COASTAL CUES

An ocean-inspired facility puts science on display for the next generation of students and researchers in Newfoundland and Labrador.

BY REBECCA MELNYK

�Clockwise from left: Students gather between classes to study and socialize; salvaged remains of the whale are never far from view and bring awareness of animal protection; seating choices on the ground floor. Photos by Jane Brokenshire. The Core Science Facility was built in three different construction phases. Baraco completed the enabling work in 2015. Pomerleau then completed foundation work in 2016. Marco Services Limited completed the main building construction, which took place from April 2017 to August 2021. Photo by Karl Hipolito.

Ablue whale skeleton, 82 feet long, suspends from the ceiling of Memorial University’s Core Science Facility — as though it is swimming in empty space.

The 30-metre-high, light-filled west atrium is suitable for displaying the remains of Earth’s largest known creature and reflects the motto of Newfoundland and Labrador’s only university—Provehito in Altum, which means “launch forth into the deep.”

Soon after the carcass washed ashore in Bonne Bay in 2014, the Royal Ontario Museum and Research Casting International restored the marine specimen, which became central to the facility design, led by HOK Architects and Hearn Fougere Architects. The whale skull was so large it had to be brought into the building during construction to properly fit.

The 6,500-pound skeleton, from a species that’s been declining exponentially over the past century, is submerged into the aesthetic with its commanding presence meant to inspire a new generation of scientists and the school’s oceans-related research.

Gazing in from outside, the whale is a prominent fixture for passersby—an iconic touch to a structure intended to be a gateway for the St. John’s campus. “We took a lot from the ocean vernacular—using the iceberg as inspiration for form and colour of the exterior,” says Jeff Churchill, the regional leader of Science + Technology for HOK’s Toronto studio.

The colourful painted houses in downtown St. Johns—a bright palette of what’s called “Jellybean Row”—are reflected in the facility’s colour-coded floors as a form of wayfinding. A floating box in a lounge area of the west atrium draws upon the fishing huts along the coastline.

The building is made of three tower block pavilions separated by two tall vertical atrias. From the west, through a connecting promenade, students converge on a series of platforms in the east atrium to study and collaborate in between classes— a feature, which plays upon the province’s rugged shelf-like coast.

MAKING WAVES

The 475,000-square foot building— delivered on a budget of $325 million, with funding from Memorial University, the provincial government and Canada’s New Building Canada Fund—merges collaborative student spaces with teaching labs for the Faculty of Science and the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, as well as labs from the Core Research Equipment and Instrument Training CREAIT network.

Electrical and computer engineering programs in the province are in tremendous demand from both Canadian and international students. “Our undergraduate computer engineering class is growing, our research-based graduate student population has grown substantially and we’ve just added new graduate programs in artificial intelligence and software engineering,” the university said via correspondence with CFM&D.

�A series of windows look into the second-floor computer design studio. Photo by Karl Hipolito. Hands-on learning takes place inside the computer design studio. Photo by Jane Brokenshire.

“Despite all of this growth, the local industry needs more highly-qualified ECE grads.”

With existing campus facilities nearing the end of their design life cycle, this new space is also poised to attract and retain prominent faculty and source external research funding through shell space and industry partnerships, while creating opportunities for students inside the classroom and within the community.

The idea is that it also lasts 50 to 100 years. Materials used for construction were selected with the local climate in mind. Robust exterior pre-cast panels made of three million pounds of sand and 1.5 million pounds of cement strengthen the building envelope, while mechanical, electrical and laboratory systems are designed to be flexible for future changes to the research and curriculum programs.

As the body of scientific knowledge constantly evolves, the facility is also reducing the barriers that separate academic disciplines. As the university explained, “while we don’t know what the future will hold, it is reasonable to assume that the problems that will be addressed will become increasingly complex and often beyond the realm of a single academic discipline to solve.”

New faculty members no longer have to wait to begin their research as individual spaces have been swapped with shared spaces with like-minded faculty.

A more novel design is the CREAIT network, which makes major research infrastructure accessible to the entire university community, rather than residing within the lab of the individual who wrote the grant.

EXPLOSION-PROOF CORRIDOR

In a building laden with 3,500 lab fixtures, are more high-tech hopes as design provisions allow for rooftop renewable energy teaching and research labs for solar panels and wind turbines.

Currently in place is dedicated routing technology that delivers chemicals and lab-related hazardous materials throughout the facility. The idea is to reduce the life safety risks associated with transporting chemicals and cut down delivery time.

Chemicals leave the ground-level stores department and immediately travel to the penthouse level via an adjacent service elevator. An exclusive, explosion-proof penthouse corridor

�Clockwise from left: The collaboration platform conference room. Photo by Karl Hipolito; the installation was designed to give people the feeling of being underwater—watching the whale swim above. Photo by Jane Brokenshire; an inorganic chemistry teaching lab looking into a class in session. Photo by Karl Hipolito.

runs the entire length of CSF—almost two football fields long.

