Manitoba Hydro Place

Last updated
Manitoba Hydro Place
Manitoba hydro place May 2022.jpg
Manitoba Hydro Place as seen from Portage Avenue, May 2022
Manitoba Hydro Place
General information
Type Office tower
Location360 Portage Avenue
Winnipeg, Manitoba
R3C 0G8
Coordinates 49°53′32.63″N97°8′47.04″W / 49.8923972°N 97.1464000°W / 49.8923972; -97.1464000 (Manitoba Hydro Place)
Construction startedAugust 2005 [1]
CompletedDecember 22, 2008 (first occupancy) [1] [2]
OpeningSeptember 29, 2009 [3]
CostC$278m. [4]
Owner Manitoba Hydro
Height
Roof377 ft (115 m) (solar chimney)
Technical details
Floor count24 (22 + 2 Mechanical)
Floor area695,250 sq ft (64,591 m2)
Design and construction
Architect(s)
[5] [6] [7]
Structural engineerCrosier Kilgour/Halcrow Yolles
Main contractor PCL Construction Management

Manitoba Hydro Place (MHP) is an office tower serving as the headquarters building of Manitoba Hydro, the electric power and natural gas utility in the province of Manitoba, Canada. Located at 360 Portage Avenue in downtown Winnipeg and connected to the Winnipeg Walkway system, Manitoba Hydro Place received LEED Platinum certification in May 2012, making it one of the most energy-efficient office towers in North America. [8]

Contents

Opened as Winnipeg's 4th tallest building in September 2009, [8] the 21-story office tower brought together 1,650 employees [3] from 15 suburban locations [9] into one 695,000 sq ft (64,568 m2) high-rise on a full, downtown block. With the design's plan view resembling a capital letter "A", the project comprises two 18-storey twin wings framing three 6-storey, south-facing atria (winter gardens). The design's stepped, three-storey, street-scaled podium [10] contains retail space as well as an interior pedestrian street and a single level of parking, partially below grade — over which sit the atria, office wings and their 3-storey mechanical penthouse. [11] Total project cost was C$278m. [4]

The building's bioclimatic, energy-efficient design features a 377 ft (115 m) tall solar chimney, a geo-thermal HVAC system using 280 five-inch tubes bored 380 feet into an underground aquifer, [12] 100% fresh air (24 hours a day, year-round, regardless of outside temperature) [10] and a one-meter-wide double exterior wall with computer-controlled motorized vents that adjust the building's exterior skin throughout the day and evening. Together, the various elements of the design enable a 70% energy savings over a typical large office tower. [13]

In 2009, CBC News called Manitoba Hydro Place one of "the most energy-efficient office towers in the world" [14] and the Toronto Star called MHP the "most important building in Canada." [12]

Background and design process

Construction of a downtown headquarters building was integral to the 2002 purchase agreement between Manitoba Hydro and the City of Winnipeg for purchase of the formerly city-owned electric utility, Winnipeg Hydro. [15]

Manitoba Hydro representatives toured to Europe to identify examples of energy efficient design a year prior to beginning the architect selection process. [15]

Subsequently, the company assembled an integrated design team including members from the corporation itself along with the design architects, the architects of record, energy engineers, building system engineers, cost estimators, and project contractors — selecting the Design Architect first: [15] Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects of Toronto. [7] [5] [16] [6] [17] Smith Carter Architects of Winnipeg was the Architect of Record.

By December 2003, the design team had selected the final site, [1] and by 2004, Manitoba Hydro unveiled a series of design concepts for the building, [1] having created a design brief for the building:

Manitoba Hydro's new head office building in downtown Winnipeg will be a functional, state-of-the-art energy efficient (Power Smart) cost-effective structure that embodies and demonstrates Manitoba Hydro's commitment to sustainable development. While meeting the business needs of Manitoba Hydro, the office building will have a positive impact on the future of Winnipeg's downtown and be a source of pride for Manitobans. (Client Brief, 2004) [15]

The brief was developed into a project charter defining the project's core principles and against which design concepts would be measured: that it would be flexible and adaptable to new technology and workplace changes, [15] offer world-class energy efficiency, [15] offer a signature design to enhance the image of the company and the city, [15] help strengthen the city downtown, [15] and be a solid financial investment. [15]

The company committed one year to developing the building concept, using another year to ensure the concept integrated the key elements, including architectural, structural, energy performance, cost, constructability, and LEED factors. Sixteen alternatives were developed, subsequently reduced to three options from which the final concept was selected. [15]

Energy efficient design

To meet its initial design target, that of a sustainable, energy-efficient building, Manitoba Hydro Place (MHP) was developed using an Integrated Design Process to optimize the building's massing, orientation and exposed thermal mass and to use digital analysis and computerized building management systems to increase its efficiency. [10] MHP integrates passive elements (e.g., the south-facing winter gardens, natural daylighting, and the solar chimney) as well as active systems (e.g., dimmable, programmable fluorescent lighting and a computer-operated building management system). [10]

See: Conceptual diagram of building systems at MHP

Key specifics of the design include siting of the building to take advantage of prevailing winds and solar gain, minimizing north-facing surface area, using the building's south-facing atria to provide and precondition the building's constant fresh-air supply and using several 24-meter-tall waterfalls to humidify and dehumidify the fresh air intake. [18] Green roofs at the base of the building use plants to reduce stormwater runoff and minimize the building's heat-island effect, including such native prairie plants as sweet grass. [19]

The design uses the building's concrete thermal mass to mitigate extreme temperature swings and integrate radiant heating and cooling systems, [15] with a solar chimney to provide 100% fresh air by moving exhaust air to the bottom of the chimney to combine with the atria's preconditioned air and preheat incoming cold air to within room temperature, [15] and employing geothermal technology via a closed loop system of 280 boreholes, six inches in diameter (variously reported as five inches in diameter), 400 feet deep, located between elements of the foundation. The geo-thermal boreholes are filled with tubing carrying glycol, which extracts heat from the building in warmer months while warming the thermal mass of the floor slabs radiantly in colder months. Heat pumps and exchangers maximize the system's efficiency, providing conditioned water that is then circulated in tubes in the exposed ceiling slabs, providing 100% of the mechanical temperature conditioning. [15]

MHB features a high performance building envelope with a glass skin that is effectively triple-glazed — where the interior layer is single-glazed and separated from the double-glazed exterior layer by a one meter wide buffer zone. Windows at the east and west include operable sashes of both motorized, centrally controlled panels in the outer glazing and manually operated panels at the inner glazing as — well as shading located in the interstitial space. [10] The floor plan shapes themselves (also known as floorplates) of MHP are shallow, with a distance of 11 meters from the face of the building to its interior core, facilitating natural daylighting. [19]

Other systems integral to the design include high ceilings to maximize natural lighting, exterior walls of low-iron glass for maximum solar gain, automated solar shading, raised floors with a displacement ventilation system, high-output lighting with occupancy and light sensors on each fixture, a computer-based building management system to coordinate operation of energy management and building systems as well as a group of green roofs at the building's podium. [20]

To achieve personal comfort levels, users have access to the operable elements of the façade and receives natural lighting 80% of normal office hours. In addition to the operable sashes, users can control their immediate environment via task lighting, shading devices and user-operable floor grilles. [15]

Incidental to the building design itself, another idea behind MHP was indirect energy savings the project would facilitate by combining 15 disparate company entities in a single downtown location. Before MHP opened, 95 percent of the employees commuted to work via automobile. [19] After working at the new building for less than half a year, 50% of commuters were using forms of transportation other than the automobile. [19]

MHP energy use

MHP targets electric usage less than 100 kWh/m2/a compared to 400 kWh/m2/a for a typical large scale North American office tower, located in a more temperate climate. [10]

Specifically, the average cold-climate Class A Canadian office uses 400–550 kWh/m2 per year. [19] A typical office space in Manitoba uses 495 kWh/m2 per year. Five years before the MHB was designed the typical office space in Canada utilized used 550 kWh/m2 per year. [19] Because of recent work to reduce energy consumption in Winnipeg, a typical office highrise in the city uses approximately 325 kWh/m2 annually. [19] Current annual Canadian energy targets for Class A office towers are 260kWh/m2. [19]

MHP projected an annual use of 88 kWh/m2 per annum, exceeding the Model National Energy Code for Buildings (MNECB) by 66%. [19]

The building targets Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification at the platinum level, the highest level of a four tier rating system. On May 25, 2012, MHB was finally awarded formal certification, [21] achieving LEED Platinum, the first office building in North America to do so. As part of their announcement, it was confirmed that their annual energy use is 85 kWh/m2, slightly lower than anticipated. [21]

Cost

MHP was constructed at a cost of C$278 m, [4] or $400 per square foot. [19] This would place the cost of the building much higher than local building developers would typically target for a city that is not expanding rapidly. [19] The building was also financed internally, with a target construction payback period of more than 60 years rather than the much shorter typical return projection. [19]

During the initial phase of construction, in 2006, engineers discovered a higher water table than anticipated. As the basement had originally been designed to accommodate numerous mechanical systems, the building underwent substantial redesign, including its foundation. A level of the basement was also eliminated during the redesign. [22]

Awards

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">One Boston Place</span> Office in Boston, Massachusetts

One Boston Place, also known as the Boston Company Building, is a 41-story office tower located in the Financial District of Boston, Massachusetts. With a height of 601 feet, One Boston Place is the 7th-tallest building in the city. Despite its simple appearance, One Boston Place has become a major Boston landmark due to its distinctive diagonal exterior bracing and unusual rooftop "box" design. Completed in 1970, the skyscraper has served as home to several law, financial, real estate, and corporate firms. Bank of New York Mellon is currently the primary tenant of the building.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1180 Peachtree</span> Mixed Use in Atlanta, Georgia

1180 Peachtree, commonly known as the Symphony Tower, is a 41-story skyscraper located at 1180 Peachtree Street in the Midtown district of Atlanta, Georgia, United States. Rising to a height of approximately 657 feet (200 m), the building includes office and retail space in its 624,996 sq ft (58,064 m2) of floor area as well as a 1,200 space parking deck. Construction was completed in 2006.

Bruce Bunji Kuwabara, is a Canadian architect and a founding partner of the firm KPMB Architects. He is an invested Officer of the Order of Canada and recipient of the RAIC Gold Medal. He is Board Chair of the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brookfield Place (Toronto)</span> Office complex in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Brookfield Place is an office complex in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada, comprising the 2.1 ha (5.2-acre) block bounded by Yonge Street, Wellington Street West, Bay Street, and Front Street. The complex contains 242,000 m2 (2,604,866 sq ft) of office space, and consists of two towers, Bay Wellington Tower and TD Canada Trust Tower, linked by the Allen Lambert Galleria. Brookfield Place is also the home of the Hockey Hall of Fame.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eighth Avenue Place</span> Building complex in downtown Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Eighth Avenue Place is a 1,850,000 sq ft (172,000 m2) twin-tower building complex located in downtown Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The complex includes a 49-storey 212 m (696 ft) East tower, 40-storey 177 m (581 ft) West office tower, and a three-storey indoor urban park.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aqua (skyscraper)</span> Residential skyscraper in downtown Chicago, Illinois

Aqua is an 82-story mixed-use skyscraper in Lakeshore East, downtown Chicago, Illinois. Designed by a team led by Jeanne Gang of Studio Gang Architects, with James Loewenberg of Loewenberg & Associates as the Architect of Record, it includes five levels of parking below ground. The building's eighty-story, 140,000 sq ft (13,000 m2) base is topped by a 82,550 sq ft (7,669 m2) terrace with gardens, gazebos, pools, hot tubs, a walking/running track and a fire pit. Each floor covers approximately 16,000 sq ft (1,500 m2).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Centennial Place (Calgary)</span> Building complex located in downtown Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Centennial Place is a building complex located in downtown Calgary, Alberta, Canada, which includes a 39-storey 182.6 m (599 ft) and 23-storey 165.2 m (542 ft) office tower.

Perkins&Will is a global design practice founded in 1935. As of 2022, Perkins&Will had 28 offices and over 2,500 employees. In the same year, Perkins&Will generated $572.47 million in earnings, making it the second largest architecture firm by revenue in the United States. Phil Harrison has been the firm's CEO since 2006.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Pinnacle at Symphony Place</span> Office and retail building in Tennessee, United States

The Pinnacle at Symphony Place is a 29-story, office and retail skyscraper located in Nashville, Tennessee, in the city's SoBro district. Located adjacent to the Schermerhorn Symphony Center, the building officially opened on February 10, 2010. The building includes 520,000 square feet (48,000 m2) of Class A office space and 23,000 square feet (2,100 m2) of retail space.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Ardea</span> Residential skyscraper in Portland, Oregon, U.S.

The Ardea, formerly 3720, is a 30-story 99.06 m (325.0 ft) apartment skyscraper in the South Waterfront district of Portland, Oregon. The building was completed in March 2009, however was turned over in phases allowing occupancy beginning in August 2008. The Ardea was developed by Gerding Edlen, designed by GBD Architects, and constructed by Hoffman Construction. The building was initially designed to be a condominium building but was converted to apartments after the Portland housing and condominium supply outstripped demand. The Ardea joins John Ross Tower as the seventh tallest building in Portland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fentress Architects</span> Design firm in Colorado

Fentress Architects is an international design firm known for large-scale public architecture such as airports, museums, university buildings, convention centers, laboratories, and high-rise office towers. Some of the buildings for which the firm is best known include Denver International Airport (1995), the modernized Tom Bradley International Terminal at LAX (2013), the National Museum of the Marine Corps near Quantico, Virginia (2005), and the Green Square Complex in Raleigh, North Carolina (2012).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">F5 Tower</span> 660-foot-tall skyscraper in Downtown Seattle, Washington

F5 Tower is a 660-foot-tall (200 m) skyscraper in Downtown Seattle, Washington. It consists of 44 floors and is the sixth-tallest building in Seattle.

Enermodal Engineering was an engineering consulting firm that specialized in the creation of green buildings and communities. It provided LEED services for large-scale green buildings in Canada. Enermodal Engineering designed several conservative building projects in Canada and the USA. In 2010, the company was acquired by MMM, which subsequently was acquired by WSP (2016).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Guangzhou CTF Finance Centre</span> Supertall skyscraper in Guangzhou, Guangdong, China

The Guangzhou Chow Tai Fook Finance Centre, also called East Tower, it is a 530-metre (1,739 ft) tall mixed-use skyscraper in Guangzhou, Guangdong, which was completed in October 2016. It is the tallest completed building in Guangzhou, the third-tallest in China, and the eighth-tallest in the world. The Guangzhou CTF Finance Centre has a total of 111 above ground and five below ground floors and houses a shopping mall, offices, apartments, and a hotel. The skyscraper has a gross floor area of 507,681.0 m2 (5,464,633 sq ft), of which a little over 20% is not part of the skyscraper itself, but of the podium connected to it.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Union Square (Seattle)</span> Skyscraper between Union and University Streets in Downtown Seattle, Washington

Union Square is a skyscraper complex at Sixth Avenue between Union and University Streets in Downtown Seattle, Washington, adjacent to Freeway Park. It consists of two skyscrapers built in the 1980s and primarily used for office space. The entire complex features a 1,100-stall parking garage, a courtyard, a retail plaza spanning three stories and an underground pedestrian concourse that connects with the Fifth Avenue Theater and Rainier Square. Both structures were awarded LEED certification in 2009 and eventually received LEED Platinum certification 6 years later as a result of reduced annual energy consumption by 40 percent through recent renovations. The entire complex is currently managed by Washington Holdings, a real estate firm also known as Union Square LLC which is based in Seattle.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tower at PNC Plaza</span> High-rise building in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

The Tower at PNC Plaza is a 33-story skyscraper in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is the corporate headquarters of the PNC Financial Services Group and has approximately 800,000 square feet (74,000 m2), standing 33 stories tall. Nearby buildings totaling 37,000 square feet (3,400 m2), were purchased by PNC and deconstructed to make space for the Tower at PNC Plaza. It is located at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and Wood Street, where PNC and its predecessors have been based since 1858.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">360 Main (Winnipeg)</span> Hi-rise office building downtown Winnipeg, Canada

360 Main is a 32-storey office tower located at Portage and Main in downtown Winnipeg, Manitoba.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brookfield Place (Calgary)</span> Skyscraper located in downtown Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Brookfield Place is a skyscraper located in downtown Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The complex is home to Brookfield Place East, a 56-storey 247 m (810 ft) office tower, which, upon its completion in 2017, became the tallest building in Calgary, exceeding The Bow.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Telus Sky</span> Skyscraper in Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Telus Sky, is a 60-storey, 222.3 m (729 ft) mixed-use skyscraper in downtown Calgary, Alberta, Canada. At completion in 2019, the structure building became the third-tallest building in Calgary behind Brookfield Place East and The Bow. As of July 2020, Telus Sky is the 18th tallest building in Canada, though several buildings in Toronto exceeding its height are under construction including The One.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Manitoba Hydro Place, Timeline". Manitoba Hydro. Archived from the original on 2012-04-03. Retrieved 2011-10-09.
  2. ↑ "Manitoba Hydro Place, p. 3" (PDF). Smith Carter Architects. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-04-25. Retrieved 2011-10-09.
  3. 1 2 "Hydro unveils new building". Winnipeg Free Press, 9-30-2009, Geoff Kirbyson.
  4. 1 2 3 "Manitoba Hydro Place, Office and Retail Tower, Winnipeg, Canada". Designbuild-network.com.
  5. 1 2 Manitoba Hydro Place at Structurae . Retrieved May 30, 2021.
  6. 1 2 "Manitoba Hydro Headquarters". SkyscraperPage . Retrieved May 30, 2021.
  7. 1 2 "Manitoba Hydro Tower". Emporis . Archived from the original on June 4, 2021. Retrieved 2021-05-30.
  8. 1 2 "More Than Skin Deep". Architectural Record, July 2010. Archived from the original on 2013-01-19. Retrieved 2011-10-09.
  9. 1 2 "Manitoba Hydro Place". American Institute of Architects.
  10. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Manitoba Hydro Place wins architecture award". Arch Daily.
  11. ↑ "Manitoba Hydro Place". KPMB Architects.
  12. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Canada's Most Important Building". Toronto Star, December 19, 2009, Christopher Hume. Archived from the original on April 25, 2012. Retrieved October 9, 2011.
  13. ↑ "2009 Best Tall Building Americas". Council on Tall Buildings and Habitat.
  14. 1 2 "Manitoba Hydro / KPMB Architects". CBCnews Canada. 10 July 2009.
  15. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 "Manitoba Hydro Place Integrated Design Process Exemplar" (PDF). 26th Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Quebec City, Canada, 22–24 June 2009.
  16. ↑ "Manitoba Hydro Place". CTBUH Skyscraper Center . Retrieved May 30, 2021.
  17. ↑ "360 Portage". winnipegarchitecture.ca. Winnipeg Architecture Foundation. Retrieved May 30, 2021.
  18. ↑ "Manitoba Hydro Place". Buildinggreen.com.
  19. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 "Climate-controlled". CanadianArchitect.com.
  20. ↑ "Building Features". Manitoba Hydro. Archived from the original on 2011-12-03. Retrieved 2011-10-09.
  21. 1 2 "Manitoba Hydro Place sets new record with LEED Platinum". WINNIPEG, May 25, 2012 /PRNewswire/.
  22. ↑ "Manitoba Hydro Place, Building Facts". Manitoba Hydro.
  23. 1 2 3 4 5 "Manitoba Hydro Place". AECOM.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.