HOK’s Killbear Provincial Park Visitor Centre minimizes impact on Georgian Bay environment

Demonstrating environmental stewardship was front and centre on the agenda when HOK set out to design the $4.5 million Killbear Provincial Park Visitor Centre.

Gordon Stratford, the firm’s director of design, says the design team applied sustainable design strategies that are both practical and educational.

These include the use of Georgian Bay as a heating and cooling system, stormwater runoff that maintains wetlands of indigenous plant species and recycled and recyclable building materials.

The award-winning 12,000-square-foot facility is located 250 kilometres north of Toronto on a peninsula jutting out from the steep coastline of Georgian Bay.

It is part of a network of venues that commemorates the natural, cultural, historic and recreational values of the Great Lakes “heritage” coast. The Killbear centre focuses on the park’s fragile ecology and the need for environmental stewardship.

The building program includes exhibition areas, exterior viewing areas, a theatre, cafeteria, research offices, staff areas and reception lobby.

In keeping with the project’s unusual site and its role as an interpretive centre, HOK undertook a preconstruction environmental study, with a public review, to minimize the environmental footprint.

In a news release, HOK said the site was developed with an eye to respecting the location’s natural features and optimizing storm-water management.

These were key determinants in the placement and design of access roadways, parking for cars and buses and landscaping.

These elements were also located to maximize retention of existing trees and vegetation.

Wetlands were created to hold and filter storm runoff and slowly release water back into the natural landscape. Plant species native to the area are used throughout.

The building melds with the site by stretching itself out parallel to a series of rock folds that cascade towards the water’s edge, while its volumes “twist and overlap like the rocks themselves.” The east and west elevations lean away from the water’s edge “like an eastern white pine gnarled by the wind.”

To fit with the natural rock formations and take advantage of key views toward the water, the building is oriented along a north-south axis. Large overhangs on the southern exposure shade expanses of glass from unwanted solar gain.

HOK said the Georgian Bay waters provide a cost-effective, energy-saving source for heating and cooling. A closed loop of condenser water using food-grade glycol sits five metres below the water’s surface. This loop feeds 11 high-efficiency heat pumps inside the building and eliminates the need for a supplementary boiler or cooling tower.

Recycled and recyclable materials were used extensively during construction. Low-maintenance, recyclable standing-seam zinc panels with a pre-weathered finish cover the walls and roof. Zinc, a lightweight building material, requires less structural steel for support than other cladding systems and is maintenance-free, HOK said.

Stucco panels designed as a rain-screen assembly, cast-in-place concrete, linoleum and sealed concrete flooring, exposed architectural concrete block walls and energy-efficient, high-performance window systems enhance the building’s environmental friendliness.

The project team included M.J. Dixon Construction, electrical engineers Mulvey & Banani International Inc., mechanical engineers Smith and Andersen Consulting Engineering, structural engineers Blackwell Bowick Partnership Ltd. and landscape architects Schollen & Company.