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Breaking ground in October 2016 with a targeted completion date of 2018, construction crews at the site of NAIT's newest building have their work cut out for them. Approximately 170 workers have been assigned to the project, building the bulk of the Productivity and Innovation Centre at the eastern edge of the main campus.
Accommodating roughly 60 staff, the 189,951-square-foot building will become the hub for productivity enhancement, applied research and acceleration services when its doors swing open next year. The exterior design, fashioned by GEC Architecture, has been imagined with contemporary materials, including glass, concrete and masonry. A wall of photovoltaic panels and fibre-reinforced concrete panels will give its surface a contoured texture.
The one-storey A Wing will feature six-metre-high ceilings to service lab work. It will be the primary research space in the building, home to multiple laboratories, including a 3-D metal printing lab, a tailings lab, and a space for large-scale testing. The B Wing will contain additional labs for non-destructive testing, electronics and lasers, computer training, and autonomous guided vehicles. It will house many of the PIC's offices and meeting spaces, with an outdoor rooftop patio to be available for special functions and events.
Connecting the A and B wings will be a five-storey glass atrium. This reception space is almost fully clad in glazing, says Greg Topinka, director of Capital Projects. A video highlighting the construction progress has been posted to NAIT's YouTube account:
The next few months will see work shift indoors, where crews will complete the drywall installation, flooring, ceilings, painting, and the mechanical and electrical systems. The federal government's Post-Secondary Institutions Strategic Investment Fund contributed nearly $35 million to the project, while NAIT has invested over $45 million to realize their latest campus addition.
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