An Expression Of Civic Pride | Edmonton City Hall, Edmonton, AB
Our design needed to meet this landmark building's groundbreaking architectural needs as well as its specific budgetary constraints. We delivered.
With its striking forms, including a dramatic pyramid roof and soaring bell tower, Edmonton City Hall is a focal point of the city's downtown and an expression of its civic pride. Read Jones Christoffersen was asked to provide a structural design that was specific to the groundbreaking building's architectural needs. These included an absence of protrusions within the interior space, a complicated vertical design requirement due to the parallelogram-shaped windows used throughout, as well as specific budgetary limitations.
Working closely with the consulting architects, our engineers designed a structural framework that allowed for the alignment of the building's glass panels and its uniquely shaped windows. To accommodate the architectural features of the building and to assist in the construction of its members, the exterior walls were detailed using precast panels. These precast panels, cast as modular widths, incorporated the columns, the sloped diagonals for the window openings, and the base of the exterior structural spandrel for the floor to roof above. The precast units, each the same as the other, were tilted up next to each other, anchored in place to the base and each other, and acted as the exterior shore for the floor or the roof above. Vierendeel type trusses composed of hollow tube sections were used to frame the pyramid roofs, one of which covers a spacious glass-covered assembly area known as the "City Room". Innovative costing of the exterior walls and their tilt-up feature resulted in the successful completion of this project.
Vital Statistics
- Two steel and glass pyramids, one 43 meters high (ground to peak), on top of 3 story concrete structure
- A 200-foot clock tower topped with a 25 bell carillon
Owner: The City of Edmonton
Architect: Dub Architects