will save roughly 11
tonnes in CO2 emissions annually, as compared to electricity generated
by fossil fuels. The panel setup is expected to generate about 17,109
killowatts per year, the equivalent to what three households use in
that time. A monitor in the Town Hall lobby will show real-time energy
readings of emissions saved, electricity generated and equivalent uses.

LOOKS LIKE A MILLION

reimagine

IT WEATHERED TWO EARTHQUAKES AND A GREAT FIRE

AND NOW IT HAS ALSO SURVIVED A RETROFIT.
San Franciscos historic Flood Building which was built in
1904 at the corner of Powell and Market Streets for a cost of
$1.5 million by James L. Flood was once the largest building
in the northern California city.
Carbon Lighthouse was behind the revamp, which is
expected to save at least $1 million in energy costs over the
next 12 to 15 years. The building improvements included
installing a computerized central management system;
incorporating an improved HVAC system; and replacing and
updating the buildings lighting.
In addition to saving our tenants money on their utility
bills, this project makes a significant dent in our buildings
carbon footprint, says building owner, Jim Flood grandson
of James L. Flood in a press release. Carbon Lighthouses
work aligned with our mission to preserve the integrity of this
historic space while modernizing our operations as much as
possible. Even better, the project was smooth and stealthy, and
posed no disruption to the day to day business of our tenants.
The 12-storey Flood Building spans 300,000 square-feet
and counts flagship stores for The Gap, Urban Outfitters and
Anthropologie among its 350 commercial and retail tenants.
PHOTOS COURTESY THE TOWN OF BANFF / WIKICOMMONS - JOE MABEL

COUNTERCULTURE
BLUE JEANS
A husband-and-wife team in Lincoln,
Nebraska hopes to find a second life
for that favourite pair of comfortable
jeans everyone has kicking around
their closet: countertops.
Appropriately dubbing their upand-coming product Denimite, Jen
Carlson and Josh Shear of Iris Industries launched a Kickstarter campaign
last fall and reached their $10,000 goal
in a matter of days, thanks to nearly
100 backers from Nebraska to the
Philippines.
Along with the recycled jeans,
Denimite is made of partially biobased thermoset resin, which con-

tains no volatile organic compounds

(VOCs), compounds shown to have
adverse effects on human health. Carlson and Shear report that the material
is lightweight, water impervious, and
due to the way the denim fibres are
distributed, boasts mechanical strength
in every direction. Because denim is a
key ingredient, the materials are cheap
and plentiful; plus the finished product
has a cool, blue-jeans look. There are
myriad potential uses for the material,
although Carlson and Shear say its
best suited for things like countertops,
panels, furniture, automobile parts, and
consumer goods.

DOLLARS AND SENSE

OF GOING GREEN
A study by the CoStar Group of 1,300 buildings
found that LEED-certified buildings can ask
rent premiums of $11.24-per-square-foot over
conventional building counterparts and have
a 3.8 per cent higher occupancy rate. LEEDcertified buildings also sell for an extra $171 per
square foot on average.

If half of all new commercial

buildings were built to use 50
per cent less energy, it would
save more than six million
metric tons of CO2 and be the
equivalent of taking a million
cars off the road.

Buildings consume

70 per cent
of the electricity
load in the U.S.

Deep retrofits are

estimated to add
$3 to $30 per
square foot to an
office spaces value.

Sources: U.S. Green Building Council and Carbon War Room Research Report

SHIP OFF THE OLD BLOCK

PHOTOS COURTESY WWW.IRIS-INDUSTRIES.COM / CENTAINE TYLER

winter 2015

Calgarians may recognize the name Cam Dobranski from his tenure as chef
and proprietor at Winebar Kensington and Brasserie. These days you may
see him on social media tweeting about his latest concoction: Container Bar,
which tweets updates and opening hours for the remaining days of autumn.
Dobranski told the Calgary Herald back in July his plans to craft a patio
hangout next to his businesses was fuelled by a desire to clean up an unused
alley and provide some relief for an outdoor space crunch in the trendy
northwest neighbourhood. He helped build the tables from repurposed wood
claimed from old pallets, while church pews and school chairs make up the
spaces seating. A walk-up bar is made from, as the name would suggest, a
modified three-metre-square shipping container. Follow Container Bar, which
opened in July, on Twitter at @Container_Bar. re

leading edge

MODERNIST
MUSINGS
The Encana Centre is among a
generation of structures in Calgarys
core begging for a refresh
By Richard Isaac

reimagine

10

s a reimaginer,
one learns to
see possibility
everywhere.
Walking through a city like
Calgary, with a downtown
core full of aging building
stock, several stand out as
striking examples of structures
in need of reimagining. Some
of them offer such unique and
transformative possibilities
that I cant help but bring
the idea of them home and
doodle what a renovation
might look like, just to flex
my muscles.
One that strikes me every
time I see it is the Encana
Centre, a 20-storey 1970s
building located in Calgarys
city core. Sitting on a twostorey podium, the diamond
shaped building stands out,
sharp-bowed and thrusting
eastward like some sort of
ship of commerce.
Although the tower plan
shape is interesting, the facade
itself is challenging. Each floor
and each facade face repeats
itself, and the building makes
no differentiation between
the six directions it faces.
Although this delivers an
elegant appearance aligned
with the values of modernist
architecture, it undoubtedly
causes some discomfort for the
building occupants.You see,
those who have workspaces

facing north will probably

be comfortable, benefitting
from steady daylight and no
solar heat gain. But if a person
works somewhere on the
south or the west sides, both
glare and heat gain is likely a
challenge for them.
I snapped a photograph
of the building and brought
it back to my Edmonton
studio, where I conceptualized
a hypothetical solution to
Encana Centres facade
dilemma. A client did not
commission this, but I was
interested in creating a design
solution for the tower, as an
example of what an average
office tower could do.
To create both an aesthetically and environmentally
better tower, I propose that
each face be treated differently, depending upon which
direction (north, east, south
or west) it faces. I admit I
am a fan of avant-garde design
solutions (those that push
the boundaries of what is
accepted as the norm or status
quo), and undertook a drawing that articulates a visually
striking and dynamic answer
to the Encana Centres
facade treatment.
This design proposes the
addition of brightly-coloured
shading devices, which serve
multiple purposes. First,
they improve the comfort of

occupants, adding shading

where necessary (on the south
and west sides), as well as
stimulating colour to revitalize
the building and urban
streetscape as a whole. Crafted
from frittered glass, this facade
treatment is an elegant design
solution that achieves multiple
successes with one installation.
In the photo above to the
left, you are looking at the
west facing elevation. The
south facade is to the right.
This south-facing glazing has
been given projecting, which
acts as a horizontal blocker
against the sun. Not just for
appearance, the sun-shading
devices maintain occupant
comfort, modulating heat and
light when the south sun is
high in the sky. This treatment
would not be effective on
the west side of the building
where the sun is low in the
sky. I propose installing vertical
shading elements for this side
of the building facade.
Certainly, one could also
add plain sunshades to the

building that would align

with the neutral tones of the
existing facade, but recent
technology allows us to
add colour to the shaders,
breathing new life into the
Encana Centre and making it
sparkle on the street. Doesnt
this building look like a 21stcentury wonder with the
addition of rainbow hues?
Perhaps the best news is
that this reimagine exercise
would be relatively lowcost. After all, my suggested
updates dont require any
changes to the buildings
exterior envelope or
windows. Its difficult to
accurately assess cost without
an invitation from the client
to examine the building,
but I would speculate that my
suggested transformation of
the Encana Centre could be
achieved for about
$5 million a bargain price
to revitalize the urban
landscape, improve the
comfort of tenants and add
value to an asset. re
PHOTOS COURTESY MANASC ISAAC

ask an architect

THE ENERGY
OF MATERIALS
energy that has already been put in place with the materials used
in the construction of that structure.
Materials should be evaluated for their embodied energy
as this helps make more sustainable choices. For example, the
embodied energy of wood (2.5 megajoules per kilogram)
is almost an order of a magnitude less than that of steel (32
megajoules per kilogram). This is due to the extremely high
amount of energy it takes to run a steel foundry and process raw
iron ore into steel.
Wood, on the other hand, is relatively simple to harvest and
mill down into usable products. Therefore, choosing a wood
structure for smaller buildings would be a less energy-intensive
choice and also has the added benefit of being a carbon-sink,
as wood which is left intact sequesters carbon within its fibres.
Thats not to say that wood is always the best choice steel
and concrete are appropriate for larger buildings, due to their
increased structural capacity and robustness. One must also weigh
the longevity of materials and their durability in selecting the
right material.
Existing buildings are important for their embodied energy
in that theres already an investment of energy and material thats
usually still good for adaptive reuse. The amount of wood, steel
and concrete that can be found in existing buildings is in the
millions of tonnes of material, and within this material, there is
enough embodied energy that can save hundreds of megajoules
of energy if this existing material is reused.
The reuse of existing building materials spares the need
to manufacture new materials, particularly those with large
embodied energy like concrete and steel, helping to conserve raw
materials, resources and energy. re
Reimagine magazine sat down with Shafraaz Kaba,
partner and architect at Manasc Isaac.

What is embodied energy?

