[Surrey] GEC Education Centre | 165m | 49 fl | Proposed

[Nites]

Originally Posted by Shift

Yeah 100 feet taller than Civic Plaza. Feel like Civic Plaza's design is more fitting for the taller tower of the 2.

Thread title also still says 50 fl for this. Needs to be updated to 55

Notified the moderator.

Do you by any chance know the project number for this tower?

[Whalleyboy]

At that close they should just push add a few extra floors and just make it the tallest

[red-paladin]

Set title to 55 floors. Sorry about the delay.

[Cypherus]

Really excited for this development and how fast it will move forward to development. Also liking the rectangular slab design (with a skinny tower look from the side). Interestingly Urban Village phase 5 tower and The Hub is also a rectangular slab design so it may be a Surrey thing.

[Nites]

Originally Posted by red-paladin

Set title to 55 floors. Sorry about the delay.

Thanks.

[CoryHolmes]

Originally Posted by Cypherus

Really excited for this development and how fast it will move forward to development. Also liking the rectangular slab design (with a skinny tower look from the side). Interestingly Urban Village phase 5 tower and The Hub is also a rectangular slab design so it may be a Surrey thing.

Ironically, I think this is why I prefer the Wave design. It's not your standard concrete rectangle, and (usability of the balcony space aside) it's quite pleasant to look at.

[ryanmaccdn]

I hope the developer realizes they will need 10+ elevators. Given it's purpose is education, a majority of it's tenants will be students who move around alot at very small specific periods.

Here at RMIT Melbourne we have 8 industrial elevators for 13 floors and it's a struggle.

[towerseeker101]

The new buildings in Surrey seem to have nicer architecture than in Burnaby (Brentwood in particular).

[Millennium2002]

Originally Posted by ryanmaccdn

I hope the developer realizes they will need 10+ elevators. Given it's purpose is education, a majority of it's tenants will be students who move around alot at very small specific periods.

Here at RMIT Melbourne we have 8 industrial elevators for 13 floors and it's a struggle.

Yeah... while I'm impressed with the height of the building, it also worries me for this exact same reason. Unless the schools all coordinate among themselves (and with twenty of them, this is unlikely), there's going to be a lot of students trying to cram into the elevators to meet class start and end times.

[dleung]

Originally Posted by osirisboy

It reminds me of the podium of modello. If they can do it like that it'll look really good

You can't just supersize the modello podium texture onto a tower that has other elements. Prefer the old version too

[scryer]

Originally Posted by Millennium2002

Yeah... while I'm impressed with the height of the building, it also worries me for this exact same reason. Unless the schools all coordinate among themselves (and with twenty of them, this is unlikely), there's going to be a lot of students trying to cram into the elevators to meet class start and end times.

That's a very good point that I never thought of that.

I think that there could be a way to organize the elevators so that this can be executed seamlessly.

For example, have two industrial-grade elevators servicing the colleges; one would be designated for the upper floors, the other would be designated for the lower floors.

Then have two more industrial-grade elevators servicing the residences; again one would be designated for the upper floors, and the other would be designated for the lower floors. And then there would be regular elevators providing service for all floors inbetween. Would something like this be feasible?

Another idea of mine would be to have by-laws in place that limit what time the colleges start and end at. For example, College #1's class begins at 8:15am - 11:30am then resume at 12:00pm until 4:30pm; and then college #2 could have different start and end times, to try and reduce the amount of traffic trying to access the elevators at one time.

Also we can keep in mind that these are students so they are also likely to take the stairs from their college to the ground level.

This is just food for thought.

[officedweller]

I would expect the podium to have large staircases for the 5 institutional floors.
As for a morning rush hour of students riding down to the classrooms, there would probably be delays - maybe tempered by students trickling into a podium cafeteria before classes then taking stairs to the classrooms.

[Nites]

Originally Posted by officedweller

I would expect the podium to have large staircases for the 5 institutional floors.
As for a morning rush hour of students riding down to the classrooms, there would probably be delays - maybe tempered by students trickling into a podium cafeteria before classes then taking stairs to the classrooms.

They should have separate elevators for the podium.

[Hooknose]

Does anyone know the floor space ratio of this proposal?

[Nites]

Originally Posted by Hooknose

Does anyone know the floor space ratio of this proposal?

As far as I know, official drawings have not been submitted yet for this proposal.

[Marshal]

Originally Posted by Millennium2002

Yeah... while I'm impressed with the height of the building, it also worries me for this exact same reason. Unless the schools all coordinate among themselves (and with twenty of them, this is unlikely), there's going to be a lot of students trying to cram into the elevators to meet class start and end times.

I'm not going to say that this will take care of this issue, but it should. The building code and fire codes have formulae for the size of the area required for egress which are based on categories of use. Assembly and schools are at the very high end. This should be non-negotiable, but I know so many examples that don't satisfy the requirements that I no longer trust the policing of it. Our firm has never been asked (by owner/developer) to try to negotiate this requirement downward, and we would protest if we were, but this may be yet another thing that municipal governments are not doing properly.

[jollyburger]

Surrey civic news says only floors 3-6 will be used by the schools?

https://urbansurrey.com/2017/04/07/devel...ted-for-50-storey-education-mega-centre/

[BodomReaper]

Originally Posted by Marshal

I'm not going to say that this will take care of this issue, but it should. The building code and fire codes have formulae for the size of the area required for egress which are based on categories of use. Assembly and schools are at the very high end. This should be non-negotiable, but I know so many examples that don't satisfy the requirements that I no longer trust the policing of it. Our firm has never been asked (by owner/developer) to try to negotiate this requirement downward, and we would protest if we were, but this may be yet another thing that municipal governments are not doing properly.

Interesting stuff. Is that how we get 30+ storey, 200+ unit towers (Aviara and Plaza 88 come to mind) with only 2 elevators? Standards that aren't actually enforced?

[Marshal]

Originally Posted by BodomReaper

Interesting stuff. Is that how we get 30+ storey, 200+ unit towers (Aviara and Plaza 88 come to mind) with only 2 elevators? Standards that aren't actually enforced?

Another aspect is the differences between calculating capacity for 'everyday' circulation and that required for egress (safety). As one would expect, egress requirements are more tightly defined, but, in the context of this discussion, it needs to be understood that elevators do not figure with regard to egress; only fully separated stairs and the hallways that link them to occupied spaces. Also, the egress capacity of both elements is derived from a one way full on evacuation. Egress widths rarely satisfy normal circulation needs. There is nothing like the interpretation of the building code - including its legal and building inspection (of construction) aspects.

[Shift]

Originally Posted by Hooknose

Does anyone know the floor space ratio of this proposal?

12.23 FAR on gross site area as per Design Panel minutes.