[SpongeG]

this is pretty cool -

Eye-catching new tower at airport is cleared to go

Prairie wheat fields and snowdrifts were the inspiration behind the design for a new office and control tower going up at the Edmonton International Airport as part of its $1-billion expansion.

The airport is the first and last thing many visitors see as they come and go from Edmonton, and airport authority officials wanted an iconic tower that was symbolic of the region, said design architect Stephen Boyd with Cohos Evamy integratedesign.

"They wanted to make sure it didn't look like a tower that had landed here from Toronto or Vancouver. They wanted it to be about Edmonton and the Alberta region."

The design team canvassed colleagues, friends and family on what they thought was unique and significant about the Edmonton region. They heard stories about the seasons, and how the landscape looks with wheat fields and grass undulating in the summer breezes and snowdrifts carved into layered ribbons by the frigid prairie wind.

Another requirement for the new tower was that it be designed in keeping with its green construction goals, including open-concept floors to maximize natural light and reduce the need for electrical lighting, and reduce window-to-wall ratios for better energy efficiency.

Metallic waves on the outside walls are not only an esthetic feature, but reduce energy consumption through "passive shading," Boyd said.

"Sustainability was a huge part of the tower's design."

"This is a tower that sits out in the middle of the prairie overlooking the runways. It is not an urban setting, where there are a lot of buildings clustered around it. There is really nothing to stop the sun from beating down on it or the winds from hitting it. The biggest thing we did was, we turned the tower in a configuration that is east-west as opposed to north-south."

The southern and western faces of the building have deeper overhangs for better energy efficiency. In the summer, when the sun is at a higher angle, the southern overhangs block the sunlight, keeping the building cooler. In the winter, when the sun's angle is lower, the western overhangs allow the sun's rays to provide added warmth.

"We actually tracked the wind and the sun angles to make sure the building was sculpted in the most correct way, to act as passive solar shading and actually minimize our heat loss," Boyd said.

"It's all about dealing with the sun angles when you have a building at this latitude."

Boyd said he thinks the new building is unique, in that there is not another airport in North America where the control tower is incorporated with an office building. Usually air traffic control towers are stand-alone buildings.

"What we had to be very cognizant of with the new control tower was viewing angles, because you have to be able to see the aircraft below the tower, as well as those out on the runways and taxiways," he said.

Work on the combined office and control tower begins next month and the building will open in phases. New retail and food outlets will be on the lower levels with administration offices in the middle. The top two floors will house the NAV Canada air traffic control facilities.

The retail portion of the new building is scheduled to open in late 2011, with the office and control tower opening in the summer of 2012.

When completed, the new building will add about 10,000 square metres of new space at the airport. The new control tower will replace one built in the 1960s.

http://a123.g.akamai.net/f/123/12465/1d/www.edmontonjournal.com/technology/catching+tower+airport+cleared/2019120/2019571.bin
A new control tower and office building is set to rise at Edmonton International Airport.
Photograph by: Supplied by: Cohos Evamy, Edmonton Journal

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/technology/catching+tower+airport+cleared/2019120/story.html

[Canadian Mind]

I think it looks fugly... But each to their own.

personally I've never been a fan of "organic" architecture.

[Coldrsx]

yup... pretty cool, but i personally prefer the one we have there now...i guess i am getting old.

http://www.panoramio.com/photos/original/4456107.jpg

image from http://www.panoramio.com/photos/original/4456107.jpg

[Rico Rommheim]

nothing wrong with a little bit of outside the box architecture for edmonton! :tup:

[Calgarian]

Weird. I need a better rendering to know whether or not this think will get a fail.

[sammo]

more pics and details needed before i praise it or say it sucks. so far, me like.

tarmac looks like covered in water or ice -which could be tres cool.

[edmontonenthusiast]

It looks pretty good, but why decent (newer) buildings are so far and between in this city is anybodies guess.

[WhipperSnapper]

look like they're replacing sixties modernism with sixties futurism

[Cambridgite]

I'm kind of reminded of the Canadian Human Rights Museum or the ROM addition as far as architecture is concerned. It's unique and not boxy at least.

[edm_guy]

Im still undecided. I think Ill reserve judgment when I see it in person

Although Ill give them credit for thinking outside the box and making the building functional

[Rathgrith]

Is the wind blowing snow structure going to serve a purpose (offices) or is it just for show?

[1ajs]

look like they're replacing sixties modernism with sixties futurism
it sure does have the look thats for sure loving it
i just hope they are not going with stucco for a finish

[vid]

It will probably be EIFS, which is just a bad.

[1ajs]

i hope not

[vid]

And it will have visible seams!!!!!! :evil:

[1ajs]

o boy this just keeps getting better eh

[sledhead35]

like others, im not sure what to think.
out of the few airports ive been to edmontons was pretty nice. a bit too safe for my taste but still, nice. for me this could make or break it.

[harls]

sort of looks like a smashed radiator.

[bikegypsy]

I love the new tower.
You guys are lucky.
It's an awesome design and a bold move.

[wild wild west]

I like it. Looks good. Certainly stands out from other airport buildings.

[edm_guy]

Is the wind blowing snow structure going to serve a purpose (offices) or is it just for show?

