Canadian Consulting Engineer August/September 2015

For professional engineers in private practice

AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2015

FOR THE LOVE

OF SPORT

RECREATION AND AQUATIC CENTRES

FIRE PROTECTING AN 8-STOREY WOOD STRUCTURE IN PRINCE GEORGE, B.C.

PATH TO LEADERSHIP CHRIS NEWCOMB ON CORE VALUES

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contents

August/September 2015 Volume 56, No. 5

features

Cover: Guildford Recreation Centre Aquatic Addition in Surrey, B.C. Photo courtesy AES/Ema Peter Photography. See page 27.

Pan Am Prize. The Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre provided a stunning background for the recent Games.

By Bronwen Parsons

18

For Hockey and Housing. The Westhills Recreation Centre in Langford, B.C. feeds spare energy to nearby housing.

By Art Sutherland, Accent Refrigeration Systems

24

Aquatic Light. Trusses carry lighting and HVAC systems at the Guildford Recreation Centre Aquatic Addition in Surrey, B.C.

By AES 27

Studio Bell. See page 30.

Comment

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Up Front

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Products 56 Advertiser Index

30

The Path to Leadership. Reflections and advice for young professionals from the chair of McElhanney.

By Chris Newcomb, P.Eng.

32

Future-Proofing Hospitals. Planning for expanding IT systems.

By Kim Osborne, P.Eng., AngusICAT

35

Smart Building Operations. Working with the detailed data.

By Kirsten Nielsen, HH Angus & Associates

37

Detection, Delay, Defence. At Stantec a specialized group led by Dominic Chevrier solves the security needs of clients.

By Ian Coutts 41

departments ACEC Review

Studio Bell. A large complex under construction in Calgary’s East Village is dedicated to music in many forms.

By Bill Corbett

57

Next issue: 2015 Canadian Consulting Engineering Awards!

Details on all 20 awardwinning projects.

Fire Protecting an 8-Storey Wood Building. Site specific rules at the Wood Innovation and Design Centre in Prince George, B.C.

By Canadian Wood Council/Wood Works! BC. 45 OLEDs - Lighting’s New Wave. Thin and flexible fixtures.

By Laura Eley, Crossey Engineering

on topic DESIGN TOOLS Reality Capture. Recent technology for recording existing conditions in the built world.

By Daniel Chapek, IMAGINiT 53

CONVERSATIONS The SkyDome’s Birth. Michael Allen recalls working on the concept for the retractable roof on the Toronto stadium.

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comment FOR PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERS IN PRIVATE PRACTICE

engineer C A N A D I A N C O N S U LT I N G

Why are engineering firms blurring their names?

W

hile reporting on the disappearance of yet another Canadian consulting engineering firm into an international conglomerate, I found myself struggling to remember the new company’s acronym. There are so many companies that have “rebranded” and adopted acronyms for their names, they tend to sound the same. It’s easy to transpose the letters and I kept typing in the wrong version.

Irritated, I wondered why so many companies today adopt acronyms and vague abstract nouns as their names. It’s as if they actually want to hide behind an anonymous nondescript label so that no-one in the wider world would have an inkling about what they do or how they distinguish themselves from the competition. Do they think that by stripping out their founders’ names, they sound more businesslike and efficient?

The consulting engineering industry is becoming more and more depersonalized, more and more corporate, more international. There’s no more Halsall, for example, no more Conestoga-Rovers, no more Marshall Macklin Monaghan. Well, at least those entities do still exist, but they’ve dropped the names of the real people and places with which they were associated.

The trend to anonymity goes hand in hand with globalization. It also goes with what everyone complains about: the “commoditization” of engineering services. Kyle V. Davy, keynote speaker at the ACEC Summit in Niagara Falls in June, said engineering firms have become simply “time sellers.” When all the firms start to look and sound similar, I’d say that the client is more likely to fall back on price as the deciding factor about who to hire.

The growth of design-build and public-private partnerships is also depersonalizing engineering firms and pushing them further into the background. The contract for a mega-hospital, transit line or power plant will likely go to a consortium with an indistinguishable name concocted for that project alone. Sometimes the news release will name the companies in the consortium, but these again are often giant international firms whose names have little local significance.

But you can’t extinguish the human spirit, and it will always drive some individuals to differentiate themselves from the crowd. There is still a place for small, specialized firms who want to tread their own path. That’s not to say that individual engineers can’t do imaginative and excellent work within gigantic corporations, but some people thrive better in a studio environment.

Which brings me to Michael Allen of Adjeleian Allen Rubelli, interviewed on page 58. Given our theme of recreational and sport buildings, it was fascinating to talk to this Ottawa structural engineer about how he and architect Rod Robbie came up with the idea for the Toronto Skydome’s retractable roof. Initially just the two of them worked on their competition-winning scheme and at the time they were both in small firms. Allen got inspiration on a plane, and afterwards they passed drawings backwards and forwards via a bus! It just shows that even big ideas for big projects start with individual designers sometimes doing idiosyncratic things. These are men and women who have courage -- and above all, who have personality.

Bronwen Parsons

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Editor

Bronwen Parsons (416) 510-5119 bparsons@ccemag.com Senior Publisher

Maureen Levy (416) 510-5111 mlevy@ccemag.com Art Director

Jessica Sharpe Contributing Editor

Rosalind Cairncross, P.Eng. Advertising Sales Manager

Vince Naccarato (416) 510-5118 vnaccarato@ccemag.com Editorial Advisors

Bruce Bodden, P.Eng., Gerald Epp, P.Eng., Chris Newcomb, P.Eng., Laurier Nichols, ing., Lee Norton, P.Eng., Jonathan Rubes, P.Eng., Paul Ruffell, P.Eng., Andrew Steeves, P.Eng. Circulation

Barbara Adelt (416) 442-5600 x3546 E-mail: badelt@bizinfogroup.ca Production Co-ordinator

Kim Collins (416) 510-6779 Vice President, Annex Business Media East

Tim Dimopoulos (416) 510-5100 tdimopoulos@canadianmanufacturing.com President & CEO

Mike Fredericks mfredericks@annexweb.com CANADIAN CONSULTING ENGINEER is published by Annex Publishing & Printing Inc.

80 Valleybrook Drive, Toronto, ON Canada M3B 2S9 Tel: (416) 442-5600 Fax: (416) 510-5134 EDITORIAL PURPOSE: Canadian Consulting Engineer magazine covers innovative engineering projects, news and business information for professional engineers engaged in private consulting practice. The editors assume no liability for the accuracy of the text or its fitness for any particular purpose.

SUBSCRIPTIONS: Canada, 1 year $60.95; 2 years $91.95 + taxes Single copy $8.00 Cdn + taxes. (HST 86717 2652 RT0001).

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PRINTED IN CANADA. Title registered at Trademarks O ­ ffice, Ottawa. Copyright 1964. All rights reserved. The contents of this publication may not be reproduced either in part or in full without the consent of the copyright owner(s).

ISSN: 0712-4996 (print), ISSN: 1923-3337 (digital) POSTAL INFORMATION: Publications Mail Agreement No. 40069240. Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to Circulation Dept., Canadian Consulting Engineer, 80 Valleybrook Drive, Toronto, ON Canada M3B 2S9.

USPS 016-099. US office of publication: 2424 Niagara Falls Blvd., Niagara Falls, NY 14304-5709. Periodicals postage paid at Niagara Falls, NY. US Postmaster: send address changes to Canadian Consulting Engineer, PO Box 1118, Niagara Falls NY 14304.

PRIVACY: From time to time we make our subscription list available to select companies and organizations whose product or service may interest you. If you do not wish your contact information to be made available, please contact us. tel: 1-800-668-2374, fax: 416-510-5134,

We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Periodical Fund of the Department of Canadian Heritage.

August/September 2015

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T H E

L E A D E R

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C O N D E N S I N G

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Translink

up front

PORTS

PHAI/CNL

Artist's rendering of Commercial-Broadway expansion, Vancouver.

TRANSPORTATION

Commercial-Broadway Station upgrading under way Construction has begun on major changes to the busiest station on the Metro Vancouver transportation system.

AECOM Canada is the architect, civil, structural and mechanical engineer for Translink’s upgrades to the Commercial-Broadway station.

Located just east of Commercial Drive, the station lies at the intersection of the original Expo Line completed in 1985, which is elevated, and the Millennium Line completed in 2002, which is at grade.

The station is not only a transfer point for the two lines, but also for the busy 99B rapid busway to the University of B.C. The latest upgrades are scheduled for completion in 2017 and include a new platform for westbound Expo Line trains and a new walkway over Broadway to connect to the Millennium Line platforms. There will also be new elevators, an expanded concourse and wider entrances.

AES is the electrical engineer and exp services is geotechnical engineer.

ENVIRONMENT

Radioactive waste storage to be built at Port Granby Natural Resources Canada has awarded an $86.8-million contract as a major 6

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Port of Quebec to expand The Government of Canada is providing $60 million to expand the deep water terminal at the Port of Quebec. The project will extend the wharf line in the Beauport sector by 610 metres, and increase the area behind the wharf by 18.5 hectares.

“As a strategic deep water port at the head of the Great Lakes St. Lawrence Seaway, the Port of Québec will use this investment to ... address the concerns at the wharf over congestion and lack of space,” said Mario Girard of the Quebec Port Authority.

Wastewater treatment plant, Port Granby, Ontario.

step forward in dealing with the lowlevel radioactive waste around Port Hope and Port Granby east of Toronto.

The two sites, 20 kilometres apart, are being collectively dealt with as the “Port Hope Area Initiative” and represent one of Canada’s largest environmental restoration projects. Canadian Nuclear Laboratories is overseeing the work.

In July a joint venture of AMEC Foster Wheeler with CB&I was chosen to construct the new Long-Term Waste Management Facility at Port Granby, which lies in the Municipality of Clarington. The work involves moving approximately 450,000 cubic metres of historic low-level radioactive waste and contaminated soils from an existing waste management facility on the shore of Lake Ontario to a new facility about a kilometre north.

The new storage facility is a multilayered system with an engineered above-ground mound. Designed by AECOM, it has a cover approximately 2.75 metres thick, and will include a capillary drainage layer system and monitoring systems within and around

HVAC

ASHRAE and IAQA move closer together ASHRAE and the Indoor Air Quality Association (IAQA) are now offering dual memberships to their members as part of the consolidation between the two groups.

Last year the associations announced that they were joining forces to combine resources.

RESOURCES

Mount Polley resumes After spending $67 million so far on remediation, Imperial Metals has been allowed to resume production on a restricted basis at the Mount Polley Mine in B.C. The collapse of a tailings pond at the copper and gold mine caused a massive release of contaminated waste into watersheds and lakes last August.

continued on page 8

August/September 2015

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c a n o n i s a r e g i s t e r e d t r a d e m a r k o f c a n o n i n c . Š 2015 c a n o n c a n a d a i n c .

With low-light capability and built-in intelligence like auto tracking, Canon’s security cameras flag suspicious activity as it happens. Learn more at canon.ca/nvs

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continued from page 6

TRANSPORTATION

HMM

Herb Gray Parkway stretch opens In late June an eight-kilometre extension of Highway 401 opened near Windsor, Ontario, marking 90% completion of the $1.4-billion Rt. Hon. Herb Gray Parkway project.

The parkway will connect to the Gordie Howe International Bridge (formerly the Detroit River International Crossing), the planned new Canada-U.S. border crossing located in west Windsor.

Hatch Mott MacDonald is the prime designer and engineering project manager, leading a team of designers that includes Dillon, AMEC and LEA. The parkway is a six-lane freeway, mostly below grade. It is set within 300 acres of green space and trails. There are 11 cut-and-cover tunnels, 14 bridge overpasses and a multi-lane roundabout. Construction began in August

Rt. Hon. Herb Gray Parkway, Windsor, Ont.

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2011 and final completion is scheduled for next spring.

ENVIRONMENT

Salt water lamp a "social movement" A start-up known as Sustainable Alternative Lighting, or SALt Corp has developed a lamp that runs on salt water. The lamp only needs two tablespoons of salt and a glass of water to work.

The designers call the lamp a "social movement" and will target it to the many communities who live without utility power on coastal islands in the Philippines.

HISTORY

Hanna roundhouse designated The Canadian Northern Railway roundhouse in Hanna, east-central Alberta, was designated as a provincial historic resource in August. The century-old roundhouse was built in 1913 as a fan-shaped brick and concrete structure that wraps around the train turntable. The roundhouse was a divisional point on the line between Saskatoon and Hanna, but became obsolete in the post-war period. It is the most intact example of this historic railway infrastructure in Alberta

Canadian Northern Railway Roundhouse, Hanna, Alberta.

HRMB, Alberta Culture and Tourism

the mound. A wastewater treatment plant, also designed by AECOM, has already been constructed to treat any leachate from the mound.

The historic waste in Port Hope and Port Granby was the result of radium and uranium processing over 50 years between 1933 and 1988 by the former Crown corporation Eldorado Nuclear Limited, and its private sector predecessors.

Erin O’Toole, MP for Durham, said that the awarding of the construction contract was "a crucial step toward environmental remediation of our beautiful landscape.”

and one of the few remaining examples in the country.

AWARDS

Vimy Memorial Bridge gathers awards The Vimy Memorial Bridge, which was designed by Parsons for the City of Ottawa, has received several awards this year.

Previously called the StrandherdArmstrong Bridge, the bridge crosses the Rideau River on the Rideau Canal System, a recognized UN National Historic Site and a World Heritage Site.

Featuring triple tubular steel arches and a deck suspended on inclined

Vimy Memorial Bridge, Ottawa.

PROFESSION

Women Engineers The Society of Women Engineers, an international organization with 27,000 members, is celebrating its 65th anniversary. It has also launched a new eBook, “We Built This: a Look at the Society of Women Engineers’ First 65 Years.”

In Canada, WEF 15, the annual Expo for Women Engineers, is being held at the New Science Centre in Calgary on October 14-15.

STRUCTURES

www.topview.camera/Parsons

up front

Ferris wheel in a tower The Studio City hotel and casino complex in Macau near Hong Kong in China incorporates an eight-figure ferris wheel between its two art deco-style towers. Guests can board the 130-metre tall "Golden Wheel" at the 23rd floor of the building and are taken for a 15-minute ride. The hotel is due to open in October. continued on page 11

August/September 2015

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CANASA Presents

2015 Security Canada Atlantic Holiday Inn Harbourview Halifax, Nova Scotia September 15, 2015

Mark your calendars Security Canada Central Toronto Congress Centre Toronto, Ontario October 21 - 22, 2015

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up front

continued from page 8

hangers, the bridge is the first of its kind in North America. It carries eight lanes of traffic, including two bus rapid transit lanes, as well as two bicycle lanes and two pedestrian walkways.

