SFU Burnaby Plaza Renewal | Public: Architecture + Communication

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SFU Burnaby Plaza Renewal | Public: Architecture + Communication

Information

  • Completion year: 2021
  • Gross Built up Area: 23600 sqm
  • Project Location: Greater London
  • Country: Canada
  • Lead Architects/Designer: Susan Mavor and John Wall
  • Design Team: Jay Alkana, Alberto Buldon, Martina Caniglia, Chris Forrest, Courtney Healey, Laura Killam, Andrea Kopecka, Genevieve Mateyko, Marta Nicolau, Henry Posner
  • Project Manager: George Venini
  • Photo Credits: Luc Di Pietro, Barrie Underhill
  • Others: Rendering: Upper Left Photography, Luc di Pietro
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Excerpt: SFU Burnaby Plaza Renewal is an architectural project designed by Public: Architecture + Communication in Canada. This project provided a rare opportunity to comprehensively improve the public realm, including updates to surfaces, lighting, stairway finishes, railings, site furniture, and plantings. In addition, the renewal respects the formal ceremonial nature of Convocation Mall while providing increased opportunities for day-to-day users to gather, linger, and connect informally.

Project Description

[Text as submitted by architect] Built in 1965, the Erickson / Massey Simon Fraser University Campus is among the most significant pieces of Canadian architecture. The Plaza serves a double function as a public space and as a roof sheltering education spaces beneath. After fifty years of use, the roofing membrane and finishes gravely needed renewal. Burnaby Mountain’s unique microclimate produces rapid, freeze-thaw cycles. This and inadequate drainage caused the original ceramic finishes to fail. The design team addressed this challenge with a permeable paving system and replacement of existing clay tiles with Canadian granite.

SFU Burnaby Plaza Renewal | Public: Architecture + Communication
© Public: Architecture + Communication
SFU Burnaby Plaza Renewal | Public: Architecture + Communication
© Public: Architecture + Communication
SFU Burnaby Plaza Renewal | Public: Architecture + Communication
© Public: Architecture + Communication

The original creation of SFU’s iconic Burnaby campus plan was a truly integrated design process: The Plaza and Main Mall were designed by Arthur Erickson and Geoffrey Massey so that the significant architectural pieces designed by other firms – the Academic Quadrangle by Zoltan Kiss, the Science Complex by Rhone and Iredale, the Theatre and Gymnasium by Duncan McNab and Associates, the Library by Robert Harrison – would plug directly into the main pedestrian arterial and form a cohesive whole. Now, nearly 55 years later, the renewal involves as many firms working side-by-side on different portions of the campus aiming for alignment where their efforts meet and a continuation of the spirit and vision of the time.

SFU Burnaby Plaza Renewal | Public: Architecture + Communication
© Luc Di Pietro
SFU Burnaby Plaza Renewal | Public: Architecture + Communication
© Luc Di Pietro
SFU Burnaby Plaza Renewal | Public: Architecture + Communication
© Luc Di Pietro

Breathing new life into an historic public space sets a precedent for renewal over replacement and also preserves important cultural heritage of the 1960s with its inspired goals of dialogue, interdisciplinary work, and landscape integration for future generations. This project provided a rare opportunity to comprehensively improve the public realm, including updates to surfaces, lighting, stairway finishes, railings, site furniture, and plantings. In addition, the renewal respects the formal ceremonial nature of Convocation Mall while providing increased opportunities for day-to-day users to gather, linger, and connect informally.

SFU Burnaby Plaza Renewal | Public: Architecture + Communication
© Luc Di Pietro
SFU Burnaby Plaza Renewal | Public: Architecture + Communication
© Luc Di Pietro
SFU Burnaby Plaza Renewal | Public: Architecture + Communication
© Luc Di Pietro

Minimal intervention complicated the project: Existing door, window, and stair thresholds allowed no more than 3.5 inches of build-up on top of the existing structure. To support service trucks, the Plaza required a fully-grouted—rather than a conventional, pedestal-supported—finish. The two-level drainage system allows rain-water egress by surface drains and via a permeable mortar system (epoxy and birds-eye gravel matrix), allowing water to run right through to the membrane beneath.

SFU Burnaby Plaza Renewal | Public: Architecture + Communication
© Luc Di Pietro
SFU Burnaby Plaza Renewal | Public: Architecture + Communication
© Luc Di Pietro
SFU Burnaby Plaza Renewal | Public: Architecture + Communication
© Luc Di Pietro

Architectural practice is at the beginning of untangling the complexities of ageing historic concrete. The SFU Plaza project has helped advance research focused on concrete conservation (for example, the performance testing of full-scale, in-situ roof-assembly mock-ups, bi-level drainage, and new grouting materials and systems). In addition, the design strategies developed for the SFU Plaza renewal and research results support the efforts of others preserving post-war architectural works of cultural significance, including other Modernist campuses. The renewal doubled the life of the masterwork SFU Burnaby campus.

SFU Burnaby Plaza Renewal | Public: Architecture + Communication
© Luc Di Pietro
SFU Burnaby Plaza Renewal | Public: Architecture + Communication
© Luc Di Pietro
SFU Burnaby Plaza Renewal | Public: Architecture + Communication
© Luc Di Pietro

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