Design-Build Team for the Tenth Street residence
The residence halls, inclusive of Studio 80 (home of Selkirk’s Contemporary Music & Technology program), are less than 50 years old and constitute a tremendous existing resource in terms of durable materials and embodied energy. Retrofitting the residence is a much needed step to provide housing and learning space and is an environmentally preferable option to demolition and rebuilding. By renovating instead of bulldozing the building, tons of waste will be kept out of the landfill and more money will be spent on skilled labour and less on consuming new resources and energy.
One of the challenges faced immediately in this project was a very short timeline associated with the funding agreement. The project had to start immediately after the approval of the funding and be complete within sixteen months.
Faced with the short timeline, Selkirk College immediately hired a project manager to dedicate her full attention to moving the project forward quickly. The physical upgrade work was divided it into two main pieces--a geothermal installation (which could begin immediately) and a separate contract to tackle the more complex challenge of renovating the existing building to suit the needs of the college.
Why design-build?
Selkirk chose to go with a design-build type of contract for the renovation because this type of process can evolve more rapidly but places significant responsibility for project success on the design-build company. All bidders had to demonstrate their experience with buildings of this construction style and also that they understood the needs of educational institutions and residential buildings. The final selection was based on the strongest design proposal that would meet the most needs of the college within the project budget.
The successful design-build team is outlined in the links below:
