Not just for trade shows anymore, convention centres across the country are building or renovating with four generations in mind. By Angela Kryhul, May/June 2009
Power Within presentation of former U.S. presidents Bill Clinton and George Bush
If you did nothing for several days but sit in a convention centre’s foyer and observe the comings and goings of conference delegates, it would soon be apparent that these facilities cater to a diverse clientele.
People attending business meetings and conventions reflect the changing workplace, which today is populated by four generations of employees — from tech-savvy college and university grads in their early twenties to baby boomers hitting their sixties, many of whom intend to work past the traditional retirement age of 65. The median age of Canada’s population is 39.4 years, according to Statistics Canada.
A convention centre that might one week host a society of anesthesiologists in their forties and fifties could, the next week, see a gathering of professional videogame designers in their twenties, or a one-off event like the Power Within presentation of former U.S. presidents Bill Clinton and George Bush. Different age groups have varied needs and expectations and that’s being reflected in the architecture and design of a new generation of convention and exhibition centres being built in cities across Canada. Now, more than ever, it’s important to understand how the workforce is changing.
“There is no such term as ‘general public’ anymore,” says Warren Buckley, president and CEO of BC Pavilion Corporation, which operates the newly expanded Vancouver Convention Centre. The Centre now offers 500,000 sq. ft. of pre-function, meeting, exhibition and ballroom space almost exclusively for business and trade use.
First, several months before the Centre opened, Buckley had a look at the promotional brochures produced by an edgy and youthful advertising agency. “The print was small, there were too many words, the visuals needed to be larger. Those sorts of things needed to be dealt with, because we all know that very soon, there will be more people over age 50 than under,” Buckley says. Lots of thought went into the signage at the Centre — larger type makes it easier to read. The Centre’s lighting is bright, there is plenty of seating throughout the building and chairs in the meeting rooms are more comfortable.
Secondly, when 63,000 visitors toured the Centre during its grand opening in early April, Buckley was struck by the number of people Twittering about the event and downloading videos to You- Tube. But the Centre’s designers had anticipated this kind of use by outfitting the building with wireless Internet access, and making sure there are plenty of electrical outlets so that bloggers and others are able to recharge their computers, iPhones and other electronic devices.
In the workplace, there are changes afoot in the way people interact, that are also being reflected in convention centre design. A number of corporate offices are being designed or reconfigured to include more collaborative work areas. The creation of comfortable lounge spaces, where people can bring their laptops and work together on projects, is being driven, in part, by a younger generation who favour a teamwork atmosphere over the isolation of cubicles.
“The Convention Centre has been designed to take the meetings out of the meeting rooms,” Buckley explains. “These days, when you give someone an assignment, particularly Generation X or Y, they make up teams and they collaborate. It’s very natural for them to have open discussions, to come to conclusions as opposed to doing work in isolation. So you have to provide those types of spaces.”
Andrew Beattie, vice-president of sales and marketing for the Ottawa Convention Centre, which is being completely rebuilt and expanded to 192,000 sq. ft. of usable space, is contemplating whether to order egg-shaped tables with built-in USB ports that bloggers can plug into.
Set to open in April, 2011, the Centre will primarily be used for business conventions and meetings, Beattie says. And, like Vancouver, the Ottawa Centre was designed to provide more public space, to facilitate “more of those smaller, collaborative meetings,” Beattie explains.
“It used to be, in old hotels and convention centres, the hallway space outside your meeting room was 10 ft. wide and you had to really search for a place to have a conversation. One of the things we’ve incorporated into the design, is you can actually pull some furniture together and have a small meeting” in the public spaces, he says.
When the Ottawa Convention Centre is completed, it won’t have the sort of grand staircase typically found in many convention and hotel meeting spaces. Instead, it will have a “grand ramp-way,” Beattie says. The ramp, connecting the first and second floors, is accessible to wheelchairs and is easier for older visitors to use than a long staircase, he explains.
The Ottawa Centre will also have a four-storey-high west-facing glass façade — a green feature that will not only help lower heating and lighting costs by making better use of daylight, it is also a way to aid “intuitive circulation” throughout the building, Beattie says. That means visitors standing in the foyer will have clear sightlines to the meeting and function rooms on all four floors. “That is really important for a lot of people, especially for seniors,” Beattie explains. “You can very quickly and easily see where you have to be.”
Niagara Convention & Civic Centre
In Niagara Falls, Ont., construction has started on the Niagara Convention & Civic Centre, a 280,000-sq.-ft. facility where flexibility is paramount because it will cater both to business and the public when it opens in 2011.
“The idea is that this will be an extremely flexible and well-used space by all kinds of people in the community, and that, of course, leads to the idea of multigenerational use…which is really key to this project,” explains Susan Spencer Lewin, principal with CS&P Architects Inc., the project’s lead architectural firm.
“Keep in mind that when we talk about accessibility challenges, we’re not just talking about wheelchairs,” Lewin says. “We’re talking about all kinds of people who may have varying levels of mobility challenges, sight issues or balance issues.”
That’s a key point, says Kerry Painter, president and general manager of the Centre, who says the city’s Disability Advisory Committee was approached for advice on the design. “We had them go through the plans (from the point of view) of guests and employees.” Things like impaired hearing and mobility were considered, as well as issues that might be faced by visitors who have orientation difficulties or who might be on medication.
The fact that the theatre, exhibit hall and ballroom are all on one level will make mobility and navigation easier, Lewin explains.
An acoustic consultant is reviewing the design to ensure that hard reflective sound will be kept to a minimum because it can disorient visitors who may have hearing issues, she says.
“We’ve made sure the counters in the building are designed for wheelchairs and special needs; we have colour-contrast on the stairs and walls to ensure a person with low vision would be able to sense the edges and to reduce disorientation. Outside, we have lots of drop-off areas and multiple entrances all along the north face of the building,” Lewin says.
It’s challenging to design a building that will meet the evolving needs of the meetings business for decades to come, says Scott Ferguson, interim president and CEO of Trade Centre Ltd., in Halifax. The city is developing plans for a project featuring condos, office and retail space, a major hotel and about 150,000 sq. ft. of useable convention space, he says.
“The industry is changing and people are trying to anticipate what will happen,” in terms of economic, environmental, demographic and communications issues, Ferguson explains.
—Angela Kryhul is a Toronto-based freelancer.
|