Restoration Services Centre

Integrated design delivers Ontario’s first LEED Platinum

The north elevation. All windows are operable for natural ventilation.

The new Restoration Services Centre is located on the Toronto Conservation Authority’s ‘Living City Campus’ in Vaughan ON, home of the newly created secretariat of the World Green Building Council. The new structure symbolizes the TCRA’s commitment to energy efficiency and excellence in environmental design, within its broader mandate of environmental restoration and conservation in the Toronto region.
In cross section, the two storey, 1096sq.m office building is a simple flat roofed rectangle, the upper level being designed as a mezzanine with double height spaces to promote the stratification of warm air. In plan the building is elongated in the east-west direction to maximize the benefits of north and south exposure for day-lighting and passive solar heating. The positioning of the ancillary works garage and change rooms on the west end of the building protects the office areas from low angle sun.
A projecting loggia on the south side of the building demonstrates the benefits of the Integrated Design Process, simultaneously serving multiple functions: an entrance portico, a solar shading device, and a trellis for aromatic plants. At a future date exhaust air from the building may be pumped into the space for pre-heating a greenhouse, and to provide a carbon dioxide rich atmosphere for the plant material.
The materials palette is limited to durable, locally sourced materials, including an engineered wood frame, clad with wood and brick masonry - much of which was reclaimed from previously demolished existing buildings in the area.
Both the energy and water conservation strategies are innovative and effective. The building obtained all 10 LEED credits in the Energy and Atmosphere category, and is predicted to achieve a remarkable 66% savings in annual energy costs compared to the model building under the NMEBC.
The building is heated using heat pumps connected to a ground source loop. The ’slinky’ configuration of the pipes requires less site area than conventional designs, and was less expensive than vertical bore holes would have been. Heat is delivered to the offices by a radiant slab system. This system also provides some supplementary cooling, although the majority of cooling load is met by chilled water fan coil units.
Fresh air is delivered to the basement mechanical equipment via concrete earth tubes that utilize the constant subterranean temperatures to condition the incoming air, making it cooler in summer and warmer in winter. Two heat recovery ventilators deliver 100% outside air to the offices via displacement ventilation. This innovative system is quite unobtrusive with air delivery integrated into the structure, the only visible elements being the air diffusers themselves.
Lighting systems incorporate high efficiency fixtures controlled by daylight and occupancy sensors.
The use of waterless urinals in offices is fast becoming standard practice, but the Restoration Services Centre also incorporates a much less common technology, composting toilets, which completely eliminate the use of water for waste water conveyance. These and other water conserving technologies, such as native landscaping plant selection that require little water, reduce the overall potable water consumption in the building by 80%. Water collected on the roof is directed to a retention pond that in turn supplies water for irrigating the nursery garden.
Indoor environmental quality is ensured through ample day-lighting [95% of occupied spaces receive daylight and 90% have views to the outside], natural ventilation [all perimeter spaces have high performance operable windows], and through the use of low VOC materials and finishes throughout the building. Furniture systems and seating are Green Guard certified.
As Ontario’s first LEED Platinum building, the Restoration Services Centre clearly illustrates the environmental and energy performance benefits of informed strategic decision-making, simplicity of design, and straightforwardness of execution. In so doing, it provides both an object lesson and a new benchmark in sustainable design practice for central Canada.

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Credits

• Architect: Montgomery Sisam Architects Inc., Toronto LEED
• Consultant, Mechanical and Electrical Design, Commissioning: Enermodal Engineering, Kitchener, ON
• Structural Engineer: Read Jones Christofferson Ltd., Toronto
• Construction Management: Percon Construction Ltd., Mississauga, ON
• Landscape Architect: Ron Koudys Landscape Architect, London, ON
• Photos: Tom Arban Photography, Toronto

Materials

• Structure: Engineered wood frame, FSC-certified Douglas fir post and beam, FSC-certified SPF roof and wall construction, FSC-certified western red cedar exterior architectural screens; concrete slab
• Exterior: FSC-certified pre-finished wood siding, salvaged brick, corrugated metal siding, Tyvek air barrier, Owens-Corning insulation, reflective TPO roofing, operable energy-efficient windows
• HVAC: Ground source heat pumps, fan coil units by McQuay International, Models TSS and TSH; heat recovery ventilator, photo voltaic panels, radiant slab heating and cooling, power generated from renewable resources
• Interior: Building automation system and lighting controls to conserve energy, composting toilets by Clivus Multrum and waterless urinals, low VOC paint, InterfaceFLOR carpet tile, epoxy NeoGard High Performance Coating on concrete slab, office furniture systems by Teknion, maple veneer on UHF-free medium density fibreboard

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