Confidential Client

Quebec Data Centre

HH Angus provided comprehensive engineering services for the design, development, and implementation of a state-of-the-art data centre.

HH Angus was responsible for the design of the facility’s mechanical, plumbing, lighting, fire protection and building environmental control systems. This facility is split into critical and non-critical areas. The critical areas included mechanical and electrical rooms housing equipment supporting the main server spaces. The non-critical areas included administrative spaces such as meeting rooms, open offices, telecommunication service entry rooms, technical spaces housing servers supporting site operations, and a loading dock. Beyond the footprint of this building, our scope of services also extended to ancillary site structures such as the main gate guardhouse, water treatment buildings, fire pump buildings, and the deployment of private weather stations.

HH Angus implemented an evaporative cooling system to support critical IT servers. Our team designed a water treatment facility and rainwater harvesting system with a detailed metering scheme, giving the Owner visibility into water use. This made the facility water-neutral and self-sufficient year-round, eliminating reliance on municipal water for cooling.

SERVICES
Advisory Services | Mechanical Engineering | Lighting Design | Fire Protection | Building & Environmental Systems

PROJECT FEATURES
N+1 redundant mechanical systems
to ensure continuous uptime | Completed March 2026

LOCATION
Confidential, Quebec

KEY SCOPE ELEMENTS
Feasibility study | Energy modeling | Facility design to eliminate reliance on municipal water for cooling

Government of Canada

Sir John A. Macdonald Building

“The Government of Canada recognized that rehabilitation of the Macdonald Building would support the federal agenda to incorporate innovative, sustainable and environmentally responsible design into all of their buildings.”

PWGSC website

The Macdonald Building in Ottawa was undergoing extensive renovation and upgrades to its structure and systems, most of which were original to the 1930s construction and fell short of modern building codes. Key elements of the redevelopment included improvements in energy efficiency, long-term durability, indoor air quality and other measures. Heritage conservation was also a key consideration of the upgrades, with the objective of improving long term operational results and building integrity.

Engaged as the vertical transportation consultant, HH Angus executed a complex adaptive rehabilitation of the elevator space in the Macdonald Building to meet modern accessibility standards and building codes.

The majority of inter-floor movement is intended to be accommodated by stairways, with the single passenger elevator configured to ensure barrier-free access to occupied floors. This same elevator was configured to accommodate a stretcher (measuring up to 610 mm wide x 2010 mm long) in the prone position.

Two service elevators were provided to address all material handling requirements for the facility, providing a vertical connection from the new loading dock, which was part of the redevelopment. The service elevators are located adjacent to each other and, as such, provide service redundancy for the facility in the event that one elevator is not available.

The single LU/LA* features access restrictions to ensure that use of this elevating device is limited to staff, appreciating that there may be an occasional need for public use (under the direct supervision of staff) in cases where the passenger elevator is not available.

*Limited Use/Limited Application – a specialized type of elevator designed for commercial accessibility

SERVICES
Vertical Transportation Consultant

PROJECT FEATURES
Complex adaptive rehabilitation of office space | Completed 2015

LOCATION
Ottawa, Ontario

KEY SCOPE ELEMENTS
Renovation project | 1 passenger elevator, 1 LU/LA elevator, 2 service elevators providing redundant capacity

Government of Canada

G20 Summit RCMP Installation

When the 2010 G20 Summit unexpectedly relocated from Huntsville, ON to Toronto on very short notice, preparations instantly went into overdrive. The Summit represented at that time, the largest and most expensive security operation in Canada. All work, from blank page to final installation, was completed in just three weeks, as a result of the change of venue.

HH Angus was engaged under complete secrecy to provide mechanical, electrical and complex communications design to the RCMP G20 offices at the Toronto Dominion Centre, reworking existing conditions on two floors to meet the very tight schedule. The complexity of the installation and the accelerated timeline for the design/build required a high degree of collaboration with the client, the interior designer and the contractor.

The design/build project called for fibre optic service to be routed to 28 workstations, complete with highly secure fiber optics backbone cables on two floors for security monitoring. At the same time, we completed design and installation of over 1300 CAT6 UTP data cables for 420 workstations. Some workstations were serviced with as many as 12 strands of fibre optic cable. A total of more than 300 strands of fiber optic cable were installed to the desks. Tamper-proof conduit was only one of the specialized features implemented to deliver the security levels required for the operational aspect of the location.

Although the installation was temporary, it had to be built as if it was permanent. While the mechanical and electrical work was relatively straightforward, the communications installation was highly complex and ultra secure, in addition to being completely confidential. In the entire company, only three people at HH Angus knew the work being done was for the G20 Summit.