PHOTO BRICE FERR / GRAPHIC DATA FROM INTERFACE GLOBAL VIA BUILDINGGREEN.COM

73%

22%

EMBODIED
CARBON

USE AND
MAINTENANCE

Embodied
Energy of
Nylon Carpet

61%

RAW MATERIAL
EXTRACTION

2%

TRANSPORTATION

10%

MANUFACTURING

winter 2015

Embodied energy is simply the total amount of energy put into

the manufacture of materials that are used in the construction
of buildings. For example, its the energy required to turn a tree
into a two-by-four piece of lumber. Embodied energy is important because different materials have different amounts of energy
required for their processing and manufacture.
When embodied energy in materials is studied more closely,
one can also see the relationship of natural resource depletion,
greenhouse gas emissions, water consumption and environmental
degradation. Embodied energy is also important with existing
buildings because we need to account for the vast amount of

OF LIFE
5% END
MANAGEMENT

11

whats trending

GOOD AS GOLD
Seeking LEED status for existing buildings is gaining
steam with building owners and tenants

reimagine

12

or a leasing agent
or building owner,
there is a case to be
made for sustainable buildings, and nobody
knows that better than the
folks responsible for the first
LEED-EB Gold building in
Edmonton.
Sun Life Place may
have been built in 1978, but
a series of improvements
throughout its life span have
made it a model of sustainability and green operations.
Most recently, it was recognized as LEED-EB Gold,
but this acknowledgement
from the Canada Green
Building Council was a long
time coming.
When we decided to go
for the actual certification,
most of the work had been
done or was part of our normal operations as a matter of
course. The incremental cost
was probably about $230,000,
which is about 80 cents a
square-foot, says Rod Gatenby, managing director of Real
Estate Investments at Sun Life
Investment Management.
Graham Halsall, who
consulted on the LEED
certification for Sun Life
Place on behalf of greening
leader Halsall Associates, says
making existing buildings

sustainable is gaining steam

with building owners and
tenants. For a leasing agent,
their perspective is that
tenants often want to move
into a LEED building. If
its an older property, the
opportunity to lease space is a
little better when you say, We
are LEED as well. Attracting
tenants who care about green
buildings or sustainability is
the key leasing driver. From
the landlords perspective,
they typically respect tenants
who have respect for building
systems, even something as
simple as turning lights and
computers off at the end of
the day.
Because LEED-EB focuses more on a buildings
operations than design, Halsall explains, its actually easy
to be green, just by putting
some saving measures in
place. In the case of Sun Life
Place, chillers were upgraded
and automated, 95 per cent
of lights were replaced with
low-Mercury types and water
use was tempered by lowflow fixtures and sub-meters.
The payoff was palpable. We
just looked at the year following completion and our
utility costs were down about
25 cents a foot compared to
2013, says Gatenby, noting

water consumption declined by 30 per cent since implementing

the changes.
Energy was a large saving point. This building has an Energy Star rating of 83, which means its in the 83rd percentile of
comparable buildings on a national basis. We are using about 35
per cent less energy in that building than the national median,
says Gatenby. We went ahead and purchased about 50 per cent
of our energy from renewable sources, which obviously reduces
our greenhouse gas emissions. We put in energy efficient retrofitted chillers prior to going for certification, and we also updated the boilers, so we are looking at about 30,000 kilowatt hours
per year in savings.

We made the decision a number of years ago to do

whatever we could to own and manage buildings
that had an excellent environmental profile.
-Philip Gillin, of Sun LIfe Investment Management

LEED, or leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is a

third-party certification program and an internationally accepted
benchmark for the design, construction and operation of highperformance green buildings.
LEED rating systems encourage and accelerate the global adoption
of sustainable green building practices through the creation and
implementation of universally understood and accepted tools and
performance criteria.
LEED Canada EB: O&M certification differs from other LEED
classifications in that it focuses on the operations and maintenance
phase of the building instead of the construction phase. Under this
rating system buildings must file for recertification at least once
every five years to maintain their LEED Canada EB: O&M status.
LEED certified buildings meet the highest environmental
performance standards in Canada.
There are currently 3,600 registered LEED projects and 2,000
registered homes in the country, accounting for 500 million squarefeet, including registered and certified buildings since 2004.
In addition to lower operating costs, green buildings can offer
healthier environments, produce less waste, use less water, and
help reach commitments to reduce carbon footprints.
LEED-certified buildings can be found in most sectors, including
single-family homes, schools, retail, hotels, hospitals, public safety,
government and commercial and industrial buildings.
LEED promotes a whole-building approach to sustainability by
recognizing performance in five areas:
- Sustainable site development
- Water efficiency
- Energy efficiency
- Materials selection
SOURCE: THE CANADA
- Indoor environmental quality
GREEN BUILDING COUNCIL

winter 2015

Also part of the plan was incorporating a recycling

program diverting 100 per cent of durable goods and 50
per cent of consumables from the landfill and encouraging
tenants to take the LRT from the nearby Churchill station,
says Gatenby. We did surveys to try and increase use of
public transit, and over 50 per cent of our occupants are using
alternative transportation.
Philip Gillin, senior managing director and portfolio manager, Canadian Property Investments at Sun Life Investment
Management, says it all comes back to the company culture
and market demands. We made the decision a number of years
ago to do whatever we could to own and manage buildings
that had an excellent environmental profile. We challenged our
property managers to get involved in that with us and also our
tenants. We see sustainable real estate as being a key element of
our environmental program within the company and thats a
key element of our sustainability strategy. re

LEEDING THE PACK

13

STRATEGIC
TRANSFORMATION

A makeover of Calgarys 1800 breathes

new vitality into an entire Mission block
By Jen Janzen
Photos by BOOKSTRUCKER

reimagine

14

While the 1800

building escaped
flood damage, its
exterior was in
need of a serious
reimagining, with
its run-down facade
that resembled an
aging strip mall.

s the city of Calgary emerged from the

devastation of the 2013 flooding, as debris was
cleaned up, electricity restored, and as life once
again bustled in the downtown core, it was fitting
that the first post-flood development permit the
city issued would also facilitate another transformation. The
project: redeveloping the 1800 building, a mixed-use structure
named for its address (1800 - Fourth St. S.W.). The building is
located in the Mission area, south of the downtown core, which
was among the places in the city hardest-hit by flood damage.
Thanks to its higher elevation, the 1800 building hadnt been
harmed in the flood.
The ground level of the building features several retail rental
units, and office spaces fill the floors above, crowned by several
floors housing 100 apartment units. Strategic Group, a Calgarybased real estate development and property management firm,
purchased 1800 then known as Hillsboro Tower in 2010.
Randy Ferguson, Strategics chief operating officer, concedes the
original tower wasnt much to look at. You would see this tall
parking structure, then youd see a rather dilapidated facade to
the south, he says.
Though the buildings interior was also in need of an update,
Ferguson says the exterior was the most urgently warranted
fix. The dated brown-and-beige facade edging the retail spaces
made the property resemble a run-down strip mall more
than a proud member of the up-and-coming Mission district.
Passersby who dont have a reason to enter the building wont
see the inside, but the entire community sees the exterior. It was
dilapidated and uninviting, Ferguson says.
But the leadership team at Strategic Group wasnt put off
by the buildings lacklustre veneer. With the stated objective of
creating value others cant by seeing what others dont, Strategic found the 1800 project a perfect fit. Our company plan
around the acquisition of properties is to redevelop, repurpose
and re-use to bring properties up to todays standards in terms
of how they appear and how they fit into the neighbourhood,
to modernize and make our environments more pleasant so our
tenants and customers have a better experience in our buildings,
Ferguson says. >
winter 2015

15

ith Manasc Isaac

Architects help, Strategic
Group developed a
new vision for 1800,
transforming the
colourless eyesore into a winsome monument
for the Mission neighbourhood. The parking
garage is clad in metal mesh, which lends
texture and dimension and creates a sense of
continuity with the rest of the retail space.
Enter designer Claire Johnson of Manasc
Isaac, who says the vision for the property
was to bring an element of cohesion to the
buildings various constituents. The concept of
the design is to pull the building together and
emphasize the corner, drawing people in and
creating a landmark, Johnson explains.
Ferguson says that the exterior work didnt
only benefit the buildings appearance; it
also boosted 1800s overall efficiency. When
buildings get of a certain age, they begin to have
air leaks that your mechanical systems must
compensate for. By replacing things like the
facade and the retail storefronts, we made the
building much more efficient, Ferguson says.
Refreshing older buildings is a more
sustainable approach than tearing down and
building new ones. We have a large existing
building stock and it is not sustainable
environmentally nor economically to keep
building new and discarding the old, Johnson
says. You can achieve large energy savings and
dramatically decrease running costs by focusing
on both the building skin and system together,
plus there is the immense satisfaction of the
before-and-after comparison, from an aesthetic
point of view as well as quality of the indoor
environment.
Along with its reworked exterior, the
building now also boasts a renovated interior,
with new HVAC systems and occupancy sensors
that save electricity by turning on only when
needed. The residential units were re-done
as well; as tenants moved out of the building,
vacant units were ripped apart right down to
the original concrete structure and rebuilt. By
the time we were finished it was a brand new
apartment, Ferguson says.
The offices got the same treatment. Upon
being vacated, they were torn down to the
concrete and redone. Except, Ferguson notes,

reimagine

16

for those whose tenants who decided to stay in

place and work through the renovations. Well
renovate those offices when theyre empty, but
wed just as soon the tenants stay 100 more years,
Ferguson says with a laugh.
For the buildings retail clients on the other
hand, it was business as usual through the
construction process.
This prompted the question: how do you
completely transform a structure while making
sure retail customers and building tenants still have
access to it? Very carefully, says Ferguson, noting, It
created another element of complexity.
Aware of the need to minimize disruption to
1800s tenants, the Manasc Isaac team developed
a detailed schedule listing all facets of the project:
from when materials were to be delivered to when

TOP PHOTO COURTESY MANASC ISAAC

(Top) What the building looked

like before being reimagined.
Aware of the need to minimize
disruption to tenants, the design
and construction team developed
a detailed schedule for 1800.

