Building Magazine November 2008

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Make a Statement.

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THE LMCI FINISHING INDUSTRIES FORUM BEGINS

TAKE A HANDFUL OF LEADING BUSINESS EXPERTS, INCLUDING MARK BRESLIN, AND HARLEY’S FORMER CEO RICHARD TEERLINK. ADD A SPRINKLE OF WORKSHOPS AND DISCUSSIONS AIMED AT

Mark Breslin Workshop LMRDA Update

BRINGING CLARITY TO SOME OF THE MOST MISUNDERSTOOD ISSUES

Project Management

FACING OUR INDUSTRY. STIR IN A UNIQUE BLEND OF PERSPECTIVES

Bridging the Generations

FROM MANAGEMENT, AS WELL AS LABOR. TOP IT ALL OFF WITH THE

Workers Compensation and ADR

COMFORT AND EXCITEMENT OF CAESARS PALACE IN LAS VEGAS.

ANY WONDER THIS PREMIER INDUSTRY EVENT FILLS UP FAST?

Killer Clauses in Contracts The Finishing Trades Institute Interpreting Green Bid Specs

IF YOUR BUSINESS EMPLOYS FINISHING TRADES WORKERS, YOU’RE INVITED. ATTENDANCE IS FREE. A LIMITED NUMBER OF STEEPLY DISCOUNTED ROOMS ARE AVAILABLE, SO REGISTER AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. NOVEMBER 10 –13, 2008 HOSTED BY LMCI — THE PAINTERS AND ALLIED TRADES LABOR MANAGEMENT COOPERATION INITIATIVE

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2008 LMCI FOURTH ANNUAL FINISHING INDUSTRIES FORUM AT CAESARS PALACE

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CANADA MORTGAGE AND HOUSING CORPORATION

A Healthier Environment Begins At Home.

(Actually, At Home In 12 Locations Across Canada.)

Introducing EQuilibrium - a powerful new national housing initiative led by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) giving Canadians housing options that are designed to be healthy, energy-efficient, environmentally friendly, resource-efficient and produce as much energy as they consume on an annual basis.

EQuilibrium brings together the private and public sectors to design and build the next generation of sustainable housing in Canada that balances our housing needs with those of our environment.

It’s about building the kind of home you’d like to live in. For the kind of world you’d like to live in.

To learn more about EQuilibrium and the 12 demonstration homes across Canada, visit www.cmhc.ca and keyword search for EQuilibrium.

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Volume 58 Number 5

october/november 2008

Editor

Peter Sobchak Upfront

Dave Gabriele Legal Editor

Jeffrey W. Lem Contributors

Hallie Benjamin, Justin Colville, David Lasker, Chris Nielsen, Don Procter, Barry Reid, Jason Sahlani, Tony Woods Art Director

Ellie Robinson Circulation Manager

Beata Olechnowicz Tel: (416) 416-442-5600 ext 3543 Reader Services

Liz Callaghan Advertising Sales

Jordy Bellotto Tel: (416) 510-6780 Fax: (416) 510-5140 Senior Publisher

16

21

Features

Tom Arkell

13. Legal: The rise and fall of Canadian ULCs / Nova Scotia has been doing it

Vice President, Publishing Business Information Group (BIG)

for years, but just as Alberta and British Columbia get on the bandwagon, changes to the U.S.-Canada tax treaty threaten to do away with the Unlimited Liability Company, which has been the preferred corporate vehicle for U.S. investors in Canada. By Jeffrey W. Lem and Hallie Benjamin

Alex Papanou President, Business Information Group (BIG)

16. Rising high / Context Development, with mastermind Howard Cohen at the reigns, has

Bruce Creighton Building magazine is published by Business Information Group, a division of BIG magazines LP 12 Concord Place, Suite 800, Toronto, ON M3C 4J2 Tel: (416) 510-6780 Fax: (416) 510-5140 Email: info@building.ca Website: www.building.ca SUBSCRIPTION RATE: Canada: 1 year, $28.62; 2 years, $53.00; 3 years, $64.66. (including G.S.T.) U.S.: 1 year, $35.00 (U.S. funds) Elsewhere: 1 year, $42.00 (U.S. funds).

BACK ISSUES: Back copies are available for $8 for delivery in Canada, $10 US for delivery in U.S.A. and $15 US overseas. Please send prepayment to Building, 12 Concord Place, Suite 800, Toronto, ON M3C 4J2 or order online at www.building.ca For subscription and back issues inquiries please call 416-510-3543, e-mail: circulation@building.ca or go to our website at www.building.ca Please send changes of address to Circulation Department, Building magazine or email to addresses@building.ca NEWSSTAND: For information on Building on newsstands in Canada, call 905-619-6565 Building is indexed in the Canadian Magazine Index

by Micromedia ProQuest Company, Toronto (www.micromedia.com) and National Archive Publishing Company, Ann Arbor, Michigan (www.napubco.com).

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Glacier BIG Holdings Company Ltd. Customer Number: 2014319 Canada Post Sales Agreement #40069240

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developed a reputation of performing alchemy in the increasingly evolving and highly competitive Toronto condominium market. By David Lasker

21. Sittin’ on the Dock[side] of the bay / Nestled alongside the ocean in Victoria, B.C.’s inner harbour is a singular community that is simultaneously paving the way for green building in Canada while etching its name in the history books. By Jason Sahlani

26. On the grid / The challenge of reducing the impact of developments on the environment while maintaining or increasing the quality of life for residents is growing. One possible solution in planning communities is the fused grid model, elements of which are being incorporated into a new development in a Calgary suburb. By Don Procter

32. Battling the enemy / Hazardous materials take a bite out of renovation and demolition projects, but employing the proper equipment and strategies creates a sound defence, which we all know is the best offense. By Chris Nielsen and Justin Colville

34. Commissioning the building envelope / For more than 20 years, Canada’s building science experts have been trying to convince all stakeholders in construction that they should insist on proper commissioning of the building envelope -- with varying degrees of success.

By Tony Woods

Departments 6 Editor’s Notes

8 Upfront

12 Mailbox

37 Infosource

38 Viewpoint

Cover Synergy townhouses and condominium, phase one of the multi-phase Dockside Green project in Victoria, B.C. Photo courtesy of Dockside Green Above photos by: Ben Rahn/ A-Frame, Busby Perkins + Will

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editor’s notes

Homeward bound Your house is more than the place where you live. It’s your home, and your most important investment. But it’s also more than that — we sometimes easily forget what an enormous impact they have on the environment, both individually and collectively, since any city’s housing stock comprises by far the majority of its overall building stock.

Faced with rising energy costs and an increasing awareness of environmental issues, developers should begin to realize that houses aren’t as benign as we once thought, and — even better — do something about it.

This is why the 12 projects across the country being built as part of the CMHC’s EQuilibrium Sustainable Housing Demonstration Initiative should be closely watched and emulated, since they encourage builders and developers to create the next generation of sustainable housing in Canada.

Of the two being built in Toronto, one is already up and running. Now House is a 60-year old wartime home located in the Topham Park community. The retrofit house features sustain-

able building technologies such as upgraded insulation, reduced air leakage, new windows, radiant floor heating and the installation of solar panels and Energy Star-certified appliances. In addition, much of the hot water will be solar heated. The result is a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and a healthier, more energy-efficient home.

“We’ve got to be bold and we’ve got to start now to improve the energy efficiency of existing houses,” said Lorraine Gauthier, president, The Now House Project Inc. “Now House proves you can take an old house and retrofit it to well above current new building standards. With 16 more Now Houses already in the works and queries from several provinces, our ambition to inspire the retrofit of one million wartime houses across Canada looks possible.”

If our cities are to become more sustainable, our housing stock must become more sustainable. With large urban population expansions predicted in Canada over the next 20 years, it is essential that models of sustainable living in dense urban settings be developed immediately. B

Peter Sobchak

Building welcomes your opinions.

E-mail your comments to editor@building.ca

WATCH Due diligence and risk management strategies for brownfield owners and developers / Although brownfield sites can be lucrative development opportunities, they are also fraught with risk. Performing adequate due diligence can make even the most difficult site manageable and profitable. Murray Kammer, senior vice president, commercial group, of Willis Canada helps explain the level of due diligence you require, and reviews many of the risks pre- and post-purchase and selling.

READ Emerging trends in building envelope commissioning by Scott Armstrong / Using examples from project experience and the commissioning framework provided by both the National Institute of Building Sciences and ASHRAE, Scott Armstrong, project manager with Halcrow Yolles, defines building envelope commissioning, building science consulting and discusses some of the current issues.

ExPLORE Centre Recherche Technology Langagiere, l’Université du Québec en Outaouais, Gatineau, Québec by Rhys Phillips

CHECK OUT Canadian Resort Investment Conference / October 14-15 / Kelowna, B.C. Hot Properties: Canadian Brownfields 2008 / October 22-24 / Toronto ULI Fall Meeting and Urban Land Expo / October 27-30 / Miami

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what’s on BUILDING.CA 10/30/08 2:10:22 PM

• Recycled Material Content • Cool Paint Finishes • Energy Efficient Insulation Alternatives

• Advanced Engineering Solutions • End-of-Use Recyclability • Regional Manufacturing Locations

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The Proof Is In The Roof!

If energy conservation is a major goal for your next project, VP Buildings can help you meet your sustainable construction and LEED certified project plans. VP's patented SuperBlock™ system is a unique, proprietary insulation system that delivers superior performance in thermal protection.

Hot box tested and verified, SuperBlock’s uniquely designed thermal block and fiberglass insulation, coupled with VP's standing seam roof, deliver in place R-values up to 23.5. VP also offers long-life KXL finish colors designed to meet high-slope and low-slope cool roof standards. Cool!

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Call 1-800-238-3246 for more information about VP Buildings’green building solutions and request a free copy of Building Green with VP. Visit Varco Pruden Buildings online at www.VP.com

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upfront

Filmport open for business

TORONTO — The first phase of Filmport Studios, Toronto’s state-of-the-art film and television production facility, has officially opened for business. Designed by Toronto-based Quadrangle Architects, Phase 1 of Filmport Studios occupies over a quarter of a million square feet of production space, including seven sound stages, and is the largest film studio in Canada. It is also home to the Mega-Stage, North America’s largest purpose-built sound stage covering a massive 45,900 square feet with more than an acre of column-free space below a six-storey high lighting grid.

Phase 1 of Filmport Studios sits on a 47-acre site, and includes the Mega-Stage, whose red flying buttresses outside the structure create 45,900 square feet of column-free space.