It opened last year and since then has won the prestigious Gustav Lindenthal Medal at the International Bridge Conference, recognizing technical innovation, aesthetic merit, and harmony with the environment. It also received an award of excellence from the Quebec Association of Transportation (AQTr), a 2014 design award of excellence from the Quebec Region of the Canadian Institute of Steel Construction, and a 2015 award of merit from Consulting Engineers of Ontario.

Mark Blamey

McElhanney in Alberta and Saskatchewan.

Kerr Wood Leidal Associates of Vancouver has appointed a new president. Mark S. Blamey, P.Eng. succeeds

Mike Currie, who is returning to a senior engineering specialist role after nine years as leader.

Golder Associates has named Don Gamble principal of its Canadian power sector. He is based in the Vancouver office.

Smart Solutions for a Complex World

PEOPLE

Stantec’s Mark de Jonge won gold at the Pan Am Games in Toronto in July. De Jonge, an engineer-in-training at the company’s office in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, came first in the K-1 200 metre kayak race. In 2012 Mark de Jonge de Jonge won bronze at the London Olympics.

In June, Stormy Holmes, P.Eng. became the first female to become chair of the Association of Consulting Engineering Companies-Saskatchewan (ACECSK). She is an office Stormy Holmes manager and area quality manager with AECOM in Saskatoon.

Parsons has appointed John McGill as regional director for southwest Ontario, an area that stretches to the border of the Greater Toronto Area.

John McGill McElhanney has appointed Bernard Abelson as transportation planning lead for Western Canada.

He is based in Surrey, B.C. Harry Kim is now environmental business lead for

Tetra Tech’s scientists and engineers are developing sustainable solutions for the world’s most complex projects. With 3,500 employees in Canada and 13,000 total employees worldwide, we have grown to become one of North America’s largest engineering firms.

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Canadian Consulting Engineer

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ASSOCIATION OF CONSULTING ENGINEERING COMPANIES | REVIEW

CHAIR’S MESSAGE

ACEC will assist firms to transform and succeed

T

he recent ACEC Leadership Summit in Niagara Falls featured the theme of transforming our business. Transformation is occurring all around us — the “global village” is the new local community. Think back 20 years, when a 486 was a decent computer, Motorola radios were all over construction sites and surveyors still plotted field data on orange line paper. Cell phones were very limited, and correspondence was by fax. Today’s world is so much smaller with the advancement of communication technologies. However, our formal business relationships are still fundamentally the same. There is no question that the world is changing and consulting engineers can no longer assume that we can continue to do business the same way and expect the better results.

At ACEC, we need to behave more like a business to better represent our members, plan and prioritize our activities, be disciplined in defining goals, and follow through on our initiatives. ACEC is seeking incremental growth in

our strategic priorities: advocacy for our members; member engagement and communication; image building; and improving the business environment for members. In doing so, ACEC will demonstrate value to firms, engage and retain membership and be an effective and credible voice of the industry. ACEC will stop doing things that provide no demonstrable value.

In our businesses, we often think of ourselves as engineers first and as a business second. It is what we are, but we nevertheless need to apply business acumen to be successful.

The role of consulting engineers in the project delivery value chain has been diminishing and services gradually commoditized. Our role as trusted advisor is key to consulting engineering success and firms need to use their business skill to protect and enhance that role. This is fundamental to strategic thinking, change management and ensuring relevance in the future. It is key to transforming our business. ACEC looks forward to assisting in that transformation.

PERRY MITCHELMORE, P.ENG. CHAIR, ACEC BOARD OF DIRECTORS

MESSAGE DU PRÉSIDENT DU CONSEIL

L’AFIC aidera les firmes de génie-conseil à se transformer et à réussir

L

e récent Sommet du leadership de l’AFIC avait pour thème la transformation de notre industrie.

En fait, tout se transforme autour de nous — le « village planétaire » est la nouvelle communauté locale. Il y a 20 ans, un 486 était un ordinateur décent, les radios Motorola étaient omniprésentes sur les chantiers de construction et les arpenteurs utilisaient encore du papier ligné orange. Les téléphones cellulaires étaient encore rares et les correspondances étaient transmises par fax.

Le monde d’aujourd’hui est beaucoup plus petit grâce à l’avancement des technologies de communication. Par contre, nos relations d’affaires formelles sont demeurées essentiellement inchangées. Le monde change, et les ingénieurs-conseils ne peuvent plus supposer que nous pouvons continuer de fonctionner de la même manière et s’attendre à de meilleurs résultats. À l’AFIC, nous devons aussi nous comporter davantage comme une entreprise pour mieux représenter nos membres, mieux planifier et prioriser nos activités, être disciplinés dans la définition de nos objectifs, et faire le suivi de nos initiatives. L’AFIC veut aussi assurer une croissance soutenue de nos priorités stratégiques, soit la représenta-

tion de nos membres, l’engagement des membres et les communications, la mise en valeur de notre image de marque, ainsi que l’amélioration du climat des affaires pour nos membres. Ce faisant, l’AFIC démontrera sa valeur pour ses membres et sera une voix crédible et efficace pour l’industrie. L’AFIC cessera de faire des choses qui n’ont pas de valeur démontrable.

Dans notre industrie, nous nous considérons souvent comme ingénieurs en premier et comme gens d’affaires en second. Nous sommes en effet des ingénieurs, mais nous devons aussi avoir un sens des affaires pour réussir. Le rôle des ingénieurs-conseils dans la chaîne de valeur des projets que nous réalisons diminue et nos services sont de plus en plus considérés comme des marchandises. Notre rôle en tant que conseillers de confiance est essentiel à notre succès. Les firmes doivent tirer parti de leurs compétences en affaires pour protéger et augmenter ce rôle, ce qui est fondamental à une réflexion stratégique, à notre pertinence dans l’avenir et à la transformation de nos modèles de gestion. L’AFIC se fera un plaisir de vous aider dans cette transformation.

PERRY MITCHELMORE, P.ENG. PRÉSIDENT DU CONSEIL D’ADMINISTRATION DE L’AFIC

August/September 2015 Canadian Consulting Engineer

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ASSOCIATION OF CONSULTING ENGINEERING COMPANIES | REVIEW

ACEC champions infrastructure investment as key issue in federal election

A

CEC is asking candidates in the federal election and political party officials to commit to long-term, predictable infrastructure investment. Leading up to and during the 2015 federal election, the association and its members are utilizing www.VoteInfrastructure.ca — a new interactive website to educate the political parties on the importance of infrastructure investment to our economic, social and environmental quality of life. It also serves as a resource for the Canadian public and interested stakeholders.

ACEC members as well as all Canadians are encouraged to visit the site where they can find out more about the critical need for infrastructure investments and about ACEC’s advocacy on infrastructure. The site allows visitors to send a form letter to all candidates in their riding, including incumbent Members of Parliament, asking them to make infrastructure investment a priority in the upcoming election.

The website is also an easy-to-use educational tool for learning facts about infrastructure, the association’s stakeholder partners and as a way to stay up to date with the official party positions on important issues relating to infrastructure.

Additionally, the association has asked the party leaders specifically how they would ensure long-term, predictable investment in infrastructure to improve communities, strengthen the economy and enhance Canada’s competitiveness: • What is your party’s position on long-term infrastructure investment by the federal government? How will you ensure that infrastructure investments are strategic and predictable in order 14

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to provide the best value and return on investments to Canadians?

• How would your party finance infrastructure investments? What is the appropriate responsibility for financing and managing infrastructure by each level of government (federal, provincial, municipal)?

• How will your party work with stakeholders, including the provinces and territories, to ensure that infrastructure programs will have an efficient and transparent application process that reflects the needs of communities and businesses?

• How would your party encourage and support asset management by communities in order to prioritize needs and measure the success of infrastructure investments?

• What is your party’s position on assisting the private sector with its infrastructure needs (especially in northern and remote regions) to allow Canada’s natural resources to be developed in a socially and environmentally responsible manner and to allow resources and other goods to reach markets within Canada and internationally?

The responses are available at www.VoteInfrastructure.ca and interested Canadians and stakeholder organizations are invited to share them.

ACEC joined the Canadian Public Works Association in supporting a call by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities for a pre-election debate on infrastructure issues between all federal party leaders.

Members and others interested in this important issue are invited to get involved by visiting www.VoteInfrastructure.ca and joining the discussion on social media via #VoteInfrastructure and @ACECCanada.

2015-2016 ACEC Board of Directors ACEC’s Board of Directors for 20152016 was confirmed at the association’s Leadership Summit in June.

Perry Mitchelmore, Chair Meco Anne Poschmann, Past-Chair Golder Associates Ltd. Rick Tiller, Chair-Elect Tiller Engineering Inc. Paul Ruffell, Treasurer Tetra Tech EBA Steve Fleck, Vice-Chair Stantec Consulting Ltd. David Kozak, Vice-Chair WSP Simon Davidson, Vice-Chair Johnston-Vermette Denis Harvie, Director Tetra Tech Martin Hétu, Director WSP Rob Kivi, Director MMM Group Limited Lawrence Lukey, Director Bullée Consulting Ltd. Francois Morton, Director SNC-Lavalin Luciano Piciacchia, Director AMEC Todd Smith, Director AECOM Michael Snow, Director Golder Associates Ltd. Allan Steedman, Director Schaeffers Consulting Engineers Terry Warner, Director Associated Engineering Art Washuta, Director OPUS Stewart Weir

August/September 2015

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ASSOCIATION OF CONSULTING ENGINEERING COMPANIES | REVIEW

ACEC Leadership Summit 2015: transforming our business, our sector and our world

A

CEC’s Leadership Summit, June 11-13, brought together representatives from member firms across Canada to participate in a highly successful industry conference that featured a packed business and social program, many networking opportunities and optional activities.

New ways of doing business: transforming for future success Events kicked off on June 11 when participants of the pre-conference technical tour were guided through the Canadian Niagara Powerhouse and learned about the award-winning Forebay Bridge reconstruction project. The business program followed, during which industry leaders, emerging leaders and subject matter experts met for 1.5 days to share knowledge and insight on key issues for ACEC member firms.

Session topics included: • Business and Market Trends: Where are the Opportunities?

• State of the Practice: Exploring Models of Professional Practice • Transforming our Business Model • Trends that are Changing the Game • Responding to Clients: Transforming our Role Industry leaders recognized Outgoing Chair Anne Poschmann welcomed Perry Mitchelmore, P.Eng. who will chair ACEC’s Board of Directors in 2015-2016. Mr. Mitchelmore is President and Chief Executive of

Meco. He was elected to ACEC’s Board of Directors in 2012 and has served as ACEC’s Treasurer and as Chair-Elect for the past year.

During the association’s Annual General Meeting, Mr. Mitchelmore spoke of the importance of incremental improvements on past successes in the face of transformation in the marketplace. Summarizing his intentions for the year ahead, he said, “We need to continue to move forward at a steady pace, building on the success of past boards and evolving to meet the needs of our members and our industry.”

ACEC-Manitoba’s Technical Women in Consulting Engineering (TWICE) committee was named the recipient of the ACEC Chair’s Award for 2015.

Formed in 2013 under the leadership of ACEC-Manitoba, TWICE was established to provide strategic advice to the industry on increasing diversity in consulting engineering. The committee’s vision is to foster increased representation of women in the profession and the consulting engineering sector. TWICE will guide the industry in the development of best practices for life-work balance and help facilitate opportunities to encourage networking, mentoring, and professional development for women. The committee has completed the first of several comprehensive surveys and the results are being assessed now for use in the industry.

ACEC Leadership Summit 2015: transformation at the firm level and in the consulting engineering industry.

Owen Mierke, P. Eng. of Associated Engineering was awarded ACEC’s Allen D. Williams Scholarship. The scholarship is presented annually to a Young Professional employed by an ACEC member firm who demonstrates a commitment to the consulting engineering industry in their province or territory. Mr. Mierke will receive funding to attend the annual conference of the International Federation of Consulting Engineers (FIDIC) and further his professional development. He will also have an opportunity to participate in the 2016 FIDIC Young Professional Management Training Program.

Anne Poschmann (right) presents award to TWICE Committee founding Chair Kristen Poff (centre) and Alana Gauthier, President of ACEC-Manitoba.

Association of Consulting Engineering Companies – Canada (ACEC-Canada), 420-130 Albert Street, Ottawa, ON, K1P 5G4, tel: (613) 236-0569, fax: (613) 236-6193, info@acec.ca, www.acec.ca. ACEC Member Organizations: Association of Consulting Engineering Companies – British Columbia, Association of Consulting Engineering Companies – Yukon, Consulting Engineers of Alberta, Consulting Engineers of Northwest Territories, Association of Consulting Engineering Companies – Saskatchewan, Association of Consulting Engineering Companies – Manitoba, Consulting Engineers of Ontario, Association des Ingénieursconseils du Québec, Association of Consulting Engineering Companies – New Brunswick, Consulting Engineers of Nova Scotia, Association of Consulting Engineering Companies – Prince Edward Island, Consulting Engineers of Newfoundland and Labrador.

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ASSOCIATION OF CONSULTING ENGINEERING COMPANIES | REVIEW

By Megan Miller

Your engineering firm has room for improvement, but where?

Deltek’s Clarity A&E Industry Study provides critical benchmarks

T

oday’s firms face a number of challenges. The talent war is heating up, finding time to nurture client relationships is difficult and competition remains the top business development challenge.

So how can you truly know where your firm stands?

The Deltek Clarity Architecture & Engineering Industry Study (produced in collaboration with ACECCanada) gives leaders critical benchmarks to see how their firm measures up and where there are opportunities for improvement. Now in its 36th year, Clarity is the longest-running financial benchmarking study in the industry, and provides 10-year trends to help better position your firm for the future. This is also the first year that Clarity takes a deeper dive into business development and project management.

This year’s study is based on 2014 fiscal year data provided by nearly 400 architecture and engineering firms in the United States and Canada. This includes firms of all shapes, sizes and disciplines, creating a diverse representation of the industry.

In general, firms have much to celebrate this year, but there is still room for improvement. This year’s study highlights several key findings, including: • Many financial indicators improved again in 2014, but not all are back to pre-recession strength • Firms continue to face increased competition and limited time for business development • Project managers still face big challenges, including accurate forecasting and communication.

