Saint Marguerite Bourgeoys Parish

In collaboration with our partners at Architecture49, BMR served as the structural consultant on the award winning, 13,000 square foot new church development for the Saint Marguerite Bourgeoys Parish in Upper Tantallon, Nova Scotia. Among the Tilt-up Concrete Association’s 2017 Tilt-up Achievement award winners, the new parish includes a worship space, community hall, office spaces, and meeting rooms. Along with an architecturally striking exterior concrete façade consisting of intricately cast-in reveals in the form of trees, the community hall included interior concrete finishes simulating wood grains using form liners.

The structure consists of reinforced concrete tilt-up panels around most of the exterior wall envelope supporting structural steel roof joists and structural steel girder beams. The expansive, open-concept worship space included a challenging wall & curtain glazing design that required careful coordination between the slender exterior tilt panels, structural steel frame, and open-webbed roof joists stepped up to achieve the striking sloped roof design.

Key Points

• Exterior envelope constructed using reinforced concrete tilt-up panels that presented a challenge given shapes and angles inherent in building design
• Building constructed on compact building footprint
• Careful coordination required during both design and construction phase as few panels were alike
• Choice of exterior concrete panels provided durable, low-maintenance building envelope solution
• Control of heating and cooling costs as result of wall concrete’s high thermal mass
• For increased energy efficiency, exterior panels included continuous inner layer of rigid insulation

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