Program. Client

The University of Manitoba is a government-supported institution offering graduate and undergraduate degrees in the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, the arts, and major professions. Established in 1877, it is the oldest institution of higher learning in western Canada. The university approached IKOY to design a replacement for its aging earth sciences facility, to be dedicated to the memory of the university’s first professor of geology and mineralogy, Robert Charles Wallace (1881-1955).

Brief

The building program was developed to specify an 80,160 ft2 (7,447 m2) building with a budget of $13.2 million Canadian in 1982. Space allocations were divided into seven groups, or “design blocks,” representing the required functions (Table 5.10). A generous allowance was also made for circulation to accommodate the gateway func­tion of the building for public access to the tunnel system. In the end, IKOY’s design provided sufficient budget sav­ings to greatly expand the storage design block by building a full basement. This additional storage space accounts for the difference between the building program requirement and the final 110,000 ft2 (10,214 m2) completed building.

Technical requirements for the Earth Sciences Building included a calculated energy consumption budget not to exceed 18.1 kWh/ft2 per year, based on an assumed 2500 operating hours per year. Calculations were to exclude the special ventilation exhaust requirements of the laboratories where such loads were incurred for scientific purposes and not part of the building’s normal thermal loads. Several other energy-efficiency standards were set forth, such as minimum acceptable insulation R-values and the manda­tory use of double glazing. Interior relative humidity levels were specified at very low levels, to be maintained during cold winter conditions to avoid condensation.

The space inventory included:

• Electron Microbeam and Image Analysis Laboratory

• Geochemistry Laboratory

• X-Ray Diffraction Laboratory

• Earth Science Information, Integration, and Imaging Laboratory

• Technical Support Group

Site

The architects looked at four different site options sur­rounding the existing Earth Sciences Center before choos­ing the area between the main parking lot and the perimeter road. IKOY intended to place the building here to form a gateway to the campus. The 1 acre (4000 m2) site is shifted about 40 degrees off the main campus grid and forms a triangle between two legs of the campus perime­ter road and the river. The 436 ft (132.9 m) long river side of the site faces directly north.

Climate

Of all the case study locations considered in this book, Winnipeg has the coldest climate, with more than 10,000 F degree-days heating. The region experiences freezing
weather during more than 40 percent of the annual hours over seven months, from October through April. Eleven percent of the annual hours are below 0°F. There are more than 100 days of snow in the average year. Winnipeg strad­dles the same 50-degree latitude as Frankfurt, Prague, and Kiev, and its day length varies from 8 hours in December to 16 hours in June. Skies are generally overcast. Most of the normal summer conditions can be satisfied by ventila­tion with 100 percent outside air.