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Getting in on the ground floor

Construction of museum enters next phase

By: Martin Cash

24/08/2009 1:00 AM | Comments: 20

Construction of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights is moving towards the above-ground phase.

KEN GIGLIOTTI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Enlarge Image

Construction of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights is moving towards the above-ground phase.

Workers on Friday installed the base for the first of three tower cranes that will soon start sprouting at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights construction site at The Forks.

In contrast to the fact it will be one of the most complicated and sophisticated construction projects in Winnipeg, workers fumbled with a low-tech measuring tape as the tower crane base was set up.

But it means that the anticipated building destined to become a Winnipeg landmark will soon make its presence known above ground.

"Since April all the work has been below the surface," said the museum's chief operating officer, Patrick O'Reilly. "Now it will start to look like something as opposed to just a bunch of holes in the ground. It will be visible. People will start to see constant change."

The first construction crane is to be in place Sept. 10.

Workers are constructing the floor in the first of four excavations that will become what the architects call the four "roots" of the building.

Todd Craigen, construction manager for PCL Construction, the project's general contractor, said, "There is no question, it is very challenging from a construction and engineering aspect."

The $205-million construction project -- that is the cost of the base building construction, not including any of the museum's fixtures or operation -- is about six months into its 36 month-long schedule.

With about 60 craft workers and 20 salaried people on site, it will grow in intensity to about 200 workers plus 50 others at its peak.

Because the building will not have a standard rectangular footprint, there is an extra level of sophistication required in the sequencing of construction work.

The glass "cloud"-covered building will sit on 135 six-foot-wide concrete caissons and 370 smaller precast concrete piles rather than a typical basement excavation.

The Antoine Predock-designed, castle-like glass edifice is designed with a base of four "roots," each requiring excavation.

On Friday, the last caisson for root-A, the northern root section, was being drilled. The four rigs deployed on the site have 60 more caissons left to excavate 15 to 30 metres below grade.

Although there were some challenges in the initial pile driving, Craigen said it was not surprising considering the notorious Red River gumbo that the building will sit on.

"We knew that and we planned ahead with lots of contingencies to do some re-sequencing to make sure the scheduling remains on track," O'Reilly said. "It's not really a surprise. But you always hope there's less rather than more."

While there have been cost overruns, Susanne Robertson, the museum's chief financial officer, said the $205-million base cost ought to be a fairly reliable number now.

"We have already tendered 76 per cent of the base building costs," she said. "Some have come in higher than we budgeted for, some lower."

If the companies that win the tenders run over budget it becomes their responsibility, not the building owner's.

The tendering has been global, but at the same time, O'Reilly said, since it is a federal Crown corporation, there is a desire to use Canadian suppliers whenever possible.

Craigen said because of the complexity of the project, the most sophisticated construction management tools are being used.

He said all the subcontractors are working off the same 3-D modelling using Autodesk Revit architecture software so that when a change is made, it's automatically updated across the project.

"It also allows us to do something called clash detection," he said. "That's when architectural elements or structural elements or engineering elements clash with each other in the design -- for instance a steel beam running through some duct work. The program will flag that and we can address it at the design and planning stage rather than in the middle of construction."

O'Reilly said the tendering sequence that is being used allows the experts in the various aspects of the project to have plenty of time for input into the design.

For instance, the contract to produce and install the glass shroud "cloud" was awarded about 16 months ago to the firm Josef Gartner GmbH of Gundelfingen, Germany.

"That gives them time to finesse and improve design to find cost savings that exists and even more importantly, to make sure ongoing costs are minimized," O'Reilly said.

"Improvements have been made to the glass continually over the last 16 months."

As well, Craigen said PCL has done its own complete thermal mock-up, testing the glass in a cold weather chamber here in Winnipeg to make sure the performance values that were specified are actually being met by the glass.

Speaking of the cold weather, it is not something that Craigen and PCL are particularly concerned about over the next two-and-a-half years of construction.

He said the tower cranes have limited operation when it gets too cold but Western Canadian crews are resilient when it comes to cold weather work.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca

 

Working all

the angles

 

Building the museum

 

In addition to the intricate architectural design, construction of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights features additional layers of complication.

"ö Archeological -- Despite complaints that not enough attention is being paid to the historic significance of the site, archeologists are on site sifting through virtually every load of dirt being lifted in the process of creating caissons and piles the museum is being built on.

"ö Aboriginal heritage -- Because the site has cultural significance to the aboriginal people of the region, a medicine bag is placed in each of the 505 foundation holes that have been excavated, then filled with steel rebar and concrete.

"ö Environmental -- The site is on the edge of the busiest tourist site in the city, so special attention is being paid to keep the dust and rubble within the confines of the construction site.