Filmport will eventually top three million square feet of additional film and TV businesses such as post-production companies, union and guild offices, film schools, and amenities such as restaurants and shops. The studio is expected to support 2,000 jobs and up to 4,000 more in the surrounding commercial buildings. The overall development is expected to continue for seven to 10 years at a total construction cost in excess of $700 million.

“We have been designing facilities for television and film production for over 25 years,” said Les Klein, principal and partner at Quadrangle Architects. “Filmport encompasses all of our knowledge, creativity and vision for the future of film.

We designed the space to exceed the functional expectations of television and filmmakers and to provide them and their crews with a space that will help inspire their creativity.”

Quadrangle’s experience in designing broadcast facilities includes seven Citytv stations in Canada, Columbia and Spain; CBC Toronto; and Corus Entertainment’s new Toronto headquarters, which is currently under construction.

The City of Toronto mandated in its 2003 Central Waterfront Secondary Plan that this area of the Port Lands

become a ‘convergence community’ for creative and knowledge-based industries. The Toronto Economic Development Corporation (TEDCO), who owns the site, was asked by the City of Toronto to assemble an investment consortium and following a two-stage international competition, Toronto Film Studios and parent Rose Corporation won the rights to develop the site. A third shareholder, Comweb, has since joined the private investment group.

For more information www.filmport.ca, www.tedco.ca, www.quadrangle.ca

Port of Montreal gears up for $2.5 billion expansion

MONTREAL — The Port of Montreal will be conducting a $2.5 billion expansion which will increase the port’s capacity and develop new markets by 2020. According to the CEO of the Montreal Port Authority (MPA), Patrice M. Pelletier, the expansion will produce 41,400 jobs and economic spin-offs of $3.4 billion per year for the Montreal community.

“Since the early 1990s,” said Pelletier, “world container traffic has grown almost three times faster than GDP. By 2020, container traffic is expected to grow by nearly seven per cent a year. We must act right away to obtain a large share of this traffic.”

The MPA’s project has four phases. Phase 1 involves optimization of the current infrastructures to increase operational efficiency and immediately expand the port’s capacity. In Phase 2, the existing sites will be redeveloped for optimum bulk and container storage.

Phase 3 will focus on the development of new infrastructures. The last phase will allow the Port of Montreal to increase its capacity to 4.5 million containers. The four-part project has already begun and will be completed by 2020.

Pelletier also proposed a $150 million transformation of the Alexandra Pier, which welcomes cruise ships and thousands of passengers each year, into an impressive recreational and tourism, artistic and cultural hub.

The MPA operates the world’s largest inland port. It is a leader among container ports, handling 26 million tonnes of cargo annually. The Port of Montreal generates 18,200 jobs and $1.5 billion in economic spin-offs.

For more information www.port-montreal.com

Enermodal to LEED the way

KITCHENER, Ont. — The 2009 version of the LEED Canada building rating system will be coordinated by Enermodal Engineering, a Canadian consulting firm focused entirely on green buildings, with input from across the green building industry and the public.

LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is the most recognized green building rating system in North America, and the Canadian Green Building Council (CaGBC) administer LEED Canada and use the rating system to designate buildings according to the efficiency and environmental features they incorporate.

The updated version of LEED, expected in early 2009, will feature different point total requirements, new prerequisites and a

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upfront

new amalgamated document, which includes all the various LEED guides for ease of use.

“We are excited to use our experience on numerous LEED buildings to make this rating system more user-friendly and technically superior. This is a very important step forward for green design and the CaGBC,” said Enermodal president Stephen Carpenter.

Enermodal Engineering is a consulting firm committed to buildings and communities that are energy and resource efficient.

With professional staff in Kitchener, Calgary, Denver and Phoenix, Enermodal is working on over 170 LEED buildings across North America and is responsible for over 85 per cent of the LEED certified projects in Ontario.

For more information www.enermodal.com, www.cagbc.org

CB Richard Ellis reports 40 per cent drop in commercial real estate

TORONTO — Investment in Canadian commercial real estate declined sharply in the first half of 2008 and investment for the year as a whole is expected to be considerably lower than last year’s record level, according to a report from Toronto-based commercial real estate company CB Richard Ellis Canada.

The report says that in the first six months of 2008, investment in the Canadian commercial real estate market totalled $10 billion, 24 per cent lower than the $13.1 billion invested in the first half of last year.

The factors that contributed to a reduction in 2008 investment include uncertainty in the future of the Canadian and world economies, reduced availability of debt financing, less properties available for purchase and less investors. This is demonstrated by the lower amount of transactions (2,542 in 2008 versus 2,875 in 2007) and lower investment dollar volume.

Foreign investment, the report reads, is down 39 per cent to $581 million from $947 million in the first half of the year.

Stefan Ciotlos, interim president of CB Richard Ellis, says “we expect the investment market for 2008 as a whole to be about 40 per cent lower, possibly even more, than the record $32.2 billion invested last year. At a 40 per cent decline, it would amount to about $20 billion in investment for the year as a whole and put the 2008 year end results less than the $24.2 billion invested in 2006 and about par with the $19.8 billion invested in all of 2005.”

For more information www.cbre.ca

SNC-Lavalin goes nuclear in South Africa

KOEBERG, South Africa — SNC-Lavalin Nuclear, a subsidiary of SNC-Lavalin of Montreal, has partnered with South African construction and engineering firm Murray & Roberts to provide engineering, procurement, project and construction management services for Phase II of the $253-million Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR) Demonstration Power Plant in Koeberg, South Africa.

The Pebble Bed Modular Reactor is a generation IV high temperature, helium-cooled nuclear reactor. The main advantages of the technology are its inherent safe characteristics, modular

design, process heat applications and short construction time.

Phase I of the power plant was completed in June and Phase II is expected to be complete in 2014. Once in service, the PBMR will supply about 165 MW to South Africa’s national grid.

“We are pleased with this opportunity to bring our experience in ‘New Build’ Generation IV nuclear technology to this benchmark project,” said Patrick Lamarre, executive vice-president of SNC-Lavalin Group and president of SNC-Lavalin Nuclear.

For more information www.snclavalin.com, www.murrob.com

DEGI of Germany buys towers in Edmonton

EDMONTON — Morguard Investments of Mississauga, Ont., has acquired the Petroleum Plaza in Edmonton on behalf of international real estate portfolio manager Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Immobilienfonds m.b.H. (DEGI) of Frankfurt, Germany, for $130 million. Petroleum Plaza is comprised of two office towers connected by a retail podium at grade-level with a total rentable area of 315,065 square feet.

“Canada ranks among the world’s strongest economies, with Morguard’s newly-acquired Petroleum Plaza in Edmonton.

a remarkably dynamic performance. In the last five years, average economic growth has consistently topped four per cent,” said Barbel Schomberg, chairman of DEGI’s Supervisory Board.

DEGI is one of Europe’s leading real estate portfolio managers with assets totalling $6.4 billion euros. Morguard Investments represents major institutional and private investors with more than $7.5 billion in assets under management.

For more information www.morguard.com, www.degi.com

Plasco looking towards a future in Alberta

RED DEER, Alta. — Plasco Energy Group of Ottawa plans to build, own and operate a waste conversion facility in Red Deer County in central Alberta. The proposed facility, a larger version of Plasco’s demo facility in Ottawa, will see 300 tonnes of waste per day converted into valuable products including over 15 megawatts of electricity for use on the local power grid.

The City of Ottawa, which is a partner with Plasco, will receive royalties of up to $3.5 million per year as part of the Red Deer deal. building

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“This has been a long time coming and is a real move forward for us in central Alberta,” commented Kinsella, chair of the Central Waste Management Commission in Alberta. “We are eliminating landfills, making the planet greener and it all works in rural Canada.”

Construction of the facility will begin after operation of Plasco’s Trail Road facility in Ottawa has demonstrated energy efficiencies satisfactory to environmental regulations and has obtained all the required permits. This is expected to be in 2009.

Plasco Energy Group is a private Canadian waste conversion and energy generation company based in Ottawa. Plasco builds, owns and operates Plasco Conversion System facilities that use proprietary world-leading technology to convert municipal household, commercial or industrial waste into green power and other valuable products.

For more information www.plascoenergygroup.com

First LEED-CS certification in Canada

CAMBRIDGE, Ont. — The new headquarters of construction firm Collaborative Structures Limited (CSL) in Cambridge, Ont. has been awarded the first ever LEED-CS (Core and Shell) certification in Canada. The 24,000-sq.-ft. building received its official certification thanks to a variety of energy and water saving measures. Enermodal

Engineering of Kitchener, Ont. was the LEED consultant on the project and Mighton Engineering, also based in Kitchener, provided the architectural design. CSL itself was the contractor.

LEED-CS is distinguished from LEED-NC (New Construction) by the fact that the “core and shell” of the building achieves LEED, but the interior design of future tenants may or may not. Although a LEED-CS building is an entirely new structure, the developer does not occupy the entire building and therefore cannot ensure LEED standards for the interior.

The CSL headquarters is a demonstration of environmental responsibility that offers significant operational savings, increased workplace productivity, and community sensitivity. The landlordtenant agreement provides guidelines that cover topics such as light pollution, low-toxicity building materials and cleaning products, recycling, and construction waste management. The walls of the building are constructed using insulated concrete forms (ICF), which increases the insulation efficiency of the exterior. The mechanical design features high efficiency gas heating/cooling rooftop units and an energy recovery system.

The various features result in an annual energy savings of 41 per cent. This is in addition to the 56 per cent potable water savings from water conserving fixtures.

For more information www.enermodal.com, www.mighton.com

GO GREEN.

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upfront

HOK looks at biomimicry for new ideas

HELENA, Montana — International architectural firm HOK has teamed with the Biomimicry Guild of Helena, Montana, in order to utilize the bio-inspired company’s innovations in the planning and design of buildings, communities and cities worldwide.

The Biomimicry Guild, established by biologists Janine Benyus and Dr. Dayna Baumeister in 1998, studies nature’s best ideas and imitates these designs and processes to solve human problems.

Biomimicry is a science that has inspired numerous commercial products and individual building projects, and the new alliance between the Biomimicry Guild and HOK has the potential to dramatically expand its scale and impact “Given the size, breadth and diversity of HOK’s design practice, our firm can significantly influence the future generation of architecture, planning and interior design projects around the world,” says HOK president Bill Hellmuth.

The built environment is the most fertile ground for biomimicry, according to Baumeister. “Buildings account for about 50 per cent of total U.S. energy use, and our greatest collective impact will come from applying biomimicry to the planning and design of buildings, communities and cities at every scale and in every region,” she says.

