Canadian Consulting Engineer August September 2011

For professional engineers in private practice

AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2011

THEATRE DESIGN VIEW FROM A CLIENT STUCK IN NEUTRAL BUILDING ENERGY SAVINGS

Calgary’s

Talisman Centre has an overhaul

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contents

August/September 2011 Volume 52, No. 5

Cover: Talisman Centre, Calgary.

Photograph courtesy Williams Engineering.

See story page 30.

Stuck in Neutral.

See story page 43.

A Calgary Icon. The Talisman Centre in Calgary has a major upgrade, including a high-tech tensile roof and HVAC upgrades on a grand scale.

By Lana Winterfield, Williams Engineering Canada

30

Drama Scenes. Vancouver has managed to convert the 1950s-era Queen Elizabeth Theatre into a venue with excellent acoustics -- for both rock bands and opera.

By Bronwen Parsons

36

Stuck in Neutral. We know how to build more energy efficient buildings. So what’s holding us back?

By Lee Norton, P.Eng.

43

Learning to Say No. All managers face a dilemma between wanting to be liked, and wanting to be respected.

By Andrew Steeves, P.Eng.

49

on topic

departments Comment

4

Up Front

6

ACEC Review

13

Products / Fire & Security

52

Advertiser Index

53

Human Edge

54 Next issue: 2011 Canadian Consulting Engineering Awards!

features

Computers Autodesk’s Building Design Suites.

By Rita Wong, P.Eng.

18

Standards Commissioning for Integrated Systems: new CSA Standard Z320.

by Peter Kenter 20 Standards ASHRAE’s revised Standard 100, Energy Efficiency in Existing Buildings

By Jessica Krippendorf 24

August/September 2011

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Lighting One By One. Addressable lighting systems.

By Paul Boken, Mulvey & Banani 28 Engineers & the Law Prequalifying Bidders.

By Dražen Bulat, Miller Thomson LLP 46 Finance Individual Pension Plans.

By Andrew Bay and Jeff Thorsteinson Investors Group 47

Canadian Consulting Engineer

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engineer FOR PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERS IN PRIVATE PRACTICE

comment

CANADIAN

C O N S U LT I N G

Editor

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

What to learn from Fukushima “

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

Ellie Robinson

W

hat Went Wrong at Fukushima?” on July 4 was so popular, the organizers had to relocate the evening lecture to the large OISE auditorium on St. George Street, Toronto.

Engineering talks don’t usually stir up this much interest, but this one held by the West Toronto chapter of Professional Engineers Ontario and the Ontario Centre for Engineering and Public Policy obviously hit a chord.

Anti-nuclear groups were there handing out flyers, and the audience included engineers of all stripes and plenty of members of the public. The atmosphere in the hall was -- pardon the pun -- electric.

Nuclear power is big and, let’s face it, a little frightening. Combine nuclear with the 9.0 earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan’s northeast coast on March 11, and you have a catastrophe. Four of the five reactors at Fukushima-Daiichi exploded and three suffered a meltdown. The remaining reactors there and at other plants were damaged and disabled.

Dr. John C. Luxat, P.Eng., a professor at McMaster University and NSERC Chair in nuclear safety analysis, gave the Toronto audience his own step-bystep analysis of the events inside each of the GE-designed reactors at Fukushima. However, he noted that no-one will know the truth until Japanese engineers are able to access the reactor cores -- perhaps 10 years from now.

Dr. Luxat said he was not there to promote any one source of power, but he clearly wanted to offer reassurances about nuclear. No-one has died as a result of what happened at Fukushima, he pointed out, and at the end he pulled out a device from his briefcase and proceeded to show the radiation of a camera lens and other everyday objects. “We are born in a sea of radiation,” he said, “It’s all around us.”

What were we to make of all this? Are we to go on blithely building nuclear generating stations, adding to the 443 already in existence in the world?

Someone asked Professor Luxat what could be done to make nuclear plants safer in seismic zones. He answered that site issues are important. The safety systems at Fukushima were good, he said. The problem was that the emergency generators were located in the basement and on the ocean side of the plant where they were quickly inundated by the tsunami.

What other lessons could we learn? He said that in risk-planning for nuclear facilities, we need to do more “what if” type scenarios, similar to those done by the military. We also need more emergency equipment staged off site, ready to ride in to the rescue.

Some large engineering companies are involved in building and operating nuclear energy plants. The Canadian government sold the commercial reactor division of Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL) to SNC-Lavalin for $15 million in June. The deal will see SNC-Lavalin have 1,200 employees in its CANDU division. Two groups that include SNC-Lavalin, AMEC, Wardrop and CH2M HILL are also reportedly interested in taking over the AECL Chalk River nuclear research station in Ottawa.

Nuclear power is essential for Ontario’s energy supply and will be for decades to come. We need to know about both its potential and its dangers. No wonder the Toronto lecture hall was full.

Bronwen Parsons

Contributing Editor

Rosalind Cairncross, P.Eng. Advertising Sales Manager

Vince Naccarato E-mail: vnaccarato@ccemag.com (416) 510-5118

Th

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., Ron Wilson, P.Eng.

G

N

Circulation

Beata Olechnowicz (416) 442-5600 x3543 bolechnowicz@bizinfogroup.ca

Fr bu m sa 41 im lif

Production Co-ordinator

Karen Samuels (416) 510-5190 Vice President, Publishing Business Information Group (BIG)

Alex Papanou

President, Business Information Group (BIG)

Bruce Creighton Head Office

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August/September 2011

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Manitoba Hydro

up front

INFRASTRUCTURE

Artist’s rendering of Keeyask Hydroelectric station in Manitoba.

POWER

First Nations partner for Keeyask Station Work began this summer on infrastructure for the $5.6-billion Keeyask hydroelectric generating station on the Nelson River in Manitoba.

The 695-MW station (“Keeyask” means “gull” in Cree) will be located 725 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg and 175 kilometres north of Thompson.

The site lies upstream of the Kettle Generating Station which was built in 1974.

The Keeyask station is the second hydroelectric project that Manitoba Hydro is developing in partnership with First Nations. The previous partnership was for the Wuskwatim station, which is nearing completion.

Historically, First Nations have strongly opposed large hydroelectric developments because the stations required flooding large areas of their ancestral hunting and fishing grounds.

In the past decade, however, the provincial power companies have been finding ways to work more cooperatively with Aboriginal peoples, and though relations can still sometimes be fractious, the two groups have

signed various types of agreements.

The Keeyask development will require flooding approximately 45 square kilometres of land, creating a reservoir of 93 square kilometres.

There will be seven generator units.

The target is 2019 for the first unit to go into service.

The joint partnership between the Keeyask Cree Nations and Manitoba Hydro gives the Keeyask the right to own 25% of the partnership. The partnership is now finalizing the environmental impact assessment.

Preliminary conceptual design for the generating station and infrastructure was done by KGS Acres. The final design for the infrastructure was by a consortium of AECOM, Dillon Consulting and SNC-Lavalin.

Stantec, North/South Consultants and InterGroup Consultants have worked on the environmental assessments. The selection for who will do the final design for the generating station is in process.

Taking part in the Keeyask partnership are the Tataskweyak and Fox Lake Cree, and War Lake and York Factory First Nations.

Escape from flying beams in Montreal A 16-metre beam of concrete fell at the entrance to a tunnel on the Ville-Marie Expressway in downtown Montreal on July 31. The expressway carries 100,000 vehicles a day, but because it was a holiday, traffic was light and no-one was hurt when the 25-tonne chunk fell on the road.

The incident reignited public fears about the safety of the city’s aging infrastructure, coming close after media reports about deterioration on the Champlain Bridge. A poll showed 60% of the city’s drivers were afraid of travelling below underpasses.

Toronto condos shed glass balconies Glass has been falling like showers in downtown Toronto. On August 2, a large pane fell from a balcony on the Festival condominium tower above the new TIFF Lightbox building at John and King Streets.

A day earlier glass on two upper balconies of a highrise near Bay and College Streets exploded and fell. Since December eight glass partitions had fallen from the same tower. The partitions were installed two years ago.

The problem was being blamed on faults in the tempered glass.

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August/September 2011

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up front

continued from page 6

engineer, working with Vancouver’s Parks Board.

The ocean had gradually worn away the grout keeping the boulders together in the old seawall. The crews had to work alongside a 42-inch diameter pressurized sewer line made of fibre glass -an unusual material. Work also sometimes had to be done overnight in a short four-hour window between tides.

TRANSPORTATION

EDUCATION

York University expands engineering York University north of Toronto is planning a major expansion to its engiNXL Architects/SSG

Ottawa’s LRT to run shallower In early July, the design for Ottawa’s new light rail transit line across the downtown was modified to place the 3-kilometre underground tunnel at a shallower depth.

The tunnel will run below Queen Street, a block north of its original route along Albert Street, and will be bored at a depth of 16 metres instead of 40 metres. The change saves $400 million on the $2.1 billion project.

The new east-west LRT line is 12 kilometres in total with 13 stations. Capital Transit Partners, a joint venture of STV Canada Consulting, URS Canada, Jacobs and Morrison Hershfield, is doing the preliminary engineering and project management for the project.

Construction will start in December.

CIVIL

Vancouver seawall strengthened The 75-year-old seawall around Vancouver’s Stanley Park has been rehabilitated. Worley Parsons was the consulting Vancouver Parks

Life Sciences Building, York University, Toronto.

Sea wall in Vancouver’s Stanley Park.

neering programs. In June the university and Ontario government announced a $50-million capital investment for a new engineering building: “one of the largest expansions in the university’s history.”

At present, York University’s Faculty of Science and Engineering offers onlycomputer and software engineering,

COMPUTERS

Clouds still a bit foggy IEEE (the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) is developing common standards and a roadmap for “cloud” computing.

With cloud computing, a user pays to use space on other organizations’ computers, enabling the user to store and access massive amounts of data remotely instead of needing to have the hardware capabilities themselves.

Computing giants like Apple, Amazon, Google and Microsoft are offering cloud computing services. It is being seen as the next biggest evolution in IT to the internet.

At present, however, there is a plethora of file formats, little interoperability between different services, and difficulties moving data from one cloud-service vendor to another.

Consequently IEEE has launched its “Cloud Computing Initiative” and has working groups looking at establishing common standards and protocols.

continued on page 10

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August/September 2011

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continued from page 8

geomatics, and space engineering.

Also, this summer the faculty is moving into a new Life Sciences building on the Keele Street campus.

This $70-million, 14,860-sq.m facility has modular CL-2 level labs and a “randomized” design for the building envelope. It was designed by NXL Architects with SSG, Blackwell Bowick (structural), Crossey (mechanicalelectrical) R.V. Anderson (civil), Enermodal (LEED), Arencon (code), Aercoustics (acoustics) and RWDI (environmental).

