A flagship building at the heart of Quartier des spectacles
The Société d’habitation et développement de Montréal (SHDM) as owner of an exceptional site located adjacent to the Place des Festivals in Montreal, have undertaken the construction of the Îlot Balmoral, a commercial office building gathering organisations from both cultural and artistic fields. The building will benefit from an exceptional visibility in the heart of the Quartier des spectacles, Montreal's entertainment district, with views onto the Place des festivals, the Mount Royal and downtown Montreal.
Among other tenants, the Îlot Balmoral project will house the new headquarters of the National Film Board (NFB) on approximately 10,000 m² (108,000 ft²), of office and studio spaces tailored to its film activities. The NFB will occupy six out of the thirteen leasable levels of the building, i.e. a portion of the ground floor, the mezzanine and four floors above it.
The Îlot Balmoral consists of two architectural volumes of 13 and 14 stories each, separated by an oblique red-colored fault line which creates a full-height atrium providing natural light to all spaces. The atrium lobby diagonally crosses the building from rue de Bleury and opens onto the Place des Festivals.
On the Balmoral project, each facade has a specific angle. The main challenge, in terms of 3D representation, was working on the interior facades of the atrium separating the two towers. These towers are composed of numerous angled faces and divided by a dense grid which stays perfectly vertical to the ground floor. This grid transposes itself in the ground floor ceiling plane, angled as well.
To achieve modelling this complex geometry, the project team created volumes for the two towers, the atrium and the ground floor envelope and ceiling. Rather than using the curtain wall tool, they worked with the curtain system tool that lets them integrate curtain walls on all faces of the volumes and split them in two in order to represent both the interior and exterior curtain wall systems. Since the grid had to remain perpendicular to the ground floor and aligned with the ceiling, they had to find the correct rotation for the two grid systems for each face of the atrium walls and ceiling. Meaning that every single panel edge in the project is different from one another.
By creating an accurate design model to help resolve conceptual issues in a very fast and efficient way the coordination of the slab edges and the angled concrete columns was much more efficient than the standard 2D design process. This enabled a much more efficient collaboration with the curtain wall manufacturer.
About Provenchur_Roy
Provenchur_Roy is a Montreal based architectural firm composed of more than 200 multidisciplinary professionals who have established themselves as one of the pre-eminent architectural practices in North America. It has an impressive portfolio of projects in architectural design consisting of universities, museums, hospitals, airports, hotels, conference centers, detention centers, sports facilities and numerous other award winning projects. In addition to architecture, it provides expertise in urban planning, interior design, industrial design, landscape architecture and technical innovation. BIM has become an integral part of daily practice and the office has been working with it for a little over 10 years, which puts Provenchur_Roy among the pioneers in Quebec. They have been able to experiment and collaborate with numerous other teams in order to develop strategies and protocols allowing them to reach different levels of BIM achievements, from the most basic (parametric 3D modeling) to complete integration (assembly and interoperability of Models of all the participants), resulting in true simulations of a project thanks to a virtual prototype.
Provencher_Roy believes that it is essential to understand, integrate and share this process in order to guarantee a better visualization / understanding of the project as well as a better collaboration / coordination
About Anik Mandalian
A graduate in architecture from the University of Montreal and with more than 18 years of experience, Anik Mandalian joined the firm in 2003 and has since never ceased to demonstrate her outstanding value as a partner in charge of BIM and project manager. Enjoying extensive experience in all phases, from design to execution, she has developed outstanding skills in terms of team management and construction.
Anik Mandalian has carried out numerous major projects with a high degree of technical complexity, major constraints and specificities. In particular, she has acted as project manager on several mandates of detention facilities and participated in the design and implementation of institutions, universities, transport infrastructure and health facilities. Having worked on BIM on major projects from the conceptual design phase to the completion of construction, she is the executive partner in charge of implementation, focused on creating new methods and processes for fellow employees to integrate and follow.
