Tecnológico de Monterrey, Mexico

TecNano Academic Building

TecNano 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

Toronto Transit Commission

Easier Access Program - Subway Station Upgrades

The TTC’s ongoing Easier Access (EA) Program is making public transit more accessible for customers. The entire subway train fleet is accessible, and more than half of Toronto’s subway stations are wheelchair and scooter friendly.

HH Angus has been providing vertical transportation consulting and mechanical and electrical engineering to the TTC since 2010, as the transit system implements EA accessibility upgrades. This involves the design and construction of new elevator systems, as well as changes to the electrical and mechanical systems needed to accommodate the addition of EA upgrades across the subway system.

At the Wellesley Station, for example, two new elevators have been added. The work to support this upgrade included hydraulic, electrical, mechanical, structural and architectural components, along with the detailed project coordination aspects related to renovations.

Some of the challenges associated with the EA renovations include emphasis on limiting space requirements for new subsoil structures, reduced encroachment on property lines, reduced access limits for new equipment installations, relocation of existing services, and routing of new services through very confined and limited space, all requiring very specific, detailed and well-coordinated design.

Detailed coordination between all disciplines regarding all aspects of the project must be part of the design phase to minimize the potential for contractor-claimed extras during construction. For example, quick turnaround times for construction support activities must be adhered to, in order to achieve the construction schedule.

Some of the key success factors in EA upgrade projects include:

- Thorough site investigations prior to design to confirm all as built information. This is critical to determining where new services will be located and connected to existing services, in order to avoid any interference with those services, and to identify where relocation of existing equipment may be required.
- Close coordination between all disciplines to ensure a) the responsibilities of all project team members are clearly defined, and b) that the design is fully buildable without additional unknown factors; for example, avoiding issues that can arise from incomplete or outdated as built drawings.
-Having all stakeholders review the design, with all comments being addressed prior to Issued for Bid stages.

Over twenty subway stations are already complete or currently have upgrades in design or construction:

SERVICES

Vertical Transportation | Mechanical Engineering | Electrical Engineering | Lighting Design

PROJECT FEATURES

Status: Ongoing system-wide upgrades for subway stations to provide accessibility | Mechanical, electrical and lighting system renovations and upgrades to support vertical transportation installations

LOCATION
Greater Toronto, Ontario

KEY SCOPE ELEMENTS

Design Build | Work within confined and limited space | Rapid turnaround on construction activities support to achieve schedule

WA_IBI_FWT_171028-171015_18-3255 _72dpi — Easier Access signage

Space constraints

Because space for EA projects is very limited and within a confined area, all construction details must be effectively designed to ensure constructability.

Bermuda International Airport

Redevelopment and New Terminal

The L.F. Wade International airport is the world’s gateway to Bermuda, and the redevelopment of its existing Passenger Terminal Building (PTB) was a high priority for the small island country. Because the current terminal is prone to flooding, it is susceptible to damage from major Atlantic storms, which could seriously impact Bermuda’s vital tourism industry.

The PTB redevelopment was undertaken as a P3 project. HH Angus provided mechanical engineering and vertical transportation design for all systems serving the airside and the PTB, working with a local affiliate to deliver contract administration services during construction.

The vertical transportation scope for the project included five new machine-room-less (MRL) traction passenger elevators and four escalators.

Some of the interesting challenges of the project included its profile as an international project on an island; adapting to local authorities having jurisdiction; resistance to hurricanes; flood mitigation; and the island’s water strategy–Bermuda's building code requires that all rainwater be captured and re-used, and the new PTB represents the largest roof area in the country. Also, salt-laden air and accelerated corrosion require the use of non-traditional materials as compared, for example, to similar buildings in Canada.

Among the features of the engineering design, the high water table easily allowed for geo-thermal heat rejection for the cooling plant.

