As the first project completed by Bird for Memorial University (MUN), the team has completed a major renovation to the existing St. John’s College building on the MUN campus. The four-storey building was constructed in the mid-60s as a campus residence with an attached chapel and currently it is the home of School of Social Work.

Bird, assembling a team of local contractors, completed selective interior demolition; interior and exterior asbestos and lead paint abatement; partial roof replacement; exterior envelope retrofit including new masonry and a cultured stone façade; interior finishes and numerous mechanical and electrical upgrades.

On a tight campus site with only one access point and limited space for material laydown, all deliveries were handled on a just-in-time basis. With only a small parking lot that was used by the campus personnel during the day, the team had to schedule all deliveries to arrive early in the morning or late in the evening.

The team also encountered many obstacles during demolition due to undocumented renovation plans spanning the building’s lifetime. Working with incomplete drawings, the team processed multiple changes to the original scope, which were addressed with cost-effective solutions to tie-in the new work with existing systems.