Georgina’s current Civic Centre ‘just doesn’t work’ for post-pandemic world

Facility being redesigned through COVID-19 lens -- fewer seats, less space, lower budget

Yorkregion.com
May 3, 2021

Georgina’s new Civic Centre has been in the works for years. After halting the project pre-construction, the building is now being redesigned through a COVID-19 lens.

What that looks like is still being drawn up by consultants, but it includes less physical space in the new building on Civic Centre Road.

Recently, Georgina council approved an updated workplace strategy for the new Civic Centre building, determining when, where and how town staff will work in the future.

Going back to the drawing board and redesigning the building, which was supposed to have shovels in the ground this year, will add an additional $439,000 and take about 35 weeks to be construction-ready again.

The pause is a welcome opportunity to add innovation and apply a post-pandemic lens when it comes to delivering services and technology infrastructure, said councillor Dave Neeson, a member of the project steering committee.

“The need for a new building remains,” he said. “Innovation and resiliency are keys to any large and successful organization.”

The end result is a new building with digital infrastructure to accommodate a hybrid work-from-home model moving forward -- and a reduced budget.

“This is the best of both worlds,” said Lawrence Artin, head of special capital projects at the town.

The current Civic Centre “just doesn’t work and is not conducive to the future of work,” he added.

Civic Centre

The new civic centre is being designed through a post-pandemic lens with more digital services and more work-from-home flexibility. (Susie Kockerscheidt/Metroland)
The proposed new building will focus on seat-sharing options where many town staff will work remotely several days a week, allowing for three to five persons per desk on a rotating basis.

This alone would reduce the overall footprint by about 12,000 to 16,000 square feet and drive down construction costs to between $15 million and $20 million.

Reducing office and desk space does not come at the expense of other public spaces, such as council chambers, meeting rooms, customer service and development services.

The initial project budget in 2019 was $27 million, which was increased to $31.2 million in 2020.

“This is a win compared to where we were in 2019,” said Coun. Mike Waddington. “This is more efficient and the tax burden is far less.”

The updated workplace study eliminated a number of options, including keeping the current Civic Centre, using only the first floor of the Civic Centre together with other town facilities, moving to a completely remote system and using other town buildings without having a central hub.

For starters, the current Civic Centre is in need of $4.7 million in immediate repairs -- overhauling electrical work and emergency generators; installing a fire alarm and sprinkler system; replacing the entire heating, ventilation and air conditioning system; and modernizing the elevator.

“The HVAC system is at the forefront of risks considering COVID-19,” Artin said.

And that’s only about 40 per cent of the repairs required at the Civic Centre for employees to return to a safe workplace, based on the latest building assessment completed in 2016, he added.

The $4.7 million does not include reconfiguring the existing space, removing concrete walls and adding digital infrastructure to create a more open and WiFi-friendly space.

“That’s spending almost $5 million to change nothing,” said Neeson. “That doesn’t change the functionality. The longer we wait, we’ll have to spend that money on repairs anyway.”

Utilizing other town-owned buildings does not fit the bill -- there’s building upgrades and capacity issues, Artin said.

“These buildings are not new and are in need of a lot of care and investment,” he said of the argument to use other town-owned buildings instead of building a new Civic Centre.

“That’s just adding to the maintenance and capital investment of another building. You’re reducing the footprint at one building only to add it to another.”

Moving to a work-from-home hybrid model is not without challenges, Artin said, including shifting corporate culture and establishing new policies; improving technology and increasing the number of services offered virtually; and becoming a paperless operation.