AWARDS

Sudbury tunnel project wins U.S. award R.V. Anderson Associates of Toronto has won the American Public Works Association Project of the Year Award for the City of Greater Sudbury South End Sewage Rock Tunnel Project.

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R.V. Anderson Associates

up front

South End sewage rock tunnel, Sudbury, Ont.

The project won in the environment ($25 to $75 million) category.

It involved blasting a 6.5-kilometre tunnel through bedrock 25 metres below the surface.

faults in how the government’s Environmental Assessment Office oversees projects that it certifies.

In particular, the auditor general was perturbed that the office is not following up on projects to make sure they are fulfilling requirements that were imposed as a condition for getting approval.

In a report issued July 2011, Doyle recommended that the Environmental Assessment Office should conduct post-certificate evaluations of projects. He was also concerned that commitments made in submitting projects for approval are written in language that is too vague.

ENVIRONMENT

B.C. Auditor wants environmental approvals followed up The Auditor General of British Columbia, John Doyle, has found serious

PEOPLE

CSCE elects new president T.R. (Randy) Pickle, P.Eng. of Morrison Hershfield has been elected president of the Canadian Society for Civil Engineering (CSCE).

Reg Andres, P.Eng., vice-president of R.V. Anderson Associates, Toronto, has received the James A. Vance Award from CSCE. Sean Brophy, P.Eng., has been appointed as president of Opus International Consultants (Canada). John Boyle, P.Eng. will succeed Brophy as president of Opus DaytonKnight in North Vancouver.

CH2M HILL has appointed Gareth Lifton, P.Eng. of Calgary as the firm’s global leader for asset management.

Emmanuelle Sauriol, ing., of Dessau in Montreal has been invited to join the board of the International Institute for Sustainable Development.

Randy Pickle

Reg Andres

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ASSOCIATION OF CONSULTING ENGINEERING COMPANIES | REVIEW

CHAIR’S MESSAGE

Engineers Must Engage in Policy Making

I

am honoured to serve as Chairman of ACEC for 2011-2012. Our industry plays a vital and unique role in our economic, social and environmental quality of life. Engineering is not a discretionary expense, but rather an investment. We are innovators. We are the enablers of communities. We are the enablers of our economy and the stewards of our environment. We stand at the interface between the natural and built environments. We are the profession that reconciles societal needs with science and technology.

Today, our community faces ongoing and emerging challenges: economic uncertainty, globalization, escalating infrastructure deficits and environmental sustainability, to name a few. These issues present both challenges and opportunities — we must be part of the discussion.

Our current Board is committed to continuing to raise the profile of the consulting engineering industry in society. It is critical for ACEC and its members to continue to build on the strong national profile the association enjoys on Parliament Hill and with other stakeholders. It is important that they understand our critical role in our economy and our quality of life.

But with profile and influence comes the expectation that we need to come to the table with solutions. We need to be the authoritative voice on national issues concerning our industry. We also need to engage our members. To be the voice of the industry, we also need to be the eyes and ears of the industry.

When ACEC is successful, our members are successful. Much like we characterize engineering as an investment in quality of life, ACEC is an investment in the success of our industry.

HERB KUEHNE, P.ENG., CHAIR, ACEC BOARD OF DIRECTORS

MESSAGE DU PRÉSIDENT DU CONSEIL

Les ingénieurs doivent participer à l’élaboration des politiques

I

l me fait honneur de servir l’AFIC à titre de président du conseil pour l’exercice 2011-2012. Notre industrie joue un rôle vital et unique pour notre qualité de vie économique, sociale et environnementale. L’ingénierie n’est pas une dépense discrétionnaire, mais plutôt un investissement. Nous sommes des innovateurs. Nous contribuons au bien-être de collectivités. Nous contribuons à notre prospérité économique. Nous sommes les intendants de notre environnement. Nous sommes à l’interface de l’environnement naturel et de l’environnement bâti.

Nous appartenons à la profession qui assure un lien entre les besoins sociétaux, d’une part, et les sciences et la technologie d’autre part.

Aujourd’hui, notre communauté est confrontée à des enjeux existants et nouveaux, dont l’incertitude économique, la mondialisation, les déficits d’infrastructure croissants et la durabilité de l’environnement, pour n’en nommer que quelques-uns. Ces enjeux présentent à la fois des défis et des possibilités, et nous devons faire partie de la discussion.

Notre conseil d’administration poursuivra les efforts de

mise en valeur du profil de l’industrie du génie-conseil dans la société. Il est critique pour l’AFIC et ses membres de continuer de profiter de sa présence et de son excellente réputation à la colline du Parlement et auprès d’autres parties intéressées. Il est important que ces partenaires comprennent le rôle critique que nous jouons aux plans de notre économie et de notre qualité de vie.

Notre profil et notre influence sont toutefois accompagnés de l’attente que nous devons venir à la table avec des solutions. Nous devons être la voix officielle sur les questions nationales qui concernent notre industrie.

Nous devons obtenir l’engagement de nos membres. Pour être la voix de l’industrie, nous devons aussi être ses yeux et ses oreilles.

Lorsque l’AFIC réussit, nos membres réussissent aussi.

Tout comme nous caractérisons l’ingénierie comme un investissement dans notre qualité de vie, l’AFIC est un investissement dans le succès de notre industrie.

HERB KUEHNE, P.ENG. PRÉSIDENT CONSEIL D’ADMINISTRATION DE L’AFIC

August/September 2011

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ASSOCIATION OF CONSULTING ENGINEERING COMPANIES | REVIEW

ACEC 2011 Summit and National Convention a Success Over 160 participants attended the 2011 ACEC Summit & National Convention on June 23-25 in Montebello, Quebec at the beautiful Château Montebello. Participants from all across the country, as well as a few international guests, attended business sessions centered on the theme: Building Strong Organizations: Understand. Relate. Communicate.

Many of the sessions focused on the importance communication plays in building strong and lasting relationships with clients, stakeholders and employees. Also, sessions looked at the economic forecast for Canada, the U.S. and international markets, demonstrating positive signs of growth for the Canadian consulting engineering industry in a variety of sectors. Social events were a highlight of the Summit, providing delegates the op-

Delegates attending a session at the ACEC Summit.

portunity to network and build relationships, while enjoying the beautiful setting that is Montebello.

Presentations and photographs from the Summit can viewed by visiting www.acec.ca.

Next year’s Summit will be held in

picturesque Prince Edward Island from June 21-23, 2012. Details will be available soon. ACEC invites you to send your ideas for conference presentations to Nadine Boudreau, ACEC Communications Coordinator at nboudreau@acec.ca.

2011 Canadian Consulting Engineering Awards November 1, 2011 Ottawa Convention Centre ACEC will come together with Canadian Consulting Engineer Magazine on November 1, 2011 to present awards to firms whose work has contributed to the advancement of the Canadian consulting engineering industry.

All ACEC Member firms are invited to attend the Awards Gala that showcases the contribution of consulting engineers to our economic, social and environmental quality of life. The Gala is attended

by Members of Parliament, industry leaders and other dignitaries. Details are available at www.acec.ca.

Celebrate excellence and join the industry in recognizing the past year’s achievements!

ACEC Member Organizations: Consulting Engineers of British Columbia, Consulting Engineers of Yukon, Consulting Engineers of Alberta, Consulting Engineers of Northwest Territories, Consulting Engineers of Saskatchewan, Association of Consulting Engineering Companies – Manitoba, Consulting Engineers of Ontario, Association des Ingénieurs-conseils du Québec, Association of Consulting Engineering Companies – New Brunswick, Consulting Engineers of Nova Scotia, Consulting Engineers of Prince Edward Island, Consulting Engineers of Newfoundland and Labrador.

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August/September 2011

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ASSOCIATION OF CONSULTING ENGINEERING COMPANIES | REVIEW

ACEC Chairman’s Gala and Special Awards Allen D Williams

At the ACEC Summit, the Chairman’s Gala hosted by the outgoing Chairman of the Board, Wilfrid Morin, ing., celebrated many of the Association’s achievements over the past year. The Chairman’s Award “for exceptional contribution to the consulting engineering industry” was presented by Mr. Morin to Chris Newcomb, P.Eng. of McElhanney Consulting Services Ltd. for his work on the student outreach campaign, Engineering Legacies.

The Allen D. Williams Scholarship

Left: Wilfrid Morin, ing. (right), past-ACEC Chair, presents the Chairman’s Award to Chris Newcomb, P.Eng. Above: Wilfrid Morin was joined by Dorothy Williams (centre) to present the Allen D. Williams Scholarship Award, named in honour of her late husband, to Jean-Philippe Moreau of BPR-CSO (at left).

Award was bestowed on Jean-Philippe Moreau, ing., of BPR-CSO. The Scholarship is presented to a young professional who has demonstrated leadership in their involvement with the industry and the Association. The award allows the winner to attend the international

ABOUT ACEC The Association of Consulting Engineering Companies -

conference of consulting engineers (FIDIC), taking place this year in Davos, Switzerland from October 2-5, 2011.

Finally, Mr. Morin introduced Herb Kuehne, P.Eng. of Associated Engineering as the new Chair of ACEC for 2011-2012.

FIDIC Conference 2011 Davos, Switzerland October 2-5, 2011

Canada (ACEC) is a business association representing nearly 500 consulting engineering companies across Canada.

ACEC is made up of 12 provincial and territorial organizations. For more information on ACEC, visit www.acec.ca.

The FIDIC Conference is the only international conference geared specifically towards the consulting engineering industry. Learn on a global scale of the trends facing the industry internationally and how these trends can be applied towards sustainable solutions to global challenges.

Register today by visiting www.fidic.org.

August/September 2011

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Canadian Consulting Engineer

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August/September 2011

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computers

By Rita Wong, P.Eng. Entuitive Corporation

Highlights from a range of CAD and BIM software tools that were unveiled recently.

Autodesk’s Building Design Suites

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n May 12 Autodesk held its “Make Your Most Amazing Ideas Happen” event in Toronto, where it launched its full suite of Autodesk 2012 products.1 Pierre Hoppener, Autodesk Canada’s AEC territory manager, started by giving an introduction to Building Information Modeling (BIM) for those unfamiliar with the topic. He encouraged Revit users to participate in user groups that have formed in Ontario: the Ontario Revit Users Group (ORUG) and the Greater Ottawa Revit Users Group (GORUG).

Next, the new Autodesk Building Design Suites of software were presented – the Standard Suite for drafters and detailers, the Premium Suite for architects and engineers, and the Ultimate Suite for contractors.

John Janzen, AEC technical specialist at Autodesk, highlighted the new and updated features with live demonstrations. Following are some of those new functions I feel will be most useful to engineers.

