Calgary architect reaches for the stars
Some Calgary architects must be frustrated about commissions being given to outside firms, or in feeling the need to partner with national or international firms to submit for any of this city’s larger projects.
A good example is the short-list for the new Central Library, of which all eight competitors enlisted the aid of architects from Denmark, the United States, Toronto or the West Coast.
Yet we have Calgary firms that enjoy the prestige of designing buildings outside of this province, such as Kasian Architecture which, thanks to the expertise of principal Bill Chomik, has been awarded the design of a science park and observatory for Simon Fraser University outside Vancouver.
Chomik has earned a strong worldwide reputation as a designer of planetariums. He has been responsible for scientific facilities in Greece, China, South Korea; a planetarium for Sudbury, Ont. and another under construction in the state of Maine.
Another facility is in the design stages for a private developer in Palm Springs and Chomik has been asked to prepare concept designs for a planetarium to be built in Baghdad, Iraq.
In Calgary, Chomik designed the planetarium feature at the original Calgary Planetarium as well as the HD Digital Dome Theatre and interiors in the Dialog-designed new TELUS Spark Science Centre.
The new Science Park at Simon Fraser University will be located in a half-acre site. After contracting Vancouver landscape architect PWL Partnership to work with him, Chomik was delighted to find principal Margot Long is the daughter of the late Jack Long, a well-known and highly respected Calgary architect.
The design of the observatory is still in its early stages but will feature a 20foot high motorized rotating roof with a shutter that turns with it.
Interesting to find out from Chomik that the temperature inside an observatory must be kept the same as that outside, which means exterior walls must be built of metal or fibreglass so as not to absorb any heat.
Kasian’s Calgary office is also busy with several other commissions that include helping the Calgary Zoo with five projects, as the local architect along with the Portland, Ore., office of Allied Works Architecture for the National Music Centre, and the new soccer centre on 52nd Street S.E.
It has designed two new field houses in Okotoks and High River and is working on hotels at Fort McMurray airport and the Hilton Hotel on lands just to the north of the Calgary airport.
And visitors to the new Calgary Chamber of Commerce space in the Burns Building will appreciate the work by Kasian’s interior design department.
Commercial realtors at the Calgary office of Colliers International are having a busy summer.
Executive vice-president and partner Bob Young has closed on the sale of the Jacobs Engineering building in Remington Development’s Quarry Park.
The 356,020-square-foot, four-storey building, on a 22-acre site with extensive parking, was designed by Riddell Kurczaba Architecture and completed in 2008.
It was purchased by EPIC Realty Partners on behalf of its clients from KanAm Grund.
Eric Horvarth, vicepresident investment sales and senior associate Matt Gregory of Colliers’ investment sales team recently sold two residential buildings with a total of 32 suites. The combined price for Capital Hill Terrace on 4th Street N.E. and Killarney Mews on 30th Street S.W. was $5,204,375.
Lee McIntire, chairman and CEO of CH2M Hill, and his CFO Mike Lucki made their first trip to Calgary during Stampede week and despite the after-flood were impressed with the city — and especially Spruce Meadows.
They also got to tour CH2M Hill’s new office space that will welcome some 250 staff next month. The company has relocated its energy division into Deerfoot Atrium and will be moving the remainder of its executive office, transportation, water and environment departments in the middle of August to occupy the entire building at the corner of 12th Avenue and 5th Street S.W. that was formerly a downtown office of Worley Parsons.