HOK and the Biomimicry Guild are currently working together to integrate biomimicry into the Lavasa Hill station community under development near Pune, India, and are exploring potential project collaborations in Saudi Arabia and North America.

“We believe biomimicry will not only help us significantly reduce the environmental impact of our projects, but also has the potential to help define a whole new sustainable standard for our profession,” says HOK Sustainable Design director Mary Ann Lazarus. www.biomimicryguild.com, www.hok.com for more information HOK and the Biomimicry Guild are working together to integrate nature’s innovations in the planning and design of buildings, communities and cities worldwide

BUILD WITH SHEET STEEL. Construction affects everyone large and small. New construction disturbs natural surroundings, often wastes water, and

sometimes pollutes water resources. You can make construction easier to swallow and decrease your environmental impact by choosing recycled sheet steel products.

Environmentally conscious builders turn to sheet steel cladding, framing, and building systems because they are

engineered from recycled and recyclable sheet steel that help clean up the earth. Recycled sheet steel products offer unparalleled durability and lower life cycle costs. They are green choices for builders to achieve sustainable development and meet accredited certification programs.

Save water and resources on your next project and contact the CSSBI for more information on recycled sheet steel products.

www.cssbi.ca

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Québec to extend life of nuclear plant

TROIS-RIVIÈRES, Que. — Hydro-Québec has announced plans for a $1.9 billion retrofit of Quebec’s Gentilly-2 nuclear power plant near Trois-Rivières. In operation since 1983, the Gentilly-2 produces about 5 TWh annually, or about three per cent of the province’s total energy output which is enough electricity to power 270,000 homes a year. The renovations are hoped to extend the plant’s life to 2040.

The project has two components: refurbishment of the Gentilly2 nuclear generating station, and construction of a solid radioactive waste management facility. Construction activities at the generating station, including refurbishing the reactor, the turbo-generator and the control and support systems, began this year and will continue to 2011.

The operation of Gentilly-2 generating station produces direct regional spin-offs of approximately $100 million in the Mauricie and Centre-du-Québec region. The refurbishment project will result in approximately $600 million in spin-offs for Québec as a whole. Refurbishment of the generating station alone will create about 800 jobs over a 20-month period, in addition to the facility’s current staff.

For more information www.hydroquebec.com

REIT ROuND-uP Temple REIT buys largest hotel in Red Deer

WINNIPEG — Temple Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) of Winnipeg has acquired the Capri Centre in Red Deer, Alta. for $40 million. The Capri Centre is a 14-storey hotel, trade and conference centre situated on 10.7 acres of land. The centre is one of the largest hotel complexes in Red Deer and includes 218 guest-

rooms, three restaurants, three lounges and 16 tradeshow rooms totalling 53,110 square feet.

Temple REIT is investing approximately $8 million on top of the closing price to pay for refurbishment of the hotel rooms and plans to license the hotel with the Sheraton brand name in 2009.

Approximately 2.24 acres of the land is to be redeveloped with commercial retail units.

For more information www.treit.ca.

Canadian REIT snatches up eight properties

TORONTO — Canadian Real Estate Investment Trust (CREIT) of Toronto has acquired a portfolio of eight retail properties from Canadian Tire for $13.7 million. The individual stores range from 54,000 to 130,000 square feet and total 740,000 square feet on approximately 60 acres of land. One property is located in British Columbia, three in Alberta, one in each of Ontario and Nova Scotia and two are in Québec. Each property has been either newly constructed or significantly renovated and expanded within the past three years by Canadian Tire.

“There are several reasons that make this a terrific transaction for CREIT. First, one of our fundamental strategic objectives over the years has been to accumulate a real estate portfolio that will deliver both reliable income, and consistent income growth, for our investors,” commented Stephen Johnson, president and CEO of CREIT. “Second, our focus has always been on the acquisition and/or development of high quality real estate assets. The Canadian Tire sites that CREIT acquired are integrated into well established, existing shopping centres and/or retail nodes.”

CREIT is one of the oldest REITs in the Canadian marketplace and owns a real estate portfolio in excess of 150 retail, industrial and office properties.

For more information www.creit.ca

mailbox

Oops…

Bring the worker closer to the office I read, with great interest, Mr. Bristow’s article entitled “Are soaring gas prices changing Toronto’s real estate landscape?” in the August/September issue of Building.

Unfortunately, Mr. Bristow did not put forward the other alternative to moving businesses; moving employee residences closer to their business location. Why overburden public transportation? I think that rising costs of gas, but also of building infrastructure and the need to reduce pollution provide, in my opinion, a golden opportunity for enterprising real estate brokers to act as house trading agents for individuals and companies to try and shorten commuting by relocating closer to the work place. Hand-in-hand with this could go a job placement service to find jobs in the area for spouses and other family members. I believe that larger corporations facing tremendous costs for relocation will be happy to underwrite such services and provide incentives.

It is crazy, even at lower gas prices, for people to crisscross a significant part of the province every morning and every evening.

All places can be made attractive. The tremendous amount of free time generated by proximatelocation of work forces would sell such a project.

If I were younger and not already busy with various things, I’d take it on myself. Simon Weisman.

In the August/ September 2008 issue, the name of the co-founder of ZAS Architects Inc., Marek Zawadzki, was misspelled in the feature titled “Bringing some True North to the Middle East.”

Our apologies.

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legal

By Jeffrey W. Lem and HaLLie BenJamin

The rise and fall of Canadian ULCs

Nova Scotia has been doing it for years, but just as Alberta and British Columbia get on the bandwagon, changes to the U.S.-Canada tax treaty threaten to do away with the Unlimited Liability Company, which has been the preferred corporate vehicle for U.S. investors in Canada.

Imagine, if you will, a Canadian-made product designed and built exclusively for export to Americans and for which no Canadian could ever have any use. As peculiar as this may sound, Canada “produces,” for want of a better term, a special kind of Canadian corporate vehicle that is only ever used by Americans. These specialty corporations, known throughout Canada as “Unlimited Liability Companies” (“ULCs”), have been an increasingly popular choice with American investors in recent years. ULCs are easy-to-use corporate entities that, unlike regular corporations, actually expose shareholders to unlimited liability for debts and other financial obligations incurred by the corporation! Prior to 2005, these entities could only be formed in Nova Scotia (the “NSULC”), but in 2005, Alberta cracked the Nova Scotia monopoly with its own unique version of the ULC (the “AULC”). British Columbia joined the ULC bandwagon in

2007 bringing the total number of Canadian provinces currently providing ULCs for American investors to three.

At first blush, Canadian readers might find the attraction of a corporate vehicle which actually exposes, rather than insulates, shareholders from personal liability somewhat counter-intuitive. After all, most Canadians incorporate for that very reason -- to limit shareholder liability to the equity invested in any given project. So why the apparent American love affair with Canadian ULCs? As it turns out, the ULC has been an attractive vehicle for American investors since the late 1990s because of its unique hybrid tax treatment back in the United States. In Canada, the ULC is treated exactly as any other Canadian corporation for tax purposes. However, in the U.S., a Canadian ULC is an “eligible entity” according to the U.S. Treasury’s “check-the-box” regulations enacted in 1997. In

Jeffrey W. Lem, B.Comm. (U of T), LL.B. (Osgoode), LL.M. (Osgoode), practises in the areas of commercial real estate and finance with the law firm of Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP, and has been called to the bar in Ontario, England and Wales. He is an executive member of the Real Property Section of the Ontario Bar Association and is editor-in-chief of the Real Property Reports, published

by Carswell Thomson Professional Publishing.

Hallie Benjamin, B.A. (McGill), is a special research assistant with Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP. This article provides general information only and is not intended to provide specific legal advice.

Readers should not act or rely on information in this article without seeking specific legal advice on their particular fact situations. building

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other words, the fact that a ULC’s shareholders have unlimited liability for the debts and obligations of the ULC makes the ULC, for U.S. tax purposes, not a corporation at all, but rather, a “flow-through” entity. As such, the ULC pays U.S. taxes not at a corporate level but instead only at the shareholder level.

Canadian taxes are paid in Canada in the ordinary course and then claimed as foreign tax credits against the U.S. taxes owing.

The end result is a company that is a corporation in Canada that can flow its source profits and losses from Canadian real estate investments through to its ultimate U.S. shareholders.

ULCs are rarely if ever owned by Canadian shareholders.

For Canadian taxpayers, a ULC is taxed like any other corporation, yet provides none of the liability protection that other corporations provide. That said, it is still very important for Building readers to understand this peculiar corporate vehicle.

Since almost all American investors hold their Canadian real estate investments in special purpose ULCs, Canadian real estate owners will be selling to or partnering with ULCs, and

The fact that a ULC’s shareholders have unlimited liability for the debts and obligations of the ULC makes the ULC, for U.S. tax purposes, not a corporation at all, but rather, a “flow-through” entity.

Canadian mortgage lenders, if they are making any mortgage loans at all these days, will be lending to ULC borrowers.

Even landlords and tenants may find themselves dealing with ULCs as counterparts to their leases. The prevalence of ULCs in the Canadian corporate landscape is a direct reflection of the breadth and depth of American direct investment in the Canadian economy.

There are slight differences in the costs, formation procedures and shareholder liability features of the traditional NSULC, and the newer AULC and BCULC. The fees involved in incorporating and maintaining a Canadian ULC have fallen substantially in recent years. Along with Alberta’s introduction of its version of the ULC in 2005 came a much more competitive pricing structure for Canadian ULCs. Initially, NSULC incorporation fees were exponentially greater than those in Alberta, to the tune of at least $5,500 more per ULC! Presumably in direct response to the price competition introduced by the AULC, Nova Scotia has recently lowered its NSULC incorporation fees to far more palatable levels. For a current NSULC, there is a $1,000 incorporation/registration fee, significantly less than the previous $6,000 incorporation fee, which is also, coincidentally,

the price of ULC registration for a BCULC. Alberta remains the runaway price leader with AULCs costing only a nominal $100 corporate filing fee. Although incorporation fees are now arguably homogenized, NSULCs continue to be the most expensive ULCs to maintain. NSULCs are subject to an annual fee of $2,750, compared with comparatively negligible annual fees for both BCULCs ($45) and AULCs (none).