From this corridor, each of the buildings’ three pavilions can be directly accessed via separate service elevators. The service elevators are located at each of the five lab levels and are centrally positioned to quickly access laboratories upon exit.

SEE-THROUGH SCIENCE

Large laboratory windows further the collaborative intention of the space. As students and the public walk past, they can observe experiments in motion. For instance, swarm robotics work could be on display in CSF-4101—a room for research projects involving small commercial drones.

There are also plans for ground station displays for the Killick-1 CubeSat. The

“We took a lot from the ocean vernacular—using the iceberg as inspiration. . .”

student-built observation satellite, funded by the Canadian Space Agency’s Canadian CubeSat Project, will collect big data on sea ice and ocean conditions and be a first in Newfoundland and Labrador.

“Some rationale behind [the displays] is to entice students from undergrad to continue to pursue careers in science through the upper levels of research,” says Churchill. “We also situated some undergrad spaces adjacent to some more advanced research spaces, which allows for students to come in contact with the research projects going on in the upper years.”

The facility opened its doors to students in September 2021, with plans for future occupants, including the Department of Psychology, the Ocean Frontier Institute and the Memorial Centre for Artificial Intelligence. | CFM&D

IS NOW A PRIORITY IN FACILITY MANAGEMENT

Sustainability has taken precedence in facility management, and for good reasons. Beyond the fact that greener operations unlock savings and protect asset values, tenants and investors are more interested than ever in partnering with facilities that demonstrate an awareness for – and resilience against – evolving climate issues.

“The idea of sustainability has been around for decades, but the awareness around climate-related issues has evolved,” agrees Kim Saunders, RPA®|HP®, CLO®, BOMA Fellow, Property Manager with East Port Properties, adding, “Today, there’s a recognition that real estate accounts for a signifi cant portion of the world’s energy usage – up to 40% according to the United Nations – and that property managers and operators have a big role to play in contributing to a healthier, more resilient planet.”

Prioritizing sustainability in asset management also makes business sense. Facilities that embrace energy-saving equipment and eco-forward practices are more resilient and cost-effective to run. It’s little wonder, then, that a recent Bloomberg report states Global ESG assets will surpass $53 trillion by 2025 to represent over a third of the world’s total assets under management1 .

In short: It pays to put environmental, social, and governance (ESG) strategies at the top of the facility management agenda. And to do that, says Saunders, facility teams require the training, skills, and support to lead the way.

“To be successful, [facility managers] need to know a bit about everything when it comes to sustainability,” says Saunders. “They need to know what technologies or processes will make their buildings more effi cient, and they have to be able to sell sustainable strategies and investments to owners and other stakeholders.”

Going further with BOMI Championing sustainability in facilities management takes more than good intentions. It requires additional training and resources to ensure impactful strategies take root. It’s for this reason that programs like BOMI’s High Performance (HP)

Sustainable Buildings and Facilities Management Administrator programs are designed to provide facility managers with the tools, resources, and skills to rise above evolving climate change challenges.

“BOMI’s FMA® designation course basically prepares you for anything that comes your way,” says Saunders. “It gives you the additional skills and knowledge to take your job to the next level or even take steps towards your future career in facilities management.”

“I always tell my coworkers to plan for the job they want, and that’s what the FMA® program allows,” she adds.

BOMI’s FMA® program is complemented by the organization’s HP program, a designation source that offers a more granular exploration of this fast-evolving topic.

“The BOMI-HP® program is deep dive into the things you do as a property or facility manager, how they relate to sustainability, and how to get future ESG initiatives off the ground,“ Saunders explains.

“And that’s an important piece,” she continues. “To make any progress on sustainability, you need to know how to engage stakeholders and communicate both the fi nancial and social benefi ts.”

Indeed, gaining buy-in for sustainable initiatives can be a barrier for facilities management teams. It is a skill that requires insight into how investments in cleaner, more effi cient operations translate into long-term savings. And that’s not always an easy sell.

“I remember trying to implement daytime cleaning among our tenants because I knew it would save energy,” Saunders recalls. “I got a lot of resistance at fi rst until one of the tenants fi nally agreed to try it on a pilot basis. I kept track of the results and shared them with other tenants, and pretty soon everyone started seeing the benefi ts. Soon after, they started asking me to sign them up.”

The good news is that it’s getting easier to sell building owners and tenants on sustainability – both in regards to the return on investment and the positive impact on tenant relations. The key, Saunders notes, is communicating the value: “Once people understand how sustainability benefi ts and operation, it’s easier to get that support and engagement. And now, because climate change is such a public issue, that buy-in is becoming easier to secure.”

The pressure is on facility teams to go further with sustainability and ESG. For those in the industry, that means understanding what needs to be done and acquiring the skills to take action.

Learn more about BOMI’s FMA® (www.bomicanada.ca/facilitiesmanagement-administrator) and BOMI-HP® Designation (www. bomicanada.ca/bomi-hp) courses.