Photo courtesy of NWCB Residential wings of Michner Hill meet at a central atrium.

Michener Hill Extended Care is a joint venture between Extended Care Canada and the David Thompson Health Region. The building is a 220,000-square-foot, 280-bed supportive-living facility. The three-story structure consists of load-bearing, steel-stud structural beams, columns and concrete.

It is the largest building of its type in western Canada, according to information supplied to the NWCB.

DVS completed the interior steel-stud framing and drywall covering over 1.5 million square feet in 18 months.

The facility is comprised of household wings with their own kitchen areas. All wings are served by an 82,000-square-foot common area and central atrium containing a cafe, day-care, salon and chapel.

Each wing had to be built up and finished to the middle (atrium). Outside walls are 45 feet tall and the atrium height is 55 feet.

One of the greatest challenges was the location of the project — 1.5 hours away from Calgary — which made it difficult to staff a large number of installers on one site for a long period of time. Other challenges came from crane manipulation, timing of load delivery, installation, and constant weather-related situations such as freezing temperatures, humidity and water intrusion.

Judge’s comment: “This project is the state-of-art for light-gauge framing. It encompasses load bearing, prefab panels and in-place construction. The scale and complexity truly showcases how far this scope of work has come.”