SERVICES
Mechanical Engineering | Electrical Engineering | Communications Design

PROJECT FEATURES
Accelerated delivery schedule | Complex installation | 44,000 ft2 | Completed 2010

LOCATION
Toronto, Ontario

KEY SCOPE ELEMENTS
Extraordinary degree of coordination required | Highly collaborative approach | 420 workstations serviced with over 1300 CAT6 UTP data cables, and 28 workstations serviced with highly secure fibre optics for security monitoring

Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre

Space Optimization Study Using AWS QuickSight

Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, a leading healthcare provider in Toronto, was seeking to address challenges in medical space utilization. With a diverse array of clinical services and bookable exam rooms, Sunnybrook faced challenges understanding a perceived shortage of space. Yet, intermittent observations suggested that many exam rooms were frequently empty.

M6 – Multipurpose Clinical Space | Yuval & Lori Barzakay Brain Health Clinic Study

To gain a clearer understanding of space utilization and identify potential inefficiencies, Sunnybrook partnered with HH Angus, leveraging our expertise in digital solutions and innovative engineering. The goal was to implement a robust monitoring system to capture accurate data on room usage, enabling informed decisions on resource allocation.

This project reflects Sunnybrook’s commitment to operational efficiency, ensuring that resources are optimally allocated to improve patient care and support staff needs.

SERVICES
Prime Consultant | Advisory Services

PROJECT FEATURES
Digital monitoring system to inform clinical resource allocation | Enhanced operational efficiency | Patient privacy | Scalable design | Predictive analytics

LOCATION
Toronto, Ontario

KEY SCOPE ELEMENTS
Space utilization measurement and analysis | Data acquisition through sensor deployment | Security and connectivity | Data aggregation and storage | Visualization and insights

Solving Space Utilization Challenges

Sunnybrook’s medical staff expressed concerns about limited space availability, particularly for bookable exam rooms. However, casual observations indicated that some rooms appeared to remain empty. Sunnybrook needed a reliable solution to measure actual room usage accurately while addressing two significant concerns:

Privacy: Ensuring patient privacy was paramount, particularly in sensitive clinical settings.

Accurate Detection: Existing solutions struggled to detect minimal motion, such as during procedures like blood transfusions, where patients may remain largely still.

HH Angus was engaged to design and implement a solution capable of addressing these challenges while delivering actionable insights.

Solution | Smart Sensors and AWS Integration

Our Digital Services team developed an innovative solution leveraging cutting-edge sensors and AWS services:

Sensor Deployment:

- mmWave Sensors: Initial deployment involved mmWave sensors capable of detecting micro-motions, such as breathing, to confirm room occupancy. These sensors were equipped with cellular SIM cards to operate independently of Sunnybrook’s network.
- 3D Stereoptic Sensors: To further expand the data gathered from the various clinics, the move to 3D-stereoptic sensors was used to provide not just occupancy status of exam rooms, but also the near real-time occupancy count data. Enhancing scalability, these sensors could monitor multiple rooms simultaneously, offering greater hardware efficiency.

Security and Connectivity:

- mmWave sensors utilized mTLS (mutual Transport Layer Security) for secure data transmission.
- Custom authorization for 3D-stereoptic sensors was implemented using AWS Lambda.

Data Aggregation and Storage:

- Data was streamed via Amazon Data Firehose and AWS IoT Core, stored in AWS S3, and processed through AWS Lambda.
- A centralized S3 data lake provided a secure, scalable repository for all processed data.

Visualization and Insights:

- Data queries were conducted using AWS Athena, while AWS QuickSight offered intuitive 2D dashboards for near-real-time analysis with minimal latency.

This comprehensive approach ensured seamless integration, robust data security, and actionable insights for Sunnybrook.

Outcome | Actionable Insights and Future Expansion

The solution provided Sunnybrook with detailed, data-driven insights into space utilization:

Initial Findings: The installation was completed in December 2024, and data collection began in January 2025. Analysis of the 11 monitored exam rooms in Sunnybrook’s M-Wing, conducted from January to March 2025, revealed a surprising utilization rate of only 33%. This insight challenged initial staff assumptions and highlighted opportunities for more efficient space planning.

Future Outlook: New medical clinics, which opened in January 2025, will contribute additional data to further refine Sunnybrook’s understanding of space usage and inform future expansion strategies.

Through this project, Sunnybrook is well-positioned to optimize its clinical spaces, ensuring that resources are allocated effectively to enhance both staff workflows and patient care delivery.

Key Outcomes Summary

Accurate Space Utilization Data: Revealed underutilization of monitored exam rooms, providing actionable insights.

Efficient Resource Allocation: Enabled informed decisions about space planning and allocation.

Scalability: Designed for expansion, with sensors deployed to additional clinics.

Improved Patient Care: Enhanced operational efficiency supports better patient care delivery.

Predictive Analytics: Tool for staff to forecast resourcing needs based on the day of the week using historical trends

Privacy Assurance: Leveraged secure sensor technologies to maintain patient confidentiality.

AWS Services Used

AWS S3 (Simple Storage Service): Acted as the central repository for storing and
retrieving large datasets, facilitating data analysis and accessibility.

AWS IoT Core: Enabled secure, scalable connectivity for IoT devices, allowing for efficient data collection and integration into the cloud.

AWS Athena: Offered an interactive query service to analyze data in Amazon S3 using SQL, simplifying the extraction of actionable insights from complex datasets.

AWS QuickSight: Provided visualization tools and dashboards for business intelligence, enabling Manulife to derive and act upon insights from their data effectively.AWS Lambda: Supported serverless computing, automating data processing and transformation tasks without the need for server management.

Amazon Data Firehose: Streamlined the capture, transformation, and loading of streaming data, ensuring efficient data flow from IoT devices to storage and analysis tools.

AWS IoT Events: Monitored sensor data for specific conditions, facilitating real-time alerting and response mechanisms to optimize building operations.

AWS Step Functions: Orchestrated complex data processing workflows, coordinating the various components of the ETL pipeline for streamlined operation and maintenance.

Confidential Client

Space Utilization Dashboards

This dashboard solution transformed challenging conversations around space allocation into more informed decisions, enhancing efficiency and maximizing resource utilization for the organization.

This Canadian healthcare campus is comprised of three acute care hospitals, a rehabilitation facility, and various specialized and support facilities, making it one of the busiest hospital networks in the country.

In an environment where clinical space is constantly in high demand and various departments are always seeking additional space allocations, the campus network faced the challenge of balancing the ongoing demands for more space against the available assets. The need to gain insights into how these spaces were utilized and by whom was paramount in effectively optimizing space allocation.

To address this challenge, the client enlisted the expertise of HH Angus, a long-standing partner, to implement an occupancy monitoring solution. The project goal was to assess the utilization of clinical spaces and identify opportunities for improvement. A longer-term goal was to gather real-world data to inform the design of new spaces, ensuring they met needs identified through the measurement and analysis of current use data.

As part of the collaboration, numerous IoT devices were deployed across two rapid assessment centres, utilizing a variety of technologies to capture occupancy data. This near real-time data was then seamlessly integrated into a unified platform hosted on Amazon Web Services (AWS).

HH Angus designed and implemented a strategic approach to efficiently manage administrative department requests for additional space. Specialized occupancy sensors were tailored to meet the client’s requirements for accuracy and data granularity. Collaborating closely with the hardware vendor, HH Angus managed the entire installation and commissioning process. The result was a sophisticated cloud-based database and dashboard that empowers campus staff with comprehensive insights into space usage.

Road mapping and prioritizing sites were essential for large-scale implementation, and ongoing collaboration with the client ensures alignment with their long-term goals. The solution has already facilitated a departmental reallocation, demonstrating the practical benefits of the implemented system. Another benefit of the occupancy data collection is the ability to reallocate space to other departments as work-from-home initiatives create a more flexible work environment.

The sustainability features of this project are evident through its efficient use of office space, enabled by data driven insights. By implementing a tailored occupancy sensor solution, the project minimizes wasted space and energy resources, aligning with sustainable practices.

Medical privacy considerations, such as avoiding image processing, ensure that ethical guidelines are reflected in the technology deployed. Additionally, a continuous focus on accuracy maintenance enhances the longevity and effectiveness of the solution, reducing the need for frequent hardware replacements and minimizing associated environmental impact.

By leveraging AWS Quicksight, the collected data was transformed into actionable insights. Some of the notable benefits include acquiring reliable and actionable data, receiving an easy-to-understand insights dashboard, and utilizing this data and visualization tool to gauge the effectiveness of the client’s new Rapid Assessment Centre layout to inform future space layout decisions. This initiative reflects the client’s commitment to enhancing operational efficiency and improving patient care through innovative solutions.

SERVICES
Smart Building Consultants

PROJECT FEATURES
Tailored space optimization | Reliable accuracy | Privacy-compliant technology | Accessible data insights | Status: Completed 2023 plus continuing contract

LOCATION
Toronto, Ontario

KEY SCOPE ELEMENTS
Designed and implemented strategic approach to efficiently manage administrative department requests for additional space | Road mapping and prioritization of sites for large-scale implementation | Manage installation and commissioning process.