“Sustainability” and “adaptive reuse” have been watchwords in architecture for more than a decade but earlier this year they became official City policy with the introduction of the 2010 Toronto Green Strandard, a two-tiered set of performance measures that promote sustainable development. Fortunately, City officials are prepared to walk the walk; when Canadian design powerhouse Stantec submitted its renovation plans for the 1905 McGregor Socks factory on Spadina Avenue at Wellington Street, the design was so innovative it defied present building code standards.
“We had very interesting discussions with the building department about fire protection because this is a timber construction,” says Dathe Wong, the project architect. “But the building department was happy we were bringing an old industrial building up to new standards so we worked together to make sure that safety was not compromised.”
Stantec was determined to make the McGregor building a showcase for its team’s creativity and the public can tour this superb marriage of old and new during Doors Open Toronto May 29 and 30. The photos above show how the space looked in the 1920s and today.
“This office is really about three or four different disciplines joined together,” says Wong, above. “We had previously been housed in different offices around the city and it made a lot of sense to bring us together under one roof. Some people wanted to move mid-town or uptown where rents are cheaper but we made the decision that if green building was really important to us, and it is, then we had to set an example and support the city. Being downtown puts us close to transit and all the benefits of urban living. Working and living in close proximity allows us to minimize the amount of driving we do.”
And Stantec goes even further to discourage commuter driving. Two of its 20 parking spots are dedicated to a car-sharing service and the other 18 come at a premium price, the proceeds of which are then used to subsidize transit passes for the rest of the staff. Shower facilities are provided to encourage bicycle commuting.
In terms of design innovation, Wong’s team elected to house the heating, cooling, electrical and IT systems under foot rather than in overhead bulkheads. “The raised floor is a great example of an integrated solution,” points out Wong. “Architecturally we didn’t want to put ductwork above the workspace, we wanted to see the beautiful wood ceiling as much as possible. And the original floor was uneven to begin with so we used a very new system that combines our air distribution and wiring; it’s also about 20 per cent more efficient than a traditional system. It delivers air to where people are — we each have a diffuser at our desks. We actually glassed in parts of the system so that we can demonstrate to our clients how it works.”
Stantec’s designers have considered just about every energy-saving aspect, large and small. Work stations are situated near windows in order to utilize natural light and the overhead lighting dims toward to the windows. Some of the timber used in the renovation was salvaged from the 100-year-old Queen’s Wharf, which had been buried under tons of landfill as the shore of Lake Ontario was pushed further and further south during the 20th century. “We worked with a group called Urban Tree Salvage to re-mill the wood. It has a really interesting character, there are pieces that are almost black; the history of the city is literally in the wood.”
Stantec’s retrofit for the McGregor building was nominated for a World Architecture Festival (WAF) Award last year in the “new and old” category; it was one of a handful of Canadian projects to be recognized.
“The common thread for all of us is sustainability,” concludes Wong. “How do we build better buildings? We don’t divide ourselves into teams that do LEED projects and teams that don’t; why would you not do it? It’s just a smarter way of building. Yes, there may be some capital cost impacts related to bringing in new technologies, for example, but it’s also about explaining what the pay-backs are. It doesn’t suit every project but we’re fortunate that we’re busy and we can be selective about which projects we take on.”
The McGregor Socks factory is presently going through the LEED certification process. “It wasn’t necessarily a driver for us,” says Wong, “but it’s nice to have third party verification of what we’re doing.”
Photography by Richard Johnson, Interior Images, courtesy of Stantec; photo of Dathe Wong by Christopher Jones
“Sustainability” and “adaptive reuse” have been watchwords in architecture for more than a decade but earlier this year they became official City policy with the introduction of the 2010 Toronto Green Strandard, a two-tiered set of performance measures that promote sustainable development. Fortunately, City officials are prepared to walk the walk; when Canadian design powerhouse Stantec submitted its renovation plans for the 1905 McGregor Socks factory on Spadina Avenue, the design was so innovative it defied present building code standards.
“We had very interesting discussions with the building department about fire protection because this is a timbre construction,” says Dathe Wong, the lead architect on the project. “But the building department was happy we were bringing an industrial building up to new standards so we worked together to make sure that safety was not compromised.”
Stantec was determined to make the McGregor building a showcase for its team’s creativity and the public can tour this superb marriage of old and new during Doors Open Toronto May 29 and 30.
“This office is really about three or four different disciplines joined together,” says Wong, above. “We had previously been housed in different offices around the city and it made a lot of sense to bring us together under one roof. Some people wanted to move mid-town or uptown where rents are cheaper but we made the decision that if green building was really important to us, and it is, we had to set an example and support the city. Being downtown puts us close to transit and all the benefits of urban living. Working and living in close proximity allows us to minimize the amount of driving we do.”
And Stantec goes even further to discourage driving to work. Two of its 20 parking spots are dedicated to a car-sharing service and the other 18 come at a premium price, the proceeds of which are used to subsidize transit pass discounts for the rest of the staff. Shower facilities are provided to encourage bicycle commuting.
In terms of design innovation, Wong’s team elected to house the heating, cooling, electrical and IT systems under foot rather than in overhead bulkheads. “The raised floor is a great example of an integrated solution,” says Wong, above. “Architecturally we didn’t want to put ductwork above the workspace, we wanted to see the beautiful wood ceiling as much as possible. And the original floor was uneven to begin with so we used a very new system that combines our air distribution and wiring; it’s also about 20 per cent more efficient than a traditional system. It delivers air to where people are — we each have a diffuser at our desks. We actually glassed in parts of the system so that we can demonstrate to our clients how it works.”
Stantec’s designers have considered just about every energy-saving aspect, large and small. Work stations are situated near windows in order to utilize natural light and the overhead lighting dims toward to the windows.
Some of the timbre used in the renovation was salvaged from the 100-year-old Queen’s Wharf, which had been buried under tons of landfill as the shore of Lake Ontario was pushed further and further south during the 20th century. “We worked with a group called Urban Tree Salvage to re-mill the wood. It has a really interesting character, there are pieces that are almost black; the history of the city is literally in the wood.”
Stantec’s retrofit for the McGregor building was nominated for a World Architecture Festival (WAF) Award last year in the “new and old” category; it was one of the few Canadian projects to be recognized.
“The common thread for all of us is sustainability,” concludes Wong. “How do we build better buildings? We don’t divide ourselves into teams that do LEED projects and teams that don’t; why would you not do it? It’s just a smarter way of building. Yes, there may be some capital cost impacts related to bringing in new technologies, for example. But it’s also about explaining what the pay-backs are, longer term thinking. It doesn’t suit every project but we’re fortunate that we’re busy and we can be selective about which projects we take on.”
The McGregor Socks factory is presently going through the LEED certification process. “It wasn’t necessarily a driver for us,” says Wong, “but it’s nice to have third party verification of what we’re doing.”
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The car sharing parking spaces sound to me as though if more companies did the same the city of Toronto wouldn’t have to be considering tolls etc. to relieve traffic chaos. Sounds like a great place to work.