So, how does your firm measure up? How are you performing com16

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pared to key industry benchmarks? Are you on par with other firms your size? Discover how this information can give you an advantage on your next project pursuit.

Finance It may be time to reassess which financial metrics you use to set strategic targets. Here are some of this year’s key metrics and how they compare to last year: • Utilization rate continues to hover around 60 per cent for the third year, up slightly from last year.

• Net labor multiplier, as expected, decreased slightly and was significantly higher for high-performing firms.

• Overhead rate has also remained relatively steady in recent years at around 160 per cent.

• Average collection period decreased, but there is still room for improvement compared to just a few years ago.

Beyond tracking these metrics, what creative steps can your firm take to move the numbers?

Project Management Perhaps the quickest path to improved financial performance is through project management. According to Clarity, inexperienced project managers, inaccurate forecasts and ineffective communication are among the biggest challenges facing firms in the near future. And, with only 75 per cent of projects currently

on or under budget, there is opportunity for training, collaboration and increased project visibility.

Business Development Firms have an optimistic forecast for the next few years — now business developers must secure new projects, which is no easy task. Their bullish outlook might be a result of recent successes, with nearly half of participants seeing increased win rates in the past two years.

For more industry insight, check out this year’s report at http://tribl. io/bd42e5.

Megan Miller is a senior product marketing specialist for Deltek, the leading global provider of enterprise software and information solutions for professional services firms and other project-based businesses, and can be found at www.deltek.com.

August/September 2015

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Pan Am Prize

By Bronwen Parsons

The Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre at the University of Toronto, Scarborough provided a stunning backdrop for events at the summer Games. Now it is a prize public amenity.

D

uring the first thrilling days of the 2015 Pan Am Games in the middle of July, millions watched the aquatic events broadcast from the sparkling new Toronto PanAm Sports Centre at the University of Toronto Scarborough campus.

But for structural engineer Mark Campbell, P.Eng. of WSP, the images were especially riveting. "Watching the Games on TV, I found my mind flipped to the drawings," he says. "It was fun comparing how the building looks in reality to what we designed two years ago."

The Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre (previously known as the CIBC PanAm Aquatics Centre and Field House) has been described as "awesome" and has already won awards. These include "Best Project built in Ontario for 2015," presented by the Ontario General Contractors Association this spring. It 18

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has also managed to be certified LEED Gold, surpassing the target Silver certification.

PCL Constructors Canada was the design-builder, along with NORR as the project architect. Subconsultants to NORR were WSP (then Halsall) as structural design engineers, and Smith + Andersen as the mechanical, electrical and communications design engineers.

A relatively low-profile structure, the complex sits on the eastern fringes of Toronto, south of Highway 401 off Morningside. It spreads its considerable 312,000 sq.ft. (29,000 sq.m) below low sloping volumes that are architecturally inspired by the glacial geology of southern Ontario. Its expansive roofs support 2.2 acres of photovoltaic panels that generate electricity, and 1.3 acres of green roof.

The main north-south circulation axis is flanked on

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recreation buildings

lower levels of the building below ground. The ground had to be excavated anyway as the site was a former brownfield with contaminated material. All the actual sports activities take place at this lower level, which ensures that light entering these areas is indirect and doesn't dazzle the players.

Meanwhile, people passing by outside can look down into the space and watch the activity.

The largest of a handful of new facilities constructed for the Pan Am Games, the $160-million complex will have a rich legacy. It is jointly owned by the university and the city of Toronto and now serves as an open, public amenity used by both students and the local community.

Dive tower, rising 13 metres.

the east by the aquatics centre, which has two 50-metre,10lane international standard pools and a 5-metre deep diving tank. On the west side of the axis is the field house, with a four-court gymnasium, running track and fitness centre. During the Games this section hosted events such as the pentathlon, fencing, speed skating and sitting volley ball. There are studio spaces, a climbing wall, and concessions. Finally, to the northwest is the permanent home of the Canadian Sport Institute of Ontario. This is a high-performance training, therapy and research centre for elite athletes.

In a strategy that architect David Clusiau of NORR believes might have helped their design-build team win the contract for the project with Infrastructure Ontario (two other teams were in the running), the designers located the

Removable columns The Legacy v. Pan Am Games aspect of the building inspired an unusual structural engineering approach. To make room for approximately 1,000 extra spectator seats during the Games, a temporary enclosure was added in the Aquatic Centre along its east side. The roof for the centre is a 4-metre deep truss that spans 76 metres over the pool, including over this temporary enclosure.

At the inside edge of the temporary enclosure is a row of removable columns. Under normal conditions, i.e. pre- and post-Games, these 16-metre high columns are there to support snow loads on the roof. But for the summer Games when there is no snow load, the columns could be removed so that the spectators' sightlines were not blocked. Another row of large 500-diameter tubular steel V-columns, 15 metres beyond the removable columns, stayed in place to support the roof at all times.

Now the Games are over, the removable columns will be re-installed and the temporary seating enclosure will be removed. The removable columns will become part of the permanent outer wall and the roof beyond that point will be exposed. A 3-metre section will cantilever beyond the V-shaped permanent outer columns as a canopy.

Campbell explains that the removable columns meant they had to calculate the exact deflection of the roof under different conditions. It also meant carefully designing the connections between the column and truss to allow for the correct deflection gap.

Dive tower has to be made stiff Another structural engineering highlight is the dive tower, a dramatic and beautiful structure that rises 10 metres with side platforms at different levels. Although the design was meant to "look" like concrete, a poured concrete structure would have put too much weight on the basement and its labyrinth of service tunnels.

Instead, Campbell explains, they used structural steel with a precast concrete panel exterior. However, since there are strict requirements limiting movement in the tower, continued on page 20

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Above: Complex on the UTSC campus. The field house is on the left of the main entrance, and the aquatics centre is on the right.

they needed an elaborate system of cross-bracing: "We had to put cross bracing pretty much wherever we could, so the tower is extremely stiff and has essentially zero lateral movement," he explains.

The precast concrete diving platforms were so heavy and large they were installed by crane through a large opening left in the roof. All of this required careful scheduling with PCL for constructability.

The pool structures themselves are a prefabricated panelized system with moveable bulkheads that sit inside a concrete shell. Since the pools are at a lower elevation, their enclosures have a 13-m high, 500-mm thick concrete buttress wall system to resist soil pressure.

All the structural steel within the pool environment had to have a three coat epoxy system in order to resist corrosion, Campbell explains. The drawings had to show the boundaries where this coating was necessary, which meant working with the architects and mechanical-electrical engineers to clearly understand the air flow within the large open spaces of the building.

continued on page 22

WSP

Geothermal field, heat recovery The building is designed with many energy saving systems.

"At the core of the mechanical system is the geothermal field," says Chris Liu, P.Eng., of Smith + Andersen. A groundsource heat pump and field of 100 boreholes below a parking

lot to the north of the complex provides 40% of the total cooling and 30% of the heating loads, distributing the energy to variable volume air handling units. Magnetic bearing chillers (in summer) and high-efficiency condensing boilers (in winter) provide the remainder of the cooling or heating energy. The building automation system (BAS) enables different spaces in the building to be conditioned individually according to their needs.

The pool areas with their high levels of moisture and humidity presented a special challenge for saving energy, explains Liu. One solution was to provide large, high volume low velocity fans over the pool that help circulate the air and supplement the air volume supply.

They also used a variety of heat recovery systems. In the Field House enthalpy wheels recover energy from exhaust air. In the Aquatic Centre, heat rejected from the pool dehumidification units is re-used for heating the pool water.

Liu explains that the recovered heat is "low grade" i.e. at fairly low temperatures, but it serves for this purpose.

The electrical systems have a lot of redundancy built in, James Back, P.Eng. of Smith + Andersen, explains. There are two dedicated high-voltage transformers, as well as a 2-MW temporary diesel generator. The redundancy was especially critical during the Games: "Even in a utility blackout condition the building could continue functioning during the

Left: Removable columns (at right) and permanent V columns (at left) in the Aquatics Centre. The removable columns were taken away temporarily to allow for clear sight lines during the Pan Am and Para Pan Games. Right: column connection.

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Games on the 2-MW temporary diesel generator," says Back.

Shai Gil

Special lighting for broadcasting "In the output specification that we had to follow they asked for very high light levels in the pool areas for high-definition broadcasting purposes," says Back.

"They asked for 2500 lux of lighting. To put that in perspective, the Ontario Building Code minimum is 200 lux for a public pool."

"In addition the specifications were very stringent on lighting uniformity," says Back. "You can't have light and dark spots as you are following the athlete down the length of the pool."

Another challenging aspect was having to avoid "skip glare."

The fixtures each had to be strategically located so that their light didn't skip off the surface of the water and "blind" the cameras.

Communication systems in a "selfie" world Edward Poon, P.Eng., with Smith + Andersen, who designed the IT, communications and security Top: The Aquatics Centre is a huge volume containing two 50-metre, 10-lane pools. Above: Field House. systems, explains that they had to The building was sunk below ground and main sports actitivities are at the lower levels. provide pathways for all the special temporary communications infrastructure installed and started texting and tweeting images around the world. for the PanAm Games (not just for broadcasting, but also The design team had to ensure that this sudden massive for power, timing and scorekeeping, etc.). In the aquatic demand wouldn't cripple the wireless communication syscentre, much of this infrastructure is in the service tunnels tems, as had happened at the 2012 London Olympics. below the pools.

Because the pool is a "giant void space essentially," Poon "This stuff doesn't look sexy for an architect," says Poon, says, they had to mount the wireless access points on the "so we had to hide a lot of the cable management systems catwalk — almost directly over the pool where Canadians out of public view, but at the same time make them easily ended up storming to victory.

CCE accessible for the media, the broadcasters and the Toronto 2015 organizers to come in and install their systems."

Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre The high-level security systems for the Games were also Owner: City of Toronto, University of Toronto. installed by the Games organizers themselves, separate from Architect: NORR the legacy building systems. The legacy systems are on a Structural engineer: WSP (Halsall) (Michael Buckley, P.Eng., Mark converged network, Poon explains, so the surveillance camCampbell, P.Eng., Joseph Smith) Mechanical-electrical engineers: Smith + Andersen (Brad Bull, eras and card readers run on the same permanent fibreP.Eng., Dan Larson, P.Eng., Chris Liu, P.Eng., James Back, P.Eng., optic backbone as the building automation, lighting and Simon Aspinwall, P.Eng., Edward Poon, P.Eng., Adana Fikre, P.Eng.) other systems.

Pool consultant: Counsilman-Hunsaker Naturally, when the spectators arrived in July and took Design-Builder: PCL their seats, they immediately took out their smart phones 22

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By Art Sutherland, Accent Refrigeration Systems

FOR HOCKEY

Accent Refrigeration

T

he 75,000 sq.ft. Westhills Recreation Centre in Langford on Vancouver Island, B.C. includes an NHL size indoor ice rink that operates 11 months of the year, an outdoor ice rink, and a skating trail joining the two together. It also has a 20-lane bowling alley, a restaurant and lounge, party rooms and 930-sq.m of leased office space. The outdoor ice rink is designed with embedded refrigeration piping for winter ice, and water fixtures to convert it into a children’s splash park in summer.

Accent Refrigeration Systems designed and installed the mechanical systems at the centre, which opened in 2012. In 2014, we were awarded the first place ASHRAE Technology Award for New Public Facilities for the project.

The mechanical systems for the three ice surfaces are integrated into the building HVAC system to the extent that no fossil fuels are used other than in the kitchen. Even though the

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complex uses an extensive amount of energy, it requires only 40% of the waste energy that is harvested. The remaining 60% is pumped 365 metres to the growing Westhills housing development as an energy source for their household heat pumps.

The project turned a typical ice arena sub-floor heating system (traditionally used for preventing frost heaves) into an enhanced geothermal field. The centre is the first in North America to use new ultra high-efficient reciprocating compressors, and the first total integration between an ice facility and an entire community.

The centre is also the first in North America to use ammonia heat pumps to heat a housing community and one of only a few with ammonia-based airconditioning systems.

Eliminating natural gas Vancouver Island has among the highest natural gas prices in North Ameri-

The Westhills Recreation Centre in Langford, B.C. integrates its ice rink systems with the building HVAC. It also pumps excess energy to a nearby housing development.

ca, so the objective of the project was to eliminate the centre's natural gas consumption for all heating, hot water and dehumidification loads, while minimizing its electrical consumption year round. The source of all thermal energy used within the facility is warm glycol, which is harvested from the ice rink refrigeration system via an energy recovery condenser.

In order to ensure that there would be no energy gaps between refrigeration run cycles, two approaches where taken. The refrigeration compressors and brine pumps were equipped with variable speed drives. The computer controlled speed drives operate the compressors and all associated pumps at their lowest permissible speed, while precisely maintaining the ice temperature set point. This results in the compressors always operating at their maximum COP due to the low compression ratios, while the pumps benefit from the Pump Affinity Law resulting

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Left: Centre and outdoor rink. Above: Indoor NHL-size rink; its subfloor heating system is used as an enhanced geothermal field.

in reduced electrical consumption.

The main objective of perpetuating the heating cycle is also met as the compressor run cycles are much longer throughout the day.

A very cost-effective solution to provide thermal storage between compressor run cycles was to install a modified ice rink sub-floor heating system. The system consists of 6” of R-5 insulation board between the ice pad and the heating floor, which enabled us to increase the temperature of the subfloor to 75°F from the typical 40°F, resulting in an uninterrupted energy source for the heat pumps.

These operate with COP’s ranging from 4.99 to 7.6.

The outdoor ice rink, which operates from November to January, offered an interesting energy balance opportunity by providing additional waste heat during the peak heating season, just when it is needed most.

The warm glycol directly provides radiant heating throughout 19,000 sq. ft. of public space during the shoulder seasons. In mid-winter, an energy recovery heat pump boosts the glycol

temperature as required to maintain comfort in all areas.

There are 15 HVAC units and two HRVs equipped with close-approach coils designed to provide heating with 95°F glycol and cooling with 50°F glycol. In very cold months, the heating glycol temperatures will automatically reset to provide sufficient heat.

The domestic hot water for the facility is provided through two stages.

The first stage is free heat from the ammonia de-superheating system and ranges from 100°F to 120°F. The water is then brought up to 140°F using another energy recovery heat pump.

A custom designed ice rink desiccant dehumidifier uses a low temperature desiccant rotor that can be regenerated at 125°F, versus the traditional gas fired rotors that require 275°F. The system uses two coils in series to regenerate the desiccant wheel. The first coil is circuited for the 82°F glycol that is directly harvested from the energy recovery condenser. The second coil obtains its heat from an energy recovery heat pump.

As a result of the combined initiatives, no fossil fuels have been used in the facility other than in the kitchen since the complex was commissioned in 2012.

Air-conditioning and electrical energy efficiency Ultra-high efficient VFD-driven ammonia compressors were installed that handle both the ice rink duty in winter

and the air conditioning duty in summer. The compressors have a cooling COP of 4.62 during the ice season and a summertime air conditioning COP of 15.1. The uneven parallel configuration provides a capacity range of 15 to 120 tons, allowing them to exactly track the refrigeration load year round. With 100% of the energy being recovered, the compressors have a combined heat/cool COP of 10.2 in winter. All of the facility fans, pumps and compressors have VFDs to minimize energy consumption.

During summer months the hot water heat pumps extract heat from the 19,000 sq.ft. of radiant floors, taking advantage of both sides of the heat pump cycle. The Zamboni removes 8,000 pounds of snow per day during normal ice maintenance.

When melted, this quantity of snow provides 96 ton-hours of useful cooling that helps shave the peak off the air-conditioning requirement. An enhanced surface coil in the snow melt pit has the ability to deliver 325,000 BTUs per hour of glycol to the airconditioning system at 45°F for several hours per day, further reducing the air-conditioning load.

The pie chart shows where the harvested heat was used within the arena during a single 24-hour period in October 2012. This is a snapshot in time with the dynamic heating requirements for each load changing day to day with the various user

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continued from page 25

groups, outdoor ambient temperature and humidity.

Approximately 40% of the waste energy is required within the complex and the remaining 60% is pumped 365 metres to the housing development. Once the on-site geothermal field is satisfied and all of the zones are within their programmed range, the excess heat is then transferred via a VFD driven pump to the development.

The energy transfer program is designed to maintain the ice rink energy loop at 82°F. All of the recreation centre’s excess waste heat is used by the community, which simplifies the control strategy. The average value of the energy sent to

the housing development if it was natural gas would be $41,470. Two 180-ton VFD-driven ammonia geothermal heat pumps make up the balance of the energy source for the housing development. The ammonia heat pumps operate at COPs up to 15, providing a constant 60°F to the household heat pumps.

During most of the year the evaporative condenser is not used which results in an annual water reduction of approximately 750,000 gallons per year. The payback for the extra incremental cost of all the high efficient features was 2.81 years.

CCE Art Sutherland, is president of Accent Refrigeration Systems, Victoria, B.C. E-mail art@accent-refrigeration.com.

Owner: City of Langford Architect: Vic Davies Mechanical design and installation: Accent Refrigeration Systems (Art Sutherland) Electrical engineers: Applied Engineering Solutions Structural engineers: Read Jones Christoffersen

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Aquatic Light Illuminated wood trusses at the Guildford Recreation Centre Aquatic Addition in Surrey, B.C. cast a soft atmospheric light over the pool.

By AES

T

he aquatic addition to the Guildford Recreation Centre on 105 Avenue in Surrey, B.C. has a 50-metre lap pool certified to FINA (Federation Internationale De Natation) standards, as well as a leisure pool with therapeutic area, waterslide, hot tub and children’s area. A 4-metre wide cast-in-place concrete bridge spanning over 28 metres visually divides the swim and leisure areas.

Over the pools, the ceiling structure was initially destined to be open web steel joists. However, the final design is three-dimensional timber trusses. The trusses fulfil Surrey’s “Wood First Policy” and have also become the pool's defining feature.

Spaced at 4.0 metres, the trusses incorporate the

HVAC mechanical ducts and the electrical conduits, as well as the lighting system for the natatorium. They span approximately 28 metres, are almost 3 metres deep, and consist of glulam top and bottom chords with CNC cut Timberstrand LSL web members. Full threaded screws acting in tension/compression connect the web members to the top and bottom chords.

The bottom chord within the truss acts as a catwalk, providing easy access for maintenance.

The trusses were pre-assembled off site along with the integrated HVAC and lighting systems, which saved construction time. continued on page 28 August/September 2015

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Canadian Consulting Engineer

Ema Peter Photography

Above: The 28-metre span wood trusses were painted with highly-reflective paint to increase the light levels. They incorporate the HVAC mechanical ducts and electrical conduit, as well as the lighting systems.

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As the lighting designer and electrical engineers, AES worked together with Bing Thom Architects and the other project team members in an integrated design approach.

AES proposed the use of indirect high efficiency lighting to create a soft diffused light that provides the swimming pool with pleasant glare free illumination as well as competition lighting levels. Indirect lighting was also used throughout the lobby level and change rooms, all meeting the energy requirements.

AES used various software tools, including Revit, Visual and ElumTools, to maximize the light out- Above: Indirect lighting was used in the lobby and change room areas. put from both the coves and the trusses. By modelling different lighting types at multiple include heat recovery systems designed by The AME Conangles and positions, it was concluded that two rows sulting Group, which reduce the environmental impact, of fluorescent vapour proof luminaires, using specular and an exhaust system to evacuate trichloramines over reflectors, would give the best light quality and efficiency the pool, which provides a more pleasant and healthy within the trusses. To further increase the light output environment for swimmers. the architect specified high reflectivity paint.

The City of Surrey set an accelerated timeline for the Low voltage (LV) lighting controls make the system project, and the team worked to achieve this in a construcflexible, with three levels of lighting to suit different tion management environment, with contractors advising needs. Traditionally, lights are switched in rows or groups, what materials would be available in time to fit the schedbut the lights in the trusses are configured to switch in ule. The project reached substantial completion on time an interweaving pattern so that an even output of light in December 2014.

CCE is achieved no matter what level of light is selected. By providing an even illumination using a minimal number Client/owner: City of Surrey Lighting and electrical design: AES (Sunny Ghataurah, P.Eng., of lights, the energy consumption is reduced without sacDoug McMillan, David Chung) rificing comfort or safety. The LV system is scheduled to Prime consultant: Bing Thom Architects sweep off lights when not required, and the use of LED Other key players: Fast + Epp (structural engineers), The AME underwater lights rather than traditional halogen lighting Consulting Group (mechanical engineers); Turnbull (project manfurther reduces the carbon footprint. agement), Heatherbrae (contractor).

Additional highlights of the building engineering

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Ema Peter Photography

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Image: MIR

By Bill Corbett

STUDIO BELL W

hen the backers of the National Music Centre in Calgary launched an international design competition in 2009, they listed a veritable symphony of needs.

They wanted a performance space, two Canadian music halls of fame, broadcast facilities and three recording studios — including the Rolling Stones' legendary mobile studio. They wanted sound labs, workshops, space to exhibit a collection of rare instruments, and various retail spaces. And they wanted it all housed in a single, worldclass, 160,000-sq.ft. building that spans a downtown street and is wrapped around a historic but crumbling hotel famed for its blues music.

“The challenge was to envision a new building design for a re-imagined institution that was distinct to Calgary and the East Village and included a uniquely diverse program," says project manager Chelsea Grassinger, associate principal with Portland-based Allied Works Architecture, who won the design competition. She adds: "But we love that challenge. It’s at the heart of what we do."

Now renamed "Studio Bell," the

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$168-million building, designed by Allied Works Architecture with local associates Kasian Architecture Interior Design & Planning, is scheduled to open next spring as the gleaming cornerstone of the revitalized historic neighbourhood.

Originally inspired by the surrounding southern Alberta landscape, the building order was also conceived as a gathering of vessels intended to contain and organize the exhibition and program spaces.

“The vessels create enclosure for the various building activities, while the space between is open, filled with natural light and provides views back to the surrounding landscape," says Grassinger.

The vessel walls rise in subtle curves that merge, part and intertwine.

The heart of the building is a 300-seat recital hall that has a movable acoustic wall, which can be closed for intimate performances or opened fully to the lobby and circulations spaces to fill the entire building with music.

Engineering the vessels The building’s complicated design

A striking building under construction in Calgary's East Village is a unique music complex — combining studios, performance spaces and exhibits.

posed considerable challenges for the engineering firms working on the project. One of the most complex tasks was designing the curved walls.

“The vessels are rectangular at either the top or bottom and stretch at the corners to meet a curved vessel corner at the opposite end,” says Grassinger. “This resulted in extremely complex finish surfaces that required very close coordination between us, the structural engineers and the cladding and construction team.”

Simon Brown, P.Eng., Ph.D, a principal of Read Jones Christoffersen (RJC) in Calgary, the local structural engineers, says: “There’s not a lot that’s standard about this building, especially the curved walls.”

The original intent was to build the curved walls and slabs from castin-place concrete, with post-tensioned slabs, but a change to an all-steel structure accelerated the constrution schedule. The walls are constructed of lightweight steel studs clad in terra cotta tiles. Gaps between the tiles have been carefully tuned to provide the right acoustic absorption.

Two spiral, cantilevered staircases

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Allied Works Architecture

recreation buildings

Above: model, top view.

connect the lobby with galleries above.

“They flow away from a support out into space and back to a landing without bracing,” says Kevin Zwaagstra, EIT, designer at RJC. “Every set of stairs has a different geometry, with unique fabrication and curves.”

The building includes a two-storey bridge across the downtown street. Giving sweeping views and incorporating a gallery, the bridge is also a vessel, with its corners stretched to adjacent corners. “It is probably the [building's]

most impressive engineering and will provide accommodation, and construction effort given though this time the visitors will be its long spans and complex artists in residence.

To preserve the Eddy’s façade, connections points,” says Grasseach of the bricks had to be removed inger.

Not surprisingly, advanced by hand, catalogued and stored, so 3D analysis and design software they could be replaced once the was required to model the vari- building’s rotting wood frame was reous aspects of the project as it placed by a modern steel structure. was being built, with changes often Also, the low ceilings of the King Eddy had to be maintained and intemade on the fly.

While much of the development is grated into connecting parts of the cutting edge, one critical element is adjacent new building.

CCE decidedly not. Built in 1905, the King Edward Hotel closed its doors in Bill Corbett is a freelance writer based in 2004, ending its celebrated blues con- Calgary. certs. The building was condemned, until the National Studio Bell Design Team Architects: Allied Works Architecture with Kasian Music Centre project came Structural: KPFF with Read Jones Christoffersen about. The hotel sits at the Mechanical-electrical: Arup with Stantec, SMP heart of the development and Acoustics: Jaffe Holden will once again offer live music

October 4, 2013

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Canadian Consulting Engineer

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reflections

The Path to

Leadership The chair of a large consulting engineering company based in Vancouver shares some of his personal history and has advice for aspiring young professionals.

This article is adapted from a presentation originally given to an ACEC/AFIC Young Professionals Group. The author is chair of the board at McElhanney in Vancouver, former chair of the Association of Consulting Engineering Companies-Canada (ACEC) and former chair of ACEC-BC. He is on the executive committee of the International Federation of Consulting Engineers (FIDIC). He is also an editorial advisor to this magazine.

T

o provide some context to my remarks, here's my personal background in brief. I never dreamt I would become CEO of a company, let alone an awesome one like McElhanney. My rise was far from meteoric. I was the tortoise that won the race.

I never had a career plan, and I never asked for a promotion or a raise. I simply did my best every day to learn from my mistakes, to serve those who were paying me, and to be a team player to my colleagues. I never turned down an opportunity, and whenever I was tapped on the shoulder for an assignment or a promotion, I was the guy

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© Getty Images/iStockphoto/Sergey Nivens

who was too dumb to say no.

I was raised in England and France, and graduated from Manchester University in 1969. My first job was as a summer student in France, then I emigrated to Canada, and started work for Associated Engineering in Vancouver. There I learnt to design municipal engineering projects, and I got my first taste of responsibility because I was willing to take on projects in small towns up north, and to stay there for weeks at a time. I thought I was enjoying myself, because I didn’t know any better.

After five years I left Associated to join Canron on a pipeline project in Tanzania, East Africa for three years. At the tender age of 26 I was the only engineer on the construction of a pipeline worth about $300 million in today’s dollars, so I had to grow up pretty quickly and be resourceful. This experience reinforced the lesson that by going places most people won’t go, you’ll get opportunities for increased responsibility that others don’t.

When I returned to Vancouver I joined McElhanney

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reflections

By Chris Newcomb, P.Eng.

for the first time, where I spent two years learning to manage projects and write proposals. But the lure of international work was too great, and I took another overseas job, this time in Ecuador in South America.

It was another pipeline, and again I was rewarded with more responsibility than if I had I stayed in Vancouver.

Finally, at age 33, I returned to McElhanney for good. I started as a project manager: developing client relationships, writing proposals, managing projects, and hiring people to populate those projects. Eventually the tap on the shoulder came for assistant branch manager, branch manager, vicepresident, and finally president in 1997 at the age of 49.

Along the way I said yes to managing McElhanney’s international operations, yes to joining the board and becoming president of Consulting Engineers of BC (now ACEC-BC), yes to joining the ACEC board, and yes to becoming chair of ACEC. I survived as president of McElhanney because during my leadership McElhanney tripled in size to 500 people, diversified into new geographic markets, developed new practice areas, maintained profitability in the top 10 percentile for our industry, and, most important of all, became a fun and rewarding place to work. If ever I can’t continue to provide that level of leadership to McElhanney I expect another tap on the shoulder, telling me my time is up.

Now, some thoughts on leadership.

LEADERSHIP IS AN ATTITUDE, NOT A TITLE THAT'S GIVEN TO YOU Leadership comes in many forms. Corporate leadership is only one of them. Leadership is an attitude that you bring to work every day, regardless of your seniority or your role in the organization. Here are some examples of what I mean: Leaders share their knowledge. You might have only one year of experience, but when that new graduate joins your company you can show leadership by extending the hand of friendship, showing them around, and offering to help them if they encounter a problem.

Leaders volunteer. We have a young engineer at McElhanney who’s not at the top of any organizational pyramid, but she has volunteered a lot of her time to work for ACEC, ACEC-BC, and the international organization, FIDIC. She’s

been given responsibility in all three organizations, with the result that she has gained great leadership experience.

Leaders aren’t afraid of a challenge. At McElhanney a few years ago we needed a corporate safety officer. One of our CAD operators decided to take on the challenge, and has done an outstanding job, demonstrating leadership skills he, and we, didn’t know he had.

Leaders show initiative. They look for better ways to do the work, even if it’s simple stuff. When they complete the work assigned to them they look for more. They aren’t too proud to take on menial tasks.

