Institutional
Secondary School Master Plan – De La Salle College
Toronto, ON
“Respect for the Past and a Vision for the Future”
List of buildings
· Main Building – Classrooms, Gymnasium, Library, Chapel, Cafeteria, Offices, Auditorium
· Retreat Centre – Lecture Rooms, Meeting Rooms, Offices.
· Dormitory
· Mansion – 150 year old heritage property with offices, residences, kitchen
· Hockey Arena – single ice rink with bench seating for 350.
· Grounds Keeper – Residence
· Football field – with seating for 800
De la Salle has been developing for over 150 years and contains many buildings that have been constructed as needs and times changed. This has left a mixture of buildings that are grouped around a campus court with dissimilar architectural styles and displaced programmatic elements. The challenge has been to review these facilities for the program they contain and to assess the feasibility of re-arranging various elements of the school’s program so that the organization of the spaces would better support the school’s academic programs.
Because the campus has been built up over the years, the facilities to work with were not conventionally designed classroom spaces. As such, a Client Specific approach was taken to work closely with the needs of the school and custom fit the new spaces to the programs and class sizes that are exclusive to De La Salle. This has led to the relocation of many classrooms, library, music and art programs, and renovations, as well as building the new science laboratories. An approach was also developed so that any new additions to the school would be directed with the intention of maintaining and merging the existing disparate architectural elements into a cohesive campus through the design of the new buildings.
Music School – De La Salle Hall
Toronto, ON
Through our assessment of the school’s needs it was discovered that the music program was most in need of a new facility and the old dormitory building (recently vacant) provided a good location to house the particulars of that program. The proposal was to renovate the dormitory building into a building on campus that would house two music rooms, an art room, a large multi-purpose space, and several small lecture or study group rooms. The location was ideal for isolating these specialized classrooms, thereby creating a distinct schoolhouse ‘wing’ dedicated to the arts.
Given the size and prominent location of this space it was also designed to function as a space to host special events for the school. The façade was designed to stand noticeably within the campus having a dialogue with the main school building and completing the court architecturally. We took it as a challenge to save the building; assess what it had to offer and to transform the spaces to suit the new needs of the school. Renovating this building was a step towards bringing all the different architectural elements of the school into a unified campus, both programmatically and architecturally.
Multi-Use Twin Pad Ice Rinks – Sports World
Kitchener, ON
Sports World has been serving the Kitchener area with sporting and entertainment venues for many years. The Sports World Twin Pad was a recent addition to the complex offering much needed ice time to the city of Kitchener. As a private business development; the facility was designed with efficiency in mind; minimizing excess space and focusing on needed program space; using shared spaces wherever possible and minimizing corridors through use of multi programmed lobby space (for example).
This facility is intended to offer the community a hockey venue but also – as a multipurpose facility – to offer the city a place for events like conventions and concerts to take place. Designed to withstand the daily use of a hockey facility, the design of public areas (like especially the lobby) were intended to be a graceful presentation to the public vision. The original concept was further developed through user group meetings with the city of Kitchener hockey leagues, the barrier-free committee and the public. Much of what the citizens and community members offered as suggestions and wishes were incorporated into the design of what was to be a truly community building. The building belongs to the public and as such is designed as a civic building.
Health and Wellness Centre – De La Salle College
Toronto, ON
“Mind, Body, Spirit; a Holistic Education”
The Health and Wellness Centre is being designed to bring together distinct tenets of a secondary school into the holistic education of the modern student. There is no dividing line between academics art and physical health and well-being. Healthy Mind and Healthy Body transcend the provision of physical activity and integrate Health and Wellness with Academics for students to achieve a holistic education in Mind, Body and Spirit. The addition of the Health and Wellness facility occupies a space between the campus buildings both physically (as a building) and programmatically (as places of teaching and research) to provide a place that integrates all facets of growth and development into a complete educational experience.
This “hinge” space will contain programed spaces that are an intersection between physical fitness, labs, and lecture space becoming an academic Centre of Health and Wellness. Common spaces like corridors and lounges will join the new facility with the existing school and access the gym and pool through visual and physical connections; allowing students to use these public spaces for viewing, study, and impromptu lecture spaces that overlook the city and fitness facilities in use. These interstitial spaces will also connect with labs such as Kinesiology and Therapy; which will directly integrate with the Athletic Facilities and Sports medicine. The Centre goes beyond education in physical performance and into physical well-being and healthy lifestyle, as well as setting the foundations of medical interest in research and in physiology.
Mind Body and Spirit are one, and a true education for students of the 21st century requires all of these for a balanced education. The Health and Wellness facility will fill in the gap of much needed fitness space; including a full size NCAA gymnasium with suspended running track, 25m swimming pool, squash courts, and fitness area. Adjacent to these spaces will be the compliment of studio labs and classrooms that will be an integral part of the wellness facility. These include; a multi-purpose studio (for martial arts, dance, Yoga), Therapy Room, Kinesiology Lab, and Coaches’ Briefing Room.
Community Centre Ice Rinks and Boxing Club – Activa Sportsplex
Kitchener, ON
By PBK Architects Inc.
