MQN Architecture and Design: KalTire Place North

From their offices in Vernon, BC, MQN Architecture and Design tackles a wide range of projects from large multi-family dwellings to recreation facilities to car dealerships and beyond. For organizing their biggest tendered projects, they rely on RForm to facilitate clear communication and speed up essential processes.

KalTire Place North MQN Architecture and Design

“What I like most about using RForm is the tracking. I know exactly who I am waiting for and where everything is. RForm saves us a huge amount of time just knowing where things are at.”

Julie Varrie, building technologist at MQN Architecture and Design in Vernon, BC

The Vernon and District Multi-Use Facility is one such project. The ice surface in the City of Vernon needed serious upgrades, and MQN won the tender to build a new ice sheet as it was determined to be too costly to upgrade the existing one. “The original ice surface was, I believe, built in the depression and was well past its prime. We shuffled around some of the rooms in the existing building but the majority of the project was building the new ice rink,” explains Julie Varrie, building technologist at MQN. “There wasn’t anything unique or especially challenging about this project, but because it was in our hometown where we could watch it being built, that made being part of it especially satisfying.”

This $12 million project produced a state-of-the-art facility with an expanding ice surface that can be used for both NHL and Olympic sized hockey events, lacrosse, community gatherings, rodeos, trade shows, dances, and concerts. The design incorporated a boardroom that is used by the community for everything from meetings to birthday parties.
RForm enabled clear communication between MQN, their clients the City of Vernon and Regional District of North Okanagan, and contractors. “The clients were more than willing to use RForm, and we have had multiple project owners use the platform successfully. We’ve found that our clients like that they can go into the program and see the status on a lot of things without having to call us. They can see where the change orders are, what are RFI’s are out there and what questions are coming up,” says Varrie.

“The clients were more than willing to use RForm, and we have had multiple project owners use the platform successfully. We’ve found that our clients like that they can go into the program and see the status on a lot of things without having to call us. They can see where the change orders are, what are RFI’s are out there and what questions are coming up,”
Julie Varrie, building technologist at MQN Architecture and Design in Vernon, BC

Onboarding clients with RForm has been easy for MQN. “With the City of Vernon we brought them into the office and sat down with them for half an hour, went through it with them. It wasn’t a difficult process. After they had played with it for a little bit they had a couple of questions, and we went and helped them with that and it was fine,” says Varrie. “We’ve been working on this project with them for two years now and have had no issues with communication. RForm helped that in a lot of ways.”

For Varrie, there are two major advantages with using RForm on these types of projects. “What I like most about using the program is the tracking. I know exactly who I am waiting for and where everything is. It does take some time on our side to make sure that the information is in there correctly, so we know where shop drawings are for example, but in the long run it saves us a huge amount of time just knowing where things are at,” she says. The other major advantage comes from how much time it saves her in the payment certification process. “Prior to using RForm we used a program that functioned on an Excel spreadsheet and it was the program,” she says, “Using RForm to do payment certification, if I have all the information, only takes me half an hour. On the old program it probably took me two to three hours because I had to re input so much information.”

“Using RForm to do payment certification, if I have all the information, only takes me half an hour. On the old program it probably took me two to three hours because I had to re input so much information.”
Julie Varrie, building technologist at MQN Architecture and Design in Vernon, BC

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