Manitoba Hydro Tower
Encyclopedia
Manitoba Hydro Place is the headquarters building of Manitoba Hydro
, the electric power and natural gas utility in the province of Manitoba, Canada — and is located at 360 Portage Avenue, downtown Winnipeg
.
Opened as Winnipeg's 4th tallest building in September 2009, the 21-story office tower brought together 1650 employees from 15 suburban locations into one 695000 sq ft (64,568 m²) highrise on a full, downtown block. With the design's plan view resembling a capital letter "A", the project comprises two 18-story twin wings framing three 6-story, south-facing atria
(winter gardens). The design's stepped, three-story, street-scaled podium contains retail space as well as an interior pedestrian street and a single level of parking, partially below grade — over which sit the atria, office wings and their 3-story mechanical penthouse. Total project cost was C$278m.
The building's bioclimatic, energy-efficient design features a 377 ft (115 m) tall solar chimney
, a geo-thermal HVAC
system using 280 five-inch tubes bored 380 feet into an underground aquifer, 100% fresh air (24 hours a day, year round, regardless of outside temperature) and a one-meter-wide double exterior wall with computer-controlled motorized vents that adjust the building's exterior skin throughout the day and evening. The various elements of the design work together to enable a 60% energy savings over a typical large office tower.
In 2009, CBC News
called Manitoba Hydro Place (MHP) one of "the most energy-efficient office towers in the world and the Toronto Star
called MHP the "most important building in Canada."
and the City of Winnipeg for purchase of the formerly city-owned electric utility
, Winnipeg Hydro.
Manitoba Hydro representatives toured to Europe to identify examples of energy efficient design a year prior to beginning the architect selection process.
Subsequently, the company assembled an integrated design
team comprising members from the corporation itself along with the design architects, the architects of record, energy engineers, building system engineers, cost estimators, and project contractors — selecting the Design Architect first: Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects
of Toronto. Smith Carter Architects of Winnipeg was the Architect of Record.
By December of 2003, the design team had selected the final site, and by 2004, Manitoba Hydro unveiled a series of design concepts for the building, having created a design brief for the building:
The brief was developed into a project charter defining the projects core principles and against which design concepts would be measured: that it would be flexible and adaptable to new technology and workplace changes, offer world-class energy efficiency, offer a signature design to enhance the image of the company and the city, help strengthen the city downtown, and be a solid financial investment.
The company committed one year to developing the building concept, using another year to ensure the concept integrated the key elements, including architectural, structural, energy performance, cost, constructability, and LEED
factors. Sixteen alternatives were developed, subsequently reduced to three options from which the final concept was selected.
to optimize the building's massing, orientation and exposed thermal mass and to use digital analysis and computerized building management systems to increase its efficiency. MHP integrates passive
elements (e.g., the south-facing winter gardens, natural daylighting, and the solar chimney) as well as active
systems (e.g., dimmable, programmable fluorescent lighting and a computer-operated building management system
).
Key specifics of the design include siting of the building to take advantage of prevailing winds and solar gain, minimizing north-facing surface area, using the building's south-facing atria to provide and precondition the building's constant fresh-air supply and using several 24-meter-tall waterfalls to humidify and dehumidify the fresh air intake. Green roof
s at the base of the building use plants to reduce stormwater
runoff and minimize the building's heat-island effect
, including such native prairie plants as sweet grass
.
The design uses the building's concrete thermal mass
to mitigate extreme temperature swings and integrate radiant heating
and cooling systems, with a solar chimney
to provide 100% fresh air by moving exhaust air to the bottom of the chimney to combine with the atria's preconditioned air and preheat incoming cold air to within room temperature, and employing geothermal
technology via a closed loop system of 280 boreholes, six inches in diameter (variously reported as five inches in diameter), 400 feet deep, located between elements of the foundation. The geo-thermal boreholes are filled with tubing carrying glycol, which extracts heat from the building in warmer months while warming the thermal mass of the floor slabs radiantly in colder months. Heat pumps and exchangers maximize the system's efficiency, providing conditioned water that is then circulated in tubes in the exposed ceiling slabs, providing 100% of the mechanical temperature conditioning.
