Some significant puzzle pieces for Bradford’s future town hall are now in place, including updated cost estimates.
As part of a presentation from Ronen Bauer and Diarmuid Nash of Moriyama Teshima Architects (MTA), council’s new strategic initiatives committee recommended specific options for the design and construction of the town hall, during the committee meeting Monday evening, Oct. 7.
With the general layout approved at the last meeting, it was time for the committee to consider the construction method, HVAC system, parking, green roofs, a backup generator, and more, before work could proceed to the next stage.
“There are some pretty big decision points we’re asking committee to make,” chief administrative officer Geoff McKnight said.
Councillors selected mass timber for the construction of the building based on the advice of Bauer, who explained construction would require soil improvements to help prepare the foundation for the high water table, which he previously explained is less than one metre below the surface.
In combination with those soil improvements, Bauer said a mass-timber construction could help save about $5 million from construction costs, as footings can be smaller, no dewatering is required, and no fill would be needed.
Committee could have also reduced the construction cost by a further $1.3 million by using a concrete construction with “minimal” excavation, but Bauer stressed that mass timber is prefabricated off site meaning the labour and construction time is “a lot faster.”
Even Ward 4 Coun. Joseph Giordano, who admitted to a preference for concrete, was swayed in favour of timber.
“It’s a lot faster, it’s a lot cleaner, and it’s a lot easier to do,” he said.
The architects also proposed saving roughly an additional $967,000 by using a steel structure for the gym, theatre and atrium.
Ward 5 Coun. Peter Ferragine took no issue with a steel structure in the gym, but had concerns over exposed steel in the theatre, and councillors directed the architects to consider a hybrid approach.
While not a savings, councillors did avoid incurring an addition $13-million cost to add 160 underground parking spaces, which was also expected to have issues from the high water table, and instead selected 150 surface parking spots for just $750,000.
The architects also presented councillors the option of spending $8.5 million to create 150 spots in an above-ground parking garage, but both staff and councillors noted the future redevelopment of the community centre campus is expected to include more surface parking anyways.
More savings were found as staff explained a geothermal heating and cooling system might not be feasible for the location, once again due to the water table and soil conditions, and as a result the committee instead voted to use air-source heat pumps which are expected to reduce construction costs by about $1.26 million.
Those heat pumps are expected to be installed on the roof, where they could be joined by plantings.
To help filter and retain rain water, reduce impacts on stormwater runoff and create a better view from the third and fourth floors of the administrative wing, committee voted in favour of adding a green roof over the gym, atrium and theatre at a cost of about $82,000.
The committee also directed the architects to continue exploring the option of adding solar panels to the building, but no cost estimates were available.
While the base design of the building included $650,000 for a 750-kilowatt generator to maintain power to roughly one quarter of the building in the event of an outage, the architects also presented the option of upgrading to a 1.2- to 1.5-megawatt generator to maintain power to the whole building and improve its potential as a disaster relief centre. Committee voted against the idea, which was estimated to cost between $1.2 to 1.5 million.
The architects also asked the committee to decide if they wanted to remove two options from the previously approved design, but the committee was not in favour of either.
The first choice was to reduce the four-storey west wing to just three, with the option to build up later, but Bauer warned adding later on would be more expensive.
The west wing is initially expected to have about 950 square metres (10,225 sq. ft.) more than staff would need, but as the number of town staff expected to work in the building is set to increase from 111 when the building is expected to open in 2026, to 183 by 2038, the remaining will progressively shrink to just 265 sq. m (2,852 sq. ft.).
In the meantime, councillors voted to lease out the extra space — which could be on any of the four floors — to help offset costs.
The other choice was to remove the balcony from the theatre to save about $500,000, but that was defeated in a tie vote (Mayor James Leduc was absent).
The balcony was expected to add about 80 seats for a total of 300 in the theatre, but recreation and cultural services director Terry Foran assured council they could still fit all 300 without the balcony, especially as Bauer suggested reducing some of the “generous” space behind the stage.
Prior to the decisions of council, MTA had estimated the total construction cost would be about $89.8 million with an overall project cost of $105.7 million, including, design, permits, furnishings and the roughly $4.1 million the town has already spent on land acquisition as well as legal and administrative work.
However, based on all of committee’s decisions, McKnight estimated the total construction cost would be reduced by at least $5.5 million, dropping the total estimated project cost to slightly more than $100 million.
The presentation didn’t include any updated timeline for building, but a Feb. 12 report from town construction projects manager Steve Neely anticipated work to begin as early as April 2025 and be mostly complete by September 2026.
Recommendations from the strategic initiatives committee are considered for approval at the next regular council meeting.
