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Alt University District
By : LemayMichaud
GRANDS PRIX DU DESIGN – 17th edition
Discipline : Architecture
Categories : Commercial Building / Hotel & Resort : Silver Certification
The Alt University District hotel is ideally located in the heart of a new urban community developed around local services, aiming to offer high-density construction that encourages active transportation and the use of rapid public transit connected to the area. Additionally, situated just steps away from Calgary’s finest restaurants and retailers, the hotel provides a privileged living environment in the downtown core.
The neighborhood, spanning a 74-hectare expanse, is a LEED ND Platinum development, requiring all projects built within it to adhere to specific sustainable development parameters and obtain ecological certification. The Alt University District meets requirements for active transportation, ecological stormwater management, waste management, and urban heat islands reduction, justifying its LEED certification.
Integrated into a mixed-use urban development project, the Alt University District hotel was designed to seamlessly fit into this new environment in harmony with the residential and commercial components of the lot. Although managed by different entities, the hotel and residential components form and function as a single urban entity. The architectural composition offers a variety of densities, volumes, and textures to create a visually stimulating whole that expresses different uses while reading as a cohesive entity.
The architectural vision for the project was driven by the ambition to craft an elegant structure that seamlessly blends into the neighborhood. The glass-clad base anchors the hotel on a human scale to create a canopy that welcomes and protects pedestrians. The tower, divided into two distinct volumes, presents varied vertical profiles that subtly rest against the base, ensuring a smoother integration with the neighborhood’s predominantly six-story architectural landscape. On one side, the volume presents itself in a dark and powerful aesthetic, contrasting with the residential building, while on the other, it adopts warm tones in harmony with the overall site, blurring the boundaries between public and private spaces.
As currently the tallest building constructed, the tower serves as a landmark for the site, and the hotel’s brand is recognizable by the rhythmic sequence of windows in the façade composition and its dark aluminum cladding.
The hotel offers 155 rooms and over 4,000 square feet of meeting and event space spread across four meeting rooms, a conference room, a creative lounge, and two flexible open-air lounges on the first two floors of the building. The ground floor also includes retail spaces as part of the hotel’s amenities offered to its guests, open to neighboring residents and visitors. The glass treatment of the base allows for greater street openness, providing more opportunities for interaction with the community.
Collaboration
Interior Designer : LemayMichaud
Other : Genecor Experts Conseils
General Contractor : Marco Group Limited