In AutoCAD, 3D models can now be imported from Pro/Engineer, CATIA, Rhino and SolidWorks for annotation and documentation. The Inventor Fusion plug-in for AutoCAD will allow these 3D models to be modified in native DWG format. Better use can be made of laser scans of existing buildings, with support for point clouds of up to 2 billion points and feature recognition. Engineers attending meetings or site visits with iPads or Android phones can take advantage of the free AutoCAD WS mobile application to view and mark up DWG drawing files.

For Revit 2012 there are improvements common across the platform, 18

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and some that are specific to Revit Architecture, Revit Structure and Revit MEP. Cross-platform improvements include: graphics display and new view styles, updated worksharing functions, point cloud support, improved user experience such as compatibility with 3Dconnexion devices, and compliance with Citrix.

Revit Structure Structural engineers working with the analytical models in Revit Structure will find the following enhancements: faster access to the visibility control of analytical element categories, the ability to toggle the entire analytical model’s visibility, colours to differentiate start/end points of members, the capability to adjust analytical nodes, and surfaces that represent wall and slab analytical elements.

The modeling of steel reinforcement in concrete elements has been improved, with support for multi-planar reinforcement and more options for the placement of planar reinforcement. Construction modeling tools have been added to facilitate the transfer of the design model to the construction team. Elements such as walls and slabs can be divided into parts to reflect the concrete pour breaks in construction. Creation of Assemblies will allow the generation of views and schedules that can assist with shop drawing production.

Revit MEP In Revit MEP (mechanical, electrical and plumbing), conceptual energy analysis has been enhanced through the use of the cloud-based Green Building Studio software. A massing model sent as a GBXML file to this

analysis tool will produce reports on energy efficiency and the carbon footprint. The energy analysis will take into consideration the construction types of the roofs and walls, and allow for the definition of building zones.

Other improvements for Revit MEP users include support for sloped piping, a system browser that shows the connections of systems, the ability to convert 2D placeholders for pipes and ducts into 3D elements, modeling of parallel conduits and pipe runs, interference checks accounting for duct and pipe insulation, and panel schedules that can display total current or load values.

Aside from the Revit platform, new and updated features of Vault Collaboration AEC 2012 and Navisworks 2012 were presented.

Caesar Ruest, BIM Solutions Executive with Autodesk, then showed how BIM can be used for the prefabrication of building assemblies, or leveraged by an owner for facilities management throughout a building’s lifecycle. Models created from BIM software have also been combined with augmented reality technologies to allow owners and AEC members to virtually see the buildings on site before they’re built.

These new and enhanced products will provide engineers, architects and contractors with tools to work more efficiently and collaboratively. CCE Rita Wong, P.Eng., is with Entuitive Corporation, a structural consulting firm based in Toronto, www.entuitive.com

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See CCE, June-July 2011, p. 39 for a summary of the infrastructure session at the Autodesk event.

August/September 2011

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standards

By Peter Kenter

New CSA Standard Z320 will help design professionals ensure that all the building systems -- electrical, mechanical, and fire and safety systems -- work together.

Commissioning for Integrated Systems

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he new Canadian Standards Association Z320 Building Commissioning standard that was launched in May is the first Canadian standard to take an integrated approach to commissioning.

“Previous standards looked at commissioning each system separately,” says Bill Carson of The Mitchell Partnership, a Toronto mechanical engineering firm. Carson was chair of both the CSA standard’s technical committee and its controls and integration sub-committee: “A number of

effort to integrate fire safety, security and mechanical systems and their relationship to building controls.

“Using a hospital as an example,” says Carson,”you need to ensure that when the hospital issues a code for response to a heart attack, you also ensure that it integrates that call for help with an elevator arriving on the floor where the crash cart is located, and that [the call] would work under all conditions -- in day, night, emergency and non-emergency conditions.”

Carson says that the new standard will offer obvious benefits to engi"It will minimize the type of project neers by helping dynamics -- more commonly known as to ensure that the screw-ups -- that fester a year later." building functions according to stakeholders, primarily the Mechaniits intended design before any wrinkles in its operation can cause problems. cal Contractors Association of Cana“If the standard is applied, it helps da, have been fighting to establish a to identify the intention of the design standard that not only looks at comfrom the beginning, from pre-design missioning each independent system, to design and tendering, and ensures but also ensures that each system the project is built in compliance with works with every other system across the design and what it attends to acall the trades, and disciplines, and particularly through the grey areas complish right through the construcbetween them. That includes everytion process,” he says. “It will also thing from mechanical, architectural, minimize the type of project dynamelectrical, control and safety systems, ics -- known more commonly as screwto both horizontal and vertical buildups -- that fester a year later, as the ing transportation, such as elevators owner comes back to the architect and escalators.” and engineer of record. The probThe new standard Z320 will apply lems will be fixed beforehand in harto both new construction and building mony with the engineer of record.” renovations. It was based on CSA Z318, The Z320 technical committee comCommissioning of Health Care Faciliprised 28 members representing a dities, the standard it most resembles, verse slate of disciplines and interests. because Z318 had made a pioneering “We achieved consensus on a large

part of the main standard,” says Carson, “and then wrote a series of nine nonmandatory annexes written in mandatory language to cover more specific tasks. That way an engineer can, for example, state that you will use Z320 and that specific annexes will apply.”

The commissioning standard can be accessed electronically and includes web-based check sheets. The process begins with the software asking the user to answer questions about the systems involved.

“The system then formulates the questions that the commissioning professional needs to answer as part of the commissioning process,” says Domenic Bonavota P.Eng., vice president with Mulvey and Banani International of Toronto. Bonavota was chair of the Z320 electrical sub-committee.

“You would get a different checklist, for example, if you had a vertical building that relied on pressurization rather than exhaust fans to evacuate smoke from a building. At a minimum you would be instructed to perform a full black-out test.”

Bonavota notes that the process isn’t intended to make commissioning “dummy-proof” but to augment an actual real-life run-through of the building’s systems prior to hand-over.

“We’ve heard of so-called paper commissioners who commission a building in theory without an actual run-through,” he says. “During the electrical black-out of 2003 we saw pumps designed to fuel emergency power generators failing to operate because the pumps themselves weren’t continued on page 22

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hooked to emergency power. A realtime commissioning process would have caught that.”

Formulating the checklist system to incorporate complex electrical and security systems was particularly challenging, says Bonavota, because of the deep level of integration required for newer buildings. Each system must be tested multiple times in pre-energized mode, in start-up mode, in fully functional operation for performance testing, and in emergency mode.

“If it’s the intent of the design to provide optimum climate controls, then we need to test to ensure that not only do the electric-powered sun shades re-orient themselves to provide optimum natural lighting and shield the building during the warmest part of the day, but also to ensure that the electric lighting system and air handling systems compensate for that,” says Bonavota.

“The web-based checklist will guide you through that process.”

Certifying building commissioners Up next will be efforts to create a certification authority to establish a curriculum to teach building commissioning and ultimately to certify building commissioners.

Currently, most construction projects specify that a registered professional engineer carry out commissioning, usually as part of a consulting engineering concern, notes Carson.

“But it’s important that we support an independent third-party process where the commissioning engineer works for another company, or at the very least isn’t part of the same design team,” says Carson.

“Commissioning a building isn’t simply a peer review of another engineer’s work but a commitment to en-

sure that a building is constructed to function in exactly the way it was intended, as outlined in the original construction documents.”

While the standard will remain voluntary until referenced in legislation, Bonavota says Z320 has already been referenced in a number of requests for proposals.

“It’s only been a few months since it was launched and already the standard is gaining traction in the industry,” he says.

Development of the standard was funded by a consortium of stakeholders including the Mechanical Contractors Association of Canada, the Canadian Construction Association, Defence Construction Canada, Public Works and Government Services Canada, The Mitchell Partnership and Mulvey and Banani.

CCE Peter Kenter is a freelance writer in Toronto.

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standards

By Jessica Krippendorf

There’s an acute need for the upcoming ASHRAE 100 Standard to improve the energy use of our existing building stock.

Existing Buildings Use the Load

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© Getty Images/ Jupiterimages/Thinkstock

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he increasing need for greater energy efficiency in existing buildings is the onus behind ASHRAE / IES Standard 100-2006R, Energy Efficiency in Existing Buildings, which underwent its first 30-day public review period earlier this year.

New buildings only account for 2% of construction projects in the U.S., while 86% of construction dollars go into renovating the existing building stock. Anywhere from 75% to 80% of the buildings that exist today will exist in 2030.

Gordon Holness, past president of the American Society for Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), is vice-chair of the committee rewriting the standard. He says Standard 100-2006R is intended as a building code resource for jurisdictions looking to improve the energy efficiency of existing buildings.

The standard was originally published in 1981 as part of the same energy conservation program that included ASHRAE Standard 90-75 — the predecessor to ASHRAE 90.1.

The first versions of both standards were largely prescriptive in nature, says Holness. “... an owner doing any lighting upgrades or boiler replacement would need to look at the requirements in 90.1 for those elements. There was no requirement to look at the entire building, so it is not really possible to compare energy efficiency levels.

“For these and other reasons the standard has, frankly, not received much attention or use. Now for the first time, the rewritten Standard 1002006R will address the entire building performance," says Holness.

Renovating the existing stock of

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The new standard will address the entire building energy performance of existing buildings for the first time.

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buildings is an important element of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Nearly 94.6 quadrillion Btus of energy were consumed in the U.S. in 2009, and 42% was used by commercial and residential buildings.

In Canada there are about 450,000 institutional and commercial buildings consuming $17 billion in energy costs. According to Natural Resources Canada, these along with residential buildings produce 28% of the country’s greenhouse gases.

Rick Hermans, chair of the Standard 100-2006R committee, points out that even if every square foot of new construction were built at net zero energy, meeting the energy demand would still require improvements in the existing building stock.

While the standard is initially focused on the U.S. it can readily be adapted for application in Canada and other countries.

What’s covered The new standard addresses major and minor modifications for residential and commercial buildings

and multi-use buildings with variable occupancy loads.

Energy Use Intensity (EUI) targets are set using data from the quadrennial Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey, which is undertaken by the U.S. Department of Energy. The survey tracks and identifies energy use (kBtu/sf-yr) for 53 building types in 16 climate zones.

Buildings with identified energy targets based on building type, occupancy, and climate zone will select from Energy Efficiency Measures (EEMs) to meet the intended goal.

Non-compliant buildings will undertake an energy audit to identify EEMs that should be applied based on a predicted simple payback period or internal rate of return.

The standard also provides multiple levels of compliance and energy efficiency requirements for buildings without energy targets, including industrial, agricultural, data centres, and special laboratories.

“For buildings without energy targets a more aggressive approach is

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taken, requiring an energy audit to identify an optimized bundle of EEMs that achieves the maximum energy efficiency possible, while offering a simple payback of five years or less,” says Holness. “This may require an iterative process of analysis.”

