Congratulations to Tim Zhu on being chosen as one of the ‘Top 10 Under 40’ on Canadian Consulting Engineers’ annual list of outstanding young engineers.

A young engineer standing in a suit

Tim is a senior mechanical engineer and project manager in HH Angus’ fast-paced Commercial Division. Since joining the firm in 2013, he has consistently demonstrated strong technical abilities and a dedicated work ethic, often putting in extra hours to ensure clients’ work is completed with the utmost quality and care. He has also been instrumental in developing calculation tools for HH Angus, including HVAC piping and ductwork sizing tools, ASHRAE 62.1 calculation tools and more. Tim is also member of ASHRAE and enjoys the distinction of being the first HH Angus WELL APTM-accredited staff member.

Tim expresses his passion for engineering by developing standards and protocols through his work. He is a member of the HH Angus sustainability committee, the standards committee, and the calculation tools committee. Tim is currently working on overhauling HH Angus’ drafting standards to be implemented in the REVIT platform. He is also developing template control sequences and diagrams based on the ASHRAE 36 High performance Sequences of Operation for HVAC Systems. Tim regularly provides instruction and training for colleagues, including both new and experienced engineers and designers, and volunteers in University of Toronto’s Engineering & Strategies Practice course, working with students to provide real-world context to their studies.

We warmly congratulate Tim on this significant honour that publicly recognizes his outstanding efforts and qualities – well done!

To read more about this year’s Top 10 Under 40, please click here.

“Azure’s International AZ Awards recognize excellence and innovation in architecture and design, and celebrate the world’s best projects, products and ideas.”

This international design competition annually selects winners in the categories of design, architecture, landscape architecture, urban design, experiential graphic design, interiors, concepts, student work and social good/environmental leadership. The 2022 awards saw Toronto’s Mirvish Village redevelopment project winning in the Urban Design Vision category. Click here to read more about the Mirvish Village AZ Award.

Award-winning Redevelopment

Mirvish Village is rising on the site of ‘Honest Ed’s,’ a much-loved discount store that was at the heart of Toronto’s Mirvish Village neighbourhood for almost 70 years. The redevelopment is currently under construction and spans 4.5 acres, creating nearly 1 million ft2 of purpose-built rental housing and retail space.

Mirvish Village has a focus on sustainability and affordability. To achieve this, the redevelopment is incorporating a district energy system and micro-grid that will offer a resilient means of thermal energy, power, and emergency power, enabling the project to meet LEED platinum and the City of Toronto’s Tier 2 Toronto Green Standard requirements. 

HH Angus’ Role

Our Energy Division team worked closely with Creative Energy Developments to provide mechanical and electrical engineering services for the Village’s central utility plant, which includes a combined heat and power plant (CHP), a boiler plant, and a cooling plant. The CHP plant includes an 800 KW generator set with auxiliaries and heat recovery system. The generator is expected to run continuously to provide power to the complex.

Heat recovery consists of two systems: high temperature to provide heat to buildings, and low temperature to provide additional heating for a winter snow melting system and swimming pool heating. The boiler plant includes four condensing hot water boilers, with the option for two additional boilers in future. All boilers have an output of 3.1 MW.

The cooling plant includes two water-cooled chillers, operating at 1200 tons each. One is a magnetic bearing chiller with variable frequency drive (VFD), and the other is a centrifugal chiller with VFD. As well, two rooftop cooling towers at 1200 tons each have been installed. 

Central distribution piping from the plant will provide hot water and chilled water to multiple energy transfer stations, with heating, cooling, and domestic hot water heat exchanges for each building within the complex.

A photo-voltaic solar system will have a capacity of 103KW, 480V. HH Angus provided direction for locating the installation, coordinated with the PV supplier for modeling the panel direction and angle for optimal PV output, developed technical connection requirements with Toronto Hydro, and identified requirements for parallel generation with the central utility plant. Our scope also included developing thermal and electrical metering strategies within a microgrid system, and design of operation for gas-fired emergency generators in electrical peak shaving mode.

Rendering courtesy of Westbank Corp

 

Mirvish Village - AZ Awards | AZ Awards (azuremagazine.com)

HH Angus' Akira Jones and Melissa Parry will be participating in a webinar on May 29 discussing how we used 3D imaging to streamline the process for Toronto Western Hospital's mechanical and electrical facilities.

For more information and to register, click here to try Matterport >

“Twenty metres below Eglinton Ave., dozens of workers wielding huge machines are building what looks like an underground cathedral. In fact, it’s the future site of Laird Station, one of 25 planned stops on the Eglinton Crosstown LRT.” (Toronto Star, April 30, 2018)

The unique mining excavation approach to building the ECLRT’s Laird Station was featured in yesterday’s Toronto Star.  HH Angus is designing and engineering the mechanical and electrical systems for three of the ECLRT’s underground stations – Laird, Mt. Pleasant and Leaside (Bayview).

The Eglinton Crosstown Light Rail Transit project is the largest transit expansion in Toronto’s history and one of the largest P3 projects in North America.

*For the Toronto Star video report and article, click here.

The Toronto Zoo constructs a new Wildlife Healthcare Facility

The Toronto Zoo is Canada’s premier zoo and home to over 5,000 animals, including invertebrates and fish, representing 460 species from a variety of geographical regions around the world. Encompassing approximately 710 acres, the Toronto Zoo is Canada’s largest zoo and is divided into seven zoogeographic regions, ranging from the Americas, to Africa, Australasia and Eurasia.

