Construction coming along on new campus
Posted Aug 23, 2010 05:07:28 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Things are coming along nicely with the construction of the new Balsillie Campus at CIGI — especially the holes in the floors.
The Centre for International Governance Innovation hosted a media tour of the upcoming Balsillie Campus addition.
The project is on-budget and on-schedule to open its doors to faculty and students in June 2011.
The Balsillie School of International Affairs, currently split between Wilfrid Laurier University and the University of Waterloo, will move in as a whole unit to the new Campus.
The structure features a first-in-Ontario design feature: the poured concrete is full of holes, an engineering technique called BubbleDeck.
The concrete slabs that make up the floors and ceilings are remarkably thinner than a normal building’s because empty spaces, about the size of basketballs, are built in.
These bubbles are only in place in non-critical areas of the concrete where there is no engineering strain.
Lead architect Shirley Blumberg, tells 570 News this design means they’re using 30 per cent less concrete.
Project Manager for Cooper Construction, Bruno D’Aloisio, says the only hold-up they had was with soil conditions in the foundation work, but that was easily cleared up.
He says they will finish the structure soon, and close up the exterior of the building by the end of this year.