Buildings where energy efficiency measures are implemented in response to an energy audit will be granted conditional compliance, subject to an energy monitoring review in 15 months.

Criteria for energy management plans and operation and maintenance plans are included, as are appendices for lifecycle cost analyses and energy efficiency measures.

Holness says retrofitting existing buildings is the greatest opportunity for a sustainable future. “We see a tremendous potential for the standard to be applied as a validation process through programs like Building Star and Home Star,” he says. “Investing $50 billion per year for the next 10 years could retrofit some 50 million existing residential and commercial buildings, creating more than 625,000 new jobs, while saving $685 million per year in energy costs.”

Standard 100-2006R is set to complete its public review and be released later this year.

CCE Jessica Krippendorf is a freelance writer based on Vancouver Island.

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lighting

By Paul Boken Mulvey & Banani Lighting

A look at the advantages of addressable lighting systems, which allow every luminaire to be individually controlled.

One By One

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Mulvey + Banani

ighting control sysinternally at the fixtures tems are becoming themselves. more and more versaCustomizing the zoning tile in order to serve the for various tenants and diverse activities and work rooms is also simpler. To patterns that human bemeet a new tenant’s lighting ings take part in today. zoning requirements, you It is becoming standard often only need to revise the fare to have a control sysprogramming, rather than tem that will allow individuhaving to modify the wiring. al dimming or switching There are many variables control of every light in a to contemplate when selectbuilding, one that ties this ing a lighting control system control to any sensor on the and, depending upon the floor (occupancy or daylevel of control and the exlight), and that allows you tent of energy savings reto do it all from your deskquired, either a simple top or even from an iPad. switching system or a more These DALI (Digital Adintricate dimming system dressable Lighting Intermay be considered. For exface) or similarly named ample, if load shedding systems may not be the best (slight dimming or switchsolutions from a capital cost ing off lights during peak standpoint, but they can hours to save energy) or save an enormous amount daylight harvesting is inof energy long-term. They tended to be incorporated may also help you attain on a large scale, a full-scale substantial LEED credits dimming system should be due to the extensive levels considered in order that of lighting control they pro- Telus office building at 25 York Street, south of Union Station in Toronto. lighting levels change via vide in the space and the Completed in 2009, this 30-storey, multi-tenant building has addressable more subtle transitions to depth of interaction that lighting as standard on all floors, with occupancy and daylight sensors to ensure occupant comfort. they offer to the occupants. reduce energy use. The high vertical trusses that extend beyond the sides Mulvey and Banani has of the building’s front elevation are dramatized with ceramic metal halide These addressable sys- floodlights every four floors. Mulvey + Banani were the electrical engi- specified addressable lighttems can bring savings in neers and lighting designers. Adamson Associates and Sweeny, Sterling, ing systems for a variety of other areas. Installations, Finlayson were the architects. projects, from small tenant for example, tend to be easfit-out projects to larger ownier than with traditional lighting systems because with ad- er-occupied buildings, as well as for many high-rise office dressable systems the fixtures, sensors, switches, etc. are towers including three new towers in downtown Toronto: 18 typically daisy-chained together and are not home run to a York Street (future home of PricewaterhouseCoopers), 25 central lighting control panel. The simplified installation York Street (Telus Headquarters) and the new Bremner CCE can offset some of the more expensive material costs of ad- Tower at Bremner and Simcoe Streets. dressable systems.

Many of these modern systems also eliminate the need Paul Boken LC, BFA, IESNA manages the lighting design division for dimming panels, as all dimming and switching is done at Mulvey + Banani, consulting engineers in Toronto.

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All Photos: Williams Engineering

buildings

By Lana Winterfield, Williams Engineering Canada

THE TALISMAN CENTRE IS AN INTEGRAL PART OF

the Calgary community. Formerly known as the Lindsay Park Sports Centre, this huge complex is located near the Calgary Stampede grounds on MacLeod Trail, accessible from downtown by the C-Train.

The centre was originally constructed for the 1983 Western Canada Summer Games, when it brought together thousands of athletes from across Canada in a “celebration of youth, sport, culture, and community.”

The centre has two Olympic-sized swimming pools, an Olympic dive tank, five full-sized gymnasiums, a 200-metre running track, 2,300 square metres of cardio and weight training space, a steam room, locker rooms, and a 20-person hot tub — all situated under the main building with its dramatic fabric roof. Access leads to a separate annex added in 2003 that has two additional Olympic-sized swimming pools. A separate entrance on the north side of the facility is used to access the 1,300-sq. m LifeMark Physiotherapy and Sports Medicine Clinic.

Owned by the city of Calgary and operated by Lindsay Park Sports Society, the Talisman Centre is one of the largest multi-sports facility in North America. It has millions of patrons and visitors each year, hosting both amateur and professional sporting events. It is also one of only three recreation facilities in Canada capable of holding international swim competitions.

In 2007, the city of Calgary retained Williams Engineering Canada to investigate the existing building to determine an appropriate strategy for replacing the 25-year old roof and to advise on other environmental and lighting energy efficiency upgrades.

The renovations were then organized to be completed in two concurrent phases with Williams Engineering Canada as prime consultant, a role that included structural, mechanical-electrical, and building envelope engineering. Roger Miller was project manager with Williams Engineering. continued on page 32 30

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Inside the renovated centre.

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buildings

A Calgary Icon The Talisman Centre – one of North America’s largest sports and recreation centres – has had a major upgrade, including a high-tech tensile roof and HVAC upgrades on a grand scale.

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Throughout the renovations, access to the adjacent buildings had to be maintained. As well, various building components were shut down, which posed interesting challenges to the engineers as the different building elements were linked to the same building automation network. The project was completed in February this year and opened to patrons shortly after.

Replacing the roof The first thing anyone notices about the Talisman Centre is its striking white fabric roof. A sculpted, tent-like form, the roof descends in a series of panel ridges from a large arched spine. It measures approximately 48,770 square metres in area.

The problem with the original roof was that temperatures inside the building could be scorching in summer, while in winter the building suffered from cold and condensation.

The solution was to replace the original Tefloncoated fibreglass roof with one that looks similar, but which has much better thermal and acoustic properties.

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The roof was replaced as a design-build project by Birdair with Geiger Engineers.

They provided a Tensotherm roof system that has layers of Nanogel impregnated fleece insulation within a Teflon-coated fabric. The technical name for the fabric is Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE). The nanogel can insulate four times more efficiently than fibreglass or foam and is hydrophobic moisture resistant. It has an R-value of 11 and a U-value equal to 0.7 per 25 mm thickness.

The fabric also has acoustic benefits. According to Cabot Corporation who manufactures the nanogel, its fine pore structure slows down the speed of sound, especially in the lower ranges, which is a definite bonus for a large recreational facility. The fabric’s coating is flameresistant and it acts like a filter and neutralizes airborne impurities and odours. It also has self-cleaning attributes.

Each custom-designed new roof panel was installed individually using a new lifting device and two tower cranes. A life safety system for the arch was also developed to allow for the roof to be properly serviced over its expected 30-year lifespan.

When the old fabric roof was disassembled, it was rolled up and sent to the City of Calgary Parks Department, who used the material for the roof of a

August/September 2011

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buildings

Left: uplights shine through the new roof, creating drama at night. Far left: entrance with translucent glass sloped roof. Above: mechanical systems are incorporated within the ridge of the great roof arch.

new storage shelter for equipment.

On the north and south entrances to the main building, the existing curtain wall had run its service life. As part of the renovation, the entire system was replaced with one that has fibreglass insulation and is translucent. The system admits natural light, but also provides glare protection.

The ring beam is a major structural element of the main building. It is located at the circumference above grade level, connecting all the roof valley, ridge and lateral cables. When modeling indicated that excessive heat loss was escaping through the exposed concrete beam, the beam was faced on the exterior with an R12 exterior insulation finishing system Mechanical systems within the roof arch

The new mechanical systems were primarily adopted to prevent condensation from building up on the underside of the roof. Before the renovation, conditions under the roof during severe cold weather could become so wet they produced “raining� inside the centre.

The building's original HVAC equipment in the basement was upgraded and left in place, but substantial new systems needed to be added. To save on valuable floor space, it was decided that the new HVAC system should be

placed into the roof arch. Fitting the mechanical systems into the arch presented the greatest challenge.

Because the building is oval, the engineers needed a duct that would handle the curved geometries. To do this with a fixed aluminum or steel duct would have been exceedingly difficult, so a fabric duct system was specified. A fabric duct is more flexible and can be built off-site. Also, the centre has an open concept design, so care was taken to create a lightweight, harmonious design so that the exposed ducts would not interfere with the building aesthetics.

Various types of duct fabric were researched and a Danish supplier was identified to supply a patented system of fabric ducts and jet-throw nozzles. The nozzles are attached to the ends of the fabric ducts and direct air to the underside of the roof in a complex and specific pattern.

The mechanical system for the 1.8-m diameter fabric duct supply and return air system is unprecedented and may be the only one of its kind in the world.

Two 45,000-cfm fans were installed in the arch and required additional structural support for positioning into the architectural elements of the building. Supporting the massive equipment and preventing vibrations within the steel framing was a significant feat of engineering. continued on page 34 August/September 2011

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Left: catwalk and roof structure. Below the white membrane roof runs the fabric supply air duct. Its nozzles (far left) direct air in complex patterns to help combat condensation. To the right edge of the photo are boxed silencers "the size of an apartment kitchen," to muffle the sound of 45,000-cfm fans.

It was not a matter of simply installing new fans. The fans have to consistently operate at 800 rpm and they are designed to run 24/7. Therefore, prior to any work being undertaken, subconsultants reviewed the existing structure and did modelling tests to determine how to minimize the transfer of vibrations onto the structure. After construction was complete, an acoustic and vibrations consultant was hired to ensure the facility was operating within the design guidelines.

The high-efficiency 45,000-cfm fans produced excessive noise, so two-stage, upstream and downstream silencers were custom designed to dissipate the sound. The silencers are approximately the size of an apartment kitchen. Not only do the fans have enclosures of their own to muffle the sound of the vibrations, but also the fans have a silencer on the supply and return air.

Since a prime goal was to ensure condensation does not build up on the underside of the roof, during the 34

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design phase special data logging was done to monitor and gather information about the temperature and humidity of in-situ conditions over different seasons.

The models for the ductwork in the new design showed some potential dead spots in the building itself. Glycol heat and thin tube radiators were installed on the ring beam to heat up those areas that lacked air movement. By simple heat conduction they prevent the accumulation of condensation.

Dehumidifiers were installed to reclaim heat and moisture out of the air and displace it directly into the swimming pools. This approach provides additional cooling benefits.

