The Centre for Global Innovation Exchange is sited in downtown Waterloo. The building’s gross floor area of nearly 230,000sqft of academic floor space is the home for the School of Business & Economics, Department of Mathematics and Laurier International.

This four storey building accommodates WLU administrative functions, grad student space, computer labs, classrooms, learning spaces and broadcast facility. A 1,000 seat auditorium houses the convocations, conferences, some performance functions and possible community functions.

The building poses many challenges structurally. The second and third floors at the south west corner cantilever nearly 24 metres (see rendering). This is being supported by a series of two storey trusses that are integrated to the architecture. The second challenge is a 300 seat auditorium located within a drum feature at the south east corner of the building (see rendering). Large spans at the north end of the building call for transfer girders and a hybrid design of concrete on a structural steel support structure to allow for headroom clearances and lower floor to floor heights.

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2017 Canadian Consulting Engineering Award of Excellence

2019 CISC Ontario Steel Design Award of Excellence for Engineering