Canadian ULCs can also be distinguished from one another by slight nuances in how shareholders get exposed to unlimited liability. For instance, the unlimited liability of the shareholders of an NSULC may only be enforced by its creditors upon a winding up of the NSULC. In other words, day to day liability does not accrue to NSULC shareholders. It is only after the NSULC is wound up that any residual liability is assumed by its shareholders. Likewise, BCULC shareholders attract liability only after the BCULC liquidates or is dissolved. In contrast, an AULC’s shareholders do not enjoy the luxury of delaying liability until the end of the ULC’s existence. Instead, AULC shareholders become immediately jointly and severally liable for all obligations of the AULC as and when such liabilities arise. Of course, the differences in these risk profiles is probably moot, since single purpose ULCs are usually structured with deliberately impecunious intermediary shareholders in any event, and, besides, practically speaking, creditors rarely find it worthwhile to pursue litigation against American ULC shareholders before first exhausting recourse against the ULC. Despite their surge in popularity in recent years (or perhaps, because of it), the future use of ULCs by American investors may have already reached its zenith. The so-called “hybrid” entities such as the ULC appear poised for an interesting turn of events upon the adoption of the Fifth Protocol to the 1980 Canada-U.S. Tax Convention. The draft Fifth Protocol currently before the U.S. Senate contains “anti-hybrid” withholding tax rules that try to curb what are seen as abusive cross-border tax schemes. For quite some time after the initial release of the draft Fifth Protocol, there was some optimism in the cross-border tax community that ULCs would be exempted from the “anti-hybrid” withholding tax rules contained in the draft Fifth Protocol, but the Technical Explanation published by the U.S. Treasury Department in July (the governing document explaining the U.S. government’s official interpretation of the Fifth Protocol) offered no relief whatsoever to ULCs from the proposed new withholding taxes, now set to come into effect in 2010. As a result, all Canadian ULCs are now facing what could be a potentially massive decline in popularity.

Needless to say, top tax lawyers on both sides of the border are busily planning different structures designed to offset the pending increased withholding tax burden, but until such structures are tested, it is hard to believe that many ULCs of any jurisdiction will be created anew after the Fifth Protocol is ratified. So, are ULCs a dying breed of Canadian corporations, of historical interest only or will U.S. direct investment give rise to even more sophisticated tax planning? Only time will tell. B

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By David Lasker

Rising high Context Development, with mastermind

Howard Cohen at the reigns, has developed a reputation of performing alchemy in the over-heated Toronto condominium market.

You can’t swing a cat in Toronto without hitting a new condo project — a typical point tower monolith with the windows punched into an otherwise unarticulated precast concrete needle that is essentially real estate, not architecture — proving you can take the developer out of the suburbs, but you can’t take the ‘burbs out of the developer.

But thankfully, Toronto has a developer who takes a more enlightened and aesthetic approach to condominium building. Indeed, Context Development’s buildings exemplify the beautiful, sophisticated-looking downtown Toronto condo.

Consider, for instance, Spire, their point tower near St. James Cathedral at King and Church Streets with the exquisitely detailed curtain wall. Toronto Star architecture critic Christopher Hume described it as “one of the most elegant condo towers in Toronto...perfect.”

Hume hailed Mozo, at Adelaide and Sherbourne Streets, as “one of the most beautiful buildings in Toronto.” And RadioCity, interwoven with the National Ballet School on Jarvis Street, won a City of Toronto Architecture and Urban Design Award of Excellence.

Context, formed in 1997, is jointly owned by its president, Howard Cohen, and Waterloo Capital, a company controlled by Gerry Schwartz’s Onex Corp. Context has led the way for Toronto’s real estate development community in several design and

lifestyle trends. The firm’s pioneering 20 Niagara, completed in 1998 near Front and Bathurst Streets, demonstrated that there was a market in Toronto for Modernist, minimalist, concreteand-glass condos. It also marked Context’s first collaboration with architect Peter Clewes of Toronto-based architectsAlliance, who has evolved into Canada’s condo starchitect.

“I think they are all copying us. They hire our architect and our advertising agency,” laments Cohen. “We like to think, though, that they do their best work for us. Ask Peter and Lawrence [Ayliffe of L.A. Inc.]. They will tell you that we are pretty demanding.”

Context pioneered open kitchens at a time when doing away with the formal dining room and allowing people to see the kitchen from the living room was considered radical.

“We were one of the first to do stainless-steel appliances and granite countertops as standard finishes, and now it’s everywhere,” says Craig Taylor, Context’s marketing director and an interior designer.

Born in Winnipeg and holding a B.Arch from the University of Manitoba, Cohen became Chief Planner Neighbourhoods for the City of Toronto in the 1970s and was responsible for the Official Plan and bylaws that brought housing back to the downtown. From 1978 to 1987, he was president of Harbourfront Corporation, the federal agency charged with transforming an inaccessible, semi-derelict industrial area of the central waterfront along Lake Ontario into a vibrant urban

Howard Cohen

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Photos Ben Rahn/ A-Frame Both located in Toronto’s St. Lawrence community, the 45-storey glass Spire condo tower (left), built across from the historic St. James Cathedral, echoes the transparent towers of Bay Street, while the 14-storey Mozo (right), evokes the language of surrounding industrial warehouses.

district. He led the development of several residential and mixeduse projects, from Queens Quay Terminal to the Bathurst Quay Co-ops. He oversaw the flowering of Harbourfront into a popular arts and recreational centre, which quickly grew into a premiere Toronto tourist attraction. In 1987 he became president of the development company Goldman Group, and built Castle Hill, a row of terraced townhouses near the foot of Casa Loma. And from 1992 to 1995, he was president of the Design Exchange (DX).

This is a man who is compelled to make changes.

Putting Context into context Luxe facades notwithstanding, Context aims at the middle market. “We are neither the most affordable nor the luxury end. We are pretty much at the average price in Toronto, $450 a square foot,” says Cohen. This niche may hold the broadest market appeal, but it brings its own share of challenges. “It’s harder to produce good design on a tight budget,” Cohen says.

“One of Peter’s frustrations is the tough budgets. You are not even in the same world as office buildings.”

The real crux, and a minor obsession for Cohen, is how decisions are made to acquire land. “As anybody can tell you, this is really up there for complicated businesses. You don’t just go to the zoning board and say, ‘I can do 300,000 square feet on this site.’ So much depends on the approval process. You have to figure out what works on the site from a potential approvals and architecture point of view. The sooner you can get to some

certainty, the better, but each time, it’s just an educated guess because the approvals process is like a hurdle race, one hurdle after another, over five years. So much depends on which city ward you’re in and which councillor is in charge. At public meetings, people may yell at you. And look how quickly things can change. Six months ago, the whole North American economy was booming. In September, someone turned off the switch. It’ll come back.

“This means that when you’re buying land, you don’t actually know what you’re buying. It’s like buying a suit where you don’t know what material it will be made of, what it will cost, how it will fit and when it will be ready.”

At a City Hall hearing of Toronto’s new Design Review Panel this past April, Context’s Market Wharf, scheduled to break ground one block over from St. Lawrence Market this coming spring, was on the agenda. The event was a cakewalk, with panel members giving a unanimous, ringing endorsement.

For example, Shirley Blumberg, a partner at Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg (KPMB) Architects, said, “I think it’s really quite elegant.” Landscape architect Paul Ferris of Ferris Associates said, “I really like it. The tower and its pretty glass railings are brilliant.” Architect Ralph Giannone of Giannone Associates said, “it’s playful and rigorous....This will be a great urban experience coming down from St. Lawrence Market looking south.... I like the riffing with openings [on the podium’s parking structure]....

The pedestrian link is very compelling.” building

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Photo by Tom Arban

Photo by Sid Tabak

Impressive accolades, no question, and Cohen is appreciative, “but the Design Review takes place at the end. It took a year and a half to get there,” he remarks. “It’s the rare community that actually understands and supports intensification, yet this is the most important thing that’s happening to the central city.

Last year, 23,000 condominium units were sold in Toronto, over half of which were downtown. No other city in North America comes close to that. This growth is saving Toronto. It’s certainly not office towers; only three have been built in the last 15 years.” (Case in point, Brookfield Properties Corporation’s new Bay Adelaide Centre is at long last rising across from Scotia Plaza, which was an embarrassing, ugly, elevator-core stump for 20 years. Aiming for LEED Gold, Bay Adelaide Centre is the first significant development in Toronto’s financial core since Brookfield Place, formerly BCE Place, was completed in 1992.)

While Cohen prefers to avoid any confrontation with the neighbourhood that signifies an OMB appeal, the process holds no terrors for him. Context triumphed the last time it found itself in that court, in 2000, after a five-day hearing seeking variances for extra density for its Home Condos project along Bloor Street West bordering High Park. The 33-page written decision waxed rhapsodic about the project’s aesthetic merit (a criterion rarely weighing on OMB decisions), praising the design as part of a “magnificent setting” for High Park and “a built form of vaulting imagination.”

As for being the courageous pioneer sticking their neck out by building east of Yonge Street, Context has three projects: Spire, Market Wharf and Mozo. “We try to be a little bit ahead of the game. If you buy land where everyone else is buying, you

will pay too much and have competition. So we stay away from Yorkville.” (Yorkville, according to Wikipedia, “now commands rents of $300 per square foot, making it the third most expensive retail space in North America.” Who knew?)

“We play in the mid-market, so we try to find locations that are more affordable to our customers, but are good locations, where people want to live. We did two projects on the west side, 20 Niagara and District. Then everyone else jumped on the bandwagon and drove up land costs there.

“Toronto tends to be west-moving, to places like Liberty Village. The west side tends to be trendier. The east side isn’t as hot, but it’s a fabulous neighbourhood and the amenities continue to improve. It’s more residential than the west side and doesn’t have all those clubs. I always tell people it’s the healthiest place to live in Toronto.”

A piece of the quilt Yet another trait distinguishes Context from the competition.

Some firms will only buy approved sites, avoiding the hassle of going through the approval process. Concord Adex, for example, has been gradually building out the mammoth Railway Lands district on a brownfield site that was essentially empty land. “To Concord Adex’s credit, they bought a huge chunk of land and took a big risk,” Cohen says. “Every company has their own way of approaching business opportunities.”

Cohen, on the other hand, seeks out locations in mature communities where you’re sure to find a Starbucks. He has the patience for working out solutions to a complex site and enjoys simultaneous negotiations with multiple players. “The CBC

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RadioCity (far left) consists of two condo towers and street-level townhouses surrounding what used to be CBC studios and before that Havergal Ladies College, but which are now the National Ballet School. 20 Niagara (left), begun in 1996 and completed in 1998, was one of Context’s first projects and won the Ontario Association of Architects’ Michael and V. Wanda Plachta award for architectural excellence.

owned the RadioCity site. They were under huge pressure from Ottawa — from Aline Chrétien [Prime Minister Jean Chrétien’s wife], actually — to accommodate the National Ballet School.”

