Red River College Polytech: The Roblin Centre

Project Journey

The construction of Red River College’s Princess Street Campus involved the development of a “Brown Field Site” in downtown Winnipeg. The area is bound on four sides by William Avenue, Elgin Street, Adelaide Street and Princess Street.

The initial phase of the Princess Street development involved the complete renovation, including a four-storey addition, to the existing six-storey Mercantile Building at 315 William Avenue. It also required the structural stabilization and temporary support of five historic Princess Street building facades, each of which originated between 1882 and 1892. The final project phases involved the construction of a new four-storey structure along Princess Street and Adelaide Street, which was connected by a central, full-height atrium.

Sections of the new roof structures were designed to support the additional weight of a “Green Roof” system used to minimize the building’s overall carbon dioxide emissions, as well as reduce its thermal and rainwater emissions.
In the spring of 2002, the overall Princess Street Campus project was selected by nationally-acclaimed architects and engineers to be one of three buildings representing Canada at the Sustainable Buildings Conference Green Building Challenge in Oslo, Norway. The project ranked fifth out of 36 international entries submitted in the competition.

The Consulting Engineers of Manitoba awarded Crosier Kilgour an Award of Excellence for our structural design on this project, for both the stabilization of the historic building facades, as well as for the overall design.