Top 5 Upcoming Projects in Edmonton
Edmonton is one of the largest cities by area in North America, is Alberta’s capital, and is home to the largest urban park in Canada, the River Valley. Although more popular as an oil and gas city, construction has always been and will probably continue to be a big thing in Edmonton’s economy.
In today’s post, we highlight five of the most interesting projects that are currently on the table or under construction in the city of Edmonton.
1 – Lister Hall Renovation
This project involves the renovation of the University of Alberta’s Lister Hall. The current building, which was built in the 1960’s houses 1,760 students, and has not undergone any substantial building retrofit or renewal since its construction. The initial design work for the project which is estimated at $117 million, is already underway, with construction expected to begin in late 2018 and completion by July 2022.
The work is needed because many of the original building systems, including lighting, sprinklers, fire alarm, voice communication and window systems, do not meet current code and life safety standards. The 1,760 students that Lister currently houses are distributed among the Kelsey Hall, Henday Hall and Mackenzie Hall. When the latest tower, Lister 5, is completed the total capacity will increase to 2,200 students.
2 – Winspear Centre Completion Project
In this $53 million project, what is now a surface parking lot will be transformed into 40,000 square feet of mixed-use new cultural space that integrates immersive arts experiences with practical commercial uses.
The Winspear Centre Completion Project will feature a 600-seat flex-use midsize acoustic hall, childcare centre, underground parkade, multifunctional spaces, and commercial space. This project will become the home base for the community programming offered through the Tommy Banks Centre for Musical Creativity and allow increased capacity for education, outreach, and partnership with sister arts organizations and business partners.
Located in the heart of Edmonton’s Downtown Arts District, the architectural design is expected to transform the now inhospitable corner of 97th Street and 102nd Avenue by the end of 2021, with the aim of enhancing the beauty of downtown with people-friendly streetscaping which would generate foot traffic all year round.
3 – Roxy Theatre Rebuild
This popular theatre on 124th Street, just north of 107th Avenue, had been destroyed in a fire in January 2015. The new facility planned for development on the same site will cost an estimated $12.5 million. Construction is expected to start in the spring of 2019, with completion targeted for the start of the 2020 theatre season.
The old building, built in 1938, operated as a movie house until 1988. It then became a live performance space before becoming the new home of Theatre Network in 1990. The rebuild will include a 200-seat main theatre, a smaller theatre with seating for up to 100 people, and will also include a rehearsal hall. The Government of Alberta has provided $2.5M in funding towards this project.
4 – Northshore 2
Located in the heart of north Edmonton’s Lake District just North of 76th Street and Schonsee Drive, this $10.2 million condominium project will construct an 82 unit apartment building, known as Northshore 2. Construction is already underway with completion scheduled for the end of 2019.
Positioned adjacent to an expansive park area, Northshore 2 is just Northwest of Lake Schonsee and will be part of an exclusive development that will include multi-family as well as single family homes, situated around the lake.
5 – Edmonton Business Campus
The Edmonton Business Campus is an $8.8 million project that was inspired by the best campuses in North America for integrating office and mixed-use space into a natural setting. Situated north of Lexus South Pointe, the campus will be comprised of several high-visibility buildings along the intersection of Gateway Boulevard NW and Ellerslie Road in south Edmonton. The first of these buildings, the HealthPointe Building, will become available in 2018. The total area of the finished buildings will measure approximately 40,000 square feet.
It’s safe to say that the exciting world of construction is not new to the Edmonton scene, but what makes it even more exciting is the ability to integrate submetering into projects like those described above to green things a little. Not only does it allow project managers to reduce total energy consumption in a typical building by up to 34% as explained in previous blog posts, but submetering is also a requirement in LEED V4 certification.