Leaders reach out. At a conference, natural leaders don’t just hang out with their friends. Leaders seek out the person standing on their own.

Project managers are leaders. It’s a different kind of leadership than corporate leadership. Project managers have to be task oriented, gathering information and making decisions rapidly under deadline pressure. Corporate leadership is more about building relationships, consensus and morale. It’s something you do over the longer term.

Specialists are leaders. They show leadership through their confidence to solve the problem, and often through their ability to break new ground with innovative solutions.

Leaders don’t wait to be given a title. The person who says “I think I’d make a great leader if only I was promoted” probably doesn’t understand the meaning of leadership.

CORPORATE LEADERS MUST BE ABLE TO ADOPT A RANGE OF DIFFERENT MANAGEMENT STYLES Great leaders are able to implement different styles to suit different situations, and are able to transition easily from one style to another. For example: The consensus-builder: seeking out the best ideas from staff, then encouraging the whole team to get behind the idea and implement it together.

The team-builder: surrounding themselves with great team players that put the success of the group ahead of their own personal goals. I might hire a star as a specialist, as long as I’m prepared to manage them carefully, but most of the time I would prefer to hire a team player over a star.

The mentor: helping others to learn, supporting them and taking pleasure from their successes. Good leaders are the biggest fans of their staff.

The inspirational leader: cheerleading others to achieve their best.

The command and control leader: only needed during a crisis, to take calm, quick, decisive action. Hopefully this style is rarely needed, but great leaders must possess this skill becontinued on page 34

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reflections

continued from page 33

Team ethic. They see their colleagues as allies and collaborators, not competitors. They love working with other people, and seeing the magic that happens when the whole becomes more than the sum of its parts.

Intolerance of mediocrity. The great performers on your team know who the poor performers are. If you don’t weed out the poor performers, the great performers will become demoralized.

Compassion. Great leaders don’t hesitate to terminate employees when necessary, but they do it in a respectful way.

Self-sacrifice. They accept responsibility for problems, and direct praise to others when things go right.

Role modelling. Great leaders must continuously earn the respect of their staff. This AND THEN ... doesn’t mean you can’t relax There are some leadership and have fun, but it does styles that have no place in to- Chris Newcomb.

"I never turned down an opportunity, and whenever I was tapped mean behaving with self-disciday’s world: on the shoulder for an assignment or a promotion, I was the guy pline at all times.

The wind-bag: self-important, who was too dumb to say no." pompous buffoons who think Honesty. They are scrupulousthey can bluff their way through anything. ly honest. Employees need to know they can place absolute The ambitious cut-throat: always scheming to enrich them- trust in their leader. One act of deception or betrayal will selves and make themselves look better than others. undo years of effort in team-building.

The lazy leader: who figures leadership is some kind of Consistency. It’s important to be able to change styles to reward and enjoys the privileges while shirking the hard suit different circumstances, but there must be a current work, and of consistency running through everything. Priorities The mean-spirited leader: who uses their power to make must be consistent. themselves feel better by putting other people down.

Fun-loving. Most great corporate leaders have a great sense of humour. They love their work, they look forward to seeGREAT LEADERS SHARE MANY OF ing their colleagues each day, and they want their colleagues THE SAME CORE VALUES to enjoy their work too.

Great leaders are very different from each other, but share Generous. Great leaders are generous in praising others, many of the same core values. For example: but the praise must be sincere. And they are sparing in Humility. They realize leadership is a privilege. They criticizing others, so that when they are obliged to offer don’t kid themselves that their position makes them bet- criticism it is taken seriously. This comes from Dale Carneter than others. They know they owe their success to gie’s Winning Friends and Influencing People, which is the their team. If you feel the need to keep proving how source of many of my core values. smart you are, then you probably aren’t.

Passion. Some great leaders have fire-in-the-belly passion, Empathy and caring. Great leaders are genuinely inter- others have a quieter, more reflective approach. Either way, ested in other people and care sincerely about their well- their passion motivates others to share their vision. being and self-esteem. They sincerely want to see others Commitment. Every day great leaders go to work thinksucceed and derive more satisfaction from that than from ing, How can I make my company a little better by the continued on page 36 their own success.

cause, when it’s needed, it has to be implemented urgently.

The tough leader: who makes the difficult decisions and accepts responsibility to implement them, such as terminating poor performers, or announcing that there’s no money for bonuses this year.

The hard-working leader: willing to lead by example and put in long hours doing unglamorous work.

The gregarious leader: making everyone in the firm feel that they matter, and that they have a personal relationship with the boss, and The servant leader: the leader who asks people “What can I do to help you?” rather than telling people “Here’s what you have to do to help me."

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August/September 2015

2015-08-17 11:07 AM

communications

By Kim Osborne, P.Eng., AngusICAT

Future-Proofing Hospitals The information technology needs of health care institutions are rapidly expanding, which makes it critical that the communications infrastructure is planned strategically.

Applications, devices and infrastructure Hospitals wishing to future-proof their technology investments should address the following three considerations as part of their strategic planning process: • The impact of system interdependency • Overall industry and technology trends • The hospital’s future vision and strategic priorities.

Generally, IMIT systems can be divided into three categories: applications, devices and infrastructure. Applications include software-based systems such as Hospital Information Systems (HIS) that provide financial, regis-

tration and scheduling functions, or those systems that support patient care, such as Clinical Information Systems (CIS) with the capability for electronic documentation and Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE).

Devices include physical items such as smartphones, computers, dashboard displays and videoconferencing equipment.

Infrastructure isn’t typically as visible to end-users — unless it stops working. It supports the applications and devices through systems such as wired and wireless networks, nurse call, video surveillance and data warehousing.

Of these categories, infrastructure (specifically network infrastructure) is typically the most critical to get right the first time because its performance affects not only the system itself, but also the functionality of multiple other applications and devices. At the same time, infrastructure is the most difficult and costly to update, since many of the systems are part of the physical building itself.

Seeing into the future With infrastructure identified as a key priority, the subsequent strategic planning should not only identify the functionality of the applications and devices, as required by the end users, but also consider how these needs might change and impact the infrastructure requirements. Four key trends are helpful in identifying possible future requirements: • Mobility. staff, physicians and patients expect to be able to securely access information, communicate with others, and collaborate with their team conveniently and from any location. The proliferation of wireless devices like smartphones, tablets and laptops is just the start of this trend; we can expect to see more adoption of mobile continued on page 36

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Canadian Consulting Engineer

© Getty Images/iStockphoto/HASLOO

T

oday, hospitals are facing a multitude of obstacles when it comes to managing the rapidly expanding area of information management and information technology (IMIT) services. Administrators are under pressure to reduce costs and manage budget priorities; healthcare professionals are often reluctant to adopt new technologies; and there's a drive to have systems interoperable not only within the hospital but also with partnering organizations. While electronic information is critical to the dayto-day operations of hospitals, many IMIT departments struggle to maintain services on dated infrastructure.

Within this context, hospitals that undertake capital improvement and redevelopment projects have a unique opportunity to acquire IT infrastructure that will support the ever changing needs of healthcare technology. Properly planned investments in key technologies have the potential to provide significant efficiencies and cost savings. This planning ensures that hospitals will be able to improve the quality of care they provide, balance clinical needs with demands on their resources, and allow for scalability and future flexibility as new technologies emerge.

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communications

continued from page 35

devices and higher bandwidth requirements in future.

• Internet of Things. Connected “things” (including smartphones, sensors, lights, coffee makers and even cars) already outnumber the world’s population. Gartner, an American information technology research firm, predicts there will be over 26 billion connected devices by the year 2020. These devices will require data ports on the network, and infrastructure must be available to securely transfer, store and manage the increasing amounts of data.

• Bandwidth. Not only will there be an increase in the quantity of devices, but those devices will be sending more information across the network. High-definition video streaming, videoconferencing and electronic imaging have already increased bandwidth requirements beyond what anyone expected a decade ago. We can easily expect these and other services to demand faster network speeds and better performance in the future.

• Cloud Computing. The improvement in the availability and security of network services provides an opportunity to consolidate data storage and processing power in the cloud, reducing the need to host applications locally within the hospital. Cloud computing is already moving beyond individuals to change how organizations store and manage data.

These trends should be viewed through the lens of the hospital’s future vision and corporate strategy. Many hospi-

reflections

Kim Osborne, P.Eng., B.A.Sc., LEED AP BD+C, is a technical consultant and electrical engineer at AngusICAT in Toronto. She specializes in information, communications and automation technology. E-mail kim.osborne@angusicat.com.

continued from page 34

time I go home?

Personal growth. Great leaders never stop wanting to learn.

They know that the more time you spend outside your comfort zone, the bigger your comfort zone becomes.

Patience. Great leaders take the time to build consensus within their organization. If you implement quickly without consensus, it might be a great idea, but it will probably fail if everyone is not on board.

WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH Leading is easy in good times. But there will be bad times — financial difficulties, lost proposals, loss of good staff, betrayals and disappointments. That’s when employees look to the leader for inspiration and strength. They need to hear that everything will be okay, and what we're going to do to make things better. As a leader you have no time to feel sorry for yourself, you have an audience watching you every day — your staff.

Finally, your most important job as leader, starting the 36

tals are targeting a paperless environment, closely following the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model (EMRAM). Meanwhile others are focusing on establishing interoperability with partnering care providers in their community in order to align with provincial or regional initiatives. Strategic planning for IT infrastructure design might mean prioritizing robust security for the wireless network to support Bring Your Own Device (BYOD), or investing in a 40Gb backbone network to support the fastest connection speeds for high-bandwidth applications.

Ultimately, strategic planning should be seen not as a one-time event, but as a continuous effort and dynamic process that enables organizations to prioritize investments in emerging technologies. Hospitals may face challenges in adapting to the growth of information management and information technology, but by thoughtfully considering the impacts of future trends and integrating them in a strategic plan for technology investments, they can ensure that their systems will provide value and performance for years to come. CCE

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day you take the position, is to find, groom and appoint your successor. Corporate leadership should not be about you. It should be about the corporation. And the corporation’s best interests are served when there is a strong succession pipeline.

CCE Suggested Reading Winning Friends and Influencing People, by Dale Carnegie. My all-time favourite, written in the 1930s, and just as true today as it was then. Teaches you about relationships, and successful leadership is based on relationships.

Small Giants, by Bo Burlingham. Case studies of the leaders of firms that chose to be great rather than big. You’ll see what I mean when I say great leaders can be completely different, but equally great.

The Leader Who Had No Title, by Robin Sharma. The writing style is really corny, but there are some great home truths in there, such as the more time you spend outside your comfort zone, etc.

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building controls

By Kirsten Nielsen, HH Angus & Associates

Smart Building Operations Today's Building Automation Systems provide a host of detailed data that is useful for identifying problems, but they also require that operators receive appropriate training.

A

s building owners require more data on the operational and energy efficiency of their facilities, building automation systems (BAS) are evolving to keep pace with this need for smarter buildings.

In HH Angus` role as consulting engineers for the design, engineering and commissioning of building systems, we are seeing numerous developments in the BAS products offered by manufacturers, and increasing use of the data available through the BAS. One recent development in the BAS field is in graphical

representation. According to Mike Loughry, P.Eng., senior mechanical engineer at HH Angus, “Most BAS companies have made significant improvements in how they represent mechanical systems. We’re finding much more operatorfriendly displays that convey detailed information in a more accessible interface. They include better use of colour, more animation and increased isometric or 3D drawings."

The clearest advantage of the new graphics," Loughry says, "is that they more realistically reflect the arrangement continued on page 39

Above: Status Screen, Air Handling Unit Energy Recovery. The graphic of a relatively simple mechanical system contains 30 pieces of information (white blocks). The focus is on the information that counts so that the operator does not overlook key indicators. Image courtesy Johnson Controls.

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continued from page 37

and layout of the equipment, which makes the operator’s job easier. The graphic display is more intuitively understandable compared to the older-style abstract diagrams.

Owners and operators can more readily understand the information presented on the screen and can react faster and more appropriately to new data.”

Continuous commissioning advantages Loughry also cites as an important development the availability of continuous commissioning systems. “These software packages monitor the operation and performance of building systems 24/7, looking for unusual events and calculating, for example, energy consumption. This helps to identify operational anomalies: if there is equipment failure, a spike in energy consumption or unusual system activation, the system will advise the operator. For example, if the BAS sees that a fan scheduled to operate from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. is operating round the clock, the system will flag this.” Also it is becoming easier to take measurements at the specific system or equipment level. The building engineer can then identify systems that are the high energy users and focus improvements where they are most effective.

When it comes to upgrading existing buildings, Mark Benedet, P.Eng., a senior mechanical engineer and group manager in HH Angus’ technology division, cites the example of a building where systems dating back to the 1960s had been upgraded to pneumatic systems. That upgrade worked for a while, but the current occupants and facility managers are now demanding better results. In these cases, “We perform an evaluation to match available options with the client’s goals," explains Benedet. "The clients can’t always upgrade the entire system at once, but there are a lot of levels of ‘doing better’ in energy efficiency. We can design new systems that will allow the electronics to talk to the control system or, if necessary we can update older systems with ‘interpreters’ so that those systems interface with new controllers. We also advise clients on energy grants that may assist them financially with equipment changeovers.”

Operations staff may need more training With the new, highly functional BAS features, owners should be cognizant that their operations staff may need more training since their experience with these systems varies greatly. Engineers are learning to be much more detailed as to the type of training they specify when designing a sophisticated BAS system that includes complicated operating strategies. These strategies provide great benefits in energy consumption and flexibility. But in order to ensure the owner’s staff can operate the BAS equipment and efficiently deal with the range of data it provides, the training sessions have to be tailored to the knowledge level of the participants.

As Loughry points out, “Building owners rely on us for our expertise and for our knowledge of the various BAS technologies on the market. An operator may look at the BAS as a simple tool for starting/stopping equipment and adjusting temperatures. But we look at it from the point of view of providing many features, including ease of operation, equipment monitoring, innovative design, long-term energy consumption, and safety and code compliance. Clients count on us to understand and evaluate the options, make recommendations and inform them of the consequences of selecting particular systems. So it’s important that the required training is specified in the design documents to ensure the realization of the value of the systems being provided.”