MHB features a high performance building envelope
with a glass skin that is effectively triple-glazed — where the interior layer is single-glazed and separated from the double-glazed exterior layer by a one meter wide buffer zone. Windows at the east and west include operable sashes of both motorized, centrally controlled panels in the outer glazing and manually operated panels at the inner glazing as — well as shading located in the interstitial space. The floor plan shapes themselves (also known as floorplates) of MHP are shallow, with a distance of 11 meters from the face of the building to its interior core, facilitating natural daylighting.
Other systems integral to the design include high ceilings to maximize natural lighting, exterior walls of low-iron glass for maximum solar gain, automated solar shading, raised floors with a displacement ventilation system, high-output lighting with occupancy and light sensors on each fixture, a computer-based building management system
to coordinate operation of energy management and building systems as well as a group of green roof
s at the building's podium.
To achieve personal comfort levels, users have access to the operable elements of the façade and receives natural lighting 80% of normal office hours. In addition to the operable sashes, users can control their immediate environment via task lighting, shading devices and user-operable floor grilles.
Incidental to the building design itself, another idea behind MHP was indirect energy savings the project would facilitate by combining 15 disparate company entities in a single downtown location. Before MHP opened, 95 percent of the employees commuted to work via automobile. After working at the new building for less than helf a year, 50% of commuters were using forms of transportation other than the automobile.
Specifically, the average cold-climate Class A
Canadian office uses 400–550 kWh/m2 per year. A typical office space in Manitoba uses 495 kWh/m2 per year. Five years before the MHB was designed the typical office space in Canada utilized used 550 kWh/m2 per year. Because of recent work to reduce energy consumption in Winnipeg, a typical office highrise in the city uses approximately 325 kWh/m2 annually. Current annual Canadian energy targets for Class A office towers are 260kWh/m2.
MHP has a projected annual use of 88 kWh/m2 per annum, exceeding the Model National Energy Code for Buildings (MNECB) by 66%.
The building targets Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)
certification at the platinum level, the highest level of a four tier rating sytem. By mid-2011, two and half years after it opened, MHP still awaited formal certification, a time-consuming process that none of the province's seventy buildings seeking certification had achieved (by mid-2011).
During the initial phase of construction, in 2006, engineers discovered a higher water table
than anticipated. As the basement had originally been designed to accommodate numerous mechanical systems, the building underwent substantial redesign, including it's foundation. A level of the basement was also eliminated during the redesign.
Manitoba Hydro
Manitoba Hydro is the electric power and natural gas utility in the province of Manitoba, Canada. Founded in 1961, it is a provincial Crown Corporation, governed by the Manitoba Hydro-Electric Board and the Manitoba Hydro Act. Today the company operates 15 interconnected generating stations. It has...
, the electric power and natural gas utility in the province of Manitoba, Canada — and is located at 360 Portage Avenue, downtown Winnipeg
Downtown Winnipeg
Downtown Winnipeg is centred around Portage Avenue and Main Street, and is bounded by the Assiniboine River on the south, Colony and Balmoral Streets on the west, Notre Dame Avenue, Princess Street, and Logan Avenue on the north, and the Red River on the east. It includes the Exchange District,...
.
Opened as Winnipeg's 4th tallest building in September 2009, the 21-story office tower brought together 1650 employees from 15 suburban locations into one 695000 sq ft (64,568 m²) highrise on a full, downtown block. With the design's plan view resembling a capital letter "A", the project comprises two 18-story twin wings framing three 6-story, south-facing atria
Atrium
Atrium may refer to:*Atrium , a large open space within a building usually with a glass roof*Atrium , microscopic air sacs in lungs*Atrium , an anatomical structure of the heart* Atrium of the ventricular system of the brain...
(winter gardens). The design's stepped, three-story, street-scaled podium contains retail space as well as an interior pedestrian street and a single level of parking, partially below grade — over which sit the atria, office wings and their 3-story mechanical penthouse. Total project cost was C$278m.
