GTA Construction Report staff writer
East Gwillimbury has started constructing a 2,200 sq. ft. addition to the town’s 5,300 sq. ft. Queensville Community Centre/Fire Station 28.
Thomas Brown Architects Ltd. has designed the structure to achieve LEED silver standards. General contractor Silver Birch Contracting Ltd. is building the addition, including a 340 sq. ft. community/heritage room and a 250 sq. ft. community policing office.
The project includes connections to existing municipal services for the town on the East Holland River in the Regional Municipality of York., a paved parking lot, landscaping of the 1.2 acre site and a sanitary holding cistern.
The project combines steel and wood frame, with load-bearing masonry and a brick veneer cladding. It will have a pre-finished metal roof, and four apparatus bay doors.
The design features natural lighting with improved high-efficiency glazing at the doors and windows and includes high-efficiency electrical, heating, ventilation, air conditioning and plumbing systems and fixtures.
The post-disaster design includes robust and resilient structural and communications systems, with a standby natural gas-fuelled generator for power outages.
“The facility is a new, updated, and distinct structure,” said Genevieve Singh, the town’s communications manager. “The structure and site will provide for efficient emergency services operations for both current and future needs; which includes training and auto extrication areas as well appropriate space for vehicles and equipment.”
The renovation is expected to be completed in the spring of 2015.