 

Local contractors

 

PCL, one of the country's largest construction companies, is the general contractor and subtrades from around the world have won tenders, but several local companies have significant roles to play in the project, including:

"ö Smith Carter Architects and Engineers Inc. -- architect of record

"ö Wescan Electrical Mechanical Service -- mechanical engineering

"ö Derksen Plumbing & Heating Ltd. -- plumbing services

"ö Subterranean Ltd. -- foundation and excavation work

 

Economic impact of construction

 

"ö 6,000 -- person years of employment in Canada (including 3,500 in Manitoba)

"ö $133.9 million -- total labour income in Manitoba

"ö $23.3 million -- provincial income and sales tax

"ö $171.4 million -- contribution to provincial gross domestic product

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition August 24, 2009 B4

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20 Commentscomment icon

Quote:
Object to this museum all you will, but including in that objection the assertion that a museum of human rights is misplaced because human rights struggles are still happening is a very flawed objection.
________________________
The objection is about priorities, and not the definition of the word “Museum”.

The hundreds of millions of public dollars (let’s include the provincial crown corporations as public, rather than private contributors, shall we?) going into this human rights museum represent an opportunity cost borne by real human beings. Every dollar that goes into an exhibit about some human rights issue (e.g. native housing, Somalia, Sudan, health care waiting lines, etc.) is a dollar that cannot be put toward doing something about that issue. The hypocrisy is monumental. You are spending the money on talking rather than doing, while emphasizing the importance of doing rather than talking. Do I have to draw you a picture?

To clarify one point suggested a couple of times in this thread, a museum is not a monument to something "extinct," or "tantamount to declaring an end" to something. The definition of a museum is, quite simply, an institution devoted to collecting and preserving items of historic, scientific, or cultural value; it is not by definition restricted to subject matter that is no longer active or culturally relevant.

There are many museums in the world dedicated to subject matter very much alive and well, including but certainly not limited to the Museum of Modern Art in New York and, ahem, the world's many Museums of Sex. (Unless, I suppose, you're in a dry spell.)

Object to this museum all you will, but including in that objection the assertion that a museum of human rights is misplaced because human rights struggles are still happening is a very flawed objection. The concept of a human rights museum is a wonderful one, with the potential to be extremely relevant and thought-prokoving; whether it's right for Winnipeg, or for now, or the way it was done, is another story entirely.

Is it just me or does the CAPS LOCK KEY make nonsense convincing to everybody?

Come on, dyachison, get with the program! The government can’t afford to do much to ease your suffering but I'm sure they'll include an exhibit about health care waiting lines in the museum. Perhaps you could volunteer as an exhibit? I'm sure they'd rope you off so tourists' toddlers couldn't drip ice cream on you. Don’t you feel better already?

That gives me an idea for another exhibit! The next time somebody dies in a hospital waiting room, the museum should snag the corpse! In the next 3 years, there ought to be half a dozen, easy. That’ll attract crowds from far and wide!

You see, I'm not just a naysayer! Do my ideas qualify for a free, ”Human Rights Booster”, brown shirt?

Museum-who cares,the forks is not what it used to be,open with lots of space,now-hotel,museum,might as well put up a brothel or two ! keep them from hanging around the streets in broad daylight !! that would be money well spent !!

Everyone here could dream up a million and one other projects this funding could have been spent on, but in the end the funding for this museuem would have NEVER been spent or allocated to a waterpark or NHL team anyway or any other of those million projects anyway.

I guess that is the problem there are not enough museums to teach people to live together. We will spend all this money to teach people and I guess our crime will drop as a result of it. I am sorry but I think it will be just another white elephant that will keep sucking money out of our pockets. They have spent so much already that they have to keep spending and then they will run out of money again they will come and ask for more. I am glad that our government has so much money for this but my basic medical services force me to wait 6 months to a year for an operation. When are my human rights respected?

It’s funny how all the Human Rights Museum’s supporters agree no one has the right to speak out against it.

Perhaps you human rights boosters could wear the same colored shirts, so we detractors know when to run and hide. Brown might be a good choice.

It is not too late to fill it in and save us tax payers the 1/2 Billion that this thing will balloon to in the coming year. What a total waste of money!

The amazing thing about this project is that we still have no idea what's going in it. Buildings don't make a museum, exhibits and programs do. I also wish it had a different name: "Human Rights Museum" makes it sound like we're dealing with something already extinct. Well, the way things are going...

It's utterly amazing how all the usual naysayers in this town can turn a world-class, progressive project like this into a bad thing. Come on, give your heads a shake! I'm also proud that this national museum will be located here in our city and I think it holds great potential as a destination and a place for learning. Why is there always such negativity and opposition anytime someone tries something different in Winnipeg?

P.S. for all the waterpark know-it-alls: if a waterpark would be so wildly popular and profitable, why couldn't Winnipeg's largest hotelier get it built with a public subsidy? I agree that it would be nice to have something like this, but explain to me why the private sector can't deliver if there's such a potential demand and lots of money to be made? I wonder if CanadInns knows something that the rest of us don't about the profitability of waterparks in this town!

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