You would see this

tall parking structure,
then youd see a rather
dilapidated facade to
the south.
-Randy Ferguson, Strategic Groups chief operating officer

there could be work going on, all balanced

against the staggered hours of the various
businesses operating from the building. The
interim result was that businesses that could still
operate and the renovation schedule continued
without delays. Front-end planning is the
greatest risk mitigator, Ferguson says.
One of the aspects of the 1800 reimagining
that stands out for Johnson was the relative
absence of construction waste. The facade
was built in collaboration with Calgary-based
Ferguson Glass and the framing and glazing
design could be custom-made to work with
the sizes of the material available. So whilst
maintaining the intent, we saved a significant
amount of material from the landfill, as well
as keeping the costs down for the owner, says
Johnson.
Its the new mesh-lined parking garage that
stands out the most in Fergusons mind, partly
because, in the old space, the garage was one of
the buildings most obvious aesthetic problems.
The building was craving a consistent look
that spoke to a parkade, retail space and an
office all together. We struck a balance in terms
of material. The selection of mesh mutes how
that structure loomed off the site, he said.
The final phase of the project finished
up this past September, so there hasnt been
enough time to say how much more energy
efficient 1800 is post-reimagining, but

Ferguson knows its already positively contributed to the

neighbourhood. Weve had a great many compliments from
all of the constituents involved, Ferguson says, emphasizing
that the refreshing, urban feel of the new exterior has a more
enduring design than the original 1970s version. We wanted
to create a design that is more or less timeless so you can look
at it today and enjoy it today, and keep enjoying it 10 years
from now. This is what Manasc Isaac accomplished for us.
They did an outstanding job of creating something we can be
proud of.
For Johnson, the success of the project can be summarized
by the way its now classified by other Calgarians: Its no
longer the car park on 18th Avenue and Fourth Street, but
the cool building with the green stripe. re

winter 2015

17

reimagine

18

DESIGN
OF THE TIMES
BY KENT MCKAY

From chatter space

to collaborative hubs,
offices and learning
venues have evolved
from the contained
cubes of the past

someone else. But perhaps the most important

consideration in a preliminary scan is whether or
not existing walls can be maintained.
At the end of the day, the layout has to
work well. If an offices old design doesnt fit the
workflow of your people, the space needs to be
reconfigured. Its the bones of the project.
So, whose input helps guide the design process?
Everyone in the organization should be at the table
to create the new space. It has to be everyone
from the janitor to the CEO. Its not just about
empowering everybody, but its about understanding how everyone works, every day. By getting to
know everyones individual workflow, we can really
maximize the space.
Although inviting the whole team to participate in design charrettes and workshops may
look like an additional investment on the surface,
designers argue that it will save time in the long
run. This is part of lean design. Building the
space around peoples workflow gets you away
from cubicle farms. Plus, it gets everyone engaged
and invested in the project.

oday, everyone is questioning the typical office

layout. While many people accept that cubicles, phones, fluorescent lights and water coolers
are just how offices are, there is a growing debate
as to whether this is good for people or even the
bottom line.
Technological developments have changed the
way people work. Telecommuting, the Internet
and collaborative tools such as Skype challenge
traditional office design. Old-fashioned office
concepts dont work very well in todays world,
Gurevitch says. If someone is working from home
or a coffee shop, or if they are out of the office
a lot of the time, why should there always be an
empty cubicle with their name on it at the office?
Its not an efficient use of space, and it doesnt do
the employee or the business any favours. So we
say, Lets look at what people actually do on a
given day.
Activity-based working (ABW) has become a
raison dtre for reimagine interiors projects. It has
revolutionized the way designers at Manasc Isaac
approach office design. Its basically about designing spaces around the functions that people use
them for, she notes.
The team learned this lesson quickly working
on Alberta Museums Association (AMA), who >

winter 2015

hen Lindsay Gurevitch walks into a room,

she sees it though a different lens then most.
Working for Edmonton architectural firm Manasc
Isaac taught Gurevitch to focus on sustainable design
approaches on cutting-edge projects. A long history
in sustainable building has earned the studio many
firsts even pioneering the first-ever LEEDcertified building in Alberta and ushering in a new
era of green design.
The interior designer took full advantage of the
sustainable design experience offered by Manasc
Isaac, cultivating a keen sense of possibility and
frugality in a design approach specifically tailored to
workplace environments. This approach led to the
creation of Reimagine Interiors by Manasc Isaac, a
Calgary studio dedicated to transforming the citys
interior landscape.
There hasnt been a major shift in office
design since the modern cubicle-and-water-cooler
system was invented, says Gurevitch. We know
that there are better ways to design a space. People
work better in spaces that are designed for them,
and tailored for what they do every day. It sounds
so simple, but designing a good office does require
you to shift your perspective and think outside of
the box.
A reimagined interior is one thats thoughtfully
and thoroughly considered, taking advantage of
knowledge about the work being done in the space,
and leveraging all inherent and existing benefits including existing finishes, furniture and natural light.
Each reimagine project begins the same way.
The first thing I look at when I walk into a space
to be reimagined is windows. How much light is in
here? Gurevitch says.
Windows are a fundamental component of a reimagined project. They offer natural light, which results in energy savings for the building and healthier
and happier occupants. Whether or not windows
are operable also influences the sustainability and
comfort of a space; fresh air is widely recognized as
a benefit to occupant health and reduces cooling
loads and energy costs during summer months.
Next, I start scanning the space for anything
that might be reused or repurposed, she says. Is
the carpet in good shape? How about light fixtures?
Ceiling tiles? She notes that items can be reused
across different projects; some furniture might fit
perfectly into a design that the studio is working on
across the street. At worst, excess finishes and furniture can be donated to a reuse centre to benefit

19

The Oliver Building in Edmonton houses the

offices of Manasc Isaac, whose venue has
been transformed into an activity based
workplace with 150 square-feet/person.

reimagine

20

approached Manasc Isaac to reimagine its office space in 2010.

The results were transformative for the organization and in the
end the project reinvigorated the entire AMA team. It was among
Manasc Isaacs notable ABW experiments.
Even though the term activity-based working hadnt really
been coined yet, the Alberta Museums Association was a kind of
proto-activity-based working project.
The Three Cs of space chatter, concentration and collaboration are at the heart of ABW.
Chatter space is everyones favourite place to gather and
bond with co-workers. This is the clich water-cooler space,
where team members talk about their weekend or a recent
hockey game. They also offer a unique opportunity for staff to
bump into people, and sometimes these collisions result in increased productivity for the office. Happy accidents take place
in the chatter space. These areas allow cross-pollination between
departments to happen. Many clients have written to me saying
that they love the spontaneous interactions that take place in the
chatter areas, she adds.
Collaboration space is a slightly less pronounced version
of a chatter space. These areas are a middle ground, places where
groups can gather for focused discussions and brainstorming sessions and can include boardrooms, but more frequently represent
less formal meeting areas such as staircases, kitchens and lounges.
Collaboration spaces balance comfort and inspiration with
function. These are areas where you can get down to business but in a more creative and vibrant setting than a plain old
boardroom.
For Alexandra Hatcher, former executive director of the
AMA, the energy of the spaces collaboration areas proved a valuable asset to her entire team. We absolutely love the spontaneous
meeting areas; the reading nook and the chat bar, says Hatcher.
People gravitate toward these informal sitting areas. The design
improved both productivity and collaboration for our team.
Concentration space is the bread and butter of a traditional
cubicle-style office. These quiet areas are where occupants go to
hunker down and get work done, undisturbed, perhaps following
an inspiring encounter in a chatter or collaboration space.
You absolutely need concentration space, Gurevitch says, adding
the reimagine approach is more about challenging the notion of
one desk per person, per office. For some organizations, having
an open office with a few dedicated quiet areas works really well,
she says.
In 2013 Manasc Isaac decided to walk the talk, adopting an
activity-based-working design for its own Edmonton office. We
colour-coded a map of the building with the different spaces
clearly labelled. This way, everyone knows where they need to be
careful about noise, and where they can go to take meetings and
have conversations. The map was distributed to staff and put up
in washrooms.
Recently, open-concept offices have been given a bad rap in
the news, but the style of workspace is slowly starting to catch
on. You cant just open a space and expect it to work. Acoustic

The Alberta Museums Associations

reimagined office space includes several
collaborative hubs for meetings.

techniques need to be used to make sure that its well considered

for sound, Gurevitch says.
Flexibility is the order of the day in implementing an
activity-based working model. By untethering occupants from
dedicated desks, designers not only give staffers the freedom to
collaborate when necessary, but the arrangement also reduces
the bottom line for a business. These layouts save business
owners money and even allow them to make more money.
First, you need less space to begin with, due to the fact that you
arent setting aside a certain amount of square footage for every
employee, at every moment. After all, not all employees are in
the office all the time.
It can also cut down an organizations footprint. Reducing the
amount of square footage that you need, which saves you rent and
operational costs. Second, if an employee has to move around or
change departments, its easier to pack up and move around the
office.You can basically eliminate this cost entirely by doing away
with dedicated desks.
Another byproduct of the approach to design is autonomy
and employee satisfaction, she explains. If your team is happy and
more empowered to do their jobs effectively, the whole organization will benefit from that productivity.

IMAGES MANASC ISAAC

winter 2015

hen Manasc Isaac asked Gurevitch to help tweak the

Edmonton studios layout to accommodate its growing
staff, hot-desking or the idea that occupants can anchor temporarily in a different spot all the time made sense even for
some partners.
Change started right at the top. Manasc Isaacs principal
Vivian Manasc, along with partner Shafraaz Kaba, gave up their
desks and offices right away, opting to settle wherever there was
a free desk on any given day. This flexibility speaks to Manasc
Isaacs corporate culture, and also happens to save the organization space and operational costs.