To ensure the remainder of the building is not contaminated with impure air, a filter wall was custom-built to allow the return air to flow through. These return air walls are wide open as opposed to being partially enclosed by grates, which provides additional benefits. During events, large banners and balloons occasionally float up into the ceiling space. Instead of blocking air flow and being expelled into the fans, the balloons and the banners are sucked into the return air and taken back down to the filter wall where they are trapped and can be retrieved.

The motors that run the fans were upgraded to be VFD (varying frequency drive) compatible, which is an unconventional motor and fan combination for a facility of this nature. The VFD motors can reduce the vent fan speed during low activity times to conserve additional energy. All existing chillers and fans were replaced with VFD-compatible motors and controls to reduce energy consumption.

During the renovations, the entire spine of the building was exposed. Air quality testing was done to mitigate any issues that might arise from the steel deteriorating due to the high levels of chlorine emissions from the swimming pools.

These tests also helped to ascertain the type of materials that were required to build the equipment enclosures.

Fire protection, lighting, electrical design To ensure that the fire suppression, fire alarm, and smoke evacuation systems continue to work during an emergency, the renovations added a custom built damper system within both the filter system and within the filter wall. The fire protection system is designed so that in the event of a fire, the

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buildings fabric duct system would shut down and the damper would open and allow the infrastructure to continue to function as the smoke escaped.

Comprehensive 3D modeling was created to establish the lighting design. Overall the upgrades changed the lighting from 300 lux lighting levels to 600 lux levels.

One of the changes was to exchange the existing exterior flood lights for new interior direct and indirect lighting. The new lighting glows up through the new nanogel fabric roof, making the Talisman Centre a dramatic visual symbol at night.

Existing pendant lights that were over the pool had presented maintenance difficulties. These were removed and instead indirect metal halide and fluorescent lights have been added around the ring beam within the mechanical systems. The lights were installed on brackets that provide structural support to the mechanical equipment where they can be easily accessed.

As well, fluorescent strip lights are hidden up in between the large fabric duct and the walls. They render a cove lighting effect that blends with the architectural and building systems. The strip lighting also eases shadow effects caused by the large fabric ducts. Since the ducts are so large, they would have caused noticeable dark spots by the perimeter of the building if the strip lights weren’t installed.

Thanks to the new upgrades both to the roof and the mechanical-electrical systems, the Talisman Centre is vastly improved and will continue to be an important venue for the city of Calgary and its residents.

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Neil Jaud Architect (locker room, gym floor, EIFS ), RWDI (air flow and vibration

Randy Smith, P.Eng., Wayne Yan, P.Eng., Winssy Lo, P.Eng., Stoyan Atanasov, P.Eng.) Subconsultants: AJ Technical (review existing mechanical components); Comtec Associates (public address and sound system), Golder Associates (indoor air quality), Leber Rubes (fire protection and codes),

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Canadian Consulting Engineer

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buildings Vancouver Civic Theatres

Vancouver has managed to convert the 1950s-era Queen Elizabeth Theatre into a venue with excellent acoustics — for both rock bands and opera.

Drama Scenes B y B ro n w e n P a r s o n s “WHAT YOU WILL FIND ABOUT PEOPLE IN MY BUSINESS is that we love talking about what we do,” says

Rae Ackerman in Vancouver.

And talk he does, with detailed knowledge about all the theatre construction projects he has been involved with over the past 50 years.

At 67, Ackerman looks back on a career that began with studying theatre arts at the University of British Columbia in the 1960s. “I quickly realized my strength was not acting. I was much more involved in design and technical production,” he says. He became the student assistant to the technical director at UBC’s theatre program, and immediately became intimately involved with building a new theatre on the campus — the 400-seat Frederic Wood Theatre.

That was his first project. He has been everything from a stagehand to a lighting designer, but his greatest interest is in how theatres are designed and constructed. After university, he hitch-hiked across Canada visiting every theatre he could find to see how they were designed.

Since then Ackermen has been involved in the design and construction, as well as operations, of landmark theatres across Canada. His portfolio includes Place des Arts continued on page 38

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Ackerman outside the renovated Queen Elizabeth Theatre in downtown Vancouver.

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Vancouver Civic Theatres

buildings

Above: New open foyer in the Queen Elizabeth Theatre.

Vancouver Civic Theatres

Left: Inside the auditorium of the Queen Elizabeth Theatre.

To create the best natural acoustic reverberations and an intimate opera experience, the renovations involved bringing seats forward and adding side balconies. The room is adapted for amplified sound using simple wall curtains.

for Expo '67 in Montreal, the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, the Epcor Centre in Calgary, and renovations to the Neptune Theatre in Halifax. In the late 1980s he worked for Garth Drabinsky and Livent in Toronto and was general manager for the renovations and re-opening of the Pantages Theatre (now Cannon), which launched with the “Phantom of the Opera” in 1989.

Today, Ackerman is director of Vancouver Civic Theatres, a role which he took over in 1990. In 1993 he assembled a team of consultants to carry out an extensive program of renovations to all three downtown civic theatres in time for the 2010 Winter Olympics. The theatres are the ornately decorated Orpheum, originally a vaudeville venue built in 1927 (2,700 seats); the nearby Queen Elizabeth Theatre, which opened in 1959 on Hamilton at Georgia Street and which has undergone a complete overhaul (now 2,780 seats); third was the Vancouver Playhouse built in 1962, which is adjacent to the Queen Elizabeth Theatre (670 seats).

In short, this tall man with an arts academic background knows as much as anyone about constructing and renovating theatres. Engineers specialize in their own areas of building, but a knowledgeable client like Ackerman can see the entire picture and fit the pieces together.

John O’Keefe, P.Eng. of Aercoustics in Toronto has been working with Ackerman as acoustic engineer on projects since the Pantages. O’Keefe says: “Rae really knows his stuff.

He’s probably one of the most informed theatre operators in Canada. He knows when to press you, and when to say, ‘fantastic job.’”

O’Keefe's Aercoustics played a key role on the team that Ackerman assembled for the Vancouver Civic Theatre renovations. Ackerman also attributes a lot of the Vancouver team’s success to his long-time friends Thom Weeks and Jennifer Stanley, retired principles of Proscenium Architecture, who played a lead role in the Vancouver civic theatres team. Others on the team include Douglas Welch Associates (theatre consultants), Read Jones Christoffersen (structural); Stantec (mechanical), Schenke Bawol (electrical); RWDI (air-flow modelling), and Commonwealth Historic Resource Management (heritage consultants).

Wide theatres make for poor acoustics Once Ackerman had the team assembled in 1993, they spent a year doing feasibility studies. There were serious problems to overcome: “I had been away from Vancouver for 25 years before I came back in 1990. When I began the continued on page 40

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buildings

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Vancouver Civic Theatres

rock concert with its amplified job and walked through the theatres, sound requires almost the opposite. what I was struck by was that they were To make the theatre more intinot just shabby and uncared for, but mate for opera, Ackerman’s team dethey were also stuck in their time. signed a scheme that drew seats forThey were a product of their era — ward from the back of the theatre, most significantly the Queen Elizaadded some side boxes, and raised beth Theatre. Large opera-ballet thethe ceiling by 40 foot at the stage end, atre design had evolved significantly and by about 27 feet at the back end. since the 1950s so it was the one most Originally the plan was to add two in need of serious consideration.” more balconies — one above, and So while the team went on to do one below the existing balcony — but technical, acoustic and HVAC upthis was not to be. After lead paint was grades to the Orpheum and Playdiscovered on the building's steel house, the Queen Elizabeth was View to the stage in the Queen Elizabeth Theatre. structure, the theatre was forced to “the big one.” spend weeks sandblasting and removLike many theatres of the 1950s and 60s, the form of the Queen Elizabeth Theatre is very ing all the toxic material in plastic bags. This was a huge large, very wide, with a relatively low ceiling. It has a large blow, says Ackerman: “It cost $10.5 million and delayed balcony and originally packed in over 2,900 seats. All this construction for two months in a six month schedule. We had six weeks before construction started, and we had to originally made for poor acoustics.

Ackerman explains that the 19th century opera houses redesign the project. It was a huge scramble.”

In the course of the redesign the team had to abandon with superb natural acoustics were narrow, horseshoeshaped, with side boxes, and very high ceilings. During the the plans for the two extra balconies and some side boxes.

20th century and with the advent of cinema, “theatres were Still, they managed to create a more intimate space and find increasingly oriented to the projection screen,” says Acker- room for 2,780 seats, only about 150 fewer than the theatre man, “so the side tiers didn’t work. There had to be a lot of originally held. They were also able to use space freed up at the back of the auditorium to expand the lobby into a large seats facing straight on.”

A typical theatre of the 1960s therefore had a very wide full-height atrium with a mezzanine.

The project took four years, six months at a time, but stage in imitation of wide screen movies. The Queen Elizabeth proscenium is 72 feet wide — “Huge,” says Ackerman. when the theatre reopened in November 2009 the performers were thrilled. Rock star Jann Arden was one of the first Making a superb opera house to perform there, and afterwards her manager announced Despite its unpromising 1960s configuration, Ackerman's on radio that it was the best venue in Canada. team set out to make the Queen Elizabeth “as good an And when the opera played, the orchestra and the singopera house as any in the world.” At the same time, the ers both cheered. “For the first time they could hear each theatre had to work acoustically for musical shows and other,” recalls Ackerman. “We have a huge success.” rock concerts. The opera singers require acoustics with He says that they have measured the acoustics and lots of clarity, intimacy and reverberations. The booming they are equal to those at the Four Seasons Opera

Lighting and Power “Developments in stage lighting are reducing the power demand exponentially over the years,” says Ackerman. “In my lifetime we have gone from stage spotlights that were 2000 and sometimes 5000 watts, to where we can get the same intensity out of 1000 watts today.”

At the same time, however, theatres have increased the number of lights they use. “It’s not unusual for there to be 300 or 400, 1000-watt lights all on at the same time for a period on stage,” Ackerman says.

He is pinning his hopes on LED-based stage lighting for further reducing power usage, but “we’re not there yet.”

Lighting and HVAC cooling draw most of the electrical power in theatres, says Ackerman. At the Queen Elizabeth Theatre they replaced some transformers and added a 1200 kVA transformer in the former boiler room of the Playhouse.

Ackerman shares anecdotally how they used a new elevator shaft to install the transformer in the basement, and had to “secretly” move it in at midnight in order to avoid the picket lines of striking civic workers.

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buildings House in Toronto, which he holds as the top current standard in Canada.

At the Queen Elizabeth Theatre, Aercoustics used a software program for lighting design and adapted it for acoustic reflections to specify the angle and size of every reflective acoustic panel in the room. But the actual solution for converting between natural sound and amplified is very low tech — just four small curtains that are manually drawn across walls, and three that unroll in the ceiling.

Earthquake and rock band proofing Two massive shear walls inserted in the foyer were part of many seismic upgrades that had to be made to the Queen Elizabeth Theatre.