Designed by Stan Zalewski
This project started as a basic need for Ice time and a new home for the Waterloo Regional Boxing Association and developed through stakeholder collaboration to include the community at large. Kitchener Minor Hockey and Waterloo Regional Boxing Association were able to share certain spaces allowing for improved facilities for both clubs and extend those uses to the public. This led to a community recreational complex that also included an indoor walking/running track which welcomes the elderly for leisure and allows hockey and boxing club members a place to train.
The building is open to the public and is home to the Waterloo Regional Boxing Association and Kitchener Minor Hockey Team. The boxing club contains a ring with training facilities and an upper mezzanine with fitness equipment that is shared by both organizations. Adjacent to the fitness area is a suspended track that is used by the boxing club, hockey teams for cross training and is open to the public for leisure walking or running. This track overlooks the community rink which is accessed from the public lobby on both levels and accesses the main spectator rink which contains 800 seats and hosts the home team games. There are additional facilities for the home team and the centralized lobby welcomes the public with multi-use space and seating next to the food service area; looking in to the rinks and boxing club. The lobby also integrates public art installations within the architecture of the space in various locations of the main area and includes an overview of the green roof. This is a LEED Gold building and was the first of its kind to be certified Gold at the time of its construction.
Indoor Soccer Facility – Pine Glen
Oakville, ON
By PBK Architects Inc.
Schematic Design by Stan Zalewski
The facility was a much needed indoor soccer field for the Oakville Soccer Club; placed in a park of several outdoor soccer fields. This was led as a design/build by Ellis Don and relied on an expeditious construction schedule focusing on providing a FIFA 2 star rated field, change rooms for both the interior and exterior fields, and some common viewing spaces inside. As a full size field; Pine Glen required a simple long span building and an efficient, maintenance free building envelope, that also adhered to a tight budget.
Some of the simplest materials on the market were used in a way to construct this large mass with as much sensitivity to the surroundings as possible. The main envelope employed conventional insulated metal panels using the basic colour palette. To break down the large mass and give the facades some interest we used several of these light coloured panels in a seemingly random pattern to create a pleasing visual affect and reduce the monotony of a large colourless mass. Additionally the base of the building envelope was constructed of architectural masonry units for durability and wherever possible; the conventional construction of the dressing rooms and entrance were emphasized to further reduce the area of the insulated metal panels. The result is an affordable, durable, well maintained building that serves the soccer club and is welcome in the neighbourhood.
Wind Engineering, Energy and Environment Dome – WindEEE
Western university
London, ON
By NORR Architects Engineers Planners
Design Collaboration and Project Management by Stan Zalewski
The WindEEE dome is a unique research facility that advances studies beyond that of any conventional wind tunnel to date; it is the first of its kind. WindEEE allows researchers to study wind movement in directions not previously possible in a wind tunnel. Test scenarios can be modelled in horizontal uni-directional (as in a conventional wind tunnel), vertical (simulating updrafts, microbursts, wind-shear), and cyclical (scaled down hurricanes and tornadoes).
As a building the facility derives its architectural character, from the operation of the machinery and the adjoining research space. The design of the facility is meant to complement the operation of the test facility and respond directly to its operational requirements; including the test chamber, workshop, labs, meeting rooms, and offices. All spaces are designed taking into account the research as the primary focus. Spaces are arranged around the iconic hexagonal dome to maximize exposure and access to the test chamber and workshop. This gives researchers access and allows visiting academics insight into the various tests that are conducted.
Stan Zalewski assisted and conducted user group meetings employing the Integrated Design Process to analyze the University’s needs and develop the program further to fit the design to the specific needs of the Wind Engineering Department of Western University. Using this process; we respected the operational needs of the dome, workshop, and labs, and managed to develop the concept further so that ancillary spaces were more integrated into the research components of the building. Consulting with the researchers was a collaborative process that made improvements to the program and enhanced the experience of the research facility use and created this unique program specific design.
Ubuntu Free School
Zimbabwe
“I am Because We Are”
A small village located a few hours outside of one of Zimbabwe’s larger cities is home to a close community of families. The families work together to tend to many of their needs. This project is of great importance to the community as it is intended to create much needed classroom space for children from kindergarten through to secondary school. It is also intended to offer a community gathering space. Members of the community are raising money for materials while people inside the village work together to build their own buildings. This includes cutting the timber and making their own bricks; involving men and women in the process.
The school will grow with time starting with one classroom to address the immediate needs of the children and as the students grow, classrooms will be added to the school. The classrooms are organized around a central community gathering space which contains the kitchen and opens towards a community garden that will be tended to and will supply the community. To the opposite end of the garden is where the first toilet facilities will be placed. These are designed and built on the principle of the ‘Arborloo’. These are maintained for the purpose of fertilizer into which trees will be planted when the outhouses are filled. As the school and community grow, the arborloos will continue to be relocated and replaced by fruit trees and with time a forest will grow outwardly from the centre of the community school.
The design and order is based on the Concept of “Ubuntu”: “I am because we are”. The central organizational system of the school brings the community together in a circle that grows out from the community gathering space.
