Winnipeg Building Gets Design Facelift with ICD’s Spandrel Product

One of the most prominent office towers in Winnipeg,Manitoba, Canada is getting a $4 million facelift that will not only make it more energy efficient, but dramatically alter its appearance.

ICD High Performance Coatings of Vancouver, WA will play an instrumental role in this renovation.  OPACI-COAT-300® has been selected as the spandrel coating for the project.

“This is going to put a new face on Broadway”, Karen Lund, general manager of the Winnipeg regional office of Morguard Investments Ltd., said of the renovations to the 16 story building located at 363 Broadway in downtown Winnipeg.  Morguard manages the building, which is owned by a pension fund.

“We kind of think (when it’s done) people are going to look at it and say, ‘When did they build that building?’”, Lund said.

The project is now underway and is expected to take 9-12 months to complete.

It involves replacing the existing curtain wall and then re-glazing with 80,000 sqft of AGC Ti-AC 40 over Gray.

“It’s also an opportunity for us to rebrand the building.  If you’re going to do an upgrade, you don’t want to put up the same glass”, Lund said.

Ron Suzuki of Smith Carter Architects and Engineers is the lead architect and project manager—said some really innovative and interesting buildings are beginning to pop up all around Winnipeg.

“Winnipeggers have become more open to new designs”, Suzuki said.  Suzuki went on to say, “we chose ICD’s OPACI-COAT-300® due to the color range they can provide, the fact that it contains no VOC’s and because we have a favorable and documented history with ICD”.

He and Lund said their design team considered more than half a dozen color combinations before settling on the blue-green-grey combination.

Suzuki said the 363 Broadway renovation was part of a national trend that has seen a lot of 1960’s and ‘70’s era buildings undergo major exteriors renovations in the past decade.

That’s because commercial buildings have a life cycle and the common thinking is that the interior should be upgraded every 10 years, the mechanical systems every 20 years and the exterior every 40 years.

“We wanted to create interest, but also wanted to it to be timeless”, Suzuki said, noting that the glass and spandrel units will likely be there for close to 40 years.

Glazing Contractor:  Border Glass and Aluminum- Winnipeg

Architect:  Smith Carter Architects and Engineers- Winnipeg

Glass Fabricator:  Trulite Glass and Aluminum Solutions- New Berlin, WI.

Spandrel Coating:  ICD High Performance Coatings- Vancouver, WA USA

Glass Supplier:  AGC Glass- Kingsport, TN