The building's bioclimatic, energy-efficient design features a 377 ft (115 m) tall solar chimney
Solar chimney
A solar chimney — often referred to as a thermal chimney — is a way of improving the natural ventilation of buildings by using convection of air heated by passive solar energy...
, a geo-thermal HVAC
HVAC
HVAC refers to technology of indoor or automotive environmental comfort. HVAC system design is a major subdiscipline of mechanical engineering, based on the principles of thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, and heat transfer...
system using 280 five-inch tubes bored 380 feet into an underground aquifer, 100% fresh air (24 hours a day, year round, regardless of outside temperature) and a one-meter-wide double exterior wall with computer-controlled motorized vents that adjust the building's exterior skin throughout the day and evening. The various elements of the design work together to enable a 60% energy savings over a typical large office tower.
In 2009, CBC News
CBC News
CBC News is the department within the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the news gathering and production of news programs on CBC television, radio and online services...
called Manitoba Hydro Place (MHP) one of "the most energy-efficient office towers in the world and the Toronto Star
Toronto Star
The Toronto Star is Canada's highest-circulation newspaper, based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Its print edition is distributed almost entirely within the province of Ontario...
called MHP the "most important building in Canada."
Background and design process
Construction of a downtown headquarters building was integral to the 2002 purchase agreement between Manitoba HydroManitoba Hydro
Manitoba Hydro is the electric power and natural gas utility in the province of Manitoba, Canada. Founded in 1961, it is a provincial Crown Corporation, governed by the Manitoba Hydro-Electric Board and the Manitoba Hydro Act. Today the company operates 15 interconnected generating stations. It has...
and the City of Winnipeg for purchase of the formerly city-owned electric utility
Electric utility
An electric utility is a company that engages in the generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity for sale generally in a regulated market. The electrical utility industry is a major provider of energy in most countries. It is indispensable to factories, commercial establishments,...
, Winnipeg Hydro.
Manitoba Hydro representatives toured to Europe to identify examples of energy efficient design a year prior to beginning the architect selection process.
Subsequently, the company assembled an integrated design
Integrated design
Integrated design is a collaborative method for designing buildings which emphasizes the development of a holistic design.Conventional building design usually involves a series of hand-offs from owner to architect, from builder to occupant...
team comprising members from the corporation itself along with the design architects, the architects of record, energy engineers, building system engineers, cost estimators, and project contractors — selecting the Design Architect first: Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects
Bruce Kuwabara
Bruce Bunji Kuwabara, B.Arch, OAA, FRAIC, RCA, AIA is a Canadian architect and partner in the firm Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects ....
of Toronto. Smith Carter Architects of Winnipeg was the Architect of Record.
By December of 2003, the design team had selected the final site, and by 2004, Manitoba Hydro unveiled a series of design concepts for the building, having created a design brief for the building:
The brief was developed into a project charter defining the projects core principles and against which design concepts would be measured: that it would be flexible and adaptable to new technology and workplace changes, offer world-class energy efficiency, offer a signature design to enhance the image of the company and the city, help strengthen the city downtown, and be a solid financial investment.
The company committed one year to developing the building concept, using another year to ensure the concept integrated the key elements, including architectural, structural, energy performance, cost, constructability, and LEED
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design consists of a suite of rating systems for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings, homes and neighborhoods....
factors. Sixteen alternatives were developed, subsequently reduced to three options from which the final concept was selected.
Energy efficient design
To meet its initial design target, that of a sustainable, energy-efficient building, Manitoba Hydro Place (MHP) was developed using an Integrated Design ProcessIntegrated design
Integrated design is a collaborative method for designing buildings which emphasizes the development of a holistic design.Conventional building design usually involves a series of hand-offs from owner to architect, from builder to occupant...
to optimize the building's massing, orientation and exposed thermal mass and to use digital analysis and computerized building management systems to increase its efficiency. MHP integrates passive
Passive solar building design
In passive solar building design, windows, walls, and floors are made to collect, store, and distribute solar energy in the form of heat in the winter and