The campus includes numerous support facilities dedicated to animal care, operations, maintenance and veterinary services. With the existing veterinary facilities dating back to 1974, the Toronto Zoo recognized the need for redevelopment and expansion. The mandate for the new Wildlife Health Centre is to provide a state-of-the-art facility for veterinary services, that will further the Toronto Zoo’s commitment to wildlife health, nutrition, species survival research, conservation and education.

Planning for the new centre commenced in 2011 with Diamond Schmitt Architects, in collaboration with animal healthcare specialists Design Level, leading the team and preparing the architectural design for the new facility.

With a total gross area of 32,000 sq. ft., the new two-storey building would be located in the centre of the Toronto Zoo’s existing animal support complex and would be constructed in the footprint of the existing veterinary services building. Adjacent service buildings, including the existing Research, Animal Holding, Quarantine, and Conservation and Biology facilities, would connect to the new Wildlife Health Centre.

Design considerations

The functional program for the new centre would have to meet a variety of objectives, including: meeting the needs of the different animal species, taking into account diverse environmental requirements for the various habitats, providing a layout that promotes the effective delivery of ongoing healthcare services and meeting the requirements of the veterinary professionals who perform these services. Eric Lucassen, Project Architect at Diamond Schmitt, notes, “Working with the Toronto Zoo to create functional programming that supports animal healthcare, while meeting the unique habitat requirements for the various animals, involved a detailed planning process.”

The facility program for the Wildlife Health Centre is split over two floor levels and consists of animal treatment and surgical areas, diagnostic imaging, an intensive care unit, laboratories, animal holding areas, offices and support spaces, and a public viewing area. Animal holding areas are further divided into spaces for small and large animals, which require ceiling-high caging to provide safety for the staff.

Surgery and diagnostic imaging spaces are centrally located and are accessible via wider corridors to facilitate the easy transport of animals into these areas. A garage is located adjacent to the surgery area, and an electric hoist and hoist beam runs from the garage to the surgery area to help the transport of larger animals.

The majority of two-storey rooms have large clerestory (windows just below the ceiling) around the perimeter of the spaces. This architectural feature allows a significant amount of daylight to enter the interior of the building and creates the feeling of being in an open, natural environment. Laboratories and support spaces are located in close proximity with animal care areas to minimize travel distances for support services.

Mechanical considerations

Given the varying functionalities and diverse environmental requirements of the different spaces, a number of innovative applications of mechanical and electrical systems were incorporated in the building’s design. The holding area for fish and reptiles required that tropical temperatures be consistently maintained throughout the year, maintaining 100% relative humidity. Electric heat tracing cable, specifically modelled for the application by Tyco Thermal Controls, was installed in the slab to ensure that the temperature in the area would be maintained during winter months. While the electric heat tracing cable maintained a heat pad for reptiles, additional radiant floor heating was used to maintain the environment and create general floor comfort for animals.

Ventilation systems in animal care areas throughout the facility rely on a continuous 100% fresh air supply, with no return air, to ensure that contaminants and excrement are not circulated through the ventilation system. A heat recovery system was provided on the exhaust air system to increase energy efficiency. Animal surgery areas utilize a dedicated supply air system, which incorporate air change requirements and filtration comparable to the requirements for a human healthcare facility. By utilizing a separate, dedicated supply air system for surgery areas, energy efficiency is maintained in areas that require fewer air changes per hour.

Other energy efficient elements in the design included the use of low flow plumbing fixtures, roofing and landscaping features that promote heat island reduction for the site and the use of insulated glazing that provides an optimal balance between daylighting and heat transfer.

Electrical and lighting requirements

Unlike hospitals where patient care equipment is standard and there are prescribed standards for electrical circuiting requirements, animal care areas have speciality equipment items, and require multiple dedicated circuits and receptacles. Additionally, animal care areas were considered wet environments, due to the frequent washing that occurs after animals are returned to their habitats.

Ground fault circuit interrupter (GFCI) receptacles were used in these areas to maintain electrical safety. Lighting fixtures throughout the facility were selected to provide both illumination requirements for animal care and were vapour tight, to maintain infection control practices and protect luminaires from inadvertent spray during cleaning.

Occupancy sensors and multiple light switches were used throughout the facility to give users a wide range of automatic and manual lighting control, which allow lights to be turned off when there is enough daylight present through windows and clerestory.

To avoid interference with full height cages, architectural clerestories, and to minimize the likelihood of interaction with animals, overhead mechanical and electrical services were routed outside of animal care areas and confined to corridor spaces. This created several installation coordination issues that were resolved by the contractor, via the creation of detailed interference drawings during the construction phase of the project.

Nearing completion

The project was competitively tendered and awarded to Gillam Group Inc., with construction commencing in February 2015. The new building is in the final phases of construction and is scheduled to be complete during the first quarter of 2017.

Working on an animal healthcare facility designed to accommodate a variety of different species, with diverse requirements, proved to be a unique challenge.

While healthcare standards are readily available for hospital construction, there are minimal design and construction standards available for this type of animal care facility. Environmental standards established by the Canadian Council on Animal Care and general healthcare design experience contributed to the overall design.

Furthermore, involving the users throughout the project was critical in identifying the unique needs of various animal groups. Eric Lucassen notes, “Having the Toronto Zoo’s veterinary staff provide input into specific design requirements at every step of the project helped the design team develop innovative solutions to provide an enhanced animal care environment.” CCE

 

Philip Chow, P.Eng., P.E. is a senior project manager at H.H. Angus & Associates Ltd., Philip.Chow@hhangus.com