Oceana PARC Retirement Residence

On the Johnston Road Corridor in the city of White Rock (Metro Vancouver area), PARC Retirement Living is employing the latest in building envelope technology and sustainable design throughout its Oceana PARC residence.

PARC Director of Construction Bob Fritz says, “We’re an owner/operator, so energy efficiency is very important to us, not only for our residents’ comfort, but also because of lower operating costs, lower heating and cooling bills.”

As with two of PARC Retirement Livings’s other Vancouver area retirement residences, Cedar Springs PARC and Westerleigh PARC, Oceana PARC’s energy-saving measures include a green roof with drought-tolerant vegetation, and a robust building envelope of 6 in. (15 cm) semi-rigid stone wool insulation on the exterior and 3½ in. (9 cm) fiberglass batt insulation inside of the wall. The building envelope also incorporates 5,970 linear feet (1,820 m) of Isokorb® structural thermal breaks to significantly reduce energy loss at the balconies.

Thermal bridges occur where balconies, parapets, canopies, rooftop equipment and other structural elements penetrate the building envelope.

Of Oceana PARC’s 199 residential living units, 181 include balconies, which are insulated using Isokorb® structural thermal breaks Supplied by Schöck North America, the structural thermal break modules are comprised of a longitudinal block of foam insulation traversed by rebar to be cast into the slab on one side and the balcony or parapet on the other, providing load-bearing support equivalent to that of monolithic extensions of floor and roof slabs. The rebar crossing the foam insulation is made of stainless steel for superior corrosion resistance compared to carbon steel rebar.

Independent third party testing shows that Schöck's concrete-to-concrete structural thermal breaks reduce heat energy loss at envelope penetrations by up to 90 percent, and up to 14 percent for the building overall depending on the number of balconies, length of balconies/parapets and other variables.

PARC Retirement Living is the first developer/owner of senior residences in the Vancouver area to use structural thermal breaks for both balcony and parapet applications.