Duo-Gard Bike Shelters Support Ciena Employees’ Active Lifestyles
Designed to encourage teamwork, collaboration and innovation, the new research and development campus of telecommunications giant Ciena Corporation welcomed more than 1,600 employees when it opened in mid-September 2017. Located in Ottawa, Canada, the campus consolidates two previous R & D sites in Ottawa. It was designed by Pye and Richards Architects in Ottawa and Ciena’s Project Architect, BHDP, in Cincinnati, Ohio.
When Hanover, MD-based Ciena decided to relocate its Ottawa-based staff to a campus environment, they located a large site in Ottawa with one existing building and room to build two more for a total of 425,000 square feet of space. The three buildings are connected by enclosed walkways. The bike shelters are located near the rear employee entrance.
Since cycling is very popular in Ottawa and with many Ciena employees, among the wide variety of amenities employees enjoy on the campus are twin enclosed bicycle shelters custom-engineered by Duo-Gard. The 20-ft. x 37-ft. shelters house 34 U-racks each, storing 68 bikes. Outside are 53 additional exposed racks to store a total of 121 racks. This permits 242 bikes to be stored at this location.
“These were the last element to be added to the site. Staff had been challenged by the lack of a dedicated enclosed bike shelter and were eager to get the custom bike shelters up and in use,” says Aliye Hampshire, Architect.
Aesthetics were important. “We looked at more economical shelters,” says Hampshire, “but we wanted something more elaborate and aesthetically pleasing to the eye.”
With clean contemporary styling, the Duo-Gard shelters are based on the company’s Arlington model, featuring translucent curved roofs in 8mm batten multiwall polycarbonate in an opal tint. The material provides a high degree of diffused daylight while minimizing glare and heat gain. Walls are glass. Framing is anodized aluminum. Both interior and exterior steel bike racks include black wrapping in the center to prevent bikes from being scratched. Initially, the shelters featured doors, but Hampshire says Ciena decided to remove them for employee convenience.
“We wanted shelters that aligned with the campus structures to complement the client and the buildings,” Hampshire says. “These are simple yet beautiful.”
The construction project spread over two-plus years and was the largest private sector construction project in Ottawa at the time. Duo-Gard worked closely with BHDP to ensure that Canadian regulations regarding bike storage for commercial buildings were met.
“We’re concerned about collaboration,” says Hampshire. “We like to work with companies that are flexible and willing to make changes to please the client. Duo-Gard’s shelters are very attractive and complement the overall campus look. There was economic justification too.”
Hampshire says the client and BHDP are happy with the shelter project’s result: “They’re beautiful, and Duo-Gard was great to work with, too.”