Image courtesy Quadrangle Architects

New service centres are being constructed along Highways 400 and 401 in Ontario. The first seven will open in July 2010, featuring three distinctive components, and many sustainable features.

Designed by Toronto's Quadrangle Architects, an additional 20 service centres will be built along Highways 400 and 401 to improve travel service as drivers head across Ontario.

According to the firm's Lauren Dando, the first seven sites will open in July with fuel, washrooms, parking, and convenience stores.

The designs for the four different centre sizes will incorporate three distinctive components:
• a glass atrium with sloped glass walls covered by a sloped metal roof;
• traditional indigenous stone walls that anchor the buildings to the ground; and
• wood trellises and canopies.
Sustainable features include:
• upgraded insulation in the walls and roofs;
• advanced glazing in the atrium (allowing for a high degree of natural lighting);
• energy-efficient artificial lighting and mechanical systems;
• local materials and products incorporated into the facilities;
• low-flow and motion-activated plumbing fixtures and fittings;
• interior finishes to limit volatile organic compound (VOC) off-gassing and improve indoor air quality (IAQ); and
• reduced water consumption (i.e. automatic flushometers, soap and paper dispensers, hand-dryers, and waterless urinals).

Numerous accessibility and universal design measures will also be taken into account, such as differentiated carpet colours and textures for the visually impaired and motorized adult changing tables in the washrooms.

Construction on the subsequent centres will occur until 2012, and openings will follow and continue into 2013.

"When phase one of the modernization project is fully complete, these service centres will offer restaurants, fully accessible restrooms, tourist services at the gateway sites, and other new services and features," Dando told Construction Canada Online. "Service centre sites range in size from 743 to 2044 m² (8000 to 22,000 sf). The infrastructure cost of redevelopment—design and construction of the initial 20 service centres—is approximately $300 million."