New Harvard Office Tower in Downtown Regina!

[one_brick_at_a_time]

Same article as the link thefourthtower posted.

Harvard Developments thinks green
By JOE COUTURE, Leader-Post September 17, 2010

REGINA — Harvard Developments Inc. is thinking green as it develops the third Hill Centre Tower in Regina.

Harvard's Rosanne Hill Blaisdell explained the developer is pursuing a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) silver certification.

"It's going to be a spectacularly good-quality building and one that will be very comfortable and very respectful of where society and the community is going in terms of wanting to achieve better use of materials and energy efficiency," she said.

Hill Centre Tower III is being built at the northwest corner of Hamilton Street and 12th Avenue. The first Class 'A' office space to be developed in Regina in years, the tower eventually will be home to The Mosaic Company's potash headquarters.

There are many different criteria considered in order to achieve LEED recognition, Hill Blaisdell continued.

First, a developer gets credit toward the designation simply by building on a downtown site in a dense urban area.

"The reason that might be considered an energy efficient component of a project is because you are reusing a site with underground infrastructure already in place, that already had construction on it — as opposed to going out into a green-field site," Hill Blaisdell explained.

Close proximity to public transportation helps achieve the certification, too. So do facilities to encourage bicycling to work — Hill Centre Tower III will have protected bicycle stalls, locker facilities, change rooms and showers for those who cycle.

Other criteria for certification are more difficult to achieve, but Harvard has plans in place to do so, Hill Blaisdell explained.

There is a waste management strategy for the demolition (by Graham Construction) of the existing buildings on the site and for the construction of the tower. The goal is to achieve a 75-per-cent-or-greater reduction of materials going to the landfill compared to traditional construction.

"This includes recycling and reuse of materials fit for other uses — that would include metal and steel products and perhaps reuse of some of the existing concrete," Hill Blaisdell said.

An accounting of how the developer reduced the amount of material going to the landfill will help it get LEED recognition.

Demolition is underway and Hill Blaisdell said she expects most of the rubble to be removed from the site over the next few days. Both that which will be recycled and that which will go to the landfill initially will be removed from the downtown and then processed at a separate site.

An independent contractor removed any potentially hazardous or environmentally unsafe materials from the old buildings on the site in a separate process prior to the demolition.

For construction, Harvard has a material usage strategy for the selection of materials from concrete to interior finishes.

"We try to obtain materials that have a high percentage of recycled content in them," Hill Blaisdell said.

Harvard also doesn't use products containing off-gassing materials such as volatile organic compounds or urea formaldehydes, she noted.

The building will have an energy-efficient design and lighting, heating, cooling and plumbing systems that significantly reduce use of power, energy and water compared to similar traditional buildings.

"In terms of environmental friendliness and progressiveness, it's so important to us that we actually have a separate consultant that focuses just on these items in the project," Hill Blaisdell said, noting the consultant is from Stantec Consulting.

Hill Tower III is expected to be ready for occupancy by late 2012 or early 2013 and will include many public amenities.

jcouture@leaderpost.canwest.com
© Copyright (c) The Regina Leader-Post


Read more: http://www.leaderpost.com/technology...#ixzz0znjPlVqu

[sask1982]

Took this today...took less than a week to clear the site...

[one_brick_at_a_time]

YAY!!!! I am getting so excited!

[sask1982]

Sept 22...basement demo

[Devon]

It`s going to be fun watching this come together. I have yet to watch a tower this size go up in either Regina or Saskatoon in my short life.

[Stormer]

More demo shots taken today. They are now underground. Note the vaults under the sidewalk on 12th in the first shot. I am not sure what those were for.

[Chaps]

Originally Posted by Stormer

More demo shots taken today. They are now underground. Note the vaults under the sidewalk on 12th in the first shot. I am not sure what those were for.

Access to SaskTel infrastructure?

[one_brick_at_a_time]

We sure are lucky to have the Hills in Regina! !

