The UBC Sauder School of Business is a unified composition of three interconnected buildings constructed in 1965,1975 and 1995. After undergoing an extensive revitalization, the new state-of-the art facility now includes 216,000 square feet of renewal space, a new 55,000 square foot 4-storey addition, and a 6,500 square foot conference centre.
The new 4-storey building consists of classrooms, lecture theatres, a lecture hall in the basement and a library. To ensure maximum transparency in the basement lecture hall, Glotman•Simpson utilized large post tensioned transfer beams that spanned 18.8 meters on the ground floor. These beams were used to replace columns to ensure vision was not impaired for students and were used to support the entire building structure above.
Although it is linked to the existing building by a dramatic soaring atrium, the new addition was seismically separated from the existing adjacent buildings as they provided gravity support along the east side, and parts of the north and south sides. Glotman•Simpson designed horizontal slip connections at the building-to-building joints which allowed the new building to move independently. The roof has long span glulam beams to accommodate the curved sloping roof of the lecture theatres at the top level.
Phase 2 of the project entailed upgrades to existing classrooms with a new conference centre added to the top of the school’s existing administrative tower. The facility now includes a wide variety of high-tech and state-of-the-art teaching and learning spaces, including flat and tiered classrooms, breakout rooms, meeting rooms, a trading lab, learning commons, graduate student study areas and student lounges.