Similarly, at Market Wharf, the landowner had originally applied for variances to build a large, suburban-type Shoppers Drug Mart with a big parking lot; the neighbourhood and city planners objected. At this juncture, Context approached the owner and proposed wrapping the Shoppers big box in a podium with parking and residential units, with the tower above, yielding a win-win for everyone concerned.

A prime Context characteristic is they don’t churn out cookiecutter projects. “Some companies [you know who you are!] just recycle plans they built two kilometres away,” Cohen says. “When you look at Market Wharf, you can really see Peter evolving. He tries to respond to the location and the site.” Boasting gently curving balconies that will flip every second floor and evoke a playful, billowing effect, Market Wharf marks a new, more organic direction for Clewes.

When it comes to major decisions, to buy a site and on what terms, Cohen collaborates with Stephan Gross, Waterloo Capital’s rep. “Although he has a financial background, he’s interested in architecture,” Cohen says. “Together, we spend weeks reviewing the floor plans. Every building benefits from what we’ve learned from the previous one.”

Cohen’s team is obsessed with the minutia of closets and swinging doors because the market move toward downsizing has complicated space planning. “As units have gotten smaller, they become more difficult to design so that everything works efficiently, without wasting space, while giving a sense of openness,

proportion and natural light,” says Cohen. “It’s much tougher to do a good 450-sq.-ft. unit than a 4,500-sq.-ft. unit; it’s like designing a boat. And if you can’t do a good 450-sq.-ft. unit, you shouldn’t be in the business.” (Market Wharf offers “Market Flats” as compact as 390 square feet.)

At Market Wharf, Craig Taylor upped the visual-spaciousness ante by introducing an oversize, two-foot-square porcelain tile covering all the floor surfaces. “The bigger the floor tile, the more expansive the room looks to the eye,” Taylor said.

“By cutting down on separate and different-coloured flooring materials, such as wood here and ceramic there, and reducing the number of grout lines, the space flows more generously. No developer in the city has offered this as a standard before. This is something new.”

The kitchen is the easiest place to break the budget. “It would be tempting, for our smaller layouts, to use imported European kitchen appliances and Italian millwork, because they are so tightly engineered,” says Taylor. “But the market won’t pay for it. Instead of putting in a $25,000 kitchen, we worked with Paris Kitchens [based in Richmond Hill, Ont.], to develop a Europeanstyled kitchen at an affordable consumer price level. We also researched suppliers so that instead of an elegant kitchen spoiled by a short, fat North American fridge that sticks out [in plan], we use two-feet, counter-depth fridges that are skinny and tall. These are designed by a German company and manufactured in Turkey.

We can’t afford to give everybody a Miele, Bosch or Sub-Zero.

“On both sides of the fridge, we have full-depth wood gables, for a customized, built-in look. The cabinet above is flush with the front of the fridge. In most condos, the upper shelf steps back building

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Images by DesignStor

Mozo Architect: architectsAlliance Construction: Bird Construction Structural: Read Jones Christoffersen Mechanical & Electrical: MCW Landscape Architecture: Gunta Mackars Landscape Architecture

RAdioCity Architect: architectsAlliance Construction: Eastern Construction Structural: Read Jones Christoffersen Mechanical & Electrical: MCW Landscape Architecture: Corban & Goode Landscape Architecture

Market Wharf will comprise a 25-storey tower on an eight-storey podium and fill a gap in the streetscape of the St. Lawrence neighbourhood where Jarvis Street meets Lakeshore Boulevard, a district of midrise commercial and housing that has become a model for the planning of new urban communities across North America.

SpiRE Architect: architectsAlliance Builder: Context development inc. / Veisman Consulting Ltd. Structural: Jablonsky, Ast, and partners international Mechanical & Electrical: Hidi Rae Consulting Engineers inc.

Landscape Architecture: diana Gerrard Landscape Architecture

MARkEt WHARf Architect: architectsAlliance Builder: Context development inc. / Bluescape Structural: Jablonsky, Ast, and partners international Mechanical & Electrical: MV Shore Landscape Architecture: Scott torrance Landscape Architecture

with the rest of the shelves, so we have a very tailored look. Again, that makes the space look more efficient and larger.”

Finally, it would be politically incorrect not to ask about green features. “Making buildings more environmentally responsible costs more money and the market won’t pay for it,” says Cohen. “Yes, extra mechanical systems in a high-rise such as heat pumps and grey-water recovery have a payback, but if one condo costs $350,000 and another costs $400,000 but offers cheaper heating costs for the next 20 years, you don’t care.” And what about balconies? Surely their projecting floor slab incurs heat loss. “Balconies are not good for the environment, but most people want a balcony, even though they hardly ever use it.”

Cohen’s answer shows that government subsidies may be required to lead the way on this issue. But in truth, maybe we should just wait for Cohen to lead the way. He usually does. B

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Photos and images courtesy of Busby Perkins + Will architects and Dockside Green

Sittin’ on the Dock[side] of the bay

By Jason sahlani Victoria, B.C. is witnessing the largest redevelopment of city land in it’s history, a 1.3million-square-foot community taking shape 10 minutes from the downtown core, and earlier this year that development — known as Dockside Green — set a world record when it was awarded the highest rating ever under the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System, receiving 63 of 70 potential credits and demanding the spotlight in the building industry.

While the project surpassed the score required for platinum designation by nine points, Kathy Wardle, coordinator of the LEED application for Phase I - Synergy - says a perfect score would have been impossible for this particular project. “In some cases LEED credits just aren’t available to your project so you can’t apply for them,” says Wardle, an associate principle and Director of Research at Vancouver-based Busby, Perkins + Will.

Three credits were lost when the City of Victoria demolished many of the old structures on the site, making retaining and reusing existing buildings impossible. Another

Nestled alongside the ocean in Victoria, B.C.’s inner harbour is a singular community that is simultaneously paving the way for green building in Canada while etching its name in the history books. building 21

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Dockside Green’s community wharf (previous page) is a place to catch water taxi service or launch kayaks and boats.

two were lost since meeting a threshold of five to 10 per cent of total cost materials coming from salvaged sources was unrealistic for the project, says Wardle.

The final two credits lost dealt with the use of rapidly renewable resources and the use of Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified wood. While resources like bamboo and wheat- or strawboard for composite wood products were used, the overall percentage of those materials specified in the total cost materials wasn’t enough to meet the five per cent threshold.

As for the FSC certified wood, Wardle says, “you’re required to quantify the total cost of wood used in the project and then can you source 50 per cent of that wood from sources that have FSC certified wood designation, but right now I would say there isn’t enough supply within B.C.” Needless to say the distinction that accompanies setting a world record in points awarded under the LEED system was well earned for the two condo buildings, townhouses and commercial space that comprise Synergy. With only a third of the project complete, everyone involved is keeping their eyes on the prize of platinum certification not only for the project’s second phase, Balance — already selling well and expected to be completed in February 2009 — but for the entire development.

Getting ‘green’ lit To find out how those responsible for Dockside Green were able to turn a brownfield site into the highest LEED-rated project in the world one only need examine the process that brought the development about.

“The city of Victoria owned the entire site and had certain guidelines for how it would be developed,” says Jim Huffman, associate principle with Busby, Perkins + Will and Design Architect on the Dockside Green project. “We had to do a presentation at city hall and when the other teams presented [the public in attendance] were happy, but when we presented, the applause was absolutely amazing, and you don’t get that very often. It was an amazing feeling to have that level of support at the start of the project.”

Support form the city wasn’t limited to a round of applause or

a pat on the back. Huffman says the city deferred payments from developers Windmill West and Vancity Credit Union, providing them with the leverage to spend the funds on key infrastructure right off the bat.

With the city on board the project shifted gears and began to implement a game plan that was created and executed within the framework of an integrated design process (IDP), something that all those involved credit with being vital to achieving their goals.

“All the different consultants were involved right from the outset which means more ideas get thrown around and new solutions get developed. They might be a bunch of minor solutions but when they’re added up they make a lot of sense,” says Huffman, adding, “It’s working together from the start with input from everyone and everyones’ input is valid and equal.”

Blair McCarry, principal at Calgary-based Stantec Consulting, remembers one meeting in particular that illustrates the value of developers using a truly IDP. “We had one great meeting where we talked about what we could do with the reclaimed water,” he says.

“Dockside has got a water feature down the middle and we talked about ideas about storm water going through there and how that could be our main civil storm water drain system...and we were getting great input from all our teams.”

McCarry acknowledges that an IDP title can often be just a “lovely label,” but the Dockside Green development utilized the integrated process in a way that ensured a perfectly coordinated design that not only resulted in a record-setting LEED rating but could fluidly address issues that would arise during construction.

Examples of the benefits of the IDP for Dockside Green are numerous. From the initial task of remediating the contaminated soil on the land — a problem solved in partnership with British Columbia’s Quantum Environmental Group, who had developed a process where some contaminated “hot-spots” were capped with a membrane thereby saving the cost of removing the soil — to building a gasification plant to provide on-site, project-wide heating.

Utilizing an IDP helped the teams accomplish their goals in a more streamlined fashion, but it was the goals themselves that have drawn a lot of attention.

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Aerial photo of what the brownfield site in Victoria, B.C. is like now (above left), versus the development masterplan (above) that includes residential, live/work, retail, office, light industrial uses and public amenities such as the Greenway (left). Construction is underway and expected to take the next six to eight years. Once completed, it will include 26 buildings totalling 1.3 million square feet, and be home to about 2,500 people in three neighbourhoods; Dockside Wharf to start, followed by Dockside Commons and Dockside Village.

McCarry says that there were two major goals from the outset.

The first was to build a greenhouse gas (GHG)-free operation, and the second was to avoid linking up with the regional district sanitary sewer system.

The City of Victoria has no water treatment facility and currently discharges its waste directly into the ocean. The design team wanted to avoid adding to this method and so decided to build an elaborate water treatment system that incorporates both mechanical and natural water purification processes.

“The technology used in the water treatment facility isn’t new, but what is innovative is the fact that the developer used it in the project,” says Robert Drew, associate principle at Busby, Perkins + Will and Architect of Record for Balance. “It’s one of the only developments in North America to have an on-site water treatment plant to deal with all the waste water.”

The essentially closed-loop system collects storm water and

filters it through the on-site plant and uses that water for landscape irrigation and potable household use, such as flushing a toilet.

