The Richmond Olympic Oval, located just south of Vancouver in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada, is a hallmark of unique architecture, sustainability and world-class sportsmanship to all who experience it. Home of the long distance speed skating events for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games, the 512,000-square-foot (47,565-m2) Oval will host 12 medal events on its 400-meter track along with as many as 8,000 spectators who come to watch this February.
Certified LEED Silver, the Oval was designed by Cannon Design Architecture, Vancouver, British Columbia, with a recipe of sustainable strategies. Employing an energy-efficient façade to provide both building insulation and daylighting, a re-purposed wood roof, rainwater capture and reuse and waste heat reuse systems, the Oval was designed to integrate with its natural surroundings through an architectural scheme of “Flight, Flow and Fusion.”
“The idea of ‘flow’ in the architecture of the Oval finds expression in the blue Quadwall cladding that wraps three sides of the structure,” said James Wu, senior associate, Cannon Design. “The design attempts to show how the waters of the estuary transform from one shade to another gently and organically. The graduated color Quadwall panels make the same gentle transition three times and in the process result in a softening and scaling down of the considerable surface area.”
Combining 12 different shades of blue into a continuous façade, 63,000 square feet (5,853 m2) of 2 3/4-inch (70-mm) Quadwall from CPI Daylighting, Lake Forest, Ill., graces the Oval’s south, east and west sloped-wall elevations.
Made from translucent polycarbonate, the Quadwall provides daylighting to the Oval, reducing the need for artificial lights while providing an insulation U value of 0.24, keeping athletes and spectators sheltered from Richmond’s frigid winter temperatures.
“The Quadwall’s principal technical purpose was two-fold,” Wu said. “First, it had to filter and diminish the intensity of the sunlight from the south exposure; second, it had to serve as the interior finish on the main activity level and had to be sufficiently robust to serve as a building code defined ‘guard.'”
Custom fabricated by CPI Daylighting, the Quadwall is framed in extruded aluminum, with battens of the same material holding the vertical seam every 2 feet (6 m) on center on both the Quadwall’s interior and exterior faces. Aluminum clips also secure the glazing panels to horizontal steel girts located behind the glazing panels, holding the system in place.
Installed by Flynn Canada Ltd., Toronto, the Oval’s façade was independently performance tested in an independent lab prior to shipping to the site for static air and water infiltration, structural design load and seismic lateral racking to make sure it met local building envelope structural and seismic performance requirements.
Raise the Roof
Another distinctive element of the Oval is its 6 1/2-acre
(3-hectare) roof that is taking ‘flight.’ Made from 1 million feet
(304,800 m) of salvaged British Columbia wood collected from forests damaged by pine-beetle infestation, the roof is a significant sustainable building feature. Holding up the structure are 15 steel and glulam composite arches, the longest of which spans 328 feet (100 meters). Integrated with the re-purposed wood, these beams were crucial in creating the compact roof arch that architects were looking for, resembling the flight of the local Blue Huron, who fishes over the edge of the neighboring Fraser River.
“The building expresses the idea of flight through the sweeping roof segments, terminating in soaring ‘feather’ ends,” Wu said.
In order to create this look, the steel beams had to be warped into a vertical plane, while a horizontal steel truss created a hollow space inside the roof to conceal electrical conduit, sprinkler system mains and the mechanical duct work used by the building’s HVAC system. Each of the 14 individual arches contains four pairs of glulam members, each measuring 82 feet (25 m) long. The resulting large arch appears compact, as steel flanges assist in carrying the weight of potential unbalanced snow loading on the roof as well.
Lasting Legacy
‘Fusing’ the Oval and its site through an integrated, sustainable design from the energy-efficient façade to the re-purposed wood roof and everywhere in between has launched a legacy for the city of Richmond. What will carry it out is the Oval’s unique post-game plan. Unlike most international facilities built solely for Olympic gaming, the Richmond Oval will serve its surrounding community and Canadian national athletes after the games are over. Beginning in March 2010, Olympic decommissioning will transform the Oval into a multiuse recreation facility for Richmond, featuring indoor ice, court and track facilities.
Plans for a 9,700-square-foot (901-m2) athletic development center, a 16,000-square-foot (1,486-m2) sports science and research testing facility, a sports rehabilitation and medicine area, an indoor paddling center, a fitness studio for group exercise and a rowing and cycling studio will turn the Oval into a fitness powerhouse. The Oval will offer a full range of training and competitive opportunities for both summer and winter sports, ranging from developmental and recreational to elite level sporting, allowing a number of Canadian national sports teams to make the Oval their training center as well.
Such a legacy is sure to take the Richmond Olympic Oval from its Silver beginnings toward an even brighter future. Mindi Zissman is a freelance writer living in Chicago.
