The $70-million Algonquin Centre for Construction Excellence houses 2,500 trades students at Algonquin College in Ottawa. Designed by Diamond and Schmitt Architects, it was built by EllisDon Corp. Minto Group CEO Roger Greenberg donated $1 million.
A building the Ottawa construction industry has “adopted” as its own has officially opened with a ribbon-cutting at the Algonquin Centre for Construction Excellence.
Located on the campus of Algonquin College, the building is a dramatic facility housing 2,500 full-time construction trades training spaces in its 190,000 square feet. It houses all of the college’s construction programs under one roof for the first time and accommodates 600 more students than the school had before. There are also about 5,000 part-time students.
The local industry took the project to its heart early on, providing significant financial support. The project cost about $70 million, with the federal and provincial governments each contributing $35 million. The city of Ottawa donated the land, which is worth $2 million. That left $7 million to raise. Local builders and their associations stepped forward with a campaign spearheaded by Dwight Brown of PCL Constructors Canada Inc.
An eye-popping contribution to that campaign came from Roger Greenberg, chairman and CEO of Minto Group, with a gift of $1 million. Algonquin president Robert Gillett said it was the largest individual gift in the college’s history.
Built to LEED Platinum standards, the building offers a number of leading-edge technological features that make it a centre of excellence for the industry.
The lobby atrium features a five-storey wall of living plants “bio-wall,” that filters the air and helps control humidity. There is an undulating green roof that covers the building’s two-storey wing, then slopes upward to the roof of the five-storey tower.
There is a stormwater recovery system to capture rainwater for flushing toilets. Solar panels provide some power and hot water and serve as a working demonstration of the potential of solar energy.
The mechanical penthouse on the roof houses a weather station that provides weather data. It also houses building-performance data loggers that collect information from more than 6,000 sensors through the building that monitor energy use, indoor air quality, and structural load information.
Many of the building’s elements are exposed for students to see. A glass-covered opening in the lobby floor, for example, lets people look at part of the building’s foundation. Much of the building’s ductwork is exposed, as is some of the building’s diagonal bracing.
All this makes the building a “living laboratory,” said Claude Brule, dean of the Faculty of Technology and Trades, who attended the official opening. It is also “a hub for interdisciplinary collaboration,” an innovative facility “where students learn from the building itself.”
Interdisciplinary study is becoming more important at Algonquin because different trades and professions often have to work closely together on jobsites, making an understanding of others’ work important. As a result, students in architectural and interior design technology will work alongside students in the trades programs.
Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird, in whose riding the college is located, said the building “represents the very best Algonquin has to offer and will give a generation of skilled trades people the tools they need to succeed.”
Ontario Infrastructure Minister Bob Chiarelli, who represents the area provincially, called it “a stunning building on a thriving campus, (that) will make a real difference for students across Ottawa.”
EllisDon Corporation was the design-build contractor for the project. The building was designed by Diamond and Schmitt Architects Inc. of Toronto in collaboration with Edward J. Cuhaci and Associates Architects Inc., of Ottawa.
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