City of Vancouver

This project involved tenant improvements to the Vancouver Police Department’s old Main Street headquarters and new annex building. The three-storey annex building, located at 236 East Cordova Street, houses the VPD’s BEAT, Commissionaire, Victim Services, Crown Liaison Unit, High Risk Offenders, and Sex Trade Worker Liaison offices. Amenities provided at the annex building include: firearms and ammunition storage, a gun cleaning room, locker and shower rooms, sleeping quarters, wet clothing areas, a first aid room, a public washroom, a meeting room, general and communal storage, a parade room, a lunch room, a weight room, evidence lockers, three interview rooms, three monitor rooms, a gymnasium, and a training classroom.

The site presented numerous challenges in designing and executing the renovations work. The age and ‘existing conditions’ of the building demonstrated numerous constraints, which were exacerbated by the presence of asbestos, making exploratory work by the design team much more difficult and the construction process more time-consuming and complex. Additionally, the building was occupied and the renovations needed to be completed in a manner that allowed the resident VPD divisions to continue their operations unimpeded.

The design team overcame all of these challenges, and the limitations of restricted site access that often required VPD escorts, to deliver the project to suit the client’s needs. An old facility that was no longer meeting its needs has now been rehabilitated and is able to provide the necessary facilities for the VPD in one of Canada’s most challenging policing zones (Vancouver’s Downtown East Side).

Mechanical Systems Description:

As a legacy structure with existing mechanical systems, the scope of the renovations did not allow for major systems upgrades that would have significantly increased the energy performance of the building. However, re-use of older building stock for new purposes is itself a very green strategy that offers lifecycle advantages over building anew.

Electrical Systems Description:

For the floor areas affected by partition changes, MCW provided designs for new power and modifications to the lighting systems layout. The existing base building lighting fixtures were relocated to suit the new partition plan. Conduits and cabling designs were created for the CATV and audio visual systems. 198 data and telephone drop locations were added. Designs for the addition, change and relocation of data cabling and drops were tailored to suit the relocated workstations. A new incoming fibre feed was incorporated into the design for the data communications riser. Two new data closets and a new data room were added. A centralized UPS was installed in the new data room. MCW also designed a new addressable fire alarm system with interconnections for each building.