Just as something as simple as a personal choice of shoes

affects first impressions, the esthetics of an office can make an
immediate imprint. When you walk into a reimagined space,
you should instantly connect with and feel the organizations
corporate culture. Are they fun? Progressive? Whats their story?
asks Gurevitch.
For Manasc Isaac, the transition to ABW was a worthwhile
one. Nearly a year after the completion of the new office design
the studios 60 employees have not only adjusted to the style, but
they have embraced it.
I like how open it has made the office feel, explains Manasc
Isaac proposal writer Gloria Alamrew. Even though the different
spaces are clearly delineated, the office doesnt feel sectioned off
anymore. We have the work pods throughout the office, which
everybody understands and respects as concentration space. We
can put on our headphones and really focus.
My favourite spaces are the informal gathering areas like the
couches by reception, or even the kitchen with its big bar table.
They really invite you to chat and mingle, and that environment
tends to stimulate very productive conversations, says Alamrew.
The journey wasnt an easy one, she adds. After the renovation, I wasnt sure how the transition to ABW would work and
like with any big change there were a few growing pains. But
once the dust settled it was pretty neat to see how easily everyone
settled in. It felt very intuitive.
For the Alberta Museums Association, culture is an important part of the design, too. This design reflects where we want
to go as an organization, says Hatcher. Were open, vibrant and
thinking about the future.
The best reimagined interiors require considerable thought,
as well as buy-in from the entire organization, not to mention
careful attention to the unique workflows of each employee, says
Gurevitch. A successful interior is one thats designed around
two things: the people and the brand. re

21

Dowdy in Denver
Reinventing an office building in the Golden Triangle has made the area more inviting
BY JEN JANZEN

reimagine

22

Youd never know that the

Cesar Chavez Memorial
Building was once known
as downtown Denvers
ugliest building. A dark
green postage stamp of a
structure with an equally
plain parkade on the
street to its north, it made
for a drab gateway into
Denvers Golden Triangle
neighbourhood, where arts
and culture institutions
mingle with office buildings
and residences.

Now, as you enter the Golden Triangle

district, youre greeted by a 10-storey marvel
of sustainability: a re-skinned, LEED Goldcertified aluminum and glass-cladded structure
with a 33 per cent reduction in energy use. And,
filled as it is with natural light from the boost
in window coverage (the windows are now six
feet high, up from four-and-a-half feet in the
buildings previous incarnation), not to mention
a completely renovated interior, its also a more
pleasant place to be for its nearly 300 federal
employees. Its a great-looking building, says
Scott Miller, senior project manager at GE
Johnson, the construction company that won
the design-build contract for the project. When

winter 2015

IMAGES FRED FUHRMEISTER, COURTESY GE JOHNSON CONSTRUCTION COMPANY

you see the before and after, you cant believe it.
Owned by the General Services Administration (GSA), the Cesar Chavez Memorial
Building houses five federal agencies and a
daycare. The 180,000-square-foot structure
was built in 1982 and it was clearly time for
a change. The metal panels surrounding the
building were starting to look worn. They
were all fading in various places depending on
how the sun hit them, Miller explains and
the seven-storey, 290-car parkade was showing
structural deficiencies.
The project was designed by Tryba
Architects, a Denver-based firm that specializes
in shaping and reshaping urban spaces.
Tryba worked with GE Johnson to develop
the energy-saving facade of the Cesar Chavez
building, using various solar studies and
simulations to ensure that, despite the generous
amount of sunlight pouring through the
windows, there would be minimal heat gain
in the building. Theres also minimal heat loss
in the winter, thanks to the high-efficiency
glazing on the glass. The building envelope is
designed to last for 75 years. Other energysaving upgrades include a new HVAC system >

23

Construction of the Cesar

Chavez Memorial Building
took nearly three years but
resulted in a LEED-Gold
certification for the building.

reimagine

24

and a lighting system with daylight harvesting

and occupancy sensors to ensure that energy
isnt wasted on an unoccupied building. The
elevators were also replaced with a high-tech,
high-efficiency model. Local materials were
used whenever possible, including Colorado Yule
marble, recycled steel and a terrazzo floor in the
lobby that credits 50 per cent of its contents to
the recycled beer bottles of local breweries. The
team also made a conscious effort to recycle
construction waste, with 83 per cent being
diverted from landfills.
Construction started in April 2010 and
wrapped up in February 2013. The structurally
deficient parkade was first on the list. It was
demolished very carefully, says Miller, pointing
out that it stood just five-and-a-half inches
from an existing building. The top floor of the
improved, structurally sound version features
a solar sculpture that pumps 115 kilowatts of
electricity a year into the office building across
the street, providing five per cent of its total
energy needs.
GE Johnson is no stranger to environmentally friendly building projects. The companys
website explains that sustainability experts
work in all facets of the organization to help GE
Johnson reach its goal of continuously reducing
the environmental footprint of its projects. With
a number of LEED-certified projects under its
belt, GE Johnson was a good fit for the GSAs
requirement that the completed Cesar Chavez
renovations make the building eligible for a
LEED Gold certification. We were required to
meet Silver, but delivered Gold for no additional
cost, says Miller.

IMAGES FRED FUHRMEISTER, COURTESY GE JOHNSON CONSTRUCTION COMPANY

Local materials were

used whenever possible,
including Colorado Yule
marble, recycled steel,
and a terrazzo floor in
the lobby that credits 50
per cent of its contents to
the recycled beer bottles of
local breweries.
panels and installed the new glass and aluminum curtainwall.
The Golden Triangle is one of Denvers oldest areas and construction crews in that area regularly find early-1900s mementos
like horseshoes and bottles. Other buildings had come and gone
before the Cesar Chavez structure was created, including row
homes and the original site of Denver Public Schools book depository. During one phase of the construction project, when the team
expanded the lobby by 25 feet to engulf the original colonnade
and dig new foundations, the crew uncovered some old china sets.
Some of them were in very good shape, Miller recalls. They
were just buried from years of excavation and backfill.
This modernization, or reimagining of the building, inspired
urban revitalization. Thanks to a number of other construction
projects since the Cesar Chavez Memorial Building was reinvented, the entire block is a lot more welcoming. What once was an
overlooked building now takes advantage of integrating a pedestrian-friendly and realigned Fox Street, landscaping, public art and
a hardscaped entry plaza, writes the GSA in a press release about
the building. The result is that the Chavez Building no longer sits
in isolation at the end of the block, but rather serves as a gateway
building into Denvers Civic and Justice Center and the Golden
Triangle Neighborhood.
Looking back on the project, Miller says hes still proud of the
way the team collaborated to keep employees productive and on site
even while the building was being totally redone. Owners are always
looking at ways to upgrade their building without displacing tenants.
Weve figured it out; we know how to do it. re

winter 2015

The company may have been familiar with

the world of sustainable building practices, but
GE Johnson had never worked on such an
extensive renovation while the tenants remained
in the building. In many cases, property owners
simply move tenants to a temporary location,
but in the GSAs case, rather than find offices
for about 290 people, move all the furniture to
the temporary location and then back again, it
was more efficient to simply work around the
employees.
The challenge of safely working around
employees also turned into one of the companys
biggest success stories. Miller and his team
worked closely with the GSA, planning the
project in phases, mapping out which people
were going to move where and for how long.
They determined which parts of the building
were swing spaces; meaning workers could be
temporarily placed in those areas while major
renovations took place on their home floors.
The team at GE Johnson also developed a
solution for employees who wanted to stay in
their offices while the exterior was being torn
down and rebuilt: all the staff had to sacrifice
was three feet of their floor space. A temporary
weatherproof barrier wall was set up to separate
office staff from the work that was being done
on the buildings exterior. It allowed us to work
outside with all the safety precautions in place,
with the tenant just on the other side of that
wall, Miller says.
Most of the interior renovations took place
by a night shift crew. The workers would show
up at 6 p.m. and work until 4:30 a.m., taking
out ceilings, replacing HVAC units and lighting
fixtures and installing new carpet, then cleaning
up all traces of their work so GSA employees
could use it during the day. The team installed
a temporary daycare on the main floor with a
barrier wall, temporary bathroom and handwashing sinks and security so the daycare
program could be maintained without a hitch
while the construction crew developed a new
space. During the day, the teams focus shifted
from inside the building to outside, where
they finished taking down the dreary metal

25

reimagine

26

Sprucing up
The Avenue
A downtown Winnipeg eyesore
goes from blight to delight
By Nadia Moharib

THE BIRDS HAD BRAINS. BUT AFTER TAKING UP

residence in two turn-of-the-century, derelict buildings for years,
they were unceremoniously evicted when deeper-thinkers had
designs on their mothballed downtown digs.
Today, The Avenue on Portage houses birds of a different
feather in 75 apartment units for tenants and a 22,500-square-foot
ground-level commercial space thats occupied by Manitoba Start, a
non-profit organization serving new immigrants to Winnipeg.
Colin Neufeld, with 5468796 Architecture and the projects principal, is proud of the final product lauded by many as an architectural
icon, a striking addition to the citys centre. But he concedes it took
looking with some imagination at the boarded-up Avenue and Hample buildings now a single entity to make it happen. Essentially,
we had to walk through the building with hazmat suits, he recalls
of his introduction to the project. You literally were knee-deep in
pigeon droppings.
The firm was approached in 2010 by a developer looking for
someone to reimagine the buildings, to breathe new life into the
city-owned structures that had survived the wreckers ball numerous times. We thought it was a great project, a great location and
a building that really needed some excitement, Neufeld says. Im
certainly proud to be part of it.
After structural remediation to make the buildings safe, crews
then went about renovating the interior, removing partitions, elevators and staircases. While the three-storey Hample building was built
like a bomb shelter, its wood-framed neighbour, with all six of its
floors, was in need of extreme upgrading. >
winter 2015

