Work will involve construction of a 10,000 square feet addition encompassing two floors in the west parking lot. The new addition will feature an expanded bike shop and a more spacious children and youth unit. It will also comprise larger and increased number of changing rooms, more rental equipment like canoes and kayaks, more gear for yoga and road running, and a new community room spanning 500 square feet.
The addition will raise the size of the two-storey building to nearly 39,000 square feet. Its design will be in tune with the existing structure. The new structure will sport galvanized steel and cement board cladding while donning a heavy-timber canopy.
The facility will be equipped with energy-efficient systems to reap energy cost cuts of 50% over similar structures. The building will also make use of various salvaged materials. These include reclaiming the structural steel columns, beams and joists, terrazzo floor and portions of the foundation of the grocery store originally situated on the site in the building’s second storey. Further, Douglas fir posts and beams procured from old log booms in the St. Lawrence River will make up for the timber frame in the ground level.
One of the walls of the building will be insulated with renewable straw bale. The wall will also be equipped with a viewing portal to allow glimpses to the building interior. The cistern for storing rainwater will be substituted with a new heated cistern as part of the project. The collected water will be recycled in the facility’s toilets. There will also be bike racks with a capacity to house a maximum of 80, a pair of electric-car charging stations, and a place for hybrid vehicles to boost the green initiative as reported by the Ottawa Citizen.
The project will phase out two buildings to the west owned by MEC to allow creation of a new parking lot. Construction is slated for completion by September 2012.