The southern and western faces of the building have deeper overhangs for better energy efficiency. In the summer, when the sun is at a higher angle, the southern overhangs block the sunlight, keeping the building cooler. In the winter, when the sun's angle is lower, the western overhangs allow the sun's rays to provide added warmth.

"We actually tracked the wind and the sun angles to make sure the building was sculpted in the most correct way, to act as passive solar shading and actually minimize our heat loss," Boyd said.

[The Jabroni]

It's like stacked wafers of plastic with slightly melted sides!

Now it needs a cream filling and you have a tower full of goodness! :banana:

In all seriousness, it looks nice!!

[Kevin_foster]

Whether good or bad, will definitely leave a lasting impression on those who visit the airport.

[Kitchissippi]

Thank god they picked wheat and snowdrifts as the inspiration. It could have ended up looking like this:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2619/3966504267_1a7e72d247_o.jpg
:haha:

[Rathgrith]

^There would be allot of dizzy ATC's in Edmonton!

[Inspector77]

Kewl pic:cheers: Plaines can just pull up.....and fill up:D

[bulliver]

Hilarious pic Kitchissippi :tup:

I think the render is sweet. Looks to me like banners on a pole blowing in the wind. Would like to see other angles.

[sdimedru]

http://www.journalofcommerce.com/images/archivesid/35814/110.jpg

October 21, 2009
Transportation infrastructure
Edmonton International Airport gets new traffic control tower
STEPHEN DAFOE
correspondent
EDMONTON

A new 107,000-square-foot control and office tower (COT) will soon rise above the tarmac as part of Edmonton International Airport’s $1 billion expansion project.
Cohos Evamy integratedesign Architecture and EllisDon Corporation are involved in the design and construction of the new NAV CANADA control tower and office building, portions of which are scheduled to be completed in 2011 and 2012.
Although the building will provide the airport with conventional elements including an expanded retail area, seven floors of office space and a new air traffic control cab, the building’s design is far from conventional.
Stephen Boyd, design architect with Cohos Evamy integratedesign said his firm had been challenged with designing an iconic structure, not only for the airport itself, but for the City of Edmonton as well.
“It was an interesting challenge that was laid down,” he said, adding that his office did an exhaustive study of what it means to be from Edmonton and what type of design aesthetic would be unique to Edmonton, taking on the suggestions of those inside and outside the company, both newcomers to the city and long-time residents alike. “It became apparent that a lot of people’s impressions of place are tied a lot with the landscape and the climate, of all things.”
Boyd explained that the design team was inspired by how the landscape is formed by the seasons. “We looked at the unimpeded winds of the prairies and the way that they actually blow and actually sculpt our landscape,” he said, adding that snow drifts, wheat fields, soil erosion and even the movements of a flag in the wind played a role in the design. “So we really started playing with this whole notion of this sort of sculpting effect of wind.”

Cohos Evamy
The design of the new Edmonton airport control tower is inspired by peoples impressions of lanscape and climate.
The end result was an exterior design that consists of a number of ribbons that have the appearance of a series of snow drifts. But there was more to the design elements than purely aesthetics.
“If you look at the ribbons, they actually project further on the south and the west so that the sun angle gets cut off for the intense summer sun, and it shades the windows,” Boyd said, adding that the reverse was applied to the north side if the building.
“Winter sun is a much lower angle and not as intense in heat radiation. We would want the sun to penetrate the plate as deep as possible. The overhangs, of course, allow the sun to penetrate deep because they don’t block it.”
The design architect said the building’s orientation was also chosen for sustainability concerns. Although the master planning documents situated the COT essentially where it will be constructed, the plan called for a building that ran more parallel with the main building, something that would have had the building’s large face running east and west and the narrow ends north and south.
“So we turned it 90 degrees,” Boyd said. “That was one of the first moves we made, really, regarding the sustainable moves. Plus it did another thing – it took the air traffic control tower and swung it out, sort of as an element at the end, so it had optimal viewing angles for not only the gates, but out to the runways.”
Although the orientation was chosen for sustainability reasons, it may not give them specific points toward the LEED Silver status the project is striving for. However, the design does call for other green concepts. Boyd said that they reduced the overall window-to-wall ratio to 40 per cent.
“Sixty per cent of the building’s face is actual wall, which is obviously a much better thermal barrier than the floor to ceiling glass that you would typically find on an office building,” he said, adding that in doing so they wanted to make sure they maintained adequate views and day lighting for the occupants.
Internally, the building will make use of under-floor air distribution rather than the conventional ceiling mounted systems found in many office buildings.
“It’s not a lot different than people’s homes in many regards, where air is blowing from below the floor,” Boyd said. “What it does is it allows for maximum flexibility to the floor plate, reduced airflow volumes, so you don’t need to blow the air quite as hard into the space. So it’s a much more comfortable space.”
In addition to sustainable initiatives inside and outside the building, the project is looking to recycle as much as it can.
“It was a very conscious decision on the airport’s part to reuse components,” he said, adding that a three-story curtain wall in the existing facility, that is less than ten years old, will be reused rather than replaced. “We’re recycling whatever we can from the existing building and reusing it.”

http://www.journalofcommerce.com/article/id35814