PHOTO COURTESY 5468796 ARCHITECTURE

27

Rick Hofer with Hofer Construction,

reimagine

28

shortly after completing a successful 43-unit warehouse

refurbishment nearby with Neufeld, was approached by
the city, asking if his company would be interested in
refurbishing an understatement, to be sure the sad and
decrepit Portage Avenue buildings. At first, we didnt even
want to think about it, Hofer says. It looked 10 times
worse than the building we had just done. It was just in
such a state of disrepair. He decided to give it a second
look, and soon Neufeld and company were on board.
Hofer bought into the lofty vision to transform the
buildings, which had become a blight on the city centre,
but it took some time. Everybody thought I was crazy,
he says. I always thought, Lets just see how the building
is. If we rip it apart and we still ended up with good bones,
then its a go. If you have a good building, if thats the case,
then its off to the races; you already have the property, the
foundation and the walls.
Hofer says the job was challenging from the start. It
had OK bones but we had to fix the bones, he says. Lets
put it this way: we had to use a lot of casts and splints.
At one time, Portage Avenue had many mixed-use
buildings that were abandoned due to urban sprawl. But
over recent years, Winnipegs downtown has seen quite
the transformation, says Stefano Grande, executive director
for Downtown Winnipeg Biz. With millions of dollars in
public-sector cash flowing into developing housing on
the nearby waterfront, there has also been the influx of
restaurants, hotels, post-secondary campuses and the
MTS Centre, home of the Winnipeg Jets and a popular
concert venue.
With an influx of about 4,000 residents in recent years,
there are now about 16,000 people living downtown,
Grande says, noting The Avenue on Portage is simply
another success story. The Avenue building has been in
the dark for about 15 years, Grande says, clearly thrilled
with its newest incarnation. If there was ever a silver bullet
to revitalize downtown, it is people living downtown who,
in turn, spend money downtown and are extra eyes and
ears on the streets.
The project is not only a coup for downtown
development, but it is also philosophically pleasing,
by repurposing buildings that have housed everything
from billiards to bowling lanes, a kung fu school and
retail in the past. We have a good mix of old and new,
Grande explains. Preserving our history and celebrating
contemporary architecture its one of those buildings
tourists will take photos of.
He appreciates the building and its original brick
exterior, rooftop patio garden, beautiful original marble
staircase and unique balconies, which showcase the new
life within and extending from the building. You see it
when you have the Christmas parade and all the residents

Suites in The Avenue boast 11-foot ceilings and large

windows and range from 400 to 1,100 square-feet.

come out on the balconies thats what we want to see, people

enjoying the urban environment downtown, Grande says. Its
a very contemporary feel.
While stellar on its own, the project also contributes to the
cores vibrancy. Its dramatically different than it was 20 years
ago, he says of the downtown. Its not a boom like in Calgary
or Vancouver but we are a very stable market and there has
been steady growth.
Neufeld says the last 15 years have been transformative to
the downtown and he is pleased this project could help in that
continued evolution. It needed an adventurous spirit; it was a
project that needed someone who could see past the buildings
derelict past, he says. We are young and stupid and optimists
and believed it could easily be a great building.
Neufeld says the buildings reimagining was beneficial
in many ways. First, its an environmental win, given the
project diverted building material from the landfill, and
second, theres the significant salvaging of Winnipegs history.
Its important to save it from the perspective its from the
turn of the century, on one of the most famous streets, two
blocks from Portage and Main and has been there for the last
hundred years, he says. They were nothing terribly sexy,
just office buildings but in their heyday probably occupied
80,000 square-feet of commercial office space in downtown
Winnipeg, he says. They are part of our fabric. And our city
is dying for residential development in its core.
The positive impact of the retrofit on its surroundings is
undeniable. Its a block away from the arena where the Jets
play, having this residential infill says we are not a vacant city,
says Neufeld. It was an empty building for a decade that
sends the wrong message. Everybody knew it was full of

GTH

ORIGINAL BUILDING

ACQUISITION

LONG TERM TENANT

=
EXPANDED COMMERCIAL
ALLOCATION

DISPLA

LONG TERM TENANT

=
EXPANDED COMMERCIAL
ALLOCATION

ADD

EXCEEDS S

DISPLACED RESIDENTIAL
=
ADDITION REQUIRED
EXCEEDS STRUCTURAL CAPACITY

TOO HEAVY

FINAL PROJECT

ADDITION REQUIRES
SUBTRACTION

facades, and a de facto safeguard against potential ice and snow

falling from balconies above.
The city has given you this building and given you
money to develop, so you have to give the city something,
Neufeld says of the budget constraints. They really wanted it
to be an important piece on an important street not just a
building which made money for the owner. They were game,
but said, You only have this much money, Neufeld says.
There wasnt an open chequebook. It got built for
$12 million; thats where the love comes in.
Hofer says the project probably spearheaded a lot of
future downtown reconstruction. Nobody believed it would
work. Numerous architects have tried and it just didnt work
either due to a lack of money or expertise. It needed someone with this crazy vision, he says.
All of a sudden its an iconic building from a building
that was empty for 11 years. It has numerous awards from
architects and peers. To take a building like that and turn it
around its awesome to actually see people in it. That was
our vision, Hofer explains. He also says there was somewhat of a spiritual approach behind the reimagining. I
believed it should have been torn down; you walked through
that place and all you saw was mould, he says. What really inspired us is we met a fellow about a quarter of the
way through construction who intended to buy the Avenue
building. He believed in it, he says, adding the man hesitated
to do so due to a lack of parking.
As it happened, the buildings had enough frontage
for a ramp to allow for 38 parking stalls, Hofer says. The
project, although created with passion, was hardly a getrich-quick venture. I only got my wages, says Hofer, who
owns the building with his partners, adding, I am making
my money now. re

winter 2015

pigeons and parties and to overcome that we thought

it needed a big statement to give it a complete
makeover.
That statement seemed to work, given the tenants
flocking to the buildings suites, which range from 400
to 1,000 square-feet, one block west of Winnipegs most
famous corner: Portage and Main. The building now
features a salvaged staircase, punctuated by marble and
a wrought iron railing and skylight at the top in an
O-shape so that someone looking over the railing on the
ground floor can see all the way up to the top floor.
Inside boasts 11-foot ceilings and big windows,
while the exterior is painted a dark grey over original
brick. The balconies incorporate the old building with
the new the idea being to push out from the inside
and announce new life to the city. Balconies of different sizes are randomly scattered along the face of the
building, built through the original openings. They represent the heritage projecting out of existing openings,
so thats pretty cool, Neufeld says.
They had to apply for encroachment on city property but there was significant public encouragement,
Neufeld says. We probably encountered less opposition
than we would have if we were just proposing other
developments. There was an appetite to work with us.
Of course, given Winnipegs notorious winters, one
safety concern was the snow and ice falling to the street
below easily eliminated by construction and design of
the balconies which have transparent steel grated floors
preventing any buildup. The mirror-finish aluminum
south-facing canopy angles outward 13 feet from the
face of the Hample side before returning to meet the
edge of the Avenue. The effect is a unity of the two
PHOTO/RENDERINGS COURTESY 5468796 ARCHITECTURE

ORIGINAL COMMERCIAL
ALLOCATION

ECONOMIC VIABILITY

The construction
process, seen here
through a series
of sketches, was
multi-faceted.

ORIGINAL COMMERCIAL
ALLOCATION

MINIMUM PARKING RAMP LENGTH

29

NEW

STATE OF
THE EMPIRE
The Big Apples best-known landmark
soars as a deep energy retrofit leader
By Matt Beauchamp

reimagine

30

ON MAY 1, 1931, PRESIDENT

HOOVER OFFICIALLY DEDICATED
THE EMPIRE STATE BUILDING.
Hailed as one of the seven wonders of the
modern world by the American Society of
Civil Engineers, the Empire State Building is
not only an American treasure but a feat of
engineering to marvel the world over. It stood
for 41 years as the worlds tallest skyscraper
and, while it may no longer hold the record,
it still stands as an iconic piece of the New
York skyline.
Back in 1931, the term deep energy
retrofits didnt exist. In fact even as recently
as five years ago the term was unknown. Now
in 2014 there is a booming industry around
it, with architects and engineers collaborating
with property managers to develop ideas that
allow building renovations to go deeper and
provide greater energy efficiencies with more
cost savings.

Deep energy retrofits is a term coined

by the Rocky Mountain Institute to describe
a whole-building analysis and constructive
process that uses integrative design to achieve
much larger energy savings than conventional
energy retrofits. The Empire State Building is
a shining example of what deep energy retrofits can achieve and it is, once again an icon
forging the way into a new area.
I think the Empire State Building is the
leading example for many reasons, says Dana
Schneider, senior vice-president of Jones Lang
LaSalles Energy and Sustainability Services division, the firm with whom the Empire State
Building partnered for the retrofit. We were
one of the first projects and still one of the
best examples that went through an intensive
analysis. We conducted a holistic, quantitative
analysis for all the options that would work
best then we developed a replicable process
that we shared. >

winter 2015

31

reimagine

32

It is that openness and continued education

that Schneider says is one of the main reasons the
Empire State Building is a leader in the deep energy retrofit field. Its all posted on our website,
its all open book, not proprietary, for others to
use. Our whole motivation there was to inspire
others to replicate what we did, says Schneider.
We were using this entire project to develop
the ideal process in an attempt to show that
there is a business case for deep energy retrofits
and inspire others to follow suit and do the same
in their buildings.
Schneider adds that the education process is
ongoing and a point of pride for those that work
at the Empire State Building. I dont know any
other building that has gone through a process
and given away all of their tools and all of their
results, he notes. We guest lecture, we speak
at panels, in an attempt to educate other building owners and occupiers about how great the
business case is and how much difference we can
make in overall energy usage by doing this and
the fact that it completely makes business sense
as well.
And businesses are beginning to listen, due
in large part to the results the Empire State
Building has managed to achieve. Since 2012 the
deep energy retrofit program has generated
a total of approximately $7.5 million in energy
savings and, over the next 15 years, will keep
more than 105,000 tonnes of CO2 from entering
the atmosphere.
All portfolio managers and real estate owners to some extent have been concerned with
energy efficiency, and theyve done small things,
says Clay Nesler, vice-president of Global Energy
and Sustainability for Johnson Controls. What
this project is going to show is that it actually
makes sense to make large and significant energy
efficiency improvements, not the five to 10 per
cent type things, but the 20 to 30 per cent and
more type of improvements, and that there is a
business case for doing so.
The remanufacturing of the Empire State
Buildings 6,514 windows is perhaps the most
innovative undertaking in this retrofit. This step
was completed in 2010 and saw the change of the
buildings original windows into super windows.
This cut winter heat loss by at least two-thirds
and summer heat gain by half. The advanced

glazing, along with improved lighting and office

equipment, will further cut the buildings peak
cooling load by one-third. Replacing windows
and glass units with new ones is one of the
strategies that differentiate deep energy retrofits
from more conventional building renovations.
The result is that the buildings old chiller
plant can simply be renovated instead of replaced
and expanded, saving more than $17 million of
budgeted capital expenditure. This will account
for 38 per cent energy savings, which is several
times the savings commonly achieved from a
typical retrofit.
A major renovation project like this couldnt
be completed without the involvement of the
buildings tenants and Schneider says their buy-in
to the program will help them achieve a lot of
their energy reduction goals.
Nearly all our tenant spaces are scheduled
for renovation over the next 10 years, says
Schneider. We developed a section of the lease
for high-performing tenant spaces and it sets
forth guidelines of what we expect our tenants
to do to ensure that their space is a highperforming space.
We assist them with design reviews, design
workshops, evaluations of technologies, payback
analysis to incorporate these standards into their
spaces. We also developed a software tool for tenants to monitor their energy usage in real time
and compare their usage to other tenants in the
building to give them daily recommendations on
usage and inspire them that way to use less, since
they pay by usage.
Anthony E. Malkin, Empire State Realty
Trust chairman, president and CEO, says the
PHOTOS COURTESY ESRT EMPIRE STATE BUILDING L.L.C.

(Left) The chiller plant retrofit project included the

retrofit of four industrial electric chillers for the air
conditioning system.
(This page) The remanufacturing of the buildings
6,514 windows is the most innovative undertaking
in the Empire State Buildings retrofit project and
designed to maximize natural lighting.

ESB BY THE NUMBERS

$550 MILLION - Total cost of retrofit
$106 MILLION - Total cost of energy-related projects
6,514 - Total number of windows
105,000 - Metric tons of CO2 kept out of the atmosphere in the next 15 years
2.7 MILLION SQUARE FEET - Total size of the building
88 kBtu/square-foot pre-retrofit and
60 kBtu/square-foot projected - Annual energy use

winter 2015

project is exceeding all expectations. The Empire State

Building retrofit project has dramatically exceeded
projected energy savings for the third straight year,
reducing costs by millions of dollars, says Malkin. As we
continue our energy-efficient installations for incoming
tenants, we are confident we will meet and exceed our
completed project goal of saving $4.4 million each year.
As for now, we are ahead of our projections, and that
means more savings and more returns on our investments
to date.
The Empire State Building retrofit is about more
than just energy savings and educating current building
owners; its also about educating the public. With more
than four million visitors a year, the well-known Big
Apple landmark is a huge tourist attraction. As part of
the renovations, the project team took advantage of the
observatory line-up space, to educate visitors on whats
being done and what they can do.
It goes through the whole design and construction
process we went through and ties it into what you can
do, says Schneider. Its a beautiful exhibit of five or six
pillars that are interactive and that are LED. They have all
these displays and statistics and information about all the
projects that we implemented and what it would mean if
everyone in New York replicated what we did, if everyone in the U.S. replicated what we did, if everyone in the
whole world replicated what we did. That really ties into
our message of education and trying to move the needle
and inspire others to replicate what we have done.
Its a wonderful building and it just continues to
inspire, says Schneider. re

33

higher ground

SAVING FACE

There is a sound argument for

revamping building facades rather
than tearing them down

By Lindsay Farr

reimagine

34

ooking around our

cities, there are many
existing buildings
that have become
outdated in their performance
and technology, and no longer
operate at optimal efficiency.
The building facade plays an
important role in this, and
since tearing down existing
buildings generates much
waste and emissions, savvy
urban planners are considering ways to retrofit them.
Since the building facade acts
as the barrier between the
outdoor and indoor climates,
it plays an important role in
the overall performance of
a building. Retrofitting the facade on an existing structure
offers an opportunity to significantly improve the overall
performance, and can allow
the opportunity to explore
new strategies for envelope
solutions that explore new
technologies and offer more
effective building solutions.
Existing buildings are
typically static in nature, and
retrofitting them allows architects to rethink the approach
to creating facades that are
responsive, interacting with
building users, climate, light
and other surrounding conditions. Designing a facade that
has the ability to respond to
these various factors provides
an opportunity to create effi-

ciencies in the overall performance of the building.

The Hanwha Solar power
company saw an opportunity
to do just this by retrofitting
its headquarters in Seoul,
South Korea. As a producer
of photovoltaic power,
Hanwha wanted to improve
its environmental impact to
align with its company values around sustainability. The
existing building was built
in the 1980s, with 29 storeys
and standing more than 127
metres tall.
It offered several areas for
improvement in its environmental impact, including energy consumption.The facade on
a building of this scale covers
a lot of surface area, and the
existing one on the Hanwha
headquarters was not ideal with
its opaque and covered single
layers of dark glass.
Hanwha made a call for
proposals as a design competition to retrofit the existing
headquarters. The winning
design was led by Ben van
Berkel with UNStudio, who
proposed a retrofit addressing
several sustainable approaches,
including energy consumption and the well-being of
the buildings occupants. A
significant component of the
proposed redesign includes
the revamp of the existing
building facade. UNStudio

partnered with Arup for the

design of the facade and engaged AG Licht as the lighting
consultant.
The design of the new facade includes individual LED
lights that correspond with
movement within the interior

of the building. It was important for the design to respond

to the existing site conditions
and fit in with its surroundings. The design for the
Hanwha HQ media facade
aims to avoid an overstated
impact. In the evenings, as the

Designers explored the

impact of sun exposure on
each elevation as part of
the process.

IMAGES UNSTUDIO

the design process, UNStudio explored

different variables that would impact
the performance of the building facade.
Designers explored the impact of sun
exposure on each elevation of the existing
site in order to determine optimal PV
performance, as well as window placement.
This analysis of sunlight exposure was
important in understanding that the north
facade had very little direct sunlight, with
most of the direct sunlight reaching the
upper levels of the south and east elevations.
The process helped define an optimal
PV-zone on the buildings south and east
elevations, where there is the most sunlight,
which informed the placement of PV
cells on the facade.This ensured optimal
performance of the cells on the south and
east elevations, allowing for maximum
energy harvesting.
In understanding the existing site
context, UNStudio also explored the
existing views in and out of the site. The
majority of unobstructed views are located
on the north elevation, while on the south
side the best views were above the 23rd

winter 2015

mass of the building becomes less apparent, the facade lighting integrates with
the night sky, displaying gently shifting
constellations of light, says van Berkel.
The proposed exterior offers the opportunity for significant building performance improvements, resulting in a more
sustainable building, which addresses the
context, environment and programmatic use.Van Berkel says, By means of a
reductive, integrated gesture, the facade
design for the Hanwha HQ implements
fully inclusive systems which significantly
impact the interior climate of the building, improve user comfort and ensure
high levels of sustainability and affordability. Through fully integrated design
strategies, todays facades can provide responsive and well-performing envelopes
that both contextually and conceptually
react to their local surroundings, whilst
simultaneously determining interior
conditions.
Understanding existing site populations
and variables was important in the design of
an effective and responsive facade. During

level. This informed the design, creating

more openings where views were possible,
and minimizing the openings where the
views directly faced the neighbouring
buildings. This also directly corresponded
with sun exposure; the north facade has
views in and out, direct sun exposure is
not a concern.
The design of the facade system
includes the development of two different
module types. These modules directly
correspond to the different uses in the
building, as well as provide a performative
nature impacting the interior climate of
the building. The standard facade module
was designed for the typical office areas,
and made up of three different rectangular
components. The A-typical module was
designed for the common areas, and
made up of four different component
sizes, varying in height and depth. The
geometry of the A-typical component
angles away from the building, an
overhang that acts as a shading device
and also creates a surface to mount PV
cells. While the geometry is specifically
oriented to provide shading, in the upper
portion of the south facade the geometry
is positioned to allow direct sunlight.
The module development of the
facade in the PV zone allows for interior
shading of the areas with direct sun
exposure, helping to improve the interior
climate of the building by reducing heat
gain and glare, directly resulting in the
reduction of energy consumption.
The retrofit of the Hanwha
headquarters in Seoul creates the
opportunity to reimagine an existing
building with a new approach to the
building envelope. A responsive approach
to performative facade could significantly
improve the overall performance of the
existing building. Although the new facade
has not yet been built, Adele Peters, a
writer who focuses on sustainability and
design says, In total, though the final
details are still in progress, the retrofit
may save well over a million kilowatthours of electricity each year. While the
actual numbers on energy savings are still
to be determined, the proposed design
reimagines a building that responds to its
users and surrounding context. re

35

room of their own

ONE DESK TO
RULE THEM ALL

A reimagining of EPLs points of service at

the Stanley Milner branch addresses the
changing role of libraries

By Shelley Williamson

reimagine

36

n case you havent

heard, Edmonton Public
Library (EPL) was named
North Americas Library
of the Year in 2014. Perhaps
one of the reasons it has
stacked up recognition is that it
listens to customer requests and
acts on them. Case in point: the
Stanley Milner One Desk.
In 2011, designer Oliver
Edwards of Manasc Isaac was
tasked with overseeing this
project at the Stanley Milner
Library, EPLs downtown
branch, which ushers in 4,000
visitors each day. Edwards
welcomed the reimagining
with a mere $95,000 budget,
which perhaps posed one
of the greatest trials of the
project, behind meeting the
expectations of his client.The
goal? To replace several clunky
reception desks with one central
go-to point for customers and
streamline branch operations.
One of the main
challenges and rewards is
coming to grips with the
clients expectations, Edwards
says. With this client, it was
quite a limited budget and
there was a big expectation as
to how it would change the
main foyer when you came in.
I think as well one of the other
main challenges was trying to
work with the rebranding of
Edmonton Public Library.

