TRILLIUM LAKELANDS LOOK. The main entrance of the new Bracebridge Education Centre will face north onto a circular drive and feature timber trusses and stone to allow it to fit in with the environment and get away from the ‘big-city’ institutional look.
Trillium Lakelands District School Board is definitely not all talk when it comes to teaching its students about good environmental practices. The board’s new Bracebridge Education Centre has been designed specifically with LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification in mind.
“It’s something we chose to do,” explained Bob Kaye, superintendent of business for TLDSB. “It’s trying to mirror what we’re trying to teach, which is just around energy and environmental conservation.”
The new one-storey building will be located on Cedar Lane in Bracebridge, across from Macaulay Public School and beside the TLDSB maintenance facility. Funded by an accumulated $6.1-million capital reserve, the education centre will house approximately 50 employees, with board offices, meeting rooms, the TLDSB server, IT department, a resource centre, and shipping and receiving.
At approximately 25,000 square feet in size, it will replace the current facility leased from the District Municipality of Muskoka on Pine Street in Bracebridge and the R.S. Claus Resource Centre on Victoria Street. The district will reclaim the offices on Pine Street to use as a courthouse for cases under the Provincial Offences Act when the lease runs out in November 2013, while the facility on Victoria Street will be sold and the money put toward future school buildings, said Kaye.
Approximately 10,000 square feet larger than the two facilities it replaces, the future education centre will accommodate three adjoining meeting rooms, that when opened up will hold 288 people, more washrooms to complement the meeting rooms, a larger server room for future growth and generally more space all round to “stretch out a bit.”
“It’s pretty tight accommodations right now,” said Kaye.
The new meeting space will alleviate board costs for rented space at resorts and other facilities for professional development of teachers and other staff, explained Kaye.
Craig Young, senior manager of the TLDSB plant, detailed to trustees at the December board meeting some of the key elements pulled out of LEED for the new building, including water use reduction strategies, high efficiency overflow fixtures, systems for reducing heat buildup and optimizing energy performance, and the use of FSC (Forestry Stewardship Council)-certified wood.
“LEED is a framework and rating system for buildings that focuses on design, construction and operations of a building,” he explained. The building will also house a shower and bike rack to encourage employees to cycle to work, which is another LEED feature, said Young.
The outside of the building will have a “Trillium Lakelands” look, according to Kaye.
“It’s to try to get away from the institutional flat roof view, so you’ve got the sloped roof and the timbers, as far as the trusses go, and the stone and wood look on the exterior,” he explained. There’s also a natural rock outcropping that will be built on and around, rather than trying to blow it out, he added.
Run-off from the roof and parking lots will be directed toward a reservoir pond, as required by the town for stormwater management. Although the facility will be on town water, town sewers are not accessible, so leaching pits will be utilized, said Young.
The main entrance will face north onto a circular driveway, with additional parking to the west, providing for 125 cars and four handicapped spots in total. Construction of the circular driveway will make use of fill from the old Highway 11 entrance into Bracebridge onto Cedar Lane, which was closed after construction of the Taylor Road flyover, more than 20 years ago. A berm, built along the east side for privacy and noise reduction from Highway 11, and existing trees will essentially block any view of the structure from the highway, although the roofline, which is 24 feet at its highest point, may still be visible, said Kaye.
The site plan was approved by the Town of Bracebridge in November and once the architects, Salter Pilon Architects Inc., complete the specifications for heating and ventilation, the project will go to tender sometime in January. The builder is expected to be in place by the end of February, with construction starting in the spring of 2012, said Kaye.
“Everybody is very excited,” he said, and explained the architect held visioning sessions in the summer for staff to identify what they felt were key features needed in the new building. “That was very beneficial because we were able to capture everything that was identified.”
The board expects to occupy the facility in the summer of 2013.