[Stormer]

There is a pile driver now working at the site. Does anyone know how this project can be changed from "proposed" to "under construction" on the diagrams page?

[theshark]

I love the frequent updates on this project, great work guys! keep it up!

[Stormer]

Originally Posted by theshark

I love the frequent updates on this project, great work guys! keep it up!

OK - Today they are unloading massive steel beams from a semi, with a big mobile crane.

[yeeg]

Wouldnt those beams be used to shore up the surrounding foundations as well as the new foundation? The pile driver is there so that makes sense to me?? Seems early to do that since they still need to dig deeper.

[Stormer]

Originally Posted by yeeg

Wouldnt those beams be used to shore up the surrounding foundations as well as the new foundation? The pile driver is there so that makes sense to me?? Seems early to do that since they still need to dig deeper.

I had no idea what they are doing until you said this. They pile dive these long (40 ft?) beams in around the perimiter of the site to shore up the excavation.

I found this:




Components of the shoring system.


Excavation for deep foundation requires shoring or support to stabilize the surrounding earth in order to maintain the structural integrity of the adjacent roadway, buildings, facilities, etc... Several types of shoring techniques are available. The following pictures at the JMSB-construction site show the shoring system of vertical walls constructed with steel piles, timber lagging, and tiebacks.

• Steel piles act as vertical cantilever beams (Fig. 1) to provide the framework for supporting the timber lagging (or wall).
• Timber lagging is the system of wall-panels made-up of thick timber planks spanning between the steel piles. It transfers the earth pressure to the steel piles.
• Tiebacks (see Fig. 3) tie the wall-system to the earth or rock by means of tension members (or tendons) anchored deep into the soil.

The shoring system is usually left in place after construction finished. Once the timber lagging has rotted, the newly built foundation wall will assume its role.



http://www.bcee.concordia.ca/index.p...for_Excavation


Since we haven't had any major construction downtown for so long, we have lots to learn about how its done.

[yeeg]

Wait until you see how many of those beams they use for building an overpass. Seems as though they drive them back to back to back into the same hole to make the concrete pour of the foundation really solid. You might even see them use 2 of these beams for each point on this project. 40 feet is barely enough for 4 floors of a parkade and I would guess they need to go another 40 feet to make it nice and solid...They spot weld them together at the joint to make one big beam. Its neat to watch until you the constant banging for a couple of weeks drives you crazy.

[Stormer]

Originally Posted by yeeg

Wait until you see how many of those beams they use for building an overpass. Seems as though they drive them back to back to back into the same hole to make the concrete pour of the foundation really solid. You might even see them use 2 of these beams for each point on this project. 40 feet is barely enough for 4 floors of a parkade and I would guess they need to go another 40 feet to make it nice and solid...They spot weld them together at the joint to make one big beam. Its neat to watch until you the constant banging for a couple of weeks drives you crazy.

I probably underestimated the length. They are about the length of a semi trailer which I believe is about 50 ft?

[Stormer]

An update on the shoring progress if anyone is interested...

Rather than pile driving the beams into the ground, they drilled holes (the pile driver also has an auger). They then dopped the H beams in and poured in concrete. The beams just barely come out of the ground. They are not welding them together to make them longer. They only got four done today - about 8 feet apart.

[thefourthtower]

Stormer, we all love your updates keep up the good work and thankyou.

[Stormer]

Lots of activity at the site today. A crane is unloading steel and wood planking for the shroing system. The pile driver is continuing to drill holes for the H beams for the shoring. A backhoe and skidster are moving soil around. Cement truck is filling the shoring holes. A welder is working in the lower right corner of the shot.

[Stormer]

Bustling activity again today at the site. City Square on the other hand is fairly quiet.

[Stormer]

Excavation and shoring continues at the site. The pace of activity at Mosaic Tower is in stark contrast to the adjacent City Square Project where virtually nothing is happening again for the 3rd week in a row.