Workforce Housing

Project Profile

  • MEG Energy Pirate's Cove Lodge

    Building hidden strength into beautiful design

    Every building we create is made up thousands of interconnected details. From ensuring a comfortable stay for workers to considering their safety, from homelike amenities to functional office space, it would be easy to lose sight of any one of them. But we never do.

    The Pirate’s Cove Lodge, created to support MEG Energy’s site near Conklin, Alberta, is a perfect demonstration of our expertise in providing workforce accommodations in challenging remote areas. Beautiful, functional and innovative, it is a collection of details that serve as the home away from home for more than 150 workers in northern Alberta.

    Snapshot

     

    Date:  2012

    Location:  Conklin, Alberta, Canada

    Client:  MEG Energy

    Category:  Workforce Housing

    Striking profile, luxurious interior

    Built into the side of a hill, the MEG Energy Lodge immediately strikes a stunning profile from the outside. Inside, wood and metal inlays and fine craftsmanship offer the feel of a high-end ski lodge, including fireplaces, a theatre, a recreational centre, meeting rooms, a first-class fitness facility and offices.

    Each of the lodge’s hotel-style rooms boast 300 square feet of living space, a private three-piece bathroom, workstation with easy chair, sofa, refrigerator, a large television, and a PTAC heating and cooling system controlled by a wall-mounted thermostat. Large windows allow natural light into the buildings, and a state-of-the-art kitchen includes top-end appliances and efficient workspaces for easy cleaning.

     

    Hidden Strength

    Beneath the lodge’s visual style lies an advanced set of design challenges that showcase our expertise as designers. For example, creating the dining area’s dramatically sloped roof required using a structural design that includes exposed tilted glulam columns that support the second story roof structure and a first story veranda. And the skywalk system connecting the dormitories and core facilities is a sweeping visual touch that showcases our engineering skill – steel bents in the skywalk support the corridor and were designed for wind, snow and seismic loads. 

    Meanwhile, the second pre-engineered steel building holds the facility’s back-up generator, fire pumps, potable water system, and a recycled water system that collects rainwater.

    It’s no wonder that the lodge received the Modular Building Institute Award of Distinction “Best in Show.” All of our buildings are made up of small details, but the results are always dramatically big picture.

     

    • meg
    • meg