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We all know that buildings don't always turn out like the renderings. Last-minute changes and real-life materials can all cause discrepancies between the vision and reality of a project. In our Flash Forward Friday feature, we take a look at how different projects stack up.
Anchoring the corner of 114 Street and 87 Avenue NW with its swopping bowl-like design, patronage at the University of Alberta Physical Activity and Wellness Centre has skyrocketed 300 percent over the previous facility. Unifying four separate buildings run by the Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation, the University of Alberta Student's Association, the University of Alberta Grad Student's Association and the Steadward Centre for Personal and Physical Achievement, the finished product was just as architecturally enticing and glitzy as the renderings suggested.
The concept for the building, featuring a glazed rectangular massing accompanied by a striking cone-shaped entrance, was approved by student referendum in March 2010. Demolition of existing structures began in November 2012 and took six months to complete. The vision for enhanced fitness, health and wellness services not only included the purpose-built facility, but the renovation of a handful of existing buildings in order to accommodate new program space. The new and old buildings are linked by a social street that integrates student services to animate a pedestrian thoroughfare.
Group 2 Architecture set out to create a gateway showpiece for the university. A rendering of the project put the emphasis on the metal- and glass-sheathed elliptical corner element, which was poised to house a climbing centre. Showing how the building would interact with the adjacent Butterdome, the rendering accurately portrayed the materiality and scale of the finished product.
But the street-facing landscaping elements pictured in the rendering were more predictive and preliminary. Upon the building's grand opening, a bronze statue called the Alberta Bear, created by Canadian artist Cathryn Jenkins, stood atop a pedestal outside the windows of the Wilson Climbing Centre. Commissioned to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation, the piece honours the University of Alberta, the province and the region's natural heritage.
We will return in the near future with another comparison!