SERVICES
Mechanical Engineering | Vertical Transportation

PROJECT FEATURES
Size: 2,886,902 ft2 (26,820 m2) | Status: Completion 2020

LOCATION
St. George's, Bermuda

KEY SCOPE ELEMENTS
Five new machine-room-less (MRL) traction passenger elevators and four escalators | Innovative mechanical design | Geothermal heat rejection for cooling plant | Mandated rainwater reuse for largest roof area in the country

Innovation and Excellence Award

The Bermuda airport project was awarded a 2021 Gold Award for Innovation and Excellence in P3s, from the Canadian Council for Public-Private Partnerships. It is only the second international project recognized by the
CCPPP in its history.

— Renderings courtesy of Scott Associates Architects Inc.

Fraser Health Authority

Royal Columbian Hospital Redevelopment

The Royal Columbian Hospital is the oldest hospital in the province of B.C. and one of the busiest in the Fraser Health Authority. Royal Columbian provides expert care to the province's most seriously ill or injured. It is the only hospital in B.C. that caters to trauma, cardiac care, neurosurgery, high-risk, obstetrics, neonatal intensive care, and acute mental health care all on one site.

HH Angus and Associates is serving as the Planning, Implementation and Closeout Consultant for the Fraser Health Authority’s large, multi-phase redevelopment for Royal Columbian Hospital (RCH) in New Westminster, BC.

RCH is British Columbia’s oldest hospital, and one of only two adult trauma centres in the Lower Mainland. The plan, rolling out in three proposed phases over a decade, will see a major expansion of the acute care campus, with upgrades to critical infrastructure.

Phase 1 included a number of projects to help prepare the hospital’s infrastructure for future expansion. These were a new energy centre; a five-storey, 75-bed mental health and substance abuse facility; underground parking for 450 cars; and a regional data centre which will serve all Fraser Health sites, including 12 hospitals and a large group of community healthcare centres serving a population of 1.6 million.

Phase 1 design challenges included the site itself, which is a steeply sloped, truncated triangle constrained on four sides by roadways. Working closely with CannonDesign, we developed an Indicative Design to ensure the site would work for a mental health building while accommodating the energy centre.

Other challenges included complex scheduling issues to maintain reliable services to the site as the new Energy Centre replaced the old one, and the design of a new, large heating, cooling and electrical plant to serve the current and future RCH campus. HH Angus engineers drew on their deep experience in delivering large healthcare projects to project the future heating, cooling and electrical demands on the Energy Centre that would support the long-term needs of RCH for buildings not yet designed.

Phase 2’s new Acute Care Tower will house a number of services, including emergency, surgery, intensive care and inpatient rooms. Expansion and renovations to the existing buildings will follow in Phase 3. New buildings will be designed to LEED Gold green building standards, and incorporate BC wood, as part of Fraser Health's and the Province's commitment to sustainability.

Image courtesy of Fraser Health.

SERVICES
PDC - Mechanical Compliance Engineering | Electrical Compliance Engineering | Vertical Transportation Compliance

PROJECT FEATURES
Status: Phase 1 – work is finished, Phase 2 – ongoing | Buildings being designed to LEED Gold

LOCATION
New Westminster, BC

KEY SCOPE ELEMENTS
Planning, Implementation and Closeout Consultant | Phase 1 includes a number of projects to help prepare hospital infrastructure for future expansion | Phase 2 Acute Care Tower

Toronto Transit Commission

Downtown Relief Line South (Ontario Line)

“The proposed Relief Line South, a 7.5km long planned subway line with 8 stations, was intended to connect the Yonge-University-Spadina Subway (Line 1) downtown to the Bloor-Danforth Subway (Line 2). The Relief Line South was conceived to relieve crowding on Line 1 south of Bloor, at the Bloor-Yonge Station, and on the surface transit routes coming in and out of downtown.”*

HH Angus was engaged to produce preliminary systems design for two subway stations on the line: Gerrard Station, an in-line station, and Pape, one of the interchange stations, in this case with the existing Bloor/Danforth Line.

Funding and plans for transit relief lines are under review.

* Quote source: Reliefline.ca

SERVICES
Mechanical Engineering | Electrical Engineering | Vertical Transportation

PROJECT FEATURES
Size: 7.5km | Status: Ongoing

LOCATION
Toronto, Ontario

KEY SCOPE ELEMENTS

Preliminary Design