How much is enough? ... That depends Determining the degree of sophistication required of a BAS depends on the purpose of the building in question. Data centres require high-quality equipment and an extraordinary degree of system redundancy across the board to meet uptime guarantees. Healthcare facilities must comply with stringent codes and the equipment must offer ease of service. They also have specialized requirements such as air pressure controls for infection control procedures. Commercial developers owning office buildings require BAS systems that can deliver reasonable temperature control measures, but perhaps without the expensive bells and whistles. Since they may not intend to operate the property long term, investing in comprehensive and expensive systems is not a priority for them. On the other hand, owneroccupied buildings such as hospitals are looking to maximize the life of their operating systems and minimize their maintenance costs, so a BAS that can address their controls automation needs now and for the next 50 years is a realistic and desirable investment.

David Dovas, P.Eng., senior project manager at HH Angus, says that “consulting engineers have a responsibility to be very knowledgeable and to bring these technologies to the table during the design development stage. That’s part of the value we bring and where we can show leadership.”

Dovas estimates it will be a few years still before BAS equipment is standard in base building specifications, but that day is coming: “It’s important that the technology selected be web accessible and, if necessary, we need to educate our clients to make them aware of the power of the data they can measure. The days of controlling and measuring only the low-hanging fruit, for example lighting, are over. We know where the energy savings are, and the BAS CCE trend data backs that up.”

Kirsten Nielsen is a writer and communications specialist at HH Angus Associates in Toronto.

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building controls

Canadian Consulting Engineer

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security

By Ian Coutts

Detection, Delay, Defence At Stantec a specialized group deals with the security needs of clients, headed by Dominic Chevrier.

Rebecka Fortin

H

ere's a scenario. Your client was worried about security, so what did they do? Easy: they installed cameras. One night their fears are realized and they come in the next day to find several computers are missing. They check the video surveillance recording and see masked thieves leaving the building with something under their arms. The video shows the client that they have definitely been robbed. But, as Dominic Chevrier likes to point out, “They knew that already.”

Plenty of corporate and government clients today are worried about security; whether it's for preventing simple theft or vandalism, industrial espionage or the more extreme acts of terrorism.

At Stantec, Chevrier heads up a team that is embedded within the large engineering firm that is dedicated to serving the physical and technological security needs of clients. Originally trained in electronics and for many years an independent security consultant whose clients included the Sûreté du Québec (Quebec’s provincial police), Chevrier and his Stantec team are mainly based in the Montreal, Toronto and Ottawa areas but work for clients across Canada and other countries.

When it comes to security, says Chevrier, generally people don’t give much thought to what it is they are actually trying to achieve. “They say, 'I want a camera, two cameras, five cameras and access control at the door.' If you are an engineer with no knowledge of security you say ‘Okay, I will put it on the drawings.’”

"I ask, 'Why a camera? Is it for identification? For observation, i.e. detecting movement? What are the assets you are trying to protect? What about your intrusion alarm system?' When continued on page 42

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security

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I see from the client's expression that they haven't really the classic "lone wolf," says Chevrier, someone, for example, such as Michael Zehaf-Bibeau who last October thought about these issues, then we talk."

Unfortunately, Chevrier says, the trend in security is too almost on impulse entered the Centre Block of the much on cameras and not enough on the real objective Houses of Parliament armed with a rifle after shooting which is to protect the assets. Cameras are only one possible dead a soldier guarding the War Memorial. tool of a complete security system and program. The protection of assets will be more efficient with the use of a proper The right tools intrusion alarm system, some building hardening (delay), Once the client's needs are clarified, the team can get to work. Take cameras in a casino, for example. The casino and by providing the right response.

The two points he wants clients to consider are the needs to be able to zoom in on objects fast, such as croupi“threat to” and the “threat from.” Simply put: "What is it you ers moving chips, so they need a system that provides a very are trying to protect, and who are you trying to protect it fast refresh of a precise image with a real-time human opfrom?" Failing to start by finding answers to these questions, erator in order to have a chance of detecting an infraction.

Clients also need to understand that the capacity of he says, is “like designing a bridge without knowing the type and number of vehicles that are going to use the bridge, or their IP system will determine the security systems they can designing a building without taking the seismic aspects of install. “Assume a 720p camera,” Chevrier says. “If they want to record with six cameras, for 31 days, 5 to 8 frames the site into consideration."

Currently Stantec is deeply involved with the security on per second, they’ll need around a terabyte for each camParliament Hill, part of the Canadian government’s multi- era. It’s rare that they realize that.”

More complex security challenges might require a year renovation program of the Houses of Parliament. The work involves meeting challenges (including terrorists and video management system or an integrated access control system. These are sophisticated softbomb blasts) that few security consultants need ever worry about. But whether it is “If they want to record ware programs that tie together entrances, access points and cameras. “A developing physical security solutions for with six cameras, for system might have 200-300 cameras,” the Houses of Parliament, or for a simple, 31 days, 5-8 frames per says Chevrier. “Normally a human cantwo-story office building (and Chevrier not be efficient continuously watching says, “We have done lots of those”), the second, they’ll need a large number of cameras. The secuapproach is generally the same: "What is it around a terabyte for rity system should do most of the work you are trying to protect, and who are you each camera. It’s rare for them. It monitors the overall worktrying to protect it from?"

In the case of a client concerned that they realize that.” ing of the system by informing the client if anything is wrong, and if a secuwith industrial espionage, for example, the special assets you are trying to protect might be a rity incident is detected it calls up the camera that they computer hard drive. When protecting human beings — need when they need it. So they don’t need to try to a single political figure or a group of politicians, say — watch all the cameras all the time.”

Detection (“How you find out you have a problem”) the threat might be an organized group or it might be combines with deterrence (“What you can put in place”).

These measures may require controlled access points, reinforced doors and other building hardening techniques, even bollards or concrete planters. Delay techniques depend again on the type of situation. You may not only want to make it hard for the threat to get in, but WEEKLY E-BULLETIN also delay the threat from getting away in order to have News specifically written about and for sufficient time to respond. the consulting engineering industry in Canada.

For a standard situation such as a two or four storey office building, says Chevrier, “it starts with the ground DIGITAL EDITION floor. If you secure efficiently what is accessible from the Building and infrastructure project profiles, ground, then the work becomes easier on the floors technical articles, legal and business issues. above. Always remember that a building, floor or even a Published 7 times a year. single room has normally six sides to be consider.”

Contact Barbara Adelt: In some cases, a client may have to accept certain (416) 442-5600 x3546 limitations. The example he gives is a government office www.canadianconsultingengineer.com in New York City. They unfortunately rented space on a

free

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crossover floor, the location where fire exits from stairways must be unlocked during a fire alarm, which would allow outsiders then to get into their space. A security expert would have advised them to select another floor.

The goal is always to provide the right security for a client at a viable cost. "Clients will sometimes trade off features," Chevrier says, but if nothing else, “at least they CCE have thought about the issues."

Multi-disciplinary advantages There are many specialist and independent security experts in Canada.

Chevrier himself was one for many years. They can certainly tell a client what is wrong, but he says these specialized consultants "do not have the means to move forward with engineering services.”

When responding to a request for proposal or creating design plans, Chevrier’s group can call on the other engineers at Stantec to help and they work together. Citing some recent projects, he explains: “The structural engineering department helps our group with blast resistance or stopping brute force.”

Civil engineering has provided “drainage systems for bollards and underground vehicle loop detection.” The people in mechanical engineering have helped develop independent HVAC systems when these needed to be installed in a building's scanning and screening areas; if a package comes in filled with ricin or another toxin, it has to be stopped from spreading through the rest of the building via the ventilation.

Stantec's telecommunications engineering department develops the network requirements for the security systems and works out the redundancy requirements for ongoing needs. And the architecture department has helped with designing entrances that incorporate security measures: “strong enough to resist brute force and not ugly to look at.”

Chevrier’s group provides the necessary drawings and technical specifications to help counter the security challenges, bringing the project, he says, "to another level."

In turn, all these departments call on Chevrier’s group when they face security challenges in their projects.

Ian Coutts is a freelance writer based in Kingston, Ont.

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Canadian Wood Council/Wood Works! BC

Site specific rules were developed for the design of the Wood Innovation and Design Centre in Prince George, B.C. to ensure the structure would safely withstand fire.

FIRE PROTECTING AN

W

ith a height of 29.5 metres, the Wood Innovation and Design Centre (WIDC) is the tallest contemporary wood building in North America. Located in the city of Prince George in northern British Columbia, the WIDC was conceived as a showcase for local wood products and as a demonstration of the province’s growing expertise in the design and construction of large wood buildings.

Meanwhile, its striking presence in the heart of the city will assist in the revitalization of the downtown.

The building has eight levels (six storeys, plus a ground floor mezzanine and a rooftop mechanical penthouse).

The lower levels will accommodate faculty and students enrolled in the new Master of Engineering in Integrated Wood Design to be launched by the University of Northern British Columbia in January 2016. Academic facilities include a research/teaching lab that will support the design, fabrication and testing of wood products; a 75-seat lecture theatre; classrooms; a student lounge; gathering and meeting areas; and a learning resource centre. The upper

floors will provide office space for public and private sector organizations associated with the wood industry.

This article describes the most important innovations that were implemented at WIDC to meet design and safety criteria in what is a new class of buildings for B.C. These innovations included: • A set of site-specific regulations to ensure life safety and structural integrity; • The use of vertical cross-laminated timber (CLT) elements (including mechanical, elevator and stair shafts) to provide lateral stability to the structure; • The use of double layer CLT floors to meet structural requirements and contribute to acoustic isolation; • The use of superimposed (end grain-to-end grain bearing) columns to control shrinkage over the height of the building; and, • The use of high strength proprietary connectors to speed construction and improve structural performance. continued on page 46

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naturally:wood, Paul Alberts

8-STOREY WOOD BUILDING

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continued from page 45

naturally:wood, Paul Alberts

Ema Peter Photography

Tall wood buildings and codes still in progress when work began on site.

British Columbia has been a leader in North America in the Design began in early 2013, and by the end of August implementation of building regulations that permit the 2014, the building was substantially complete and the unigreater use of wood construction in larger and taller build- versity and common areas of the building were ready for ings. In 2009, the B.C. Building Code was amended to per- occupancy. The upper floors were left as open, unfinished mit wood construction of up to six areas, to be let out to suitable tenA cross-laminated timber (CLT) storeys for residential occupancies. ants.

Elsewhere in North America sever- assembly will always experience In addition to using a variety of al other provinces and states, as locally manufactured engineered either structural failure or well as the model National Buildwood products, the WIDC incorpointegrity failure before thermal rates many other sustainable design ing Code of Canada, are conducting their own research with the instrategies and is targeting LEED failure can occur. tention of following B.C.'s lead.

(Leadership in Energy and EnvironThe WIDC was designed to the 2012 BC Building Code mental Design) Gold certification. as amended by the Wood Innovation Design Centre Regulation (the site-specific regulations as noted above). Combined Glulam and CLT structure with research and testing, the regulations were developed The primary structure is an innovative combination of to provide code-equivalent levels of safety to those required glulam post-and-beam frame construction, a custom defor similar buildings of non-combustible construction. The signed CLT floor system, and CLT elevator, stair and memajor criteria established for the WIDC were: chanical shafts. Concrete was used only for the ground floor • A building area of not more than 1,125 m2 ; slab and for the floor of the penthouse mechanical room.

• A building height of six storeys, and floor areas that to- Wherever possible the wood structural members were left gether total not more than 4,800 m2; exposed. Appearance-grade Douglas fir was used for the • Not more than 30 metres in height measured from grade bottom lamination of the CLT floors (visible from below), to the highest point of the uppermost roof; and, and these were given a clear coat finish.

• Major occupancy classifications consisting of: The building is balloon-framed, meaning that the col›› First and second storeys – Group A, Division 2 assembly umns are superimposed one above the other, with end occupancy or Group D business or personal services grain-to-end grain bearing. The beams then frame into the occupancies; sides of the columns, meaning that there is no cross grain ›› Third to sixth storeys – Group D business and personal in the vertical section of the building. This technique miniservice occupancies. mizes cumulative vertical shrinkage that could otherwise Financed by the Province of B.C., the design and construc- impact the performance of the structure. The building tion process was fast-tracked to meet funding criteria, and to systems are repeatable and expandable to other building make the most of the region’s short construction season. types and sizes.

This meant that detailed design of the superstructure was The building envelope is a combination of glazing

Left: Building in downtown Prince George; the lower levels are occupied by a Master's engineering program of the University of Northern British Columbia. Right: Tiers of fire access doors are integrated into the George Street façade.

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installed in vertically laminated LVL mullions and structural insulated panels (SIPs) clad with natural or charred Western red cedar siding.

FIRE SAFETY Design for fire safety was based on the B.C. Building Code and the site-specific regulation created for the Wood Innovation and Design Centre.

Prevention during construction The risks and hazards on a construction site differ in both nature and potential impact to those of a completed building because they can occur at a time when the safeguards that are designed to be part of the completed building are not yet in place. Building codes focus on protecting the occupants of completed buildings. In addition to meeting any provincial regulations for fire safety during construction, there are best practices that should be applied.

To this end, the Canadian Wood Council has developed best practices (http://cwc.ca/publications/) for buildings under construction. For example, 24-hour security is not usually a code requirement, but is a way of reducing the risk of vandalism, theft or arson, and for detecting problems before they grow out of control. In the case of the WIDC, the contractor, PCL, worked with the Prince George fire department to develop a series of fire safety practices to be implemented during construction. Twenty-fourhour security was provided, and standpipes for firefighting were installed as the building height increased. In addition, "hot works" were minimized during construction. For example, crimped pipe connections were used in lieu of soldering to eliminate the possibility of an accidental fire.

Protection in service It has long been recognized that large timber members have an inherent fire resistance because of their slow and predictable rate of charring when they are exposed to fire. This slow rate of

char is approximately 40 mm per hour, allowing large timber systems to maintain significant structural capacity for an extended duration during a fire. New engineered wood panel and beam products, such as cross-laminated timber (CLT), parallel strand lumber (PSL) and others can take continued on page 48

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continued from page 47

Table 1 Sample CLT floor assembly requiring a fire resistance rating Assembly

CLT Floor 2

Location

Specifications

Max. live load

Storeys 3-6

5 ply bottom CLT, 3 ply top Grade V2, 200 mm overlap

2.4 kPa

Max. dead load

Floor span

Calculated structural fire-resistance rating

2.4 kPa, (1.6 kPa on 3-ply)

5.8 m

1 hr.

Table 2 Sample CLT wall assembly requiring a fire resistance rating Assembly

CLT Wall 1

Location

Specifications

Max. live load

All floors

5 ply CLT, Grade V2, 150 mm half lap joint

200 kN/m

advantage of this attribute because of their large cross section. Fire performance is further enhanced through the use of concealed connectors, whereby structural or non-structural wood elements provide protection to the vulnerable steel components.

