Mah’s Point – Whitehorse, Yukon
Mah’s Point is a six story Design-Build, mixed use, 52 Unit, structural steel condominium.
The $18-million apartment complex, located on 2nd and Jarvis has a total of 52 units selling from $287,900 to $385,900.
The building features many firsts in the Whitehorse condo market. The concrete-and-steel non-combustible frame work provides greater permanence, safety and sound proofing in comparison to traditional wood framed buildings. It is the first and only six-story structure within the city of Whitehorse. The building erects to a staggering 20-meter height. The construction also provides a new standard of downtown riverfront living and offers its residents underground heated parking and storage, triple-glazed low-e windows, laminate flooring, baseboard heating, kayak and canoe storage, in addition to porcelain and glass tiles.
The Challenges Presented With This Project Were
1. Schedule was extremely critical for this project as the summers in the Yukon are very short and the winters are not a good environment for construction.
2. Coordination with the other trades had to be carefully orchestrated in order to achieve the client’s goal of a quick turnover.
3. There was no room on site for material storage – The LBS wall panel plant was shipped to Whitehorse and assembled just off site.
4. Due to the project being located in Whitehorse, Yukon – the load bearing steel stud structure was required to be designed for a high seismic zone.
How We Met The Challenges
Whitehorse, Yukon’s average yearly temperature is -1 degree Celsius. This means you need to plan your construction schedule a little tighter than other Canadian cities. With LBS we provided a benefit to the project by having all of the trade coordination completed ahead of construction and with our panels pre-fabricated – the erection of the LBS structure was only 12 weeks overall.
In order to complete the building within the 10 month overall schedule required by the owner, the local General Contractor had to closely schedule all interior and exterior trades. The exterior and interior finishes chased the structure up as it was erected. 3 days after the pour on each floor the interior trades started to install interior framing and rough in items.
The Solutions We Created
By using the LBS light steel framing system we were able to ship the entire wall panel fabrication plant to Whitehorse and build the wall sections off site. Once the wall sections were built and the exterior densglass installed they were then loaded onto a truck to be shipped to site therefore speeding up the building process.
The 6 story structure was the first of its kind in Whitehorse, Yukon. No other structure in Whitehorse is as high as Mah’s Point (20 meters). The load bearing steel stud design was a natural fit for the high seismic zone. Steel has the highest strength to weight ratio of any other construction material and is a great system to use in high seismic zones.
Results, Return on Investment and Future Plans
Through careful planning and coordination LBS was able to complete their portion of the 6 story structure including the roof in 12 short weeks. The General Contractor, Ketza Construction was able to schedule the following trades behind LBS very closely and achieved occupancy 10 months after they started digging out the 2 story parkade.
With this project – LBS was able to provide a pre-fabricated steel stud load bearing building in a distant location at a comparable price to buildings provided locally. With our experience we will be able to competitively price similar projects in the future.
Our efforts to condense schedule and work with other trades to expedite their scope following the structure is something we are bringing forward to our future clients.
