RC116 JanFeb 2025 - Magazine - Page 17
“We worked closely with the Stampede because they
are the stewards of the Rivers District,” said Kelly Coles,
CMLC’s vice president, building and infrastructure since
2019. “We were driven by costs and a hard deadline of
June 2024 because a deal the Stampede had signed with
Rotary International a year to host their international congress with 30,000 people in the summer of 2025 stipulated
the construction had to be completed a year before. If not,
we’d be on the hook for liquidated damages.”
Once the winning design team was selected from an
international competition that garnered some 30 submissions, preparatory work began on project, which
was funded in equal parts by the federal, provincial and
municipal governments.
Two buildings attached to the original BMO Centre—
the Du昀昀erin Theatre and the Corral, where the Flames
昀椀rst played—were demolished, as was Hall A, the biggest
trade show hall in the original centre.
Another hall—dubbed Hall F—was also built so that
the Stampede could continue doing business during
construction. A data centre was also built to feed 42
buildings.
That telecom enabling work proved to be a nightmare
due to the damage caused by Calgary 昀氀ood of 2013 that
inundated both the city’s zoo and the Stampede grounds,
which are located on a bend in the Elbow River that runs
through the city.
“The entire underground infrastructure was a昀昀ected,”
said Coles. “Duct banks were 昀椀lled with gunk that had
hardened over the years. There were tens of thousands of
IT and cable lines feeding dozens of buildings from one
spot in the demolition area. It was a horrendous, tangled
mess of wires that no one knew where they went to or
whether they were dead or alive.
“We had to build a new comms hut with no blackout
time,” said Coles. “It was wildly frustrating and challenging and took a very specialized group of consultants to
deal with it.”
Just as construction and piling work got underway the
project was hit with another broadside in the form of the
COVID public health crisis.
In addition to cost increases and work slowdowns, the
constraints of the pandemic also necessitated a largely
remote design process. Project developers also had to
develop operational schedules around the Stampede’s
schedule.
“We couldn’t use heavy construction equipment
during those events,” said Coles. “COVID ended those
events, so that enabled us to go full speed on pilings and
other heavy work. And we were lucky because it was not
yet an enclosed structure so there were no building trades
on site during the pandemic.”
When work 昀椀nally did get underway on the actual
expansion work, several innovative solutions to the
project’s structurally complex challenges were put into
practice.
In addition to vibration control and the need to ensure
a comfortable experience for thousands of visitors at a
variety of events—from large-scale exhibitions to small
meetings to parties—one of the main challenges with the
BMO Centre expansion arose from both the need and
RENEWCANADA.NET
importance to create a structurally sound building that
was not only functionally useful and aesthetically striking
but also allowed a maximum of free movement within
the space to enhance visitor experience.
“When we schemed the building we chose to stack
uses of space,” said Geo昀昀 Kallweit, RJC Engineer’s project engineer for the expansion project. “And we tried to
minimize the number of columns in the exhibition hall in
order to have the most open space possible.”
RJC was given the task of developing the structural
systems required to create the building in physical space,
along with Magnusson Klemencic Associates.
Kallweit said the fact that the exhibition hall is on the
main 昀氀oor in the new BMO Centre—which is not the conventional way conference centres are built—only added
to the engineering challenge.
“Usually, they’re up higher and are connected to the
main 昀氀oor with escalators,” he said. “Having it on the
main 昀氀oor, without columns to hold up all the weight of
the building above, meant we needed to span long distances. The structural demand is much higher.”
A specialist in pedestrian and vehicular bridges like the
Columbia Ice昀椀eld Skywalk, a glass walkway 280 metres
above Alberta’s Sunwapta Valley that he helped design
and build, Kallweit said a grid of deep structural steel
trusses made by Walters Steel in Hamilton, Ont., each
spanning 24 metres—the length of a swimming pool—
were designed to 昀椀ll in between columns.
The 昀氀oor structure, which would normally be 昀椀lled in
with rolled streel 昀氀oor beams, was formed one-story—or
昀椀ve metres—deep.
“Those trusses support 昀氀oors above that have other
uses, like dancing,” he said. “We spent a lot of time and
did a lot of analysis and computer modelling on how and
where vibrations occur and how they are transmitted,
ampli昀椀ed and a昀昀ect other areas of the building.”
The analysis determined the size, strength and sti昀昀ness
of the I-shaped steel columns, some of which have fourinch thick 昀氀angers and one-metre sections that weight as
much as a small car.
In regards to the curving roof and the canopy that curls
to the ground—a structural element that he called “very
free form”—Kallweit said the challenge was to uses pieces of steel that were cut and formed in straight segments
and then connected together.
In all, Kallweit said the total amount of steel used in
the BMO Centre expansion weighs one-and-a-half times
more than the Ei昀昀el Tower.
According to CMLC, the new building is already a success, with more than 500 conventions and events booked
into the space since its opening, generating an annual
economic impact on Calgary of some $100 million and
creating thousands of jobs.
For Paulitsch, who walks his dog almost daily by the
new BMO Centre and sometimes takes public tours incognito, seeing and hearing the community’s embrace of
the new convention centre is another novel bonus.
“Living here full time is incredibly ful昀椀lling and the
feedback is incredible,” he said. “People love the building. And I hear people saying that they now realize it isn’t
a 昀椀nish line, it’s a starting line.”
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