The fire design of the CLT components at WIDC is based on the methodology set out in the Canadian CLT Handbook, which includes a chapter titled “Fire Performance of Cross-laminated Timber Assemblies." A subsequent U.S. edition provides further guidance on the performance of joints between CLT panels. The calculation methodology is based on the standard fire exposure and is a means for predicting the expected fire resistance that would be determined when testing to CAN/ULC-S101.

The handbook uses the reduced-cross section method to estimate the residual capacity of structural members after some duration of fire exposure. A char depth is calculated based on the fire exposure time, and an additional depth is subtracted to account for the heated wood that has lost some strength, leaving a reduced cross-section. The capacity of the reduced cross-section can then be determined using the full design strength of the member.

In addition to supporting the structural loads in the event of a fire, it was also required that the mass-timber panel assemblies at WIDC resist the passage of flames and hot gases, and limit the temperature rise on the unexposed surface of the assembly in order to prevent fire spread from one compartment to another.

Since wood is an effective insulator, and CLT is manufactured by laminating together individual pieces of lumber, a 48

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Max. dead load

Wall height

Calculated structural fire-resistance rating

70 kN/m

3.5 m (pinned end conditions)

1.5 hrs.

CLT assembly will always experience either structural failure or integrity failure before thermal failure can occur. Also, as CLT panels tend to be sealed well (through the thickness of the panel), in part because of the use of polyurethane adhesives which foam to fill voids during manufacturing, the main concern with respect to integrity failure is the joints between adjacent CLT panels or between assemblies (e.g. wall-to-floor joints).

While it was the site-specific regulation that allowed for this tall wood building to be constructed, it was the B.C. Building Code that governed the fire separations applicable between spaces and at the building core elements (stair, elevator shaft). In the case of the WIDC, the requirement for these separations was one hour. Engineering judgment, supported by existing fire test data, showed that the structural CLT walls, stringer panels, and landing floors within the stair, were appropriately sized to provide that one-hour separation, without requiring additional fire protection elements such as gypsum drywall.

The design criteria for a typical floor assembly are shown in Table 1 and those for a typical wall assembly in Table 2.

In both cases, the CLT assemblies meet the one-hour fireresistance requirements based on the calculation method.

Since there were no prescribed fire stop systems for penetrations in CLT assemblies, all penetrations and major joint configurations were tested in accordance with CAN/ ULC-S115 Fire Tests of Fire Stop Systems as required by the B.C. Building Code.

The site-specific regulation required the provision of continued on page 50

August/September 2015

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continued from page 48

Elevator shaft The elevator shaft is composed of CLT panels installed vertically, like other elements of the "core" structure. The inside surfaces were site-treated with a ULC-listed intumescent coating, a treatment that expands in fire to provide a degree of fire protection. The treated CLT surfaces have a flamespread rating of not more than 25. This rating is based on thin samples of Douglas fir, but more recent testing has shown that the resistance to flame spread is better for intumescent coatings applied to CLT panels due to their mass.

To function effectively, an elevator must be able to cope with the anticipated vertical movement in a tall building.

The design precautions taken to minimize shrinkage (as outlined above) appear to have successfully addressed any such problems on the WIDC project. Based on data from sensors placed in the shaft, this movement did not exceed the design tolerance. However, service technicians have had to reduce the rail sensor sensitivity to improve reliability.

Because it is not located adjacent to classroom or office space, the elevator shaft was not required to meet any special acoustic or noise suppression parameters.

Stairwells Emergency egress from the WIDC is provided by doublescissor stairways. As with the elevator shaft, the CLT walls and ceilings in the exit stairs were treated with a fire-retardant coating to reduce the flame spread rating to 25.

To ensure that smoke could not migrate from one scissor stair to the other, it was necessary to drill a small hole and apply sealant at each board joint in the CLT stair shaft wall, immediately above and below the stringer and landing panels. This sealed the small cracks that typically form between the boards on the outer layer of CLT panels due to shrinkage.

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This article is an adapted excerpt from "Wood Innovation and Design Technical Case Study," to be published by the Canadian Wood Council/Wood WORKS! BC in September 2015.

Canadian Wood Innovation and Design Centre Owner/Owners Representative: Province of B.C./Partnerships B.C. Architect: MGA/Michael Green Architecture Structural engineer: Equilibrium Consulting Mechanical-electrical engineer: MMM Group Fire safety: CHM Fire Consultants Code: B.R. Thorson Consulting Other key players: Aercoustics Engineering (acoustics), RDH (envelope); Opus DaytonKnight (civil); PCL Constructors Westcoast (contractor) naturally:wood, Paul Alberts

direct access for firefighting from the outside of the building at every level less than 25 metres above grade. Specifically, this meant at least one unobstructed window or access panel being provided for each 15 metres of wall, in at least one wall facing a street or lane. Consequently, every level of the WIDC, starting from Level 2, has two fire department access doors facing George Street.

The elevator shafts, exit stair and exit corridor walls, scissor-stair dividing walls, and scissor-stair floor assemblies required a one-hour fire separation. In addition, the scissor-stair walls, floor assemblies and the shafts around the standpipe risers (at Level 1) were constructed to prevent the migration of smoke from one scissor stair to the other.

This required careful design and proper sealing of panelto-panel joints. Joint designs were evaluated by the team for their constructability and effectiveness in creating a smoke seal. The most promising joint designs were then laboratory tested to confirm their effectiveness.

Above: Cross-laminated lumber panels were installed vertically in the elevator shaft, as in other elements of the "core" structure. The inside surfaces are treated with an intumescent coating. naturally:wood, Paul Alberts

fire protection

Above: Part of a double-scissor egress stairway with CLT walls, ceiling and floor. Sealant was applied above and below the stringer and landing panels to prevent smoke migration.

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lighting

By Laura Eley, Crossey Engineering

OLEDs - Lighting's New Wave Organic light-emitting diodes could transform the lighting of spaces, with their flexible, thin surfaces that can be wrapped around different forms.

W

e need look no further than the past decade to understand how rapidly lighting technology has evolved. While LEDs have quickly become the leaders in sustainability and application, a new lighting technology that offers just as much promise is on the horizon.

Organic light-emitting diodes, more commonly known as OLEDs, are a light source consisting of an OLED-stack — layers of organic materials sandwiched between an anode and cathode. The organic materials are derived from carbon-based compounds found in organic chemistry.

Initially discovered in Above: A typical OLED layer system consists of transparent layers except for the cathode, which is a 1950, and developed through metal such as aluminum. When switched off fixutre is perceived as a mirror, and when on it is an area light the later discovery of highly source. Image courtesy Osram Sylvania. conductive polymers, the first working OLED was developed in 1987. The first quali- as accent lights, wall sconces and theatrical chandeliers, fied OLED lighting component was released in 2009. but experts predict that as the technology develops, it will Although OLEDs are now being marketed globally and become increasingly common and used for more funcdisplayed at lighting fairs, most manufacturers are based tional purposes, including as general lighting in residenin Europe and South Asia. There tial and commercial buildings.

“A major lighting company is are currently no major OLED man“The uses and applications of ufacturers in Canada. currently working on a concept OLEDs in the future will be limited Thin and flexible, OLED fixwhere you can put the whole only by people's imaginations,” says tures illuminate a flat surface that Wallace G. Eley, P. Eng., chair of the OLED panel in your window board at Crossey Engineering in can be extended and wrapped over areas large and small. They can and your window acts as your Toronto. “An analogy is something like the thickness of a piece of Brisbe used for various purposes that light source." tol board being the light fixture in include general and display lighting. Like LEDs, they use drivers to change AC to DC and your ceiling. Or can you envision your conventional tableregulate the current, are conventionally wired, and do not top lamp which has a lamp and shade, in the future as a shade with no lamp? The shade, which will be the OLED, require ballasts.

OLED lights share a similar mean lifespan to LEDs at will be the light element because it's luminescent."

OLEDs will greatly reduce the space required for lightapproximately 30,000 to 50,000 hours. ing installations due to their thin size and flexibility, while providing uniform illumination with no shadow or glare.

Applications unlimited continued on page 52 Most OLEDs today are used for decorative purposes such August/September 2015

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continued from page 51

Unlike LEDs ...

"People think that it [OLED] is the next step of the LED technology, but these are two completely different light sources,” explains Amir Sharabianloo of OSRAM Sylvania. “The difference is that with point source [LED], you're going to have a lot of glare issues," he says. "It could be blinding if you're looking directly into your light source or a lamp." Because it's an area source and spread over a wider surface, OLED technology is more effective at minimizing glare.

Available in all colours including high quality white, OLEDs emit the same apparent radiance when viewed from various angles. In an off-state they can appear as transparent or mirrored. Flexibility, another unique feature of OLED devices, makes it possible to incorAbove: This "Rollercoaster" OLED luminaire developed at OSRAM in Regensburg, Gerporate bendable light sources directly into many has luminous panels of 18 x 6.5 cm. Image courtesy of Osram Sylvania. designs. These details create multiple opportunities for commercial, residential, and even Technical challenges automotive lighting applications.

Although OLED technology holds great potential, chal“A major lighting company is currently working on lenges still remain. “The biggest challenge is the cost,” says a concept where you can put the whole OLED panel in Sharabianloo. The source’s energy efficiency also lags beyour window and your window acts as your light source,” hind LEDs. “From the perspective of efficacy, OLED techexplains Sharabianloo. “When it's in an off-state, you nology is where LEDs were 15 years ago.” can actually look through your window, (your light The manufacturing process is another consideration, as source), and then when you turn on the light source it the organic materials that make-up the OLEDs are very senwill just glow inside.” sitive to humidity and oxygen. “If a small molecule of oxySustainability is another attractive component of the gen or water gets into the panel, it could create black dots OLED source. and seriously damage the panel,” Sharabianloo says. Due Unlike LEDs, OLEDs produce very little heat and to these factors, it’s critical that the product is completely require less material during the manufacturing process. sealed-off during the manufacturing process, which adds to The source is also very durable and will last much longer the complexity and cost of production.

Still, the outlook is hopeful. Says Eley: “There are some than traditional lighting technologies, some of which require toxic materials during production — fluorescent technical issues that need to be resolved, and will be resolved lighting being one example as it requires a small amount of over the next few years, just as the technical issues for LEDs were resolved.” mercury to operate.

DO YOU HAVE AN INTERESTING PROJECT OR STORY IDEA? IS THERE AN ISSUE AFFECTING ENGINEERING IN CANADA THAT YOU'RE PASSIONATE ABOUT? Canadian Consulting Engineer is planning its editorial line-up for 2016 and invites your suggestions.

Contact: Bronwen Parsons, Editor (416) 510-5119 bparsons@ccemag.com

52

Investment the largest obstacle Both Sharabianloo and Eley expect OLEDs will make a global impact. Currently, the largest obstacle blocking the progress of OLED technology is a lack of funding. Increased investment in the technology will lead to improved performance and efficacy. Meanwhile, educating specifiers and end users about the technology's possibilities will facilitate acceptance of these new light sources.

Says Sharabianloo, “If we provide the education, people will use them, and as they adopt more [OLEDs], the cost will come down.”

CCE Laura Eley is a writer for Crossey Engineering, a multi-disciplinary consulting engineering firm with headquarters in Toronto.

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design tools

By Daniel Chapek, IMAGINiT

Reality Capture For recording existing conditions, engineers can combine various new technologies to match their clients' needs. This article outlines what's available.

T

oday’s reality capture technologies — like drones, high definition scanners and smart phone point cloud capture — are making it easier for civil and surveying firms to record existing conditions with higher accuracy and more information.

Not only does reality capture offer a better way to produce designs or inspect existing structures, but it also provides new business opportunities.

Making decisions about which technologies to acquire should be based on what you intend to pursue from a business Above: Point cloud image of buildings, collected by a high-definition scanner. Image standpoint. Which of your client sectors courtesy Samiotes Consultants. would benefit from the support of reality capture services? For each of the three stages involved, photos from anywhere and create a platform-agnostic colthere are various technologies that can achieve similar, but lection of images. Autodesk has a product called ReCap (short for reality capture). ReCap is free, and the ReCap not the same, results.

360 Ultimate supports scan-to-scan registration and survey Capture control verification. Both support any type of scanner.

High definition (or 3D) laser scanners and digital cameras Many variables affect how the engineer approachusing photogrammetry are the two main ways to capture es the capture and processing stages. Pre-planning is terrain or built environment information digitally. Drones imperative. What type of data, and at what resolution, have made civil surveying safer and easier, and they can also does your client require? Resolution is a critical question carry cameras or scanners. Either method of reality capture because point cloud files for high-resolution models are results in a point cloud — laser in the case of scanning, and colossal. Due to their size, they can bog down computing equipment and cause problems with file sharing and pixel mapping in the case of photogrammetry.

Photogrammetry combined with LiDAR can produce online collaboration.

The important question is: what is the end deliverable? powerfully accurate models, so it is not always a case of “either/or." A firm may benefit from both, depending on Is it a BIM? A terrain model for Civil 3D? A Navisworks file? what they want to achieve. Some firms may even decide A file for plant design? not to buy any equipment, but to focus rather on processing raw data supplied by a third party.

Modelling Once the point cloud has been registered to reference Processing points, geometry recognition tools help you identify the Point cloud data requires registering project coordinates; points that make up piping, curbs, pedestals, or other strucin an ideal world, it would be geo-coordinates. There are a tures. These programs allow designers to create solid modnumber of ways to achieve this. Scanner manufacturers els, which can then be imported into Civil 3D, Navisworks, have proprietary software to get the data from the hard- or other 3D modelling software. ware into digital format. For example, Leica offers a prodThe construction industry often uses Navisworks for uct called Cyclone which registers data from each set-up or verification and inspection because it allows engineers to collection to form a single point cloud environment using compare the design against the post-construction built targets, models or the collected point clouds themselves. reality. In this case, surveyors can collect the data using a Photogrammetric camera manufacturers offer their Leica scanner, register it and process it with Cyclone. Then, own post-processing software like Pix4D which will process continued on page 56 August/September 2015

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Specifier’s Literature Review

DESTINATION ORLANDO 2016: AHR EXPO - THE WORLD'S LARGEST HVACR MARKETPLACE

The AHR Expo brings the entire HVACR industry together under one roof to see the latest products and technology, learn about the innovations and trends that are shaping the future, and do business face to face. Returning to Orlando for the first time in six years, the AHR Expo is by far the largest HVACR event in the world.

