HH Angus was engaged to upgrade the Queen's University Biomedical Research Facility (BRF). We have been providing consulting engineering to Queen's for well over two decade and, over that time, have developed an intimate knowledge of the systems infrastructure throughout the campus.

The BRF project involved a three-phase renovation, upgrade, and fitout of an existing 39,000 ft2 research facility. The aging facility needed additional space for increased research initiatives and a complete upgrade of its lighting, HVAC, and processing systems.

Facility components included systems for biosafety labs, autoclaves, glass washers, new cage washers, procedure rooms, and telemetry rooms across two floor plates. Phase 1 included relocation of a 15,000 ft2 rodent facility within an existing science building. Phases 2 and 3 included a full upgrade and renovation of the 24,000 ft2 vivarium.

HH Angus was involved with the project since its inception in 2009. The approval process lasted over seven years to secure funding, plan for the migration of the labs, and achieve user group consensus on the facility redesign.

The project included some interesting challenges associated with the upgrades:

Operational Continuity: The facility operates 24/7. New space had to be developed and commissioned before decommissioning old spaces. Our team performed detailed planning and site reviews to ensure there would be no disruptions to ongoing research or adjacent HVAC systems.

Aged Infrastructure: The older building lacked up-to-date ‘as-built’ drawings. To mitigate this, we used Revit for BIM modeling and interference drawings to prevent clashes during construction.

Spatial Constraints: Floor-to-ceiling heights were approximately 11 to 13 feet, which is significantly below the modern laboratory standard of 15 feet. We solved this by moving services out of the ceiling space into more spacious areas such as the penthouse, roof, and lower floors.

Infrastructure Renewal: The team designed the complete replacement of all air handling and exhaust systems in the active building. Through creative design, we achieved N+1 redundancy in the air handling systems at the same cost as a standard like-for-like replacement.