EPL was in the process

of changing its image to
something a little smarter and
cooler. It ran with a new logo
and palette of pleasing colours,
and the EPL generated new
user cards, complete with
catchy slogans: Smart is the

new black and Chicks dig

big brains. The One Desk
project would have to align
with the new marketing. To
that end, the same coloured
bars, or lit fingers were added
to the furniture to reinforce
the new brand, Edwards says.

Virginia Clevette, manager

of the Stanley Milner branch
at the time, welcomed changes
to the floor plan the old one
hadnt been working well.
At one point we had four
service desks on the main
floor alone, she says. People

TheOneDeskservice
modelwasborn,and
partofthatalsoincluded
servicesthatwecall
OntheFloor,sothata
customerwhoiswayin
the900swouldhavean
opportunitytoencounter
astaffmemberwho
wasmovingthroughthe
collectionslooking
foranopportunityto
provideservice.
-VirginiaClevette,formermanagerofthe
StanleyMilnerbranchofEPL

to provide service, Clevette explains.

During the 10-month renovations
(during which the library stayed up
and running), curved shelving was also
incorporated to act as a focal point
upon entry to the branch just to the
left of the desk; the music desk came
out at the same time. People walked
past that desk and did not realize they
had even walked past a desk. There was
a bit of confusion, says Clevette. A few
informal desks with computers were
scattered throughout the Stanley Milner
for staff to check on a book, and at the
same time four self-checkouts were
built in at the main-floor level for an
increasingly savvy stock of library users.
Richard Thornley, who has
managed the Stanley Milner branch for
a year-and-a-half, says there was a slight
pushback from staff, who perceived a
level of protection had been removed
with the One Desk. The one concern
that staff had was the openness, he >

winter 2015

IMAGES COURTESY HEATHER MCINTYRE / EPL

would come in and didnt quite know

where they should go. There was a
bit of a situation; staff on the main
floor were directing people up to the
second and vice versa. In the hopes of
making the customers feel smarter, we
also felt that we needed a centralized
service desk.
Clevette adds that part of the
reasoning behind the retrofit was
an obvious shift in the roles of
librarians. No longer do bespectacled
women wearing their hair in a bun
act as the gatekeepers to aisles of
numbered tomes. Things have become
increasingly digital with the advent
of ebooks and computers. The One
Desk service model was born, and part
of that also included services that we
call On the Floor, so that a customer
who is way in the 900s would have
an opportunity to encounter a staff
member who was moving through the
collections looking for an opportunity

37

room of their own

reimagine

38

notes. I think they felt a little

vulnerable, so we have worked
with them, and some of the
spatial design in behind the
desk had to be closed in a bit.
The move helped staff feel they
were more enclosed behind
the desk. We are working still
on that.
Other physical
library changes included
amalgamating books on
similar topics and organizing
by fiction or non-fiction.
I feel like we touched
every book and moved it
somewhere, Clevette says.
Thornley says the One
Desk has chiefly brought

positive feedback. In the past,

certain staff members were
tasked with certain types of
questions, and there was a bit
of triage, but its much more
seamless now, he says. There
was a long transition, and I
think for the most part staff
felt supported. Customers
come in and pretty well
know where to go we are
not finding people feeling
orphaned.
Clevette championed
having social workers on
the premises at the Stanley
Milner to address other needs
of downtown library patrons
that fall outside of finding

reference materials or using

computers. She considers the
One Desk project a reflection
of the changing role of not
just librarians, but the library
itself. We were named
Library of the Year for North
America, says Clevette. Its
a tremendous accolade and
really speaks to the idea of
what we are trying to get out
from under. Clevette says that
libraries are saddled with the
opinions society has about
their role, and EPL stepped
up and really changed that;
it has consciously made an
effort to re-envision libraries.
Part of the ongoing EPL

reimagination of the role of a

library is to see other branches
also add social workers to their
rosters of staff. Libraries in
Winnipeg and Hamilton have
followed EPLs example.
Thornley agrees that
having the One Desk concept
and staff out on the floor
is in keeping with the new
direction of modern libraries.
One of the benefits is
convenience.You can go to
one point in the building and
you know that whatever issue
you have you will be helped,
he says. These issues might
include help with an iPad, to
talk to somebody about fines
on an account or even to find
some genealogical information
about your Mtis ancestors.
We have three levels of staff
that all work very collegially,
Thornley says, and 99 per
cent of the time they can give
you that answer.
Clevette would like to see
EPLs reimagining to go a step
further. It would be terrific
to have staff just instant
messaging one another across
the entire system. But thats
not there yet, she says. re
IMAGE COURTESY MANASC ISAAC

material world

BLURRED BOUNDARIES
Spanish San Telmo Museum uses a perforated
facade to showcase indoor and outdoor art
By Tiffany Shaw-Collinge
Photos Fernando Alda

porary exhibitions, a shop, library, storage and an open air space.

The opening was designed for en plein air exhibitions, where
visitors can enjoy a caf-terrace, with views up to the mountain
and down below to the plaza. The architects also incorporated a staircase that cuts through the building, allowing visitors
to climb up past the two-storey hardscape environment to the
mountain. This intersection amplifies the point where the horizontal plane of the city connects with the topographic elevation
of the hillside. >

winter 2015

he San Telmo Museum

in San Sebastin, Spain,
was originally built in
the Renaissance style
and used as a Dominican convent
in the mid-16th century. In the
20th century, it was converted
into a museum for Basque art
and historical artifacts. But in
2006 the Spanish studio Nieto Sobejano Arquitectos won
a competition to renovate the
existing building and to add an
extension for more exhibition
space that would respond to both
the dynamic natural and urban
environments, surrounding it
with a perforated facade. Situated in Zuloaga Square, the back
face of the extension nestles into
Urgull Mountain and Biscay Bay,
which flows into the Atlantic
Ocean.
The project started construction in 2007 and was completed
by 2011. The museum had a
request for more exhibition space,
which Nieto Sobejano Arquitectos answered in three parts. To
restructure the family of buildings
operated by the museum, the architects suggested restoring areas
that held the strongest values in the historical building the
cloister, church, tower and chapel. Next, they suggested demolishing all structures attached to the original building except one
structure that faces the square, which was part of the urban
memory of the plaza, as described by the architects. Thirdly,
they suggested an extension to provide cohesive public programming in the lobby, giving access to the permanent collection
(housed in the original museum), as well as pavilions for tem-

39

material world

reimagine

40

To restructure the
family of buildings
operated by the
museum, the
architects suggested
restoring areas that
held the strongest
values in the historical
building the cloister,
church, tower and
chapel.

Every architectural project carries

within it the acknowledgment of the
boundary as a concept, which determines its [spatial] and formal configuration, say the architects in a written
statement. Whether the materialization
of that boundary should occur in a
clear or blurred manner, with strength
or gentleness, expressing lightness or
weight, it is not a minor decision, because it reflects a specific stance when
addressing the multiple discontinuities
that contemporary cities face today.
In collaboration with artists
Leopoldo Ferrn and Augustina Otero,
the studio designed a perforated facade

on the extension, which provides altered

views between the interior and exterior
and acts as a border dividing the natural
and man-made environment.
With the artists consultation, the
wall was crafted into a public art piece
as well as an architectural facade that
highlights its surroundings by attempting to blur the separation. The wall is
comprised of aluminum cast panels with
oval perforations to allow moss, lichen
and other native plant species to take
over in curated events designed by the
perforated openings. The silver-grey
aluminum facade takes on the implied
appearance of the plaza in the front ele-

The silver-grey aluminum facade takes on the

implied appearance of the plaza in the front
elevation, but the vegetation that grows on it
softens the divide between the sharp modern
contrast of the building and the rock face behind.

building, allowing foliage to seek out the

light through the oval openings.
The facade fulfills several uses with
its perforations. The buildings vegetation
mutates as part of the natural and
artificial landscape, dependent upon the
time of year. The arranged perforations
in the aluminum panels provide glimpses
into the interior, which alter throughout
the course of a day. In the daytime,
filtered light reaches the interior spaces
and provides privileged views to the
courtyard. At night, the speckled light
from the interior spreads out into the
plaza, creating intimate views. Over time
the growth will take over the building in

surprising and delightful ways.