SUPPLIER: AHR EXPO

THE MOST EFFICIENT TANK TYPE COMMERCIAL WATER HEATERS ANYWHERE

IP VIDEO PRODUCT OVERVIEW

CANON'S HIGHLY INTELLIGENT LINEUP OF NETWORK VIDEO SOLUTIONS

CERTAINTEED INTRODUCES MEMBRAIN™

STOP WATER INFILTRATION IN ONE SIMPLE STEP WITH DENSO

OVER 20 YEARS AGO, FLEXHEAD INVENTED THE FIRST FLEXIBLE FIRE SPRINKLER CONNECTION.

The eF Series high efficient heater is one of the most exceptional additions to the Bradford White’s commercial line-up. Utilizing exclusive designs and technologies, the new eF series outperforms all competition when it comes to unprecedented installation flexibility, quiet operation and, most importantly, superb thermal efficiencies as high as 99.1%.

866-690-0961 www.bradfordwhite.com SUPPLIER: BRADFORD WHITE CANADA

With over 75 years of imaging expertise at hand, it’s no surprise that Canon has innovated powerful network camera solutions that push the boundary on what is optically possible. Our network cameras deliver a wide field of vision and impressive image quality - even in low light, and with a comprehensive range of network cameras you can trust that Canon can keep every angle covered. Learn more at Canon.ca/NVS SUPPLIER: CANON CANADA INC.

Road erosion, premature concrete failure or water ingress into wastewater systems? Denso’s 12” LT tape has been proven for nearly a century to block water from accessing assets.

It won’t harden or crack and is the perfect solution for degrading concrete and persistent water infiltration. Applied in minutes, requiring minimal surface preparation, no product mixing and no curing, it can be buried immediately. Contact Stuart at Denso for more information or demonstration.

T: 416-291-3435 F: 416-291-0898 Email: stuart@densona-ca.com Website: www.densona.com SUPPLIER: DENSO NORTH AMERICA INC.

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Bosch Security Systems’ approach to IP video is based on three pillars. First, it provides the highest quality of relevant IP video images anytime, anywhere. Second, it guarantees the most efficient bitrates and lowest storage requirements. And third, it delivers superior intelligence and analytics at the edge. This guide provides details on key technologies and specifications for all products. Learn more at www.boschsecurity.com/hdsecurity SUPPLIER: BOSCH SECURITY SYSTEMS

Introducing CertainTeed MemBrain™, the Smart Vapour & Air Barrier Film. Moisture is an issue for every builder and the hidden risk in every home - particularly in climates with extreme seasonal fluctuations. CertainTeed has a revolutionary way to help get it out with Membrain. It looks similar to typical polyethylene sheeting, but is actually a patented polyamide-based material. What makes MemBrain unique is its ability to adapt its permeability depending on climatic conditions. www.certainteed.com/insulation SUPPLIER: CERTAINTEED

That system was used in protecting billion dollar clean room facilities. Now, we’ve applied the same technology and quality to the commercial marketplace, and offer flexible fire sprinkler connections designed for use in suspended ceilings. FlexHeads are fast and simple to install; requiring no measuring, no cutting and no infield assembly. Benefits include simplified project management, faster occupancy, easier retrofits, and cost effective code compliance.

FlexHead has also been seismically qualified for use in seismic areas and offer green benefits to building owners. Call us at (800) 829-6975 or visit www.flexhead.com for more information.

SUPPLIER: FLEXHEAD INDUSTRIES

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KRYSTOL TECHNOLOGY: THE DURABLE WATERPROOFING SOLUTION

Kryton International Inc. is the inventor of the crystalline waterproofing admixture and has been waterproofing concrete structures with its proprietary Krystol technology since 1973.

Kryton’s innovative technology leads the way for the construction of more durable, resilient and sustainable concrete structures. Kryton manufactures and exports its products to more than 50 countries globally. To learn more, visit www.kryton.com or call 800.267.8280 SUPPLIER: KRYTON INTERNATIONAL INC.

WEG E-CATALOG MOBILE APP

This application will allow WEG Electric Motor customers in NEMA markets to search an electronic catalog for motors and produce data sheets and technical drawings. The application will also allow the user to download or email PDF data sheets and drawings. The app is available for iOS, Blackberry, Android. Go to www.pamensky.com/downloads SUPPLIER: V.J. PAMENSKY

NEW IN THE RITTAL TECHNOLOGY LIBRARY

As Industrial infrastructure changes, the basic “Enclosures” does as well. The aim becomes to modernize the “Old Grey Box” into a scalable, modular & efficient Industrial enclosure solution. Rittal’s “Technical Aspects of Enclosures” guide aims to help you develop your Industrial Enclosure solution to ideally match your application requirement.

LG MULTI V IV 575V: COMMITTED TO THE CANADIAN MARKET. Once again, LG raises the bar for the HVAC industry with the introduction of Canada’s first 575V Air-Cooled VRF and low ambient solutions. With the elimination of transformers and smaller wiring, stakeholders can expect easier installation and considerable initial and operational cost savings.

For more information, please visit www.LGVRF.ca or call 1-888-824-6211.

SUPPLIER: LG ELECTRONICS CANADA

MACH-PROAIR™: ENERGY CONSCIOUS, VERSATILE VAV

Engineered to exceed the specifications for a wide variety of Variable Air Volume (VAV) applications, the Reliable Controls® MACH-ProAir™ is a fully programmable BACnet Building Controller (B-BC) with numerous downloadable standard codes and flexible I/O options, all priced to meet a modest budget, as it continues the Reliable Controls® tradition of intrinsic simplicity, flexibility, and cost-effectiveness. www.reliablecontrols.com/products/ controllers/MPA SUPPLIER: RELIABLE CONTROLS CORPORATION

UPONOR HYDRONIC DISTRIBUTION PIPING SYSTEMS PRODUCT GUIDE

Marketing@rittal.ca Tel: 1-800-399-0748 www.rittal.ca SUPPLIER: RITTAL SYSTEMS LTD.

With more than 40 years of proven performance, Uponor Wirsbo hePEX™ is the durable, cost-effective solution for transporting water to terminal units such as chilled beams and fan coil units. This full-color, 8-page brochure offers a comprehensive overview of product details, codes and standards, system applications and installation methods for hydronic distribution piping systems featuring Wirsbo hePEX pipe.

To learn more, visit www.uponorpro.com.

SUPPLIER: UPONOR

ELIMINATE FUSING WITH THE NEW VICTAULIC COUPLING FOR HDPE

CANADIAN CONSULTING ENGINEER 2015 MEDIA KIT

The new Refuse-to-Fuse™ Victaulic Style 905 coupling is specifically designed to quickly join 2"- 6" high density - polyethylene (HDPE) pipe ranging from SRD 7-17 and eliminates the need for fusing.

10 times faster than traditional fusing, the Style 905 can be used on buried services. The coupling meets or exceeds the rating of the pipe. Exceeds bend capabilities specified in PPI (Plastic Pipe Institute) by a factor of 2X. To learn more, visit Victaulic.com and download PB-905: http://static.victaulic.com/assets/ uploads/literature/PB-905.pdf or contact viccanada@victaulic.com with any questions.

SUPPLIER: VICTAULIC

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Canadian Consulting Engineer magazine provides high quality editorial coverage of the most pertinent and timely issues that affect engineers across Canada. The magazine reaches the consulting engineers who make the critical decisions on building and construction projects. This is exactly the audience you need to reach. Advertise your product or service with us. Be seen and be specified!

To order your 2015 media kit, please send along your request to Maureen Levy at (416) 510-5111, email: mlevy@ccemag.com or visit www.canadianconsultingengineer.com

2015-08-17 2:28 PM

products

CONTROLS

Reliable Controls has completed a transition to a 100% lead-free manufacturing process for all its non-legacy products. The Canadian company specializes in the design and manufacture of BACnet and internet-connected green building controls such as the MACH-System. www. reliablecontrols.com Johnson Controls has expanded its YORK magnetic-bearing centrifugal chillers (YMC2) with a new, low-range capacity of 165 tons/580 kW. The complete range of the YMC 2 now encompasses units from 165 to 600 tons (580kW to 2,110 kW). The chillers have high efficiency with an integrated part load value (IPLV) as low as 0.304 kW/ton at AHRI conditions, and 10% better efficiency than conventional variable-speed centrifugal chillers. They use R-134a refrigerant and are never louder than 73 dBA. www.johnsoncontrols.com or watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGr9tzIjnyA. HYDRONICS

Uponor is extending its pre-insulated crosslinked polyethylene (PEX) pipe to include insulation thicknesses up to 2" to comply with the ASHRAE 90.1-2013 Energy Code and the

design tools

contined from page 53

a design engineer can use Cloudworx for Navisworks to bring the point cloud directly into Navisworks for detecting clashes or to ensure proper clearances.

If technicians in the field used a Leica scanner to produce the point cloud and wanted to turn over a model for AutoCAD, they might use Cloudworx for AutoCAD, or equally they could use ReCap. If delivering BIM, a product called IMAGINiT’s Scan to BIM helps to automate the process of creating the model from the point cloud.

The point here is that depending on business goals, a firm will select different pieces of equipment and software. By working backward from the most typical deliverable for clients, engineers can clarify which technologies work best together and which will net the biggest return on investment.

CCE Daniel Chapek is manager of reality capture solutions for IMAGINiT Technologies and has more than a decade working with infrastructure technology. E-mail dchapek@rand. com, or visit www.imaginit.com/RealityCapture.

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2012 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC). The company produces both Uponor AquaPEX pipe for potable plumbing and Wirsbo hePEX oxygen-barrier pipe for hydronic heating and cooling.

HVAC

Trane has expanded its series of Cold Generator scroll water chillers with compact models, including the CICA and CICB series. Each model can function as a standalone chiller, or in an expandable array of up to 10 chillers. www.Trane.com FIRE & HAZARD PROTECTION

A new line of industrial fire and gas protection products has been introduced by Honeywell. The HS81-HS Controller and compatible components are designed for hazard monitoring and control, such as for oil and gas plants and mission-critical facilities. The controller performs flame, smoke and gas detection and extinguishing agent release. It also interfaces seamlessly with plant safety and control systems through multiple protocols. http:// industrialfire.honeywell.com

professional directory Experts in Measurement, Analysis & Control

905-826-4546 answers@hgcengineering.com www.hgcengineering.com

For information on placing an advertisement in the Canadian Consulting Engineer Professional Directory, contact Maureen Levy, Senior Publisher, 416-510-5111, email: mlevy@ccemag.com, or Vince Naccarato, Sales Manager, 416-510-5118, email: vnaccarato@ccemag.com

www.canadianconsultingengineer.com August/September 2015

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ad index

Need more Info? Contact Our Advertisers Listed Below Advertiser

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August/September 2015

Email

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Canadian Consulting Engineer

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conversations

The SkyDome's Birth Michael Allen recalls how he and architect Rod Robbie came up with the concept for the famous retractable roof over the Toronto Rogers Centre.

M

ichael Allen, P.Eng., is a partner in the Ottawa structural engineering firm Adjeleian Allen Rubeli. In 1985 he and the late architect Rod Robbie (1928-2012) devised the concept for the retractable roof on the Toronto SkyDome, now known as the Rogers Centre. It was recently the host venue for the Pan Am Games opening ceremonies.

lution was to have two middle panels that are parabolic arch rectangular elements, and two end panels that are quarter domes. There are two types of motion: the two middle panels moving straight back in a linear fashion, and the quarter dome on the south side moving in a circular motion.

From then on Rod and I worked together in creating the actual geometry of the profile. We would send information back and forth on the Colonial bus. Courier took too long.

I would put drawings on a 10 p.m. bus to Toronto and Rod would go to the bus station and pick up the material first thing in the morning. This is before e-mails, and even fax machines were just starting to play a role at that point.

Anyone looking at us would have said, "What are you guys doing going after this big job?" We had a 30-man firm in Ottawa and had just opened an office in Toronto with six people in it. Rod's firm in Toronto had about eight people.

We knew we had a good project and to look believable we needed to tie in with some very large, successful firms. So we linked up with Young and Wright Architects and NORR, who are architects and engineers. By then we were also tied in with the contractor, Ellis Don.

Q. How did you become involved in the SkyDome?

Rod Robbie called me and said, "How would you like to go after a project we probably will never win?"

I said, "O.K., that's sounds like something interesting to do." And it was initially just the two of us working on it.

It was a very tough design-build competition and the Government of Ontario set the parameters very high. A retractable roof on this scale had not been done before. The one that came closest was the 1976 Montreal Olympic stadium, but it was a fabric structure and had failed.

The Toronto stadium had to be multi-purpose, for football and baseball, and other non-sport events, and the roof had to be almost 100 per cent retractable.

We concluded that we needed a round building. The challenge was finding the geometry that would make the roof structure retract into essentially an open-air stadium that left close to all of the seats open and cast very few shadows.

The panels were going to have to telescope together somehow. The solution came to me when we were at a dead end. I was on a plane from Toronto to Ottawa where I sketched up the ideas of moveable roof panels combining a circular motion with rectilinear motion. At home I spent the whole weekend working on it at the dining room Allen in his Ottawa office recently. "Anyone looking at us table and came to the conclu- would have said, "What are you guys doing going after this sion that it would work. The so- big job?'"

58

Q. When the roof was first retracted, were you nervous?

No, we really had no concerns about it. We had spent a lot of time justifying the geometry so that it wouldn't jam. As well as doing computer checks, we built a 1:400 scale model. It was about 2.5 metres diameter and was very exact.

Having said that, they retracted the first roof panel in the middle of the night — just in case. People driving down the Gardiner Expressway the next morning suddenly saw the south quarter dome in a spot where they had never seen it before, so CCE it was quite dramatic.

www.canadianconsultingengineer.com August/September 2015

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DarkLig

DarkFighter

Conventional Camera

LightFighter

Conventional Camera

DarkFighter and LightFighter cameras provide superior quality images for video surveillance in extreme lighting conditions. Both cameras offer full 1080p HD to capture even the most minute details, a key component of Hikvision’s high-performance security solution.

Hikvision Canada Inc. • Tel: +1 866-200-6690 • Email: sales.ca@hikvision.com • www.hikvision.com

Become a Hikvision A&E Partner. Contact us today at partners.usa@hikvision.com. p51-60 AugSept15 OLED Computers Lits Products AdIndex Conv.indd 59 DarkLight-Ad.indd 8

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