That water then runs to the treatment plant and is filtered enough to be used for landscaping purposes once again.

Another essential part to the water efficiency standard met by the development is the ‘Green Way’ — a long linear park space in the middle of the site — which collects storm water and sends it cascading down slopes eventually feeding into the water treatment plant. The Green Way is a perfect example of how the design teams were able to meld a residential amenity, such as a park, with their water efficiency system.

“Right now most of the water seems free, but on this site we tried to deal with it at every opportunity,” says Huffman. “We have a lot of green roofs but if water does get past it goes into the water treatment system. So the idea is to get as much of the water that lands on the site to stay on the site.” building

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The heart of a good idea To achieve the goal of building a carbon neutral, or GHG emission-free community, the decision was made to implement a heat generation system in Dockside Green that had never been used in a commercial site before.

For the first time in a commercial setting an on-site gasification plant — scheduled to be operational by 2009 — will use biomass waste generated by the neighbouring lumber industry to supply the community’s heating needs while keeping emissions in check.

The gasification process burns bio-waste at high temperatures making it both a very efficient process of burning fuel into power as well as a cleaner method of heat production than incineration, says Drew.

“There are no heavy metals in the biomass so you’re releasing particulates into the air which are scrubbed out, but they’re not harmful,” says Drew. “From an emissions point of view this is one of the cleanest way to generate electricity.”

The process will not only fulfill the heating needs of the development but the excess heat generated will be sold to nearby businesses, securing a continuous source of carbon credits thereby lowering the environmental footprint of the community to a more-than-carbon-neutral level.

The on-site power generator is a feature of the project that stands-out for McCarry. He says that while the technology isn’t uncommon for use in industrial developments, the fact that it has been implemented in a commercial setting will help the technology develop at a faster rate and could subsequently become more common in future commercial developments.

Perhaps most significant about Dockside Green — apart, of course, from setting a world record — is its potential influence on governments and other developers across the country.

“We deal with a lot of developers who want to inch toward this dream stuff and we have to realize that Dockside Green is probably too big a step for them, but a lot of what is being done there can be done elsewhere,” says McCarry. “Maybe you don’t go for the biomass facility, but I think the important thing is it’s ahead of its time, it’s hitting the ultimate goal on the first shot of the game, carbon neutral.”

The director of development at Dockside Green, Carola Bloedorn, thinks that developers will continue to shift to green building practices as the cost of green materials normalizes over time. “Here in the west there has been such a snowballing effect of the green building industry that the cost of materials once considered to be at a premium, because they were green products, have almost come in-line with the non-green products in the last few years,” said Bloedorn.

The associated cost of green building practices is something that Huffman believes is a turn-off to many developers. He says that developers think the extra costs mean they won’t be able to recoup their investment, but points out that Dockside Green is proof that this commonly held belief is faulty.

Bloedorn agrees: “If you start thinking that each of these [green building materials] adds to the cost and you don’t look at it in a holistic way, recognizing and acting on the opportunities to create offsets along the way, then it’ll be more.”

Phase II Balance (top), located in Dockside Wharf, will feature one-and twobedroom condominiums, townhomes and penthouses. Heat and hot water is being provided to buildings using a biomass gasification system (above) that generates low-cost heat using local waste wood for biofuel.

Low-E double-glazed windows, retractable awnings to manage the amount of direct sunlight, low volatile organic compound (VOC) paint-finishes and 40 per cent fly-ash content in the concrete are all measures taken to enhance the greenness of Dockside Green, but if looked at from a bottom-line-only perspective they’re nothing more than additional costs.

Luckily those responsible for Dockside Green took the holistic approach, deciding to use those materials and build in a way that limits energy consumption over the long-run rather than saving money during the construction phase.

“We’ve got a very good envelope on these building,” says Drew. “If you think of the envelope as the clothes of the building — you put more on to stay warm, use less to stay cool — that’s the way the buildings are designed and because of that we need less power to keep people comfortable inside.”

The result is that even though more than enough heat and

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The first residents moved into Synergy’s 93 units (left, above, right) designed by Busby Perkins + Will Architects this past spring and the second phase, Balance, will open in early 2009.

energy is produced on-site, the building design limits the loss of that heat, resulting in massive long-term savings. Residents of Synergy can also keep tabs on their rate of energy use via a realtime energy consumption monitor found on Dockside Green’s website, giving them the ability to see, and subsequently manage, their personal rates of energy consumption.

The ramifications of the Dockside Green project are not limited to the world of developers. According to Bloedorn the contractor used in the development says the project assisted with worker retention.

“In the construction industry it’s a well known fact that the demography is aging and there’s going to be a huge void to fill in qualified workers,” says Bloedorn. “What attracted the young smart guys to working on this project was the chance to be a part of the green building industry, specifically working under the LEED system.”

And when all is said and done, when all the acclaims for reducing potable water consumption by 67.5 per cent and diverting 96 per cent of construction waste from landfills are handed out, what is truly remarkable about Dockside Green is the interest being shown by consumers in the market.

“This is being talked about all over Canada, and the most important thing is that it’s real,” says McCarry. “So the ultimate [question] is once you build these suites, do they sell? And this one did. So part of it is now the ability to influence governments to see that this stuff can be done, it’s not all dream worlds.”

Only time will tell if Dockside Green takes its place as the standard bearer for a new green building industry, but what seems certain is that when teams that are dedicated to building sustainable developments are given the opportunity to be innovative within an IDP, the dream world and the real world turn out to be a lot closer than we thought. B building

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By Don Procter

On the grid The challenge of reducing the impact of developments on the environment while maintaining or increasing the quality of life for residents is growing. One possible solution in planning communities is the fused grid model, elements of which are being incorporated into a new development in a Calgary suburb.

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Critics of the traditional modern subdivision plan have had little good to say about it for decades. Arguing that its auto-centric focus goes against good neighbourhood planning, planners have come up with alternative solutions with village- and town-like themes under such monikers as new urbanism and the neo-traditional neighborhood. Now, a research team from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) has taken a different approach that combines attributes of the 1960s suburb and the neo-traditional neighborhood.

Called “fused grid,” it is derived from “fusing” traditional inner-city street grid patterns with the curvilinear streets of modern suburbia, explains Fanis Grammenos, the chief CMHC research officer behind the plan. Street grids allow for smoother, quicker vehicular flow than traditional suburban street plans, but a fused grid neighborhood also incorporates some of the “best features of lollipop and cul-de-sac designs” of the modern suburb to help limit traffic through alcoves within the subdivision.

Equally important, the fused grid plan offers almost as many walkways as roads, explains Grammenos, adding the intent is to get people walking and minimize the amount of asphalt. Pedestrians need at most 10 feet; a typical street is 65 feet. “We need to differentiate between the two to save land and to make it more pleasant,” says Grammenos. building

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A fused grid plan is organized into quadrants, each of which is a five minute walk or less from any residence to the perimeter, a mixed-use zone of major arterial routes, says Grammenos.

Open spaces have three functions: recreation, path connections and storm water management.

The first fused grid plan in Canada is appearing in a Calgary subdivision called Saddleton, a 1,716-unit (multi- and singlefamily) development on 160 acres in the northeast suburb of Saddle Ridge. Saddleton is divided into four sections, each containing its own park space and each bordered by a mixed-use main street. Site clearing is underway with show homes and lots available next fall, and complete build-out is anticipated in five years.

“Virtually every resident will be able to see an open space park area from their sidewalk,” says Jeff Blair, manager of planning and acquisitions for the project’s developer Genesis Land Development Corp. “It maintains the attributes of conventional lollipop loops with traffic-calming elements but adds pedestrian connectivity. Essentially, we make a grid system and take out a piece of the grid (here and there) of the road and keep it as a linear connection for non-motorized transportation.”

“I see it as an evolution of design and development of the urban fabric to address current economic and social realities,” he points out.

Darrell Grant, principal of Brown & Associates Planning Group, planning consultants to Genesis, credits Blair and Genesis with taking a bold step forward in suburban planning. “It’s a case of having an astute developer who is also a planner and keen on incorporating innovative ideas into its development.”

How successful Saddleton will be largely depends on whether its residents chose to get out and walk often, or continue to drive almost everywhere. Fast forward another five or so years for the answer. Financially, it is difficult to say if fused grid will save the developer bucks over traditional street layouts because Saddleton is layered with other planning elements that impact the final price, explains Grant. The subdivision’s innovative design incorporates a diverse housing mix, which includes secondary suites, rowhousing and housing facing parks. Of the central parks in each quadrant, two contain storm ponds (no conventional storm water piping is used at Saddleton) and rain gardens to irrigate park areas.

Blair sees the overall design at Saddleton as revenue neutral.

“Potentially we could see some savings because we have less road construction, but that road construction is replaced by park development.” But don’t expect fused grid neighborhoods to be popping up all over the country anytime soon. “The reality for land developers is that time is money and when you introduce an idea like this it often takes a long, long time to get it approved,” points out Blair. “I think the tough one for developers is facing a bit of administrative resistance to change and innovation.

Advancing it in that sense is the difficult part.”

Genesis chose the fused grid plan for Saddleton because it had time on its side to persuade the City of Calgary of its merits.

Blair first met with city officials about six years ago before

Saddleton

Total area 64.24 ha Roads 13.5 ha (21 per cent)

Development 36.94 ha (57.5 per cent) Municipal Reserve 7.1 ha (11.1 per cent) Pond water surface 3.1 ha (4.8 per cent) Public Utility Lots 3.6 ha (5.6 per cent) the Saddleton site was a prime development site. “We slowly introduced ideas to the city so when it was actually approved it received a warm response from the political end.”

One of the features of the fused grid is the use of less asphalt and right-of-ways than inner city neighbourhoods require. About 29 per cent of the total area of Saddleton is devoted to streets and public utility lots, which is inline with the asphalt percentage of traditional subdivisions. Grant suggests an effective way of reducing the road footprint in suburbia would be for the city to cut the standard size of its road widths. He points out that while the fused grid pattern is a good means of creating a walkable and more sustainable development, it’s not the one and only solution.

Brown & Associates has been involved in others, such as neotraditional subdivisions which are also pedestrian-friendly and sustainable, but Blair sees the fused grid as going a step further because it adds some of the best attributes of the 1960s suburb.

To make a case for fused grids, Grammenos says it is about time that the 4,000-year-old street grid plan was redesigned.

“The horse and carriage are gone and the car dominates. We can’t use a (street grid) pattern that was meant for horses and people on foot.”

