Bank of Montreal (BM) Atrium
- Acoutics
- Pillars | Structural Supports
Acoustics
- This is a multi-purpose space that includes yoga classes in winter, meetings, events & parties.
- The same acoustic insulation as is used in the Welcome Centre is used in this room – behind the “holey” mezzanine metal wall.
- So the room has been “tuned” – not like a concert hall, but mainly to dampen noise and allow a speaker to be heard.
Pillars || Structural Supports
- This building has been built within the footprint of a pre-existing building
- The old walls aren’t structurally sound, so can’t help support the new construction
- It was thought the new structural pillars could be placed right next to the old walls,
- but the engineers said that the excavation for the pillars could have caused the walls to simply fall down.
- This is why the pillars are set back this distance.
- This actually turned out to be a fortunate stroke of serendipity in that it provided the opportunity for the 2nd floor outside gallery walk
- Floors 3 and 4 -- cantilevered off the pillars and 5 also has a terrace
- So as to avoid a lot of disruptive excavation, each pillar is supported by 4 “micro piles”
- ..... of very high strength steel rods about the thickness of your arm(100mm).
- They’re about 9 metres long and go down through the 4 feet of rubble, through the water table and into bedrock.
- Building code normally requires pillars to be encased in fire-retardant drywall
- The designers were able to source a fire-retardant paint -- so the pillars could be integrated into the design
- Over 90% of the steel used in the Centre for Green Cities is recycled and sourced from Canada and the northern U.S.
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