Details of Courtyard by Marriott Revealed
Prince George, B.C.- The new Courtyard Hotel by Marriott in Prime George will be a mid rise wooden structure, the second for Prince George (Wood Innovation and Design Centre was the first) and the third wood framed hotel in B.C.
The details of the hotel which will be built on the concrete foundation that was initially put in place for a Delta Hotel nearly three years ago include:
- .174 rooms
- 7000 ft convention space
- Pool
- Exercise room
The project will create 40 new jobs. It is a 35 million dollar investment.”We now have a development permit a building permit and it’s full steam ahead” said project developer Rod McLeod.
Mayor Lyn Hall said one of the top questions he has been asked over the last 18 months has been ‘when are we going to see that hotel built? ” Well, here we are.”
Mayor Hall says the addition of the hotel will not only be the cornerstone of downtown redevelopment but will help attract major conferences and events. He says the investments of projects like this one and the Riverbend Seniors home are a shot in the arm for the local economy.
Comments
It will be nice to get this eyesore taken care of.
Why would they construct a hotel/convention center with wood? There is an inherent risk of fire with wood structures whether a sprinkler system is available or not. In my opinion, a concrete building has advantages such as fire prevention, sound reduction, mainentance costs, and longevity. It’s time our city council took into account the type of construction used and not just the attraction of financial benefits to city coffers.
It’s their money, not ours. Why do we care if it burns (assuming no one gets hurt), costs more to maintain, has poor sound isolation, or has a shorter lifespan?
Why?
Remember the Yellowhead?
Remember the Columbus?
Remember the Europe?
Remember the MacDonald?
Remember the Prince George?
Have a look at the old Simon Fraser aka Days Inn.
Look at the water problems on the north face of the brand new Sandman for shitty exterior finish.
If this will be a wood frame construction, it will be like them.
If it will be a solid cross-laminated panel construction, then it should age well and not develop creaky floors over time, as an example.
Hear hear ampm ! You will also love this site …… Bonestructure.ca
Nice looking site.
Don’t like the spray they are applying to the outside. Steel will typically collapse earlier than wood. A good example of that was the world trade centre. The flights into the building did not cause the collapse. The fire afterwards helped by the jet fuel and hitting the steel exposed by the compromise of the fire resistant cladding was the main reason for the collapse with the main associated fact that the plane did not hit the top few floors, but 20 or so stories from the tope which meant that the collapse there sent the entire weight of the top section shearing through the lower part of the building, peeling the exterior frame off like peeling a banana.
It was impossible to build a concrete building at that time since it would have taken massive amounts of concrete at the lower floors to make it economical. However, a 60 storey concrete building of those days would likely not have collapsed if struck by a plane at the 40th floor level.
You actually believe that nonsense that a jet fuel fed fire would be enough to weaken thousands of tons of structural steel in less than an hour?
Energy efficient or not, it is still a butt ugly, featureless, characterless house that looks like it was built with legos.
The design is the international style. You will see it in Europe, Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Central America, Mexico, China … much more frequently than in the USA and Canada …. and most certainly there are probably not more than two or three like that in PG.
Legos? …. 2x lumber and 4×8 sheets of gypsum and various wood panels are no different. It is a system of building using standard parts with dimensions to integrate with each other, some are a bit more complex, some, like platform framing, have been around for almost 200 years in Canada and the US.
I am surprised that we have not heard about the 18 storey tall wood building that has eclipsed the WIDIC building already.
The UBC residence uses a concrete core for stairway, elevator and services. The WIDIC building core is a wood panel core.
There are tall wood buildings in Australia as well.
harderblog.com/2016/06/06/tall-wood
The web cam is here, you can download a current picture.
beaconscout.ca/portal/9fe07b8375a231494fbbfea61c234153
I want to know which hotels have been built out of wood at 5 or six storeys and how they were constructed.
Is the Treasure Cove Casino Hotel 5 stories including the ground floor?
The Treasure Cove has a high floor to floor podium (between 10 and 12 feet I would guess from pictures) with three floors of rooms above it.
The ground floor is likely concrete construction. I do not recall seeing it as it went up. That was the conditions of the building codes then. There are several 3 storey wood framed apartment building in PG built on top of a single storey parking garage below, typically half out of the ground. Same configuration.
It is a four storey building.
Buildings have always been allowed to differ from the building code when it comes to structures, especially. What it requires is an engineer to approve it. Few will go through the trouble to do that. They typically have to involve other experts, especially fire safety.
The WIDIC building, for instance, has doors (which on a quick glance look like windows) on each upper floor which allows ladder trucks to reach them in case of an extreme fire which would allow for another exit from the building.
A fire expert who has a PhD in Physics and lectured all over the world on fires spread in buildings provided the review of the building’s fire safety. Engineers who sign off on such buildings require such consultants to give them the comfort of making a reasonable decision to provide their stamp of approval.
BTW, Vancouver is a City Charter municipality. It does not have to comply with the BC Building Code. They have their own. They have allowed 4 storey wood framed buildings for decades.
The other thing no one is considering is that wood framed buildings, as they get taller, require reduced building areas. This necessitates fire compartments if the building area becomes smaller. Some of the apartments in PG have such conditions.
A 1 storey combustible building can be 7,200m2 on the ground.
2 storey = 3,600m2
3 storey = 2,400m2
4 storey = 1,800m2
5 storey = 1,440m2
6 storey = 1,200m2
Fires safety is not being compromised since travel distances to exit are shortened. In addition, I understand that fire protection on lower storeys has to be increased from 1 hour to 2 hours.
Finally, there are other issues which need addressing. Wood shrinks over time with change in moisture content. Shrinkage from floor to floor has to be accounted for in the detail design.
We have lots of experience with 3 and 4 storey wood framed structures. We had little experience with 6 storey buildings when the new codes were introduced. We will see over the years where the codes may have to be tweaked.
So…why are a bunch of people, that have had absolutely nothing to do with this project, in the photo ?
I wonder if some are representing the local, Federal and Provincial taxpayers. Did the owners receive any breaks from these sources.
And of course Mayor Hall is going for the Guiness World Record for photo-ops.
to your question ? ,,, of course they did. And for photo-ops. Green a nicer view then Hall , butHall doing a much better job.
All these people are to be thanked in the photo. Two
Lear jets left back to back this afternoon , had to be some of
them. Thanks for coming .
How long before we see Domenic get a ceremonial city council seat? Any bets out there?
Why should he. He can run for a seat like all the others during elections. ..couldn’t he.
There are 4 members of City Council, one being the mayor on the regional district board. Council choses which ones to appoint.
It would be quite legitimate for Chief Domo to have a seat on the regional district first of all since the reserves, other than #1, are all in the Regional District.
In the GVRD model, the Tsawwassen First Nations has representation on the board of directors, as does the Nisga’a First Nations on the Kitimat Stikine Regional District, WITH BOTH CONTRIBUTING TO GENERAL GOVERENANCE FUNDING.
So there is the precedence in BC and the condition.
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