“New urbanism has a lot of good ideas such as mixing uses and walkability, both of which we advocate. But our plan goes a step further.” He stresses that in a fused grid subdivision main streets will evolve through market forces over time, rather than become overnight business streets which have often proven unable to support many of the businesses because of a lack of trade in the area. He also discourages segregating businesses, such as in office parks.

Grammenos goes on to say that since fused grids were first presented in Canada as an alternative subdivision plan about six years ago, cities have expressed interest. “We’ve had numerous requests for information on it. In planning terms it’s been moving at light speed.” Already a key planning change has happened in Calgary where the city has increased allowable residential densities per acre to better support public transit and

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ConvenTionaL SUbURban

neo-TRaDiTionaL

FUSeD-GRiD

Street hierarchy

hierarchical street pattern of arterials, major collectors, minor collectors and local streets.

hierarchical street pattern of arterials, major collectors, minor collectors and local streets arranged in orthogonal geometry.

hierarchical street pattern of arterials, major collectors, minor collectors and local streets arranged in an orthogonal manner; one-way couplets for major collectors and twinned arterials.

Block length

Very long blocks (up to 600 m [1,968 ft.]), discontinuous streets with no breaks between lots for pedestrians.

Block sizes of 60-120 m (197-394 ft.) by 120-240 m (394-787 ft.).

Most block lengths are less than 200 m (656 ft.), but reach a maximum of 600 m.

croSS-Section deSign

Wide (11 m [36 ft.]) two-lane road cross-sections.

3.5 m (11.5 ft.) lanes and 2.4 m (8 ft.) for parking.

3.5 m (11.5 ft.) lanes and 2.4 m (8 ft.) for parking.

interSection type

extensive use of 3-way intersections (t-intersections) and few 4-way intersections; a ratio of 14:1.

dominant use of 3-way over 4-way intersections in a ratio of 2.6:1.

a predominance of 3-way over 4-way intersections; a ratio of 4.7:1.

arterial connection

eight connections.

14 connection roads.

11 major roads connecting to arterials.

Bicycle, pedeStrian infraStructure

pedestrian and cycling paths are confined to the school grounds and train tracks.

integrated pedestrian and cycling path system within the neighbourhood.

active infrastructure (path network) within neighbourhoods. clearly defined residential quadrants framed by collectors that do not support through-traffic.

commercial businesses — attributes that go well with fused grid plans. The traditional 1960s suburb generally has lower densities best suited for automobile usage.

The CMHC began promoting the fused grid neighbourhood to municipalities, developers and planners in 2003, and the ripples in the pond are beginning to spread. Brown & Associates is working on a second fused grid development in Lethbridge and the city of Fort McMurray is moving towards the adoption of fused grid design in its Official Plan, while Winnipeg, Saskatoon and other municipalities in Alberta and B.C. are

taking a serious look at the idea “Because all of these initiatives are subject to many political whims and regulatory hurdles it is never certain what the outcome will be,” explains Grammenos.

“The important thing for us is that the interest is there.”

And the Saddleton plan is certainly worth close attention.

The model intrinsically gives priority to pedestrians while creating a pleasant milieu for daily living. This emphasis on active transportation along with the infrastructure economies and the natural way of handling storm water makes it a fitting response to current environmental and health issues. B building

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11/6/08 11:55:34 AM

By Christopher Nielsen and Justin Colville

Battling the enemy Hazardous materials take a bite out of renovation and demolition projects, but employing the proper equipment and strategies creates a sound defence, which we all know is the best offense.

Tighter standards for hazardous materials in buildings mean that anyone involved in renovation or demolition needs to become better at managing the issue. While much of the focus has been on asbestos contamination, there is also the need to manage the lead often found in older types of paint and in sound-dampening and x-ray protective applications, mercury from thermostats and fluorescent light fixtures, and other materials such as PCBs that may be found in electrical equipment.

Fortunately, even as requirements go up, there are advances in information technology that helps make compliance easier.

Asbestos: “wonder child” to “problem child” To get an idea of the current state of hazardous-materials management issues and solutions, consider the case of asbestos.

This group of fire-retardant substances, once considered a wonder material, was used with enthusiasm for everything from floor-levelling compound to ceiling tiles. Almost any building in Canada constructed before 1985 contains some asbestos. It is even still being used today in some applications. However, it is now associated with a wide range of diseases which are typically incurable, often fatal, and many of them have long latency periods so the full effects are only now appearing. For example, it is now estimated that one form of asbestos-induced cancer, mesothelioma, which has no cure, will become an epidemic in the industrialized world in about 10 to 20 years.

Better understanding of the threat posed by asbestos means that provinces have put in place new regulations on asbestos handling that have big implications for construction projects involving existing buildings. Most of these regulations change the definition of “asbestos-containing material” and raises requirements on how it is handled.

Most provinces have expanded the range of asbestos materials that must now be identified, documented and maintained. In many cases, the percentage of asbestos in material which triggers the need for special handling is lower.

Images courtesy of Golder Associates Ltd.

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Opposite page: Testing for the presence of asbestos by cutting the insulation on a pipe. Left: Asbestos which is friable — able to be crumbled by hand — is particularly hazardous as fibres can be easily released into the air.

For members of the construction sector, this is likely to result in more need to invest in training and personal protective equipment (PPE), and greater reliance on asbestos-remediation consultants and specialist contractors.

Those who fail to change with the new environment may find work at their sites slowed or stopped by inspectors, union leaders and employees who discover suspect asbestos-containing materials that have not been identified in building assessments. Such situations may have significant negative impacts for forepersons, supervisors, management and company owners and directors who are shown to have failed in their obligation to provide a safe work environment.

Renovation is particularly challenging in public-sector buildings. In part, this is because of their size. While it is relatively simple to find and remove the asbestos in an open warehouse, asbestos remediation in a school, hospital or government building must often be done in stages because the primary building operations cannot be shut down. This means a painstaking process of relocating the building’s users out of an area to be purged of asbestos and sealing it off to avoid contaminating other parts of the building. In a heavily-unionized environment such as the public sector, this work must be done in a way that is verifiable to labour organizers.

Information technology is part of the solution The solution to hazardous materials management is a multipronged approach, with all elements working in concert.

Providing the right skills is one of the first lines of defence when it comes to contaminated worksites. In the case of asbestos, even seasoned construction industry members are surprised at the sheer range of products that contain this material. As well as ceiling tiles and asbestos cement, asbestos may be found in over 3,000 products and construction materials which can range from drywall filler to window sealers.

In many cases, training needs to focus on knowing what materials might contain asbestos, recognizing the material when it is encountered, and calling in the right expertise in the form of consultants and asbestos-remediation specialists. The same goes for mercury, lead and other contaminants. Many workers and supervisors need more training in the use of PPE and about what level of protection is needed in what circumstances.

Perhaps one of the most welcome developments in hazardous-materials management comes through current information technology. This starts with the recording of information about the building and where hazardous materials are found. Instead of paper-on-clipboard record-keeping, “ruggedized” hand-held devices that have been designed to survive falls and other realities of construction sites can be used to input data for later reporting and analysis.

Benefits include easier, consistent and standardized entry of data, but more notably easier harmonization of data into an on-line database removing the possibility of data transcription errors.

Other technological developments include better ways to manage information so it can be understood and acted upon.

This includes easily-understood reports and tables that show the contaminants and their concentrations, and where they are located within any part of a building.

While these technologies have been in use for some time, it is only recently that their full capacity has been tapped. This includes merging data from contaminant surveys into geographic information systems (GIS) to effectively manage spatial data. Going a step further, field data about contaminants can be incorporated into Enterprise Resource Planning systems and financial management systems for better budgeting and scheduling of work.

Construction companies, building managers and owners can use the information provided to demonstrate to employees, organized-labour representatives, regulators and other stakeholders that building contaminants are effectively managed. In many cases, having information computerized and presented in a graphically-accessible manner can help reassure stakeholders that issues are being managed effectively.

Competent professional assistance with the ability to provide the right technological solutions can go a long way to helping manage building contamination issues. B Christopher Nielsen is a certified environmental inspector and senior environmental health and safety specialist, and Justin Colville is a software developer for Golder Associates Ltd. They can be contacted at cnielsen@golder.com and jcolville@golder.com

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Commissioning the building envelope For more than 20 years, Canada’s building science experts have been trying to convince all stakeholders in construction that they should insist on proper commissioning of the building envelope — with varying degrees of success.

By Tony Woods

No owner takes possession of a building without assurance that mechanical and electrical systems are performing to design specifications. They should apply the same requirement to the building envelope, both after new construction and before and after a major retrofit.

The role of the building envelope is to protect the building and its occupants from outside climactic conditions and to create and control beneficial indoor conditions. One of the ways it performs this function is to mitigate the effects of different pressures on the building and to control movement of air and moisture in all their forms.

Failure to check and verify performance of the assemblies and systems that comprise the building envelope often creates serious problems, including poor indoor air quality, unsafe migration of smoke during a fire, premature deterioration of structural components, occupant comfort complaints and high energy bills.

All of the above can be prevented. The science is known and so are the preventive approaches for new construction and the remedial measures for retrofit.

Rick Quirouette of Mississauga, Ont.-based Quirouette Building Specialists Ltd. is a long-standing Canadian champion of building envelope commissioning and has published many papers on the subject. He uses electrical/mechanical commissioning practices to illustrate to the construction industry that the same can be done for the envelope. He quotes the example of an office floor fluorescent lighting layout, where turning a switch on and off proves to an electrical commissioner that the work has been completed satisfactorily. Similarly, with a mechanical ventilation system all it takes is a flow meter to confirm the correct cfm of supply air.

To commission a newly constructed or retrofitted building envelope, four areas need to be tested, according to Quirouette: heat loss, air leakage, rain penetration and vapour diffusion. Test method standards exist to deal with these (for examples, see sidebar).

Pressure effects

Images courtesy of Canam Building Envelope Specialists Inc.

There are significant differences in air pressure between the interior and exterior of a building envelope and between the lower and upper levels of multi-storey buildings, according to Quirouette.

Five forces — stack effect, fan pressurization, wind cycling,

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Opposite page: During the heating season the resulting sites of air infiltration appear cooler on the screen of a thermographic camera.

Right: With the building depressurized, the building envelope technician can use a smoke pencil to visually identify air leakage pathways.

barometric cycling and thermal cycling — induce air pressure differences. The resulting gradients and cycles cause many structural and moisture problems, such as moisture penetration and condensation within the construction cavities of roofs, exterior walls, and within or around windows.

Another significant effect of air pressure difference is air leakage through openings, cracks and joints in the building envelope.

