The design is simple in its complexities.
This is how Manshield Construction senior project manager Randy Bowles describes a project that the Winnipeg-based company is currently working on.
The official groundbreaking for Balmoral Hall School’s new $6 million, three-storey arts and design centre was held recently in June.
Balmoral Hall is a private boarding school for girls in Winnipeg.
The school’s roots go back to 1901.
The current campus includes four main buildings, including two gymnasiums, a newly renovated boarding house and a three-storey atrium with a skylight ceiling.
The new building will be focusing on the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields in an effort to encourage more of the school’s students to pursue careers in one of those areas of study, although there will be spaces for music and dance, art and design.
The first floor of the arts and design centre will be dedicated to fine arts, with a designated gallery space.
The second floor will be a space for music and will feature a recording studio. The third floor will primarily be a dance studio, but will also have a space referred to as an “innovators laboratory.”
“Our first priority,” says Bowles, “will be riverbank stabilization,” as Balmoral Hall is located on the west bank of the Assiniboine River.
“We have to ensure that we are not overburdening the riverbank. We don’t want to create problems with riverbank instability later on.”
The building’s exterior, he reports, will be constructed using 42” wide intersecting insulated metal panel modules and large aluminum frame windows that will let in a lot of daylight.
“Inside all the finishes will be raw and exposed so that the girls will be able to see the electric conduits, the structural framing members and the ducting and ventilation pathways,” he notes. “It will be really neat how the building interior will be able to function tangibly as a complement to what the students are learning programmatically.”
He further notes in terms of energy use, the building will exceed the national energy guidelines.
“The building envelope will retain heat, reducing energy costs and be thermally efficient,” he explains.
The project architect is Verne Reimer Architecture
The project has received no public money, states Joanne Kamins, the head of Balmoral Hall, in a recent media report.
The project is being funded by the school and donations from families, former students and other members of the “Balmoral family.”
Kamins says the new building will help propel more young women to break into the male-dominated STEM fields.
A secondary goal is to have the new facility made available for use by community groups in the neighbourhood.
The new arts and design centre is scheduled to be completed by next spring.
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