Full Description

The Hotel Georgia is a Vancouver landmark. The 12-story building opened in 1927 and since then has hosted royalty and scoundrelsâand a host of famous entertainers. The hotel is registered as a protected heritage property by the City of Vancouver. It is currently undergoing a major renovation with the intent of reopening as a five-star hotel. The concrete-framed building is clad with a brick veneer and precast elements over backup walls of laid-up terra-cotta blocks. The brick is supported on shelf angles and tied back with irregularly spaced strap anchors (in a severe seismic zone!). Most windows were wood-framed, double-hung units. The team overseeing the renovation of the building envelope had to consider many issues, including

providing seismic competence, addressing brick displacement caused by corrosion jacking at shelf angles, providing thermal and acoustic comfort appropriate for a five-star hotel, providing appropriate protection against water penetration in Vancouver's maritime climate, maintaining heritage character and fabric, and controlling costs.

Key features of the renewal design included

installation of structural framing inside the existing walls and tying the brick through the terra-cotta block to the frame; replacement of about a quarter of the shelf angles without wholesale brick removal; use of spray-applied urethane foam to the inside of the existing wall to control the flow of heat, air, vapor, and moisture; replacement of guest room windows with wood-framed, double-glazed, single-hung operators; and restoration of lower floor wood-framed windows.

This paper highlights how building science and logic drove design decisions.

Citation: Thermal Performance, International Conference, 2010

Product Details

Published: 2010 Number of Pages: 13File Size: 1 file , 10 MB Product Code(s): D-BUILDINGSXI-124