Sales office – Écohabitations Boréales
We are proud to present our brand-new sales office in Sainte-Adèle, located in the heart of the village on Chemin Pierre-Péladeau. We were responsible for the entire design and construction of the building. The plans were produced by atelier idéa of sainte-adèle. This is the first mixed-use commercial building to be certified leed gold and novoclimat. It is in line with the company’s development philosophy of high-performance, sustainable and comfortable construction.
An example of sustainable urban development
Although this is a commercial building, it also houses three 4 1/2 apartments on the upper floors. The building is therefore densely occupied. Écohabitations boréales’ 2000 sq. ft. sales office occupies the entire ground floor. The second floor is occupied 50% by a new Écohabitations boréales partner, Ann Prud’homme Designer, and 50% by a residential unit. The top floor is reserved for the other two apartments. The apartments are available for rent and are all occupied at the moment.
Spaces flooded with light
Whatever the purpose of our building’s spaces, they are all characterized by their great luminosity. The front façade faces almost due south. As with many of our homes, we installed hybrid windows by Fenplast . They are made of black aluminum on the outside and white PVC on the inside.
They are triple-glazed and Energy Star certified. We’ve framed them with gypsum on the inside, ensuring a sleek, modern look for interior spaces.
A building in harmony with the heart of the village
The sobriety of its architecture and the combination of different colors & materials result in a building that, in our opinion, contributes to enhancing the quality of the urban environment in the heart of Sainte-Adèle village. The exterior cladding consists mainly of wood panelling with inserts of black corrugated steel cladding. We chose wood as the material we use for almost all our homes. To comply with municipal by-laws, we had to incorporate fibrocement siding on the right elevation of the building. We had the same custom color developed for the wood siding and the fribrocement, and took care to align the overlapping boards. Everything was manufactured by Groupe Concept PV. t’s hard to tell the difference! Golden white cedar wainscoting accents warm things up. To complete the picture, we installed a magnificent Mac Industries steel roof, profile Ms-1. Steel is much more expensive than asphalt shingles, but also much more durable. The posts supporting the balconies are also steel, painted black and custom-made by Fer Forgé Klein of Sainte-Adèle.
Heating, air conditioning and energy performance
These elements are part of the ecological signature of our company. To prevent heat loss and minimize energy consumption, we installed R15 euréthane insulation under the slab, R32 insulating wool for the walls and R60 for the roof. The building’s airtightness was measured by Novoclimat at 1.09 CAH, which is very tight for a building of this size.
Apartment heating is provided mainly by traditional electric baseboard heaters, which are both economical and efficient. All offices and apartments are also equipped with Energy Star-certified bi-block wall-mounted heat pumps for supplementary heating and space cooling.
With energy efficiency in mind, almost all the building’s lighting is now provided by LED bulbs.
For our office, since it’s located at concrete slab level, we installed hydronic radiant flooring by Plomberie Nord-Sud. The concrete slab was polished and left exposed. Our feet are nice and warm!
Local woodworking at its finest!
The custom cabinetry is worthy of note, as it is in keeping with the modernity of the building’s architecture. All the built-in furniture for the kitchens and bathrooms was custom-made by Kyra Cuisine of Sainte-Adèle, as was the honor roll featuring the nine Domus et l’Adélaide trophies we’ve earned over the years.
Natural, noble materials
All the floors in the apartments are hardwood, and although a little more expensive than floating floors, we opted for wood, which will be more durable over time. For Julie’s office, with the collaboration of Duro Design, we made a magnificent “Cléopatra” cork bulletin board with natural oil. As with the board of honor in the conference room, we used Russian birch plywood to make her a magnificent plan table. To let the beautiful natural light travel throughout our space, we fitted Julie’s office and the conference room with attractive glass walls. The entire interior/exterior design of the building was done by our company, under the good advice of all our partner suppliers and subcontractors.
In conclusion
A few years ago, an Inn on the site of our building was decimated by fire. The land was vacant for several years. We revitalized the space and are very pleased with the results. We worked according to our company values, with our entire team of workers, suppliers and regular local subcontractors. Everyone contributed their best expertise. We learned a lot about the rules surrounding commercial buildings. We came in way over budget. But we’re really comfortable in our new offices and feel that our company now has the infrastructure to move on to the next chapter. We’ll be entering our 13th year of operation in Sainte-Adèle in 2021, and we wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.