Open Text Corporation doubled the size of its Waterloo headquarters in 2011 with the construction of a second building in the University of Waterloo Research and Technology Park and a new precast concrete parking garage. The new building and parking garage were completed in 2011, increasing the company’s capacity to a total of 2,000 people at its Waterloo campus location.

Construction of the new 11,148 m², five-storey building started in July 2009 and was completed in the summer of 2011. It was joined to Open Text’s existing 10,498 m² three-storey office by an elevated enclosed sky bridge.

Open Text creates the software that organizes and allows the sharing of digital text video and audio content generated within corporations, media companies and government organizations all over the world. The company’s existing building is already bursting at the seams, Jenkins said (Tom Jenkins, Open Text Executive Chair and Chief Strategy Officer).

“If you were to ask the staff here, they would say that we should have built this building a year ago,” Jenkins said “we have had to take our meeting rooms and turn them into offices and run meetings in our cafeteria.”

Jenkins said the new building and the precast concrete high-density parking garage was a $15 million investment to accommodate staff and parking, as well as future light rail transit system that the region is planning.

The Open Text Corporation single suspended level parking garage measures more than 7,900 m2. For this garage structure, column walls were provided to resist lateral loads in one direction, and in the other direction the seismic force resisting system was provided by cantilevered columns. Together the components provide stability to the one-storey parking structure.

A unique feature, precast planters with a medium sandblast finish, was incorporated into the deck to add aesthetic effect to the parking garage and also minimize the street noise. As part of the City of Waterloo zoning and permit requirements, parking garages are being required to incorporate green space in the design.

The planters in the interior field of the parking areas were approximately 11m long x 2.4m wide and the heaviest weighed about 16,000 kgs. Due to the drainage pattern, the bottom of the planters had to be cast at the precast plant with the bottom having the same profile as the completed garage.

These planters were cast vertically in one piece, upside down, in order to get the proper slope on the bottom of the units. This involved calculating the predicted camber of the tees, in order to achieve a matching profile.

The precast erection progressed quickly. The project was awarded in June 2010 and precast Installation started in September. Erection was completed by mid October and took 17 days.

Precast construction can incorporate a wide range of shapes and finishes on a parking garage's façade. Special finishes using custom colors, aggregates or surface treatments can be developed to match or compliment adjacent buildings.

Precast Concrete components 260:
•130 Double Tees
•23 Beams
•29 Spandrels
•46 Columns
•20 Column Walls
•Precast planters

OWNER: Open Text Corporation
ARCHITECT: SRM Architects INC
ENGINEER: Mirkwood Engineering
CONTRACTOR: Maple Reinders
Precaster: Armtec, Brampton, ON