CBE staff finally come together
By David Parker, For the Calgary Herald, February 24, 2011
Dozens of orange boxes were being opened by the excited and thankful staff of the Calgary Board of Education on Tuesday.
Several departments moved from their cramped quarters in the current education centre on Macleod Trail S.E. into two floors of the new CBE Tower at the corner of 12th Avenue and 8th Street S.W.
It was the beginning of a bringing together of more than 500 employees, now working in six different administrative locations, into a new practical, efficient and cost-effective complex that will provide staff the opportunity to improve collaboration and efficiency while avoiding increases in costs for utilities, repairs and maintenance to its 40-year-old home.
The new CBE Education Centre is the result of a development team made up of Bentall Kennedy, Gibbs Gage Architects and EllisDon Construction that began working together on the project in 2004. Partner in charge Stephen Mahler and his team designed a 10-storey tower of 220,000 square feet with three levels of parking underground.
The open main level will include space for a large transition centre to help students and parents better understand available CBE choices, and leasable retail units for a Good Earth Cafe, a convenience store and a financial branch.
It's a very modern and attractive curtain wall building, but Mahler says the real jewel in the crown is the adjoining Dr. Carl Safran Centre, the former high school that was built in a Scottish baronial style in 1910 using locally quarried sandstone.
The new tower has been linked to the refurbished sandstone building by a high glass atrium offering a very transparent space between the old and new sections that will feature a huge multi-screen wall with links to schools. It joins a new two-storey section called Safran North that houses the CBE boardroom on the main floor that will accommodate more than 200 people, but can be divided into two large multipurpose rooms. On the second level are a trustee hearing room, lounge and large meeting/training room.
Safran South, the original school, has been carefully restored with the assistance of city heritage planner Darryl Cariou and Lorne Simpson, a local architect who specializes in historic Calgary. Now a modern office complex, much of the interior character has been retained by keeping original stairwells, skylights and dark wood windows.
It will house the department of chief superintendent of schools Naomi Johnson, legal affairs, communications services and both a historical classroom equipped with period desks, blackboards -and even a strap for naughty kids -as well as a classroom of the future fitted with the most up-to-date technology.
Dan Clement, vicepresident of development and constructions services at Bentall Kennedy, says the buildings conform to the strictest of Green Building standards and the entire complex is expected to use a lot less energy.
Read more: (
visit link)