February 23, 2006

HARIRI PONTARINI ARCHITECTS/GUANGHAO QIAN

The pharmacy building will anchor a new health sciences campus at the U. of Waterloo.

Institutional

Ball Construction continues to build up university campus

PATRICIA WILLIAMS

staff writer

No stranger to the University of Waterloo campus, Ball Construction Inc. is gearing up to build the new $32 million school of pharmacy building in the heart of downtown Kitchener.

“We’ve been in business since 1923,” said vice president and estimating manager Gary Hauck. “I think we’ve built 40 per cent of the existing campus.” Designed by a joint venture of Robbie/Young Wright Architects and Hariri Pontarini Architects, the building has been designed to reflect and enhance the downtown warehouse district.

It is phase one of a three-phase project that will create a health sciences campus.

“The city really wanted a landmark building,” said Siamak Hariri, partner in charge of the project at his firm. “It’s quite urban; it’s tight to the street. It marks an important intersection.” Located at the corner of King and Victoria streets, the building includes an eight-storey tower, an integrated primary healthcare centre, a central outdoor courtyard and a medicine garden. A variety of plants with medicinal uses will be grown.

“It’s a state of the art facility,” said Hariri, whose firm previously joint ventured with Robbie/Young Wright on the new $50 million Schulich School of Business at York University.

“It will include extraordinary labs, classrooms, places for student gatherings and faculty offices.” Groundbreaking is expected this spring.

“We’re just getting up to speed,” said Hauck, whose firm recently was retained as construction manager for the pharmacy building.

He said subtrade tenders will be called sequentially, with the excavation and concrete packages being awarded first. Bids for the mechanical-electrical and finishing trades will be called in mid-May.

“We’re faced with a very tight schedule,” Hauck said. “The university is going to be occupying part of the building in August 2007.

“We’ll then have another six months to finish the rest of the building.

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