One question arises as to the
choice material of the panels. Over
time, aluminum will dull rather than
brighten, which indicates the architect
was most likely interested in the
growth of the plants as an expression
of the natural landscape. Their growth
addresses temporality through the plants
movement, but the building itself stays
the same. Therefore, if the aluminum
remains relatively the same over time, its
modern newness will also become part
of an institutional style along with the
original Renaissance counterparts left
untouched be the retrofit. re

winter 2015

vation, but the vegetation that grows on

it softens the divide between the sharp
modern contrast of the building and
the rock face of the mountain behind it
throughout the seasons.
The two-sided 3,500-panel recycled
aluminum casted facade is arranged in
a grid. Oval holes perforate the panels
at various angels to give differentiated
patterning, which is then placed on an
iron frame that connects back to the
main structure. By rotating and flipping
the panels, a varied pattern appears across
the long walled facade, imitating and
accentuating organic growth. Plants hang
between the cavities of the panels and the

41

public eye

THE SKYS
THE LIMIT

Reimagining EIAs 1960s tower would yield

lower energy use and higher impact

By Martin Dover

reimagine

42

dmonton
International
Airports new
eight-storey
Central Tower opened in
March 2013, part of the
EIAs $1-billion expansion
project a response to
burgeoning traffic and aging
infrastructure at the airport.
The new tower and its offices
replace the old Edmonton
International Airport
Terminal building, which
was designed in the early
1960s by Dr. A.O. Minsos of
Rensaa and Minsos Architects
and cost $10,000,000. It
consisted of a three-storey
passenger terminal and
eight-storey office tower
housing a weather office,
telecommunications centre
and air traffic control centre.
The structure, built in the
modernist style, was the
embodiment of the forwardlooking attitudes of the day.
The 1960s was an
optimistic era that demanded
more buildings with a
progressive outlook,
writes David Murray
in Capital Modern, a
collection of online essays
about Edmontons built
environment. Air travel
was growing and in 1961,
the federal government put

out a call for the design of a

new International Airport.
Rensaa and Minsos had
already gained acclaim with
the design of the 1956 Ross
Sheppard High School, itself a
signature modernist structure.
At the time, Murray
says the airport tower was
one of the most modern,

streamlined air terminals in

the world. The terminal
was 950 feet long, and
the architects designed it
to accommodate a traffic
load that was anticipated to
materialize by 1972. Planning
for future passenger loads
was considered a progressive
notion in its time.

But now that tower

is still there, says Michael
Turner, building envelope
engineer and partner at
Manasc Isaac. It still has the
original 1960s glass-andaluminum curtain wall. And,
despite the slings and arrows
of age, the building represents
lots of recoverable, useable

ades)

cades)

construction strategies
1

install hoarding

Installboarding

install crane and swing stage

Installcraneand
swingstage.

take apart e
facade incre

construction strategies
install hoarding
Takeapartexisting
take apart existing
faadeincrementally.
facade incrementally
5 continue replacement around entire perimeter
1

take apart existing

facade incrementally
continue replacement around entire perimeter
Continuereplacement
install
sunshades (south facade only)

install crane and swing stage

Replaceoriginalcurtain
replace original curtain wall
wallsectionswithnew
sections
with new curtain wall
install
outriggers and shading fabric (east and west facades)
6 sections
curtainwall.
2

replace original curtain wall

sections with new curtain wall
install
outriggers and shading fabric (east and west facades)
sections
Installoutriggersand
complete
base (ground level spaces and new traffic flow)

roundentireperimeter.

install sunshades (south facade only)

Installstainlesssteel,
laser-cutsunshadingon
thesouthfaade.

IMAGES COURTESY MANASC ISAAC

the EIA will continue to

grow, necessitating future
development of office and
retail space in a spot that is
prime real estate.
Rather than a painstaking
and costly dismantling of
the old tower and building
fresh, the Manasc Isaac team
proposes creating an

install suns

install suns

shadingfabricontheeast
andwestfacades.

complete base (ground level spaces and new traffic flow)

Completethebase
ground-levelspacesand
newtrafficflows.

elegant reimagined space,

less expensive than building
new and a reboot is by far
the greenest option.
Turner says the best hope
for preserving and playing
with the mid-century charm
of the old tower and
saving its carcass from the
landfill is to look at the

matter as a balanced equation.

We approached it from
the perspective that wed
spend no more on a useable,
reimagined space than a
deconstruction would cost.
The first thing to consider
is the building envelope,
Turner says. We want to
spend energy, attention and >

winter 2015

space. All thats wanting is a

little reimagination.
There is a significant
cost issue, Turner says.
Deconstruction of the old
tower, taking away all that
concrete in the context
of a working airport, is
extremely expensive. And
then there is the fact that

take apart e
facade incr

43

public eye

The existing tower at Edmonton

International Airport is in need of
a refresh.

reimagine

44

money to gain the greatest

effect. He says that his team
can arrange to take apart the
old curtain wall easily, and
he proposes replacing it with
a combination of opaque
wall and transparent glass
curtain wall.
The existing building
is already oriented with
its long walls facing north
and south, maximizing the
daylight available indoors.
The upgrades to mechanical
systems that the Manasc
Isaac team proposes will act
in concert with operable
windows on the east face and
elsewhere, where possible. The
team would upgrade the roof,
tamping the plume of heat it
currently loses in the winter.
The EIA has pegged the
old towers value at between
$6 and $8 million. Nobody
wants to lose that investment
outright, least of all the management at the facility. Including the orientation of the
building, there are many other
features that make it ideal for
reimagining. Its floor-to-floor
height meets contemporary
leasable space requirements,
and there is recoverable space
below hung ceilings, especially
with the teams addition of fire
sprinklers that activate from the
bottom up, as well as the top
down.
The Manasc Isaac
reimagine team proposes a

creative laser-cut stainless steel

sunshade to cope with the heat
of the midday sun on the south
face, a welcome and elegant
touch that will make the space
pleasant on those April-toSeptember days when, on
June 21, the sun can climb as
high as at 60 degrees above
the horizon. Conversely, the
shade can be adjusted and the
windows tinted to collect the
available midwinter light when
the sun struggles up to just 11
degrees above the horizon on
December 21. On the opposite
side, the glass curtain wall will
be sufficient without a shade,

even in summer. We can

harvest that northern light,
Turner says.
The smaller east and west
faces are more problematic. In
the middle of the open airport
land, there are no real obstacles
to the piercing dawn and dusk
rays of the Prairie sun. Here
wed put an opaque sunblocking fabric screening the
wall, Turner says.
Turner is thoughtfully
realistic about the possibilities
offered by reimagination. The
new tower is a work of art the
airport authority and design
architect will not want to

outdo. he says, certainly not

constrained by the equation
that would have the project
spend the same or less money
as deconstruction would cost.
The new tower harks
to the Prairie environment:
winds, undulating grasses and
gently drifting snow. Where
it shows the pillowy windinfluenced forms of what
lies above ground, Turner
wants the old tower to say
something about the strata
below ground. But Turners
team is energized by the
challenges of reimagining the
old tower. Its a conservative

Wewanttospendenergy,
attentionandmoneyto
gainthegreatesteffect.
- Michael Turner, partner at Manasc Isaac

the new one as a juxtaposition

of whats above and below.
Turner is heartened by
the official word from the
EIA. We understand that
our plan is being taken
seriously, he says. They have
put off demolition, which
is certainly encouranging.
He salutes the leadership of
the EIA, under the guidance

of president and CEO

Tom Ruth, as thoughtful
and forward-looking. And,
like the forward-looking
management at the airport in
the 1960s, todays managers
are aware that they need to
be accountable for the new
demands for office and retail
space that are certainly are
coming. In the consideration

of deconstruction versus
reimagination, the former
would leave a gap at the EIA
and a hulking carcass in the
landfill. At no more cost, the
latter would leave an elegant
and thoughtful tower that
speaks to modern sensibility,
while offering several floors
of well-appointed space. The
choice seems clear. re

winter 2015

rectilinear structure, he says.

We can play with that.
The stick frame, glass
curtain and stainless steel shade
that the team proposes for the
structure would accentuate the
look of long, wide sedimentary
layers, allowing an observer to
imagine the tower has risen
wholesale from the earth. I
see a reimagined tower next to

45

last word

2050
IMPERATIVES

Actions by the International Union of Architects

and partners to quash CO2/fossil fuel emissions

OnAugust6,2014,aroundtableofpartnersmetinDurban,SouthAfricatodiscuss
whatmeasurestotaketophaseoutfossilfuelandCO2emissionsbytheyear2050.
AttendeesincludedUnitedNationsagencies,regionalorganizationsofarchitects,
organizationsforheritageandtheenvironmentandhumanitariangroups.The
groupagreedtotheDeclaration2050Imperatives,whichinclude:

1
 oplananddesigncities,
T
towns,urbandevelopments
andnewbuildingstobe
carbon neutral.

Torenovate and rehabilitate

existingcities,towns,urban
redevelopmentsandbuildings
tobecarbonneutralwhile
respectingculturaland
heritagevalues.

4
Toengageinresearch
andset targetstoward
the2050goal.

reimagine

46

3
Incaseswherereachingcarbon
neutralisnotfeasibleorpractical,plananddesigncities,
towns,urbandevelopments
andnewbuildingsandrenovationstobehighly efficient
withthecapabilitytoproduce
orimportalltheirenergyfrom
renewablesourcesinthefuture.

5
To advocate forandpromote
socially-responsiblearchitecture
forthecommunityandtoplan
anddesignsustainable,resilient,
inclusiveandlow-carbon/zero
carbon-builtenvironmentsas
wellasno-costorlow-cost
on-siterenewableenergyand
naturalresourcessystems. re
SOURCE: INTERNATIONAL UNION OF ARCHITECTS