Mohawk College – David Braley Athletic and Recreation Centre

Transparency throughout this LEED Gold post-secondary recreation centre

Mohawk College - David Braley Athletic and Recreation Centre

Part of Mohawk College’s flagship campus in Hamilton, Ontario, the 7,143 sq.m. [64,000 sq. ft.] David Braley Athletic and Recreation Centre was designed to offer exceptional fitness, intramural and varsity facilities. This LEED® Gold certified centre features three gymnasiums, a multi-purpose studio, a fitness centre and an indoor track.

Creating a community via student interactions within the common area was an underlying goal. As such, the space was kept open via glass walls separating the main gymnasium. To keep this separation as transparent as possible, point-supported glazing was chosen to provide discreet support for the 8.1m [26’] high glass wall; the wall was supported by Stella spiders and bolts (SS204FT-NB601T) affixed to an HSS structural support beam.

The spider’s attachment to the support structure was interesting as a traditional drill and tap connection of spiders to the beam was ruled out. The Stella Original Nutsert Solution was chosen with the spiders affixing to the inner collar of the HSS via a Nutsert (much like a pop rivnut).

This Stella Solution saved the aesthetic (no one wanted to see the spider connection on the exposed beam in gymnasium) and labour site time (so much faster and easier than drilling and tapping). And yes, there’s a safety film on the bottom level of glass to keep all safe.

Like other glass wall projects that we work on, we also carefully considered the support for the door portals and supplied these custom fitting as well.

As part of the design/drafting team in collaboration with the glazing contractor (Flynn), we were able to create  solutions that saved on overall job costs.

Photo copyright holder is Scott Norsworthy