Birdair Inc., the Amherst-based specialty contractor, will replace the fabric roof of Vancouver’s iconic Canada Place that it originally built 25 years ago, installing the first new roof panel this week.

The builder of lightweight, long-span roofing systems and other tensile structures was awarded an $11.3 million contract to remove the current roof and design and build a new one for a building made all the more prominent after the 2010 Winter Olympics were held the city.

“Anytime you get to build and repair a structure like this that millions of people get to see, especially with the Olympics, it’s a very important project,” said Thomas Wuerch, senior vice president at Birdair.

Birdair built the original roof when Canada Place was first constructed between 1983 and 1985. The fact that the company was asked back for the new roof, Wuerch said, “is a great testimonial to the work and performance Birdair has done.”

“Canada Place is the most photographed structure in all of Canada,“ Wuerch said. “The structure was the backdrop for every major network for the Olympics.”

The company will replace the roof with 91,210 square feet of fiberglass

fabric to match the five-sail design that become a symbol of the Canadian city. The outer roof and inner liner, which could last more than 30 years, is technologically similar to the original, with the addition of a self-cleaning titanium dioxide coating that will help remove dirt from its white surface. The company secured in the job in January and is expected to complete it by next February.

The fabric itself is made by French multinational Saint-Gobain SA in New Hampshire, while the roof paneling is fabricated by Birdair in Tijuana, Mexico.

Birdair employs 60 people at its headquarters in Amherst and about 100 people at its Mexican manufacturing facility. The company is a member of the Taiyo Kogyo Group.

The $21 million project to renovate Canada Place is being funded by the country’s economic stimulus package, passed in January 2009, which includes more than $500 million in infrastructure improvements in British Columbia. On Vancouver’s waterfront, Canada Place houses a world trade center, convention center, hotel and cruise ship terminal. The facility hosts 3 million visitors a year.

Birdair’s work in Vancouver is the latest in a long line of renowed projects that include roofs for Denver International Airport, the new Cowboys Stadium and three of the four stadiums built for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

dgrandoni@buffnews.comnull