WILLIAM CONWAY/PROGRESS PHOTOGRAPHY

The addition at Goodes Hall is being undertaken by a team that includes +VG Architects and contractor Atlas Corporation. It’s scheduled for completion in spring 2012. 

PATRICIA WILLIAMS

staff writer 

A team that includes +VG Architects and general contractor Atlas Corporation is undertaking an expansion at the home of the Queen’s University school of business, intended to help position the institution as Canada’s premier business school.

Scheduled for completion in spring 2012, the estimated $26 million addition at Goodes Hall will provide additional underground parking, learning and meeting spaces as well as student, faculty and research facilities.

The new wing will incorporate a number of design elements that will promote sustainability and reduce energy consumption, including a green roof, water-saving plumbing fixtures and high-efficiency light fixtures and mechanical equipment.

LEED certification will be sought for the 10,200-square-metre addition. The architectural firm said the key design challenge was to achieve “clear integration and seamless flow and connectivity” to the existing business school and to meet capacity objectives “while still maintaining open, interactive spaces.”

This has been achieved, +VG Architects said, by threading existing circulation passages through the addition, “creating a harmonious whole.”

The firm said the arrangement and form of the expanded program define gathering spaces “that present new opportunities while complementing and enriching” the existing business school, which opened in the fall of 2002.

Subtrades include Thomas Lemmon & Sons Ltd. (mechanical) and Martin Electric Ltd.

From a construction perspective, +VG says challenges include careful phasing of work to ensure minimal disturbances for occupants of the existing building, which remains in use.

In addition, the project includes construction of an underground tunnel link to the parking garage across the street.

The footprint of the addition and underground parking level take up the majority of the site, making staging and storage of materials a challenge as well, says +VG, which won an Ontario Association of Architects award for its design work on the existing school.

That project involved an addition to an 1890 Romanesque structure, the Victoria Public School. The +VG design weaved the addition into the historic campus fabric.

The latest addition, currently under way, is on the west side of the Victoria Public School.

The firm, formerly The Ventin Group, has undertaken projects at a number of university campuses in the province.

It operates out of offices in Brantford, Cambridge, London and Toronto.