Renato Camporese, P.Eng. was the project engineer with structural engineers Reed Jones Christoffersen. He says that typically older theatres have “eccentric” structures that make them difficult to reinforce against the impacts of an earthquake. At one end they have a lobby that is architecturally open and requires slender supports, while at the other end is the stage tower with heavy, massive high walls.

The shear walls used as seismic reinforcement in the Queen Elizabeth foyer are about 14 feet wide and 2 feet thick. They extend from the footings to the roof and are faced in white marble. According to Ackerman, other seismic upgrades include “huge angle irons bolting walls to floor slabs for stiffness,” and concrete pillars for support in the auditorium. In the proscenium arch they drilled shoring rods into the concrete in order to stiffen it.

Another big structural issue, one which was tackled early on in the project, was acoustically separating the Queen Elizabeth Theatre from the adjacent Vancouver Playhouse.

The Playhouse used the back wall of the Queen Elizabeth stage tower as a supporting wall, but the boiler, water supply and the electrical transformer that service both theatres are all on the Playhouse side.

The engineers physically separated the two structures, built new walls and added an elevator shaft for seismic stability. They filled the 4" gap between the two buildings with acoustic insulation and isolated all the conduits, pipes and wires that pass through the two walls, using vibration isolators for 10 feet on either side, combined with fire stops.

“We can now put the loudest rock band ever in the Queen Elizabeth Theatre and we don’t hear anything of it in the Playhouse,” says Ackerman. “It’s 100% successful.”

Cooling without HVAC noise Noise made by heating, ventilating and air-conditioning systems is an issue for theatres that aim for acoustic perfection. Ackerman explains that the usual solution is to have very large ducts with low velocity. Slower moving air doesn’t make noise. Another key factor is keeping fans at a distance.

“The goal with all systems operating is to get the noise constant in the theatre to NC 15 or 20,” he says. “But if you are recording or playing concerts, you want NC 15.” continued on page 42

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Today (and during the 1920s), theatres prefer the air in the auditoriums to be supplied at floor level and exhausted at the roof. That way the air is warmed by bodies and rises naturally. In contrast, theatres built during the 1950s to 1980s supplied the air from the ceilings, with large air returns at floor level that can make for uncomfortable drafts.

The Queen Elizabeth Theatre upgrades changed the HVAC system from small ducts with high velocity, to large ducts with low velocity. However, the supply ducts had to stay in the ceiling because space in the basement is taken up by dressing rooms and parking.

RWDI modelled air currents in the theatre for the original redesign. They had to account for the sudden influx of people into the auditorium and deal with intense lighting and stage effects. “We don’t want smoke and fog going into the orchestra pit, and we don’t want it going into the auditorium so the audience can’t see,” says Ackerman. And air-conditioning the stage area is complicated by the fact that the scenery has to remain perfectly still.

“Part of the answer again is high volume, low velocity, air supply,” says Ackerman.

“If we are having a problem. failing all else, we will turn the HVAC systems off,” says Ackerman. “But that’s the least desirable approach. So we try to give our building operating engineers the best tools we can and they work with it.”

New technologies, same enthusiasm Ackerman's latest project is a new studio theatre, the 220seat Orpheum Annex, which has just opened. There he continues to test theatre technologies, describing them with his usual passion and attention to detail.

He's thrilled, for example, by a new platform they installed above the stage. "It's a grid -- a net -- of 1/16th inch aircraft cable tensioned side to side, length to length, interwoven. The technicians can walk on it, hang lights above it, put loudspeakers above it, and the sound and the light carries through. It's wonderful," he says.

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Fire Protection and Security in Theatres Ackerman says he is not aware of any full-scale fire happening in a Canadian theatre in his lifetime, but he recalls that historically there was a fire that killed people in Montreal.

There are four fire-safety annunciator panels in the Queen Elizabeth Theatre-Playhouse complex, and staff are trained how to respond. “Thankfully the codes allow us to put in two-stage alarms,” he says, which means that performances don’t have to stop unnecessarily because of false alarms. There are also strobe lights in the auditorium that can give a more subtle warning than a bell alarm when there’s a possible problem.

Sprinklers, he says, aren’t generally useful in theatre auditoriums or on stage. “The ceilings are so high that sprinkled water becomes steam before it gets to the fire.”

At the proscenium between the auditorium and stage a water deluge pipe is sometimes used to create a fire separation curtain. The other, more traditional approach, Ackerman says, is to use a physical curtain made of asbestos or other material that can be dropped either automatically or manually. A stage tower acts as a chimney and often has pop-open smoke vents to evacuate smoke, says Ackerman. The Queen Elizabeth Theatre has a penthouse above the stage roof with side walls that drop own.

Issues with security protection in theatres mostly arise from having so many exit doors that lead outside. The Queen Elizabeth Theatre has door alarms and closedcircuit television surveillance of the perimeter and interior areas, monitored by the staff. While theatres tend to be 24/7 operations, says Ackerman, intruders off the street are mostly a problem during the day.

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energy efficiency

WE ALREADY KNOW HOW TO BUILD MORE ENERGY EFFICIENT BUILDINGS. SO WHAT IS KEEPING THE DEVELOPMENT INDUSTRY STUCK IN ITS OLD WAYS?

Stuck in

neutral

Tanya Lam/Three in a Box

BY LEE NORTON, P.ENG.

the

March-April issue of Canadian Consulting Engineer featured an office building in Saskatoon with combined technologies that achieve almost 70% energy savings compared to a standard office building.

It is great that engineers are designing such buildings since our fossil fuel energy resources are limited. It took millions of years for nature to produce our oil and gas that will last only a few centuries. We will run out. Burning fossil fuels is also changing our climate, leading to a world that will be quite different from what we know.

However, until we look at all our buildings — old and new — our engineering efforts won’t make a significant dent in the total amount of carbon fuels the building sector consumes. A 2006 report done by the U.S. Energy Information Administration indicates that up to 48%

of our carbon emissions come from buildings.

Although in Canada there’s a trend towards LEED certification and high energy efficiency for new large buildings and most government projects, in other building types the number of what I’ll call "first-cost" buildings still predominates. A developer who builds shopping centres and small office buildings is mainly interested in getting the building completed as quickly and inexpensively as possible so that he can start making some return on his investment. Lifecycle cost is losing out to first cost.

Any special funds are spent on what the potential client will see — exteriors, and entrances and atriums to enhance the building's first impressions.

Most non-specialists can’t tell an efficient HVAC and lighting system from an inefficient one. The buildings must only meet current building codes. Yet as we see in pubcontinued on page 44

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energy efficiency

“

continued from page 43

IN SHORT, THERE ARE THOUSANDS OF BUILDINGS THAT COULD BE

UPGRADED WITH A LIFE-CYCLE PAYBACK. YET TOO LITTLE IS BEING DONE BECAUSE UP-FRONT MONEY HAS TO BE SPENT AND MANY OWNERS, EVEN IF

”

THEY WOULD LIKE TO, CANNOT AFFORD ENERGY EFFICIENCY UPDATING. lished projects like the one in Saskatoon, the efficiency of our buildings may easily be improved by well over 50% using known and readily available technology.

Engineering consultants are in a difficult position. You can try to educate your clients about lifetime costs and energy efficiency, but if you push too hard, you lose the client to a competing engineer who is happy to provide the lowest cost solution. Although it would be nice to limit yourself to clients who think like you do, engineers usually want, and sometimes need, all their paying clients.

Developers go for the quick return When equipment in older buildings comes to the end of its service life, usually 15 to 25 years, owners often simply replace it with equipment that has the same energy efficiency.

There is rarely an incentive to spend more money on equipment with future energy paybacks as this would entail engineering costs, as well as the higher first cost involved in purchasing more efficient systems.

In many situations, the owner’s cash flow is limited and although they would like to make their building more energy efficient, they cannot afford the capital required to make the necessary upgrades. There is little financial help for these owners, and the provisions in our building codes on non-life safety issues don’t require updates to existing systems.

The tendency to always opt for technologies with a low first-cost will continue as long as developers can pass the running energy costs on to their tenants, and as long as our building codes don’t require higher efficiency systems. Unless such changes happen, readily available and proven technologies like energy recovery ventilators (ERVs) and heat recovery ventilators (HRVs) won’t be added to rooftop units in mass quantities; condensing boilers with low temperature loops won’t replace cheaper boilers and high temperature distribution loops; and heating the incoming air with some form of heat exchanger will not be the standard. Yet in public buildings such as schools, offices and restaurants where there is a high density of people, the practice of heating or cooling the outside air to meet our codes is often what uses the most energy.

Standards are not rigorous enough In Canada’s National Building Code (and Ontario’s), commercial buildings have lower insulation requirements than are required in Canada’s R2000 voluntary standard for resi-

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dential buildings. The R2000 standard is a success because it is a standard that the potential buyer knows will give him an energy efficient home without having to know any details. Buyers expect new houses to be R2000 compliant.

Yet even with residential buildings we could easily do better if building orientation were added to the R2000 standard. Mostly today, developers just line up the houses according to the direction of the street they face. Yet if a house is situated such that it has large windows on the west wall, the load on the air-conditioning is significantly increased. Other orientations are not so energy-consuming. South facing windows will help heat the house in winter while not giving the additional air-conditioning load of west facing windows.

North facing windows never see the sun, so they won’t get the heating of the winter, but they also won’t get the additional air-conditioning load in the summer. East facing windows only see the morning sun and are in the shade during the heat of the day.

The insulation in modern commercial buildings with glass exterior walls cannot give the same insulation values as a wall in an R2000 home. A single glass pane has an approximate insulation value of R0.9, whereas a standard double pane increases this value to R1.6. This value may be further increased by using a non-greenhouse gas such as Argon between the two glass panes to limit heat transfer.

However there are no R20+ glazing systems that I know about. It is common practice to provide radiant heat under windows in commercial buildings, a clear sign of heat loss in this area. We should be designing buildings that don’t require such additional mechanical solutions to keep the occupants comfortable.

The roofing insulation on commercial buildings is normally about half the R-value of an R2000 home. Meanwhile, simple solutions such as that proposed by Stephen Chu, the U.S. Secretary of Energy, of using only white roofs that would reflect rather than absorb the sun’s rays, are not commonly adopted.

Our building codes sometimes hamper us. They could, for example, institute motion sensors in stairwells to turn on lights, as is done in Europe. Here we have to have stairwell lighting on all the time. Why are all our buildings lit up when no-one is around? Once a large office building is occupied, many times it is possible to remove numerous

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energy efficiency fluorescent bulbs because whereas the light levels are designed by the engineer to be at a constant level, the light is not needed in all areas. In this way I know of one building where several hundred lights were able to be removed from certain areas. We can do many such simple things that have a substantial effect on our energy use.

