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Commercial | BROCCOLINI – ERIN MILLS TOWN CENTRE
Around the World
RENOVATING AND ADDING TO A 25-YEAR-OLD SHOPPING MALL WHILE IT REMAINED OPEN
PRESENTED A SERIES OF CONSTRUCTION CHALLENGES FOR BROCCOLINI. BY RUSS GAGER
mall’s second level will
» The
have a glass globe, which was
manufactured in Germany.
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D
emolishing a 170-foot clock tower, building a glass
globe 90 feet in diameter and replacing three huge
skylight roofs with clerestories are just the beginning
of the challenges Broccolini is facing in renovating
130,000 square feet of the Erin Mills Town Centre in Mississauga,
Ontario. Renovating the enclosed shopping mall for its 25th
anniversary and building a 25,000-square-foot addition to it
while it remains open for business brings the total renovation
and construction cost to around $100 million.
The iconic centerpiece of the mall will be the glass globe,
which is being mounted above the mall’s second level in its
center where the clock tower had stood since the mall’s founding.
Most of the globe will extend beyond the mall’s roof line and
be as much of a landmark for the surrounding area as the clock
tower that previously extended above the roof was.
One of the challenges of building the globe – which is being
manufactured in individual glass sheets by Gartner Steel and
Glass in Germany – was where to put the tower crane while
the mall remained open. “When we got the job designing the
sequencing and logistics of the project, a big question mark
was how we were going to demolish this giant clock tower and
then build this giant ball right in the middle of the mall with no
access,” Project Manager Cristian Yanez points out. “Everything
that goes in that center court has to go through the interior mall
or over it through the roof. We all decided a tower crane was the
way to go, but where do we locate it?”
During a site visit, Yanez had an inspiration. “I said, ‘Why
don’t we stick the tower crane right in the middle of the mall
adjacent to the clock tower?’” he recalls. “And that’s what we
did. We built a giant concrete base next to the clock tower,
and we dropped the tower crane right in the middle of the
mall.” Many of the construction materials were lifted from the
outside to the center of the mall by the tower crane.
The globe will seemingly float 30 feet above an infinity pool on
the first floor of the mall, but in actuality, it will be supported by
14 concealed brackets on a round truss system. “The main girders
to support the truss weighed about 40,000 pounds each and were
90 feet long, and those were one piece of steel,” Yanez points out.
“They were too heavy to pick up with the tower crane. So we basically just put them
on a flatbed truck
and drove them
right through
www.broccolini.com
the mall.” Large
• Construction cost: $100 million
temporary ga• Location: Mississauga, Ontario
rage doors were
•
Employees onsite at peak: 80 to 90
installed on the
shift including subcontractors’ workers per
mall’s first floor
• Scope of work: Shopping mall renovat
to allow large
ion
building materials and trucks
to be transport- Cristian Yanez, project manager
ed inside.
Broccolini
– Erin Mills Town Centre
“We had to cut back about $6
million in less than a month.”
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Commercial | BROCCOLINI – ERIN MILLS TOWN CENTRE
» Most of the globe will extend beyond the mall’s roof line and be a landmark for the surrounding area.
Removing Skylights
Another massive undertaking was removing
multiple skylights on the ceilings of three
wings of the mall and over a food court,
and rebuilding the roofs with clerestory
windows. Unfortunately, each replacement
took approximately seven months over the
winter, and to meet the strict deadlines of the
project, they had to be done at the same time.
“So we selected a scaffolding company
and built giant platforms across each
of the entire wings of the mall,” Yanez
relates. “We installed some temporary
roofing and drainage to catch all the
water and snow and then opened the
roof right up.” With weather-tight seals
above the scaffolding platforms – each
of which measured approximately 30
feet wide by 300 feet long – the old roofs
with the skylights were removed and the
new clerestories constructed. Aluminum
A-beam joists were used on the scaffolding so anchor points could be spaced up
to 25 feet apart and openness maintained
in the mall’s wings.
The project’s approximately 20 subcontracting firms began working two shifts on
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The Broccolini Way
“For more than 60 years, Broccolini has built everything from homes
to warehouses, to office buildings according to a particular belief:
when you build great buildings, you also build great relationships,”
the company says. “That is the Broccolini Way.”
Founder Donato Broccolini’s first project was a single-family
home in Montréal in 1949. “Construction in those days was very
different,” the company says. “A handshake delivered and a word
promised was considered more valuable than any signed contract.
Donato understood this and strived to ensure that he always
exceeded his clients’ expectations.”
Over time, houses became residential streets and streets became
entire neighborhoods. By building strong ties with clients and delivering quality work, Broccolini was well on its way to building a solid
foundation for itself in Montréal, the company says.
Over the following decades, the company grew. Residential
neighborhoods turned into schools, churches and hospitals. In the
1980s, Donato recruited his three sons – John, Joseph and Paul – to
support him in running the business. The four men saw the company
move into new markets and build sophisticated retail outlets, manufacturing facilities and industrial complexes across Quebec.
Broccolini also entered into the real estate industry. Over the
years, the company purchased strategically placed land that became
the sites for many of its projects.
Today, three generations of Broccolinis run the business and
guide its growth through Quebec and into Ontario. Supporting them
is a team of more than 100 employees with experience in all kinds
of disciplines: engineering, architecture, real estate, development
and construction.
promising the design of the mall. The architect wanted it one way, and
we kept it that way.” This was accomplished through price negotiations,
value-engineering and, in some cases, material substitutions. “We got the
project back on track and budget, and when we did that, we were given
the official contract,” Yanez says.
the project in September 2013. Rerouting consumer traffic during
construction was challenging. Some areas were completely walled
off, while in other sections, enclosed walkways had to be built to
provide access to stores. The renovation is scheduled for completion
in November 2015.
New Entrances
Most of the new construction at the mall is for a glass-enclosed, 54-foothigh entrance and a second-level food court. The mall was designed
by MMC Architects. “We’re redoing all the finishes, including drywall
ceilings, new limestone floors and glass railings with stainless steel
handrails,” Yanez says.
The addition is structural steel with a slab-on-grade foundation
and concrete slabs on the decks. Approximately 75 percent of the
exterior is structural glass, and the rest is architectural block and
stucco. The mall’s flat tar and gravel roof is being coated with a light
concrete topping and a modified bitumen system placed over that.
Broccolini has done many projects for the Erin Mills Town Centre’s
manager, 20Vic Management, and was asked to examine the project
before the fixed-price contract was completed. After the tender documents were drawn up and three to five different trades consulted, a
final price for the project was calculated.
“We had to cut back about $6 million in less than a month, and we did
it,” Yanez recalls. “We basically didn’t change anything in terms of com-
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