BUILDINGS: Toronto engineers working alongside international star architects

Structural engineers in Toronto have two unusual projects on the boards to exercise their calculation skills. The Royal Ontario Museum has announced a major extension that will dramatically transform the stately greystone 1912 building. The new structure creates a new entrance along Bloor Street West with a mass of jagged glass forms that seem to tumble on top of one another.

The project was the subject of an international architectural competition which was won by Daniel Libeskind Studio of Berlin, Germany in consortium with local architect Bregman & Hamann. Halsall Associates (Shahe Sagharian, P.Eng.) and Arup are structural engineers. Mulvey + Banani, the Mitchell Partnership, Leber Rubes, Ehvert Technology, Valcoustics and KJA are also on the team. The project is scheduled to begin in spring 2003 but government grants have so far only raised part of the $200 million necessary to build it.

Less than a mile to the southwest, the Ontario College of Art and Design on McCaul Street is getting 100,000 s.f. of additional space. What’s drawing all the attention is the “table top” structure for the college’s Sharp Centre for Design. The flat block component is designed to sit on splayed columns over the existing 100 McCaul Street building. The cost of the entire construction project will be $41 million, with the designers already doing construction documents on the first phase. Carruthers & Wallace are structural engineers (Paul Sandford, P.Eng), and MCW is the mechanical/electrical consultant (Tim Jantzi, P.Eng.) The architects are the British firm of Will Alsop in consortium with Robbie Young + Wright.

Both projects are drawing ire from Torontonians, either because people don’t like the flamboyant designs (a letter in the Toronto Star said the colourful OCAD project was a design more suitable for Toys R’Us or the Crayola company), or because they resent the fact that foreign “star” architects are being brought in to lead the designs.

Toronto has become the playground of international big-name architects lately, though not all of them stayed. Rem Koolhaas of Holland was to design the Downsview suburban park, and Santiago Calatrava of Switzerland was to have designed a building for Ryerson University. However, both left town after the projects failed to materialize. Sir Norman Foster, high-tech luminary of the U.K, has been hired to design a new pharmacy building at the University of Toronto.

Edmonton Airport Central Hall under way

Construction is under way on the new Central Hall at Edmonton Airport, The $85 million project is phase II of the total expansion program, and adds a connection between the new South Terminal completed in 2000 and the original 1963 terminal which is due for a refurbishment in phase III.

The 19,000-m2 Central Hall will become the focal point of the airport when completed next year. It will have centralized security passenger screening and new shops and restaurants. Consulting engineers include Stantec who did the electrical work as well as the structural design with Read Jones Christoffersen. Keen Engineering (Chris Jepson) and Earth Tech Canada were mechanical consultants.