Bow Valley College (BVC) is a comprehensive community College with an emphasis on Health & Community Care, Academic Upgrading, English as a Second Language and Business & Industry Training. The College’s goal is to accommodate growth from 4,900 Full-load-equivalent (FLE) learners to 7,000.

The North Campus, originally finished in 1972, was completely redeveloped into a light-filled, student-centered, higher education facility that has expanded and increased BVC’s space efficiency. We were able to ‘find’ an additional 7,500 m2 (80,000 ft2) of space within the tight downtown site of the original building. An exterior plaza located at the +15 level and an at-grade parking structure were filled in, creating street-oriented student gathering, learning, resource and administrative spaces. Exterior corridors were replaced with classrooms and offices, increasing space efficiency and exposing students, faculty and staff to natural light. A new internal ‘main street’ connects the core of the building to student gathering spaces adjacent windows.

Mechanical performance was upgraded while simultaneously improving energy efficiency, and achieving LEED Certification. Existing HVAC systems were upgraded and re-used to service the internal areas of the building, while four new air handling units were tuned to service the unique requirements of the north, south, east and west perimeter spaces.

The renovation was completed while BVC continued normal day-to-day operations. Successful project execution thus required planning swing spaces and ‘decanting’ users while mitigating construction disruption.

EDIT