There are other practical, money-saving strategies that we have the capacity for but are not doing. Our DDC control systems, for example, can be designed to measure the energy use of our buildings to give the operators an ongoing evaluation. We can’t know if some new idea or change works unless we measure it. There is specialized software available that allows organizations to benchmark themselves against their peers anonymously. One web-based service, for example, has a simple user interface with a green, yellow and red indicator to gauge efficiency. If you want to know watts per square metre you can go deeper into the program.

In short, there are thousands of buildings that could be upgraded with a life-cycle payback. Yet too little is being done because up-front money has to be spent and many owners, even if they would like to, cannot afford energy efficiency updating.

Energy efficiency upgrades should not be considered a luxury, but a requirement, and there should be more federal and other government loans and grants in place. David Archer of the University of Chicago, in his first year lectures about climate change entitled “Global Warming, Understanding the Forecast” (http://geoflop.uchicago.edu/forecast/docs/lectures.html), calculates that we must reduce our carbon footprint by 50% just to maintain the present level of CO2 in our atmosphere, assuming the present carbon sinks do not change. (The latest information shows that the carbon sinks are changing -- being reduced.)

We have shown that achieving this 50% reduction in our buildings is technically feasible and practical with our present knowledge and equipment. We just have to commit to making all our buildings more sustainable. Our governments must also commit more resources to helping us become more sustainable if we are to meet our international obligations for carbon emission reductions.

CCE Lee Norton, P.Eng. is a former consulting engineer and now editorial advisor to Canadian Consulting Engineer. He lives in St. Catharines, Ontario.

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engineers & the law

By Dražen Bulat Miller Thomson LLP

Prequalifying Bidders

Lawyers don't do engineering, but engineers ...

A

colleague recently came to my office and, without on bidders in relation to the irrevocability of the bid and a preamble, asked if I knew the difference between a bidder’s obligation to execute Contract B (in Ron Engilawyer and an engineer. Without waiting for my neering, a contract for the construction of a water treatanswer he said, “A lawyer does not do engineering.” He ment plant). If an owner breaches its Contract A obligations and awards Contract B to the “wrong” bidder, the then left my office leaving me to wonder what he meant.

Coincidentally, I was in the midst of reviewing a legal owner is at risk of having to pay damages to the bidder to issue that had arisen out of a bid process. The issue was whom Contract B should have been awarded.

How does this impact an engineer who prepares bid complicated by the fact that the bid documents did not take into account nor permit the owner to take the steps it documents, evaluates bids, and recommends to the did (carry out interviews and negotiations), which led to a owner an award of Contract B? Sometimes, the impact complaint by one of the bidders. Upon further review, I can be devastating.

In Tectonic Infrastructure Inc. v Middlesex Centre determined the bid documents had been prepared by an engineer retained by the owner. Suddenly my colleague’s (Township), a decision of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in November 2004, the townanswer made sense. ship hired an engineer to prepare I doubt that a client would ever I doubt that a client would tender documents, review tenders, hire a lawyer to design a building or ever hire a lawyer to design and recommend an award of cona water main system or a road. So why tract for the construction of water would an owner hire an engineer to a building or a water main mains and roads. One of the unsucprepare contract documents, which system or a road. cessful bidders, Tectonic Infrastruccreate legal rights and obligations ture Inc., found out later that the that if breached can result in an award of damages? Or, put another way, why would an en- bidder to whom the contract was awarded had inserted gineer agree to take on the risk and potential liability of handwritten additions in its bid form. Tectonic sued the township for damages for breach of Contract A, and the preparing legal documents?

Maybe the answer is “We do it because we’ve always done township brought a claim against the engineer.

After a lengthy review of the bid process the court found it.” In that case, you might consider revising your practice.

Historically, pre-qualifying bidders, preparing bid doc- that the engineer had made several mistakes with the bid uments, managing the bid process, evaluating bids, and documents and had improperly determined that the bidrecommending contract awards were tasks included in an der to whom the contract was awarded had submitted a engineer’s scope of services. Prior to 1981 there was rela- compliant bid. As a result, Tectonic was awarded damages tively little risk in an engineer performing such services. against the township in the amount of $554,000. The court However, the law changed in 1981 with the Supreme then considered the township’s claim against the engineer Court of Canada’s decision in The Queen in Right of On- and held: “It seems to me that if the [Engineer] had the tario v Ron Engineering & Construction Eastern Ltd. In obligation to oversee the call for tenders and review them, that case the Court held that the bid process is made up it had, as part of that obligation, the responsibility to at of two separate contracts, which it called “Contract A” and least identify if not outright reject the bid of the [successful bidder] as non-compliant, or recommend the owner seek “Contract B.” According to the Court, an owner’s issuance of a bid call legal advice in that regard. ... The [Engineer] failed to represents in law an offer, and a bidder’s submission of a identify the [successful bidder’s] bid as non-compliant … compliant or substantially compliant bid represents accep- Consequently, in recommending the [successful bidder’s] tance of the offer, which results in the formation of Con- bid to the owner, [the Engineer] held it out as compliant. tract A. Contract A governs the owner’s rights and obliga- … I consequently find the [Engineer] liable to [the Towntions with respect to the evaluation of the bids and the ship] for the full amount of their damage.”

In Stanco Projects Ltd. v British Columbia (Ministry of award of Contract B. Contract A also imposes obligations continued on page 48 46

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finance

By Andrew Bay and Jeff Thorsteinson Investors Group

Individual Pension Plans How to turbo-charge your retirement savings

T

he key to retirement savings is to start early, contribute often, and let the glorious magic of compound interest do its thing. In our experience, not all Canadians have been so diligent in their retirement planning.

When it comes to retirement planning for engineers, there appear to be two money personalities. We call the first group Do-It-Yourselfers. Early in their careers, this group decided to manage their own financial affairs. Over time, as their work and family life became busier, managing their financial affairs took a back seat. Eventually in their late 50s they realize that their retirement is just around the corner.

Upon reviewing their retirement savings they decide the amount is not enough, so they seek to reverse their situation.

The second group, the Money-Masters, have extraordinary savings habits and seek professional help to increase their net worth and reduce their tax bills. They know their net worth to the penny and monitor their progress frequently.

Our conversations with people, regardless of what money personality they are, usually lead to their retirement income needs. We often wind up discussing an Individual Pension Plan (IPP), at which point we ask • Are you over 40?

• Do you earn more than $127,000 per year in annual T4 income?

• When it comes to retirement savings, if you could put more into your registered retirement savings plan (RRSP) than the maximum allowable contribution, would you?

If we get a ‘yes’ to all of the above, then retirement problems may be a thing of the past because you may qualify to establish your own Individual Pension Plan.

The IPP is simply a defined benefit pension plan established for an individual, sponsored by the employer or your professional corporation. The IPP promises the individual a specific pension based on their number of years of service and employment income. The required tax-deductible contributions are determined according to assumptions sourced from an actuary, and approved by Canada Revenue Agency.

There is a lot to know about IPPs before you can decide if one is appropriate for you. Leaving the complex details aside for now, first it is important to recognize that an IPP is a genuine pension plan and has many rules and working parts.

Second, it is critical to consider the IPP within the context of

your overall personal and corporate financial planning.

The most compelling feature of the IPP is that contributions are often greater than those allowed in an RRSP. The big determinant of the maximum contribution room for the IPP is a person’s age. Because the IPP is a defined benefit pension, the amount of money required to fund that benefit increases as the need for retirement income approaches. In addition, older employees have higher funding requirements so they have higher contribution limits.

BENEFITS OF AN IPP • The maximum annual funding increases with age. As you age, so does your maximum annual funding limits.

• Because the IPP is a defined benefit plan, there is a guaranteed pension at retirement. There is no such guarantee with an RRSP. • The money within the IPP is more protected from creditors than with RRSPs. • The corporation may have the ability to fund past service in addition to the annual contribution for current service.

• The corporation may deduct interest on loans obtained to fund the IPP. This interest is not a taxable benefit to the employee.

If that’s not good enough, the good folks at Canada Revenue Agency allow IPPs to provide benefits in respect of past service. In other words, a staff member with many years of service with the sponsoring employer may qualify to make a significant tax-deductible contribution when the IPP is established in order to pay for the cost of the individual’s past service benefits.

Let’s take a look at a specific case. We have a 55-year-old plan member with RRSP assets of $250,000 and employment service going back to 1991. He makes about $127,600 per year and has always maximized his annual RRSP contributions.

Based on the above details, the actuarial report would show a past service contribution of $157,487. This combined with his first-year contribution of $32,462 equates to a total tax-deductible contribution of $189,949 that could continued on page 48 August/September 2011

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Canadian Consulting Engineer

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engineers & the law

continued from page 46

Water, Land and Air Protection), a decision of the British Columbia Court of Appeal in November 2006, the defendant Ministry hired the engineer to pre-qualify contractors, prepare the tender packages, and recommend the award of a contract for an upgrade of a water system in Cypress Provincial Park. After bid opening the engineer realized that the bid documents failed to request a key price component. The engineer approached each of the bidders and commenced a process of what it characterized as “negotiations,” but which the court viewed as “bid shopping.” Ultimately the engineer recommended that the Ministry should award the contract for the water system to a bidder who was not the low bidder when the bids were opened, but who provided a more favourable price as a result of subsequent “negotiations.” The low bidder, Stanco Projects Ltd., brought an action for damages against the Ministry, which in turn brought a claim against the engineer for negligence.

The British Columbia Court of Appeal reviewed the engineer’s conduct, including its failure to properly draft the bid documents as well as the “negotiation” activities, and found that the engineer’s conduct had caused the

finance

Ministry to award Contract B to a non-compliant bidder and thereby breach its Contract A obligations to Stanco. As a result, the engineer was liable for the damages the Ministry paid to Stanco.

There appears little doubt that engineers who provide tendering services to their clients will be held responsible where the client suffers damages as a result of the engineer’s act or omission in relation to tendering.

Does that mean engineers should stop providing such services? Not necessarily. But, it does suggest that engineers should consider “sub-contracting” the tendering services to those who have the expertise, such as lawyers practising procurement law. Alternatively, engineers could hire a procurement lawyer to develop “template” bid documents that could be used on different projects.

Otherwise, the answer to my colleague’s question could be, “a lawyer does not do engineering, but an engineer will (at least sometimes) practise law.”

CCE Dražen Bulat is a partner in the Toronto office of Miller Thomson LLP and chair of its national construction and infrastructure group. E-mail dbulat@millerthomson.com

continued from page 47

be made to the IPP at the outset (i.e. as the first-time contribution). This is 8.5 times the RRSP contribution limit of $22,450 for 2011.

Impressive – but there is more. Assuming the money grows at the actuarial assumption of 7.5%, that IPP would have accumulated $588,047 more retirement money than the person's RRSP would have generated at age 65.

Very impressive The bottom line is that an IPP is something worthy of investigation if your circumstances permit. We caution that on your journey of discovery, don’t accept a quick dismissal of the IPP by your accountant or financial advisor. While the IPP isn’t for everyone, quotes obtainable within 24 hours will quickly determine whether or not an IPP makes sense for you.

CCE Andrew Bay, PFP, CFP is a division director and Jeff Thorsteinson is a consultant, both with Investors Group in Vancouver. E-mail Andrew.bay@investorsgroup.com, Jeff. thorsteinson@investorsgroup.com This is a general source of information only. It is not intended to provide personalized tax, legal or investment advice, and is not intended as a solicitation to purchase securities. Andrew Bay and Jeff Thorsteinson are solely responsible for its content. For more information on this topic or any other financial matter, please contact an Investors Group Consultant. Commissions, fees and expenses may be associated with mutual fund investments. Read the prospectus before investing. Mutual funds are not guaranteed, values change frequently and past performance may not be repeated.

48

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August/September 2011

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opinion

By Andrew Steeves, P.Eng.

All managers face a dilemma when it comes to making tough decisions: do we want to be liked or do we want to be respected?

Learning to Say “No”

S

everal years ago a young engineer at the New Brunswick Department of Transportation was promoted to the position of District Engineer. The promotion took this junior professional out of headquarters and put him in rural New Brunswick — well away from the scrutiny (and support) of senior staff. As the day of his posting approached the young man was filled with an unsettling combination of excitement and terror. Sensing the engineer’s plight, one of the grizzled veterans of the department pulled him aside and gave him this advice: “Young man, you will do fine as long as you remember the meaning of one word … and that word is ‘no.’”

I heard this story many years ago.

The “young engineer” was himself by then a grizzled veteran when he told me the story. He had gone on to have a very successful career and retired as a well-respected senior manager in the New Brunswick transportation department. He never forgot the advice.

I, too, have remembered the story because it illustrates a management truth that I have witnessed again and again. “Yes” is easy: “No” is hard. Soon after being promoted, every manager is faced with the necessity of saying “no.” Some of us delay that day as long as possible. We postpone decisions, we pass decisions to the next level of management and -- unfortunately -we even say “yes” when we know it is the wrong answer. However, try as we might we cannot avoid the inevitable: the day will come when we have to say “no.” That is the day when the apprenticeship begins.

All managers face a dilemma: do we want to be liked or do we want to be respected? There is a right choice,

and the clue to that choice is the word “no.” People do not like being told that they will not get the promotion, that their raise will not be as large as requested, that they will not be sent to a conference. And when a manager has to turn such requests down he is not popular and, for a time, he may not be liked. Being disliked is not pleasant and makes us uncomAndrew Steeves fortable.

Management is not a Popularity Contest. You and I were not promoted to make people happy: we were promoted for the wellbeing of the organization that hired us. The rationale for all our decisions should be the wellbeing of the organization and the group, not our own comfort.

We should remember that management is not an Unpopularity Contest either. There are good ways and bad ways to say “no.” The good ways are more difficult than the bad ways. The good ways take time: saying “no” in person rather than by email; saying it at a meeting rather than by a quick call; providing the rationale as well as the result; being prepared for follow-up questions rather than laying down a cut and dried decision.

By making a decision for the right reasons and delivering that message in a respectful manner, a manager’s decision can be respected. I may not agree with your decision but I can agree with your rationale and your

right to decide. For a manager respect is earned; being liked is an accident of fate.

Indeed, it is likely best for a new manager to get his or her first “no” out of the way quickly for there is no better way of demonstrating that “there’s a new sheriff in town.”

The most effective “no” a new manager can make is also one of the most difficult: it is to say “no” to himself.

In my career at ADI/ exp it was my observation that all the successful managers asked no more of their staff than they demanded of themselves. Decisions regarding overtime or delayed vacation, holding difficult meetings or delivering unpleasant news to clients, were all tasks done by the manager — not passed to subordinates. Extra hours for staff were extra hours for the manager as well. There were no perks: I did not work for a successful manager who was not willing to do his own photocopying or who attended more golf events than his staff. These managers were also leaders.

Management should be more difficult, not easier, than being a tech or professional. It all starts with the word “no.”

As is often the case, the grizzled veteran was right.

CCE Andrew Steeves, P.Eng. is a strategic advisor with exp Services in Fredericton, N.B. He is also an editorial advisor with Canadian Consulting Engineer magazine.

August/September 2011

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Antifreeze in sprinklers can cause combustion In July the U.S.-based National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) gave a webinar on its new requirements for its sprinkler standards under NFPA 13.

Presenter Matthew J. Klaus of NFPA explained that they began by noticing a common thread to “a handful” of unexplained fires: they all had a high percentage volume of antifreeze in the sprinkler system.

In one case from 2009 in California, a person had been cooking onions on the kitchen stove. When the sprinklers came on there was a fireball and the kitchen windows were thrown 50 feet.

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Under the new rules, sprinkler systems have to contain only antifreeze solutions that are premixed in a factory. The premixed antifreeze 52

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p46-56 CCE AugSept11 Deptartments.indd 52

must be certified, and tested annually. For glycerin the premixed concentration must be only 48% by volume, and for propylene glycol the limit is 38% by volume.

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www.geindustrial.com

Hubbell Canada LP (Lighting Div)

29

pkumar@hubbell-canada.com

800-465-7051

www.hubbellonline.com/lighting

International Exposition Company

39

info@ahrexpo.com

International Sites and Spills Expo

22

cbell-lenoury@sitesandspills.com

Knovel

25

Kodiak Engineering Inc

26

Levelton Consultants Ltd

26

info@levelton.com

604-278-1411

www.levelton.com

Miller Thomson LLP

26

opawson@millerthomsom.com

604-643-1254

www.millerthomson.com

Mitsubishi

27

hvac@mesca.mea.com

905.475.8989

www.MitsubishiHVAC.ca

Ontario Power Authority

21

saveonenergy.ca/business

800-797-9604

www.powerauthority.on.ca

OSRAM Sylvania Ltd

12

laura.fuller@sylvania.com

905-671-5620

www.sylvania.com

1-877-726-3675

1-877-499-6049

www.camam.ws/engineers

800-461-9166 X 3389

www.eaton.com/powerquality

1-855-call-exp(255-5397)

www.exp.com

203-221-9232 (USA)

www.ahrexpo.com

1-866-517-5204

www.sitesandspills.com

sales@knovel.com

866-324-5163

www.knovel.com

Service@KodiakEngineering.com

1-289-313-0881

KodiakEngineering.com

VJ Pamensky

8

anthonyz@pamensky.com

Ruud Lighting

7

info@ruud.ca

www.pamensky.com

Schneider Electric

55

info@schneider-electric.com

SimplexGrinnell

5

ChWoodcock@simplexgrinnell.com

Softek Services Ltd

56

Systemair Inc

19

Trane

9

TraneCanada@trane.com

613-820-8111

www.trane.com

Victaulic Co of Canada

35

VicCanada@Victaulic.com

905-884-7444

www.victaulic.com

Working In Ltd

42

kylie.barker@workingin.com

64-9-302-0977

www.workingin.com

800-473-1234

www.ruud.ca

1-800-565-6699

www.schneider-electric.com

978-731-7052

www.simplexgrinnell.com

sales@s-frame.com

604-273-7737

www.s-frame.com

sales@systemair.net

1-877-SYS-AIR1

www.systemair.net

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E-Mail___________________________________________________________________________________ Canadian Consulting Engineer 12 Concorde Place, Suite 800, Toronto, ON M3C 4J2 Telephone toll free 1-800-268-7742 (Canada), 416 442-5600 ext 3543 Fax 416-510-6875. E-mail: bolechnowicz@bizinfogroup.ca Please provide us with the name of another professional engineer or specification writer at your company who would like to receive Canadian Consulting Magazine FREE*.

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August/September 2011

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11-08-11 2:33 PM

human edge

Work and Play

Braden Kurczak named one of 40 Under 40

B

raden Kurczak, P.Eng. is division head of green buildings with Enermodal Engineering of Kitchener, Ontario. Aged 32, he has been with the company for eight years. In October he will be presented with two 40 Under 40 Awards from construction magazines in the U.S.

L m e M

Q. HOW DID YOU GET NOMINATED FOR THE 40 UNDER 40 AWARDS, AND WHAT IS THE AWARD FOR?

Someone here at Enermodal nominated me. Frankly I was surprised, honoured and humbled by it. The awards look at your role in the industry, your role in your company, the accomplishments that you have had both in working life and personal life, as well as your commitment and how you use your passions to better the world.

Q. WILL YOU GO DOWN TO THE CEREMONIES?

I hope so. The challenge of somebody in my stage in life is balancing work and family life, and everything else. So if the baby says I’m not going to Chicago to get the award, the baby probably wins.

Q. TELL US A BIT ABOUT YOURSELF

I went to school at McMaster University. I did the engineering and management program, which has the engineering degree but also the core business degree as well. My engineering degree was in mechanical engineering.

It was probably the perfect program for me. I’m sort of double minded. I love the technical aspects but I also love the business aspects as well.

Q. WHAT MADE YOU GO TO ENERMODAL? IS IT BECAUSE IT FOCUSES ON GREEN BUILDINGS?

It is. After I graduated in 2003 I had offers from two manufacturers, and one from Enermodal. I realized I could effect change in the built environment working at Enermodal.

The compensation package wasn’t as big as manufacturing companies could offer, but for me that wasn’t the make or break issue It was a question of what kind of work am I 54

www.canadianconsultingengineer.com

p46-56 CCE AugSept11 Deptartments.indd 54

S o

I d Braden shooting hoops -- with the help of a trampoline.

really doing, and what my impact is going to be in the broader world.

Q. WHAT ABOUT PROJECT DUNK, YOUR ACROBATIC BASKETBALL SHOW?

It’s an entertainment show. I grew up as a competitive gymnast and a number of the gentlemen I grew up with are still very close. One of them got involved with the Toronto Raptors’ on-court entertainment team. I was in my last couple of years at university, looking for something to do for fun over the summer. This came up, so I got involved.

Since 2004, we’ve been travelling the world in our spare time -- which is limited now -- doing our show. We did Canada Day in Ottawa this summer. We were at Ontario Place in Toronto for most of May and June. We’ve done shows in the U.S., and been to Saudi Arabia and Oman.

There are probably 10 groups in the world at this level, but as far as we know we are the team from Canada.

That’s an exciting part of my non-engineering life. It’s always interesting when you talk to people and tell them you’re an acrobat. You get looks.

So part of me is the engineering side, and the artistic side of me lets me go and do this acrobatic show and blow off some steam with these guys.

CCE

August/September 2011

11-08-11 8:49 AM

L

D

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