Service: Information and Communications Technology
Peel Regional Police
Headquarters Renovation
The renovation project customized this building for policing and admin functions. Originally, the building had been designed for pharmaceutical research labs and support spaces.
HH Angus was engaged to provide M&E and IMIT consulting engineering for the partial renovation of this existing Peel Regional Police facility. The building has a gross area of ~ 91,000 ft2, with the renovated area totaling ~ 70,000 ft2.
The project involved replacing two boilers and heat pumps, along with the installation of a new make-up air unit on the roof. These service the entire building’s hydronic heating, while the new make-up air unit serves the basement area. As well, part of the contract was to upgrade mechanical systems to suit new load, due to changes in office floor layout and function.
Among the challenges of the project was the requirement for multiple site surveys in order to confirm the existing equipment on site. The project was also completed under a very aggressive schedule in order to meet the targeted occupancy date.
SERVICES
Mechanical Engineering | Electrical Engineering | Lighting Design | IMIT Consulting
PROJECT FEATURES
Renovated space size: 70,000 ft2 | Status: Completed 2019
LOCATION
Peel Region, GTA, Ontario
KEY SCOPE ELEMENTS
Extensive mechanical upgrades and replacements | Multiple site surveys to overcome lack of as-built drawings | Fast-track schedule
Images courtesy of CS&P Architects Inc.
Niagara Health System
ICAT Strategy“Angus Connect’s approach to developing the ICAT Design Program for the new South Niagara Hospital was both forward-looking and grounded in reality, giving us a solid foundation as we move into Stage 3 of our redevelopment project. We really appreciated their fresh perspective on emerging technology, and in-depth knowledge of the opportunities and risks inherent in these types of projects.”
Sime Pavlovic, CIO, Niagara HealthNiagara Health (NH) operates five hospitals and community care facilities in the Niagara Region, serving a diverse population of nearly half a million people and the second highest percentage of seniors aged 65+ in Ontario. The new South Niagara Hospital is expected to consolidate three of the existing sites into a state-of-the-art facility located south of Niagara Falls.
Angus Connect was engaged to help NH achieve their ICAT vision by translating the future state vision into a forward-looking and feasible ICAT design program which could be easily translated into Project Specific Output Specifications (PSOS) as part of Stage 3. Niagara Health was able to capitalize on a unique opportunity, having recently constructed the new St. Catharines Site hospital (2013) which incorporated many current ICAT solutions at the time – the lessons learned from this redevelopment project were addressed as part of the ICAT design program, along with governance and change management recommendations.
In order to complete this work, we participated in the development of the ICAT vision and principles, then developed evaluation criteria and prioritization of ICAT solutions. Our team took a novel approach to stakeholder engagement, categorizing technology options as bronze, silver or gold in order to indicate various levels of implementation and to stimulate productive discussion regarding the functional requirements and use cases for clinical, business and building systems. The output from these sessions was summarized into solution profiles which detailed system requirements, key outcomes & performance indicators, governance, change management strategies, potential risks and challenges (along with mitigation measures), and proposed scope to support Stage 3 documentation.
Finally the ICAT solutions were mapped onto an eight-year implementation plan which addressed both pre-construction and post-construction activities, in addition to those in scope for the redevelopment project. Our team also generated a comprehensive budget cost estimate which included evaluation of potential funding sources based on our previous experience working on Infrastructure Ontario and MoHLTC-funded projects.
SERVICES
ICAT Strategy | Planning, Design and Compliance (PDC)
PROJECT FEATURES
Status: Completed 2020 | Multi-site hospital system which competes with US hospitals due to its proximity to the border | Unique opportunity to incorporate into the design program lessons learned from recent construction of St. Catharines Site hospital
LOCATION
Niagara Region, Ontario
KEY SCOPE ELEMENTS
Angus Connect successfully delivered a detailed ICAT Design Report in less than three months, including a roadmap, equipment planning and budget cost estimates | Angus Connect presented its findings from the ICAT design at the Niagara Health Innovation Conference in February 2020
Tecnológico de Monterrey, Mexico
TecNano Academic BuildingTecNano is a proposed new academic building that combines a variety of lab spaces containing co-working environments. The intent is to support a highly interactive and collaborative research experience within the biotech lab building.
Tecnológico de Monterrey is a multi-campus private university in Monterrey, Mexico. The university has grown to 36 campuses throughout Mexico, with the Monterrey campus serving as its flagship institution.
HH Angus was engaged to provide ICAT (information, communications and automation technology) design services for a proposed new building, the TecNano Academic Building. The IT design scope included a main data centre with a subsidiary data centre dedicated to Multiomics. The IT design was based on a stacked central riser, with main and redundant facility entrances from the street and from the rear, connecting to the campus backbone. Wi-Fi would be available throughout the building, with lab benches and overhead carriers providing wired data connections.
The building design required an innovative solution to locating the IT backbone. We designed a riser in the exterior channel up the north side of the building to facilitate the open-air atrium as well as a stacked riser.
The security scope included access control, CCTV, duress alarms, and a central guard station with CCTV monitoring. The facility was designed with medium to high security measures, and featured dual factor credentials for specific lab entrances. There was one clean room with anteroom, and several isolation and pressurized anteroom labs, all requiring interlock and high-speed overhead doors.
Physical security also presented challenges. Intended to be welcoming, safe and secure, the facility was designed to be open to the campus on the North side and to act as a gateway to the campus from the street on the South side. We provided glass high-speed entrance portals for entrance circulation. The solution also had to function well in Monterrey’s extreme environment. Working with the architect, we provided a safe, secure, and high-speed portal that would be protected from the elements by the atrium ceiling high overhead.
The AV systems included a public auditorium with distance learning and lecture capture, video conferencing-enabled faculty boardroom, as well as AV-enabled student meeting, study, and huddle spaces. Digital signage in IP-65 enclosures provided wayfinding at the entrance for the facility and campus
The TecNano Academic Building laboratory types included:
Nanophotonics
Molecular Simulation
Metallomics
Advanced Optical Microscopy
Nanostructure Synthesis
Micro and Nanofabrication
Multiscale Manufacturing
Materials Characterization
Synthetic Biology
High Throughput Bioprocesses
Microrobotics
Tissue Engineering and Bioprinting.
SERVICES
ICAT Consultant - Security, Audiovisual and Communication Design
PROJECT FEATURES
Size: 25,500 m2 | Status: Design Completion 2018
LOCATION
Monterrey, Mexico
KEY SCOPE ELEMENTS
Biotech laboratory building, including clean room and nanotechnology labs | International collaboration – Client in Mexico, Architect in United States, ICAT and Vertical Transportation consultants in Canada
Innovative solutions
An interesting challenge affected the communications design, specifically the outside plant design. When the local municipality rejected street closures to install a communications duct bank for carrier entrance cabling, we surveyed the site, the facilities, and routing together with TecNanao IT, and designed a campus-internal route to meet the carriers’ entrance to the East. While it is a much longer route, it is also simpler to permit, as it was not located within the municipal right-of-way.
Image credits: FGP Atelier
SickKids Hospital
Digital Strategy and ICAT RoadmapProject Horizon is a massive campus redevelopment that will transform the experience of patients and healthcare professionals, and enable the state-of-the-art healthcare facility to embrace new technologies and processes.
Angus Connect was engaged by the world-renowned paediatric clinical and research hospital to develop a comprehensive digital strategy and ICAT roadmap to support Project Horizon - New Patient Care Tower. This new facility is expected to be 22 stories on the existing SickKids campus in downtown Toronto, and to be integrated with the existing facilities.
Angus Connect is developing the Digital Strategy, Vision and Guiding Principles in accordance with the Project Horizon Vision and SickKids’ Strategic Plan. This will culminate in an ICAT Roadmap, which will inform SickKids of current and upcoming technologies to support the delivery of patient care integrated with research and learning. Once complete, the Roadmap will include a high-level Implementation Plan and Budget for incorporation into SickKids’ Project Horizon Stage 2: Functional Program Submission, and to form the basis of future stages of Project Horizon. The outputs of our Design Program will inform the specifications for the project.
Project Horizon is a multi-year project with the objective to transform SickKids’ physical facilities in order to support the future delivery of paediatric care and address myriad infrastructure deficiencies and limitations that impact quality and safety. The project will consist of the demolition of three buildings and the construction of two new buildings in a complex sequence that will span more than a decade before patients can be accommodated in the new facilities. With extensive experience delivering ICAT digital strategic plans for hospitals across Canada, our team is collaborating closely with SickKids to deep dive into the future of healthcare delivery and understanding their organizational needs today and those anticipated for the future in order to deliver a comprehensive and flexible ICAT roadmap to support Project Horizon. The team is also able to draw on HH Angus’ decades-long experience with large P3 healthcare design and construction projects.
SERVICES
ICAT strategic visioning and planning
PROJECT FEATURES
Size: 22 stories on existing downtown campus | Status: Ongoing
LOCATION
Toronto, Ontario
KEY SCOPE ELEMENTS
Comprehensive digital strategy and ICAT roadmap | Integration with existing facilities | High-level implementation plan and budget | Functional Program Submission | Jurisdictional Scan
Visioning for the future
Angus Connect is providing SickKids with a Jurisdictional Scan of peer organizations from countries around the globe. We worked with our network of global partners (Subject Matter Experts) to understand and identify leading organizations in particular technologies and to make contacts. A market scan of the current and emerging technologies that will change the way healthcare is delivered in 10, 20 and 30 years was also developed as the basis for a Visioning Session with the Leadership Group. This includes concepts such as virtual care, artificial intelligence, robotics, machine learning and 4D printing.
St. Michael’s Hospital
Walter and Maria Schroeder Brain and Heart Centre
“The catheterization lab's capacity is unparalleled and will enable us to make use of state-of-the-art equipment to care for our patients.”
Kim Boswell, Clinical Leader Manager Cardiac Catheterization Labs and Cardiac Arrhythmia Service, SMH
With the Walter and Maria Schroeder Brain & Heart Centre, St. Michael’s Hospital is creating a hub to bring together the world’s best brain and heart specialists, a group of multi-disciplinary experts in engineering and the clinical neurosciences, to develop new therapies for brain-related disorders, such as Alzheimer’s, Lou Gehrig disease (ALS) and Parkinson’s. The new centre will enable patients to be diagnosed, tested and treated in a seamless approach in a single location.
The new catheterization lab, where diagnostic imaging procedures take place to diagnose and treat cardiac issues, is now the largest of its kind inside St. Michael’s, expanding by almost a third of its previous size. The new robotic C-arm will set new benchmarks for precision during various diagnostic imaging procedures.
HH Angus was engaged to provide mechanical and engineering services; lighting design; IT, security, audio visual and communications consulting; and commissioning. Our project scope covered the renovation of an existing Cath Lab, along with associated equipment and control rooms, in order to accommodate a larger footprint and new state-of-the-art medical and imaging equipment.
The project design was future proofed with the expanded Cath lab providing increased capacity for cardiac procedures, thanks to a requirement to design the procedure area to be flexible enough for use as an Operating Room in future. It also includes state-of-the-art audio visual capabilities, with live data streams displayed on electronic screens throughout the room. Future capabilities include extensive video and audio feeds from within the room, as well as the ability to videoconference and live-stream procedures to locations both within and outside St. Michael’s. This will facilitate education, research and external consults.
Upgrades included: medical gas system and alarm replacement, including the installation of an articulated service boom; eventual conversion from passive to active scavenging system; ventilation system; and two new neuro interventional bi-plane suites, enabling image-guided and minimally-invasive procedures.
Challenges met by our project team include:
- Designing the space to meet a Hybrid OR environment, including supplying 20 air changes per hour above the patient care area with limited ceiling space
- Creating flexible ventilation design to allow future connection to a new air handling system, without causing major shutdowns to or rework of the existing space
- As a partial solution to #1, installing a combined lighting and air supply product (EH Price Ultrasuite), which had not yet been implemented anywhere in Canada, and ensuring all local code requirements were met.
- Coordinating the complex video requirements of multiple specialized medical systems in order to route diagnostic-quality video and audio feeds appropriately.
Read about other projects at St. Michael’s Hospital
Barlo MS Centre
Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute
Photo courtesy of Unity Health
SERVICES
Mechanical Engineering | Electrical Engineering | Lighting Design | Security | Communications | Audio Visual | IMIT | Commissioning
PROJECT FEATURES
Status: Completion 2020 | Future-proofed design with flexibility to permit re-purposing of procedure area
LOCATION
Toronto, Ontario
KEY SCOPE ELEMENTS
Cardiac catheterization lab | Hybrid OR environment