The AODBT office renovation is the redevelopment of the former Western Groceries warehouse in Saskatoon Saskatchewan. The vision of the project is to focus on the revitalization of not only a building, but also to be a part of the transformation of an entire neighborhood. The site is located in the Caswell Hill area of Saskatoon, which is a core neighborhood just west of the City's downtown. To assist with redevelopment of core neighborhoods, the City of Saskatoon has identified an enterprise zone within the city to encourage growth. Caswell Hill is part of the enterprise zone. As such, the City worked in collaboration with the project team on many facets of the project to ensure a successful outcome.
Giving Staff a Proper Work area
During the facility's design, much effort was made to ensure all staff had the proper work space to perform their daily tasks. One of the most important aspects of this was to get the right amount and type of natural light in to every employee in the building. This was achieved by a mixture of punched windows, a large feature window to the best site view, and skylights where the light is properly diverted. This combination gave the staff light from a variety of directions, along with a view of a beautiful turn of the century neighborhood.
A New Look for an Old Building
The majority of the building shell was kept as is, with the exception of a few punched penetrations for light. However, insulation and cladding was added to all sides of the building for esthetics and added energy efficiency. The roof was also updated, complete with a high-albedo finish to reduce the amount of heat absorption.
Innovative Engineering Solutions
The building's prior use did not require a high level of Mechanical or Electrical systems. As such, many upgrades are required for an office environment. Daylight harvesting technologies are planned for the facility to properly utilize the created penetrations. A highly efficient mechanical system is planned and modeling will be done to ensure the high performance and controllability of the system. Innovative methods of reducing water will also be explored, both through the use of low-flow fixtures, but also by making smart landscaping choices.
The hope for any company is to give its staff the best working environment possible to increase job satisfaction. The project team and owners believe that achieving LEED accreditation is a proven way to provide a better building. As believers in the LEED process, AODBT also wishes to make this building an educational facility that can show interested parties the benefits of a LEED certified facility.
This building was originally imported from the Canadian Green Building Council's http://www.cagbc.org/leed/leed_projects/ id: 11475) on 2009-06-09. Please confirm that the import was successful, login, and remove this message. Help make the Green Building Brain better.
