The Canadian Design-Build Institute (CDBI) annually recognizes excellence in Canada’s design-build industry and acknowledges design-build teams whose projects contribute to the growth and stature of the design-build profession. The 2016 awards recognized four distinct projects at the National Design-Build Conference last October.
The Sechelt Water Resource Centre in Sechelt, B.C., the grand winner, is described as “a sewage treatment plant, but looks more like an intense hydroponic production centre along with a small office wing. Treatment basins are in fact surmounted by greenhouses and veritable botanical gardens. The choice of the site also allowed for a large park adjoining the facility.”
The project team was led by Maple Reinders Inc. and Urban Systems Ltd. “The project owner, District of Sechelt, indicated that they were satisfied that the 23-month construction schedule was effectively met considering negotiation and risk management delays,” CDBI said in a news release. “The now fully operating facility is exceeding discharge permit requirements, covering among others, BOD (biological oxygen demand), odour (0), and noise.”
The Communications Security Establishment Canada Long Term Accommodation Project led by PCL Constructors Canada Inc. and WZMH Architects won the special uses category.
“This P3 project incorporates many great ideas, typical of the design-build approach where builders and designers are at liberty to include what might be thought of as far out suggestions,” the award citation says. “Since the building is a classified secure facility, high levels of security clearance were required from all staff and systems were needed to ensure that classified plans, drawings and documents were kept secure.”
“The final complex is remarkable by the striking architectural expression both in the interior and the exterior. It will disprove any opinions that design-build somehow has to limit design to low-cost options and materials.”
In the civil category, the winner was the Footbridge over the Bow River in Banff, AB. (See separate story)
The Surrey Pretrial Services Centre Expansion, led by PCL Constructors Westcoast Inc. and DGBK Architects, won the institutional category.
This project required high security conditions, as the site continued in near capacity operation during the expansion and updating, used BIM (Building Information Modelling) to program work and installation priorities as well as visualize construction sequences, including equipment clearances and crane movements, weeks in advance, and succeed in achieving LEED gold certification, a first among BC correctional facilities.
For more information about CDBI and its awards, visit www.cdbi.org.
