It’s probably one of the hottest design projects around.
Fire, in all its aspects from tool to life-threatening menace, is the theme of a new interpretive centre designed by a Calgary architectural firm for a site at Vermilion, 190 kilometres east of Edmonton.
And while fire is the very element driving visitors away from campgrounds and backcountry trails in southwestern Alberta and the Crowsnest Pass this past week, the new centre could prove to be a real draw.
“This could be a spectacular tourist attraction for Alberta,” said architect Chito Pabustan, a partner at Sturgess Architecture.
Fires can be mesmerizing, drawing spectators the same way people are drawn to airports to watch planes take off and land. But in this case, says Pabustan, the spectacle is designed to educate.
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| Illustration courtesy of Sturgess Architecture |
| Plans for the fire interpretive centre at Vermilion call for impressive displays of all kinds of flame. |
The firm was selected to design the proposed FireWorks, or Canadian Fire Discovery Centre, for a local group in the town of 4,400. Vermilion is the site of Fire etc. (emergency training centre), formerly known as the Alberta Fire Training School.
The 30,000-sq.-ft. design is linear, with a corridor at one side running past the various exhibit areas. Exhibit designer Westwind Design has collaborated on the project from the beginning.
The area outside the front entrance will feature a memorial flame honouring past firefighters, while the inside of the centre will feature a gift shop, a theatre and a cafe.
Moveable walls will allow the entire space to be used as one for large exhibits or events.
Visitors will be able to go directly to the spectacular – firefighting school simulations are to be showcased at the final viewpoint.
Or they can “pinball through the exhibits” to learn about forest fires, fire gods, suppression technology, fires in nature, arson investigation and so on, Pabustan said.
The first area is called Fire We Worship, and describes how fire and fire gods have been prevalent in many religions and cultures.
The Fire Room will feature a courtyard with both water and plumes of fire, although budget considerations will determine whether the fire will be displayed in Old Faithful-like intervals or as fan-driven spirals of flame.
A corridor will lead from the Fire Room to the Science of Fire, where visitors will encounter audio-visual displays, hands-on exhibits, combustion descriptions and a smoke maze.
A demonstration lab will explain why flame is blue for natural gas but other colours for other fuels. Kids in raincoats will enjoy the sprinkler exhibit, while other visitors will be able to see how extinguishers look in action or experience the kick of a firehose – reduced to a level safe for indoors.
A helicopter model will be suspended above the diorama of a forest fire, and visitors can walk among Hollywood-style faux flames, a mix of light and steam moved by fans.
A Safety House will show kids the dangers of fire at home, and include tests to make sure they absorb the knowledge.
And any time you talk about fire, says Pabustan, “you have to have a firetruck.” A firetruck simulator will be on hand to give visitors a bird’s-eye view from the hotseat.
Fire knowledge used in advance paid off for one Edmonton firm after its office suffered heat, smoke and water damage in a recent $2-million blaze.
The July 21 fire at 4209 99 Street started on a lower floor at an alarm service company, but damage was heaviest in the third-floor offices of chartered accountants Kouri Berezan Heinrichs. Ken Kouri said the firm had taken the advice of its IT contractor by not only backing up its data, but taking it home every night.
“If you’re prepared, you can turn a nightmare into a bad dream,” Kouri said.
With backups offsite, the firm’s data has all been recovered, even some data that experts were able to extract from severely damaged hard drives. It turns out there’s even a way to de-smoke paper files using ozone.
But there’s still a heavy downside – the office computers were destroyed, with the exception of five laptops that were out of the office when the fire occurred. For the short term, the company is filling the computing needs of 27 people by sharing laptops and using temporary office space offered by a few thoughtful clients. The company hopes to be back in its own quarters by Christmas.
“No matter how bad it seems, nobody died and it isn’t April (tax season),” Kouri said. “If I were trying to put it back together knowing that one of the faces in the office wouldn’t be there anymore, I wouldn’t be able to.”
Calgary city council picked five builders for eight parcels of land last week in the first phase of the new Bridges residential/commercial development on the site of the old Calgary General Hospital.
The first set of three phases of the 36.8-acre redevelopment will total 425 residential units. Two later phases will add 716 and 434 units for a total of 1,575 units, or up to 2,500 new residents.
After the hospital was blown up by the Klein government in October 1998, the city gained title to the land and started a planning process that has lasted more than three years. The city received offers from 14 different companies, a dozen of which met city requirements. Construction on the sites could start next spring.
The builders include 4142136 Canada Inc., Bucci Developments Ltd., Sandlewood Developments Ltd., Townscape Properties Ltd., and Homes by Avi, Inc. Sale prices totalled $12 million.