When higher pressures act on the outside of the envelope air leaks inward, an effect called air infiltration. If the air pressure creates higher pressure on the inside of the building envelope, air leaks outwards, or air exfiltration.

Compartmentalization and decoupling Compartmentalization and decoupling are relatively new words in building envelope commissioning. They represent a successful approach to controlling previously uncontrolled airflow.

Floor-to-floor and same-floor air leakage cause many of the same problems as infiltration and exfiltration. High-rise building compartmentalization is critical because these areas of air leakage exacerbate life-threatening hazards such as smoke spread.

Sealing off areas in a building — such as separate units or rooms from one another — to help equalize pressure differences is called compartmentalization. The separation of floors from one another is called decoupling.

Interior compartmentalization involves sealing units from one another, and sealing service or common areas from the rest of the building. Decoupling floors involves sealing junctions between walls, as well as floor-to-floor vertical penetrations such as elevator shafts, doors to emergency stairs, garbage chutes, and plumbing and electrical penetrations.

Test Methodologies Air Leakage ASTM E 283 Standard Test Method for Determining Rate of Air Leakage Through Exterior Windows, Curtain Walls and Doors Under Specified Pressure Differences Across the Specimen.

ASTM E 779 Standard Test Method for Determining Air Leakage Rate by Fan Depressurization.

ASTM E 783 Standard Test Method for Field Measurement of Air Leakage Through installed Exterior Windows and Doors.

ASTM E 1186 Standard Practices for Air Leakage Site Detection in Building Envelopes and Air Barrier Systems.

ASTM E 2357 Standard Test Method for Determining Air Leakage of Air Barrier Assemblies.

CAN/CGSB-149. 10-M86. Determination of the Airtightness of Building Envelopes by the Fan Depressurization Method.

CAN/CGSB-149. 15-96. Determination of the Overall Airtightness of Buildings by the Fan Depressurization Method Using the Building’s Air Handling System.

Water Penetration ASTM E 331 Standard Test Method for Water Penetration of Exterior Windows, Skylights, Doors and Curtain Walls by Uniform Static Air Pressure Difference.

ASTM E 1105 Standard Test Method for Field Determination of Water Penetration of Installed Exterior Windows, Skylights, Doors and Curtain Walls

by Uniform or Cyclic Static Air Pressure Difference.

Depressurization

Infrared Thermography

In general, building envelope air leakage inspections are best conducted when air flow is directed and controlled. This can be accomplished with exhaust fans, specialized blower/fan doors, or, in larger buildings, by temporarily altering the HVAC system (if central) to create a negative pressure inside.

In a smaller building a powerful fan, or ‘blower door,’ is mounted into the frame of an exterior door. The fan pulls air out of the structure (or pushes air in), lowering the air pressure

For more information on standards and test methodologies, or to access the ones listed here, visit: ASTM International (formerly American Society for Testing and Materials) www.astm.org Canadian General Standards Board (CGSB) www.tpsgc-pwgsc.gc.ca/cgsb

CGSB 149-GP-2MP Manual for Thermographic Analysis of Building Enclosures

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Super-sized blower door and fan kits are used to create pressure differences in large industrial, commercial and institutional buildings in order to conduct air leakage testing.

inside. The higher outside air pressure then flows in through all the unsealed cracks and openings. The building envelope technician might then use a smoke pencil, dry ice or theatrical fog to visually locate air leaks.

New advances in super-sized blower door and fan kits enable the creation of significant pressure differences — required to accurately conduct air leakage testing on large industrial, commercial and institutional buildings — providing a truly quantifiable method for measuring the air-tightness of these structures. The National Air Barrier Association (NABA) provides technical specifications and access to trained personnel for these tests.

Infrared thermography New advances in digital technologies have made thermal imaging, or infrared thermography (IR), more accessible and cost-effective than ever before. IR is a great resource for discovering points of air leakage in a building. It is especially useful for tough-to-find air leakage pathways such as those through a plumbing chase in an interior wall or ceiling plenum, because it provides a visual representation of temperature differences.

During the heating season the resulting sites of air infiltration appear cooler on the screen of a thermographic camera. The work can be done any time of year when the indoor/outdoor temperature difference is greater than a few degrees.

Justifying the expense A properly performing building envelope reduces energy costs, which helps support the argument for commissioning in both new construction and retrofit projects. Newly available Air Leakage Control Assessment Procedure (ALCAP) whole-building energy-use simulation software can be used to help justify the cost of upgrades. By creating a clear picture of before-and-after heating and cooling demands, energy usage and tonnes of CO2

generated, this software helps turn complex building science into information that can be used to plan budgets and sway committee members.

Calculating the potential energy savings from a building envelope improvement project using energy-use simulation software is a three-stage process. The first step is a field survey, the second is to determine air-leakage flow rates and evaluate corrective measures, and the third is calculating potential savings and creating a cost/benefit analysis.

The field survey involves determining air leakage pathways.

The flow rates of the leakage locations are then calculated by measuring the effective pressure differentials across the building envelope. This takes into account the effects of stack, wind and mechanical pressures on the building, weather data for the location and the operating schedule of the indoor air distribution system.

A whole building energy simulation program will then use this information to calculate the building heat loss/heat gain and to estimate peak demand and energy use. Proposed retrofit air sealing measures are applied to the base model and provide estimated potential reductions in both demand and consumption savings.

Any additional cost in the construction or retrofit process presents a justification challenge to architects, general contractors and trades. However the risks to overall health, safety, durability, comfort and energy costs listed, combined with the new software tools to predict ROI, create an irrefutable case for better construction and therefore business practice. B Tony Woods is president of Canam Building Envelope Specialists Inc. of Mississauga, Ont., a company with a 25-year history of solving building envelope problems. During his career he has served as president of the Ontario Building Envelope Council and on more than 10 Standards Committees dealing with air leakage control, air barriers, ventilation, and more.

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Arriscraft International www.arriscraft.com Bender www.bendeng.com Canadian Sheet Steel Building Institute www.cssbi.ca CMHC www.cmhc.ca Davies LLP www.davis.ca Duro-Last Roofing Inc. www.duro-last.com Enbridge www.enbridge.com Envirospec www.envirospecinc.com Flynn Canada Ltd. www.flynn.ca Goodfellow Inc. www.goodfellowinc.com MMPI Canada www.pmexpo.com P&AT LMCI www.LMCIonline.com VP Buildings www.vp.com

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11/12/08 10:32:51 AM

viewpoint

By Barry reid

Efficiency from the outside The building enclosure is a critical component of any home, as it not only separates the interior from the outdoors, it also regulates the indoor environment. Consisting of the floor assembly, exterior wall assembly, and the roof assembly, the building enclosure was first designed to achieve two basic objectives: structural integrity and thermal comfort. In recent years, a third and fourth objective has been added to the list and they are receiving more and more emphasis in enclosure design and installation.

The third and fourth objectives are moisture management and durability. As homeowners, builders and architects look to make the most of what they’ve got, the enclosure has evolved from just minimizing the home’s requirements for energy and water to also increasing the home’s durability through material selection and proper sequencing and installation of these materials that also increase moisture and indoor air quality protection.

In the past, a builder would call out components for enclosure construction in their design specifications, leaving transitions and sealing/flashing decisions up to the trades. This left the door open for misapplications and ambiguity on whom is responsible for tying these transitions and components together. Meanwhile, air leakage and moisture infiltration of the home were frequently overlooked leading to uncomfortable homes and possibly moisture-related problems like mould and deterioration of the wall assembly components.

Thus began the evolution towards a systems approach for building today’s high performance home. While sometimes there is uncertainty in how products are incorporated with each other in any given climate zone, these construction deficiencies are greatly diminished as above-code building programs provide builders the tools to consider aspects and details of the enclosure. This systems approach allows builders to efficiently manage enclosure transitions and ensures that these assemblies are installed properly.

Today, homeowners are placing emphasis on energy efficiency and environmental conscience about materials used in their homes. Although the building industry has been quick to adopt

energy efficiency and “green” materials, it is now more aware of how to match these attributes with the long-term benefits of moisture management and its impact on durability and indoor air quality of the home through a building science approach.

While there are many products that are environmentally friendly, they may not translate to a better performing home that should last well over 50 years, provide a high level of comfort and good indoor air quality, and have low maintenance requirements.

As houses become more energy efficient, they have to be built with more moisture forgiveness to deal with water that may, for many reasons, penetrate the building enclosure. Meaning, if water gets into the walls it has to have a way to get out. Using materials that are moisture forgiving allow the water to escape the wall assembly on its own terms without risking damage to the components of the wall assembly or possibly the growth of mould.

The use of moisture and mould resistant fiberglass mat gypsum panels supports the “systems” concept. The enclosure is now well designed for energy efficiency and moisture management that supports the durability and indoor air quality objectives of the enclosure by providing wiggle room, while moisture escapes the wall assembly before deterioration or mould can occur. Fiberglass mat gypsum panels have more than 20 years of proven performance on the job both during and after construction and have always been used for their durable and moisture-mould resistant attributes. Both the builder and homebuyer must continually assess and discuss the home’s building enclosure requirement based on where the home is located and level of performance of the home desired. B Barry Reid is a product development manager at Georgia-Pacific Gypsum LLC. For more information on building with paperless drywall, visit www.gp.com/build or call 1-800-BUILD GP.

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11/4/08 2:55:59 PM

SustainabilityAdREVISED.pdf

5/15/08

2:51 PM

Page 1

Duro-Last®: Defining Rooftop Sustainability.

It begins with exceptional reflectivity. But for a roofing system to be considered sustainable, it must also deliver the Five E’s of high-performance roofing: Energy, Environment, Endurance, Economics, and Engineering. In each of these areas, the Duro-Last® Cool Zone® system leads the commercial roofing industry.

Learn more about the Five E’s and how the Cool Zone roofing system addresses the multiple demands of high-performance roofing. Ask for our new brochure, There's One Cool Solution for Sustainable, HighPerformance Roofing, or visit us at www.duro-last.com/coolzone.

Rooftop sustainability from Duro-Last: Way beyond cool.

To find out more, call us or visit www.duro-last.com/coolzone and request our free brochure.

800-248-0280 • www.duro-last.com “Duro-Last”, “Cool Zone” and the “World’s Best Roof” are registered marks owned by Duro-Last Roofing, Inc.

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Offices from coast to coast

For more information about our products and services, please visit: www.flynn.ca

Conventional Roofing | Roof Service & Maintenance | Architectural Building Products | Contract Glazing and Curtain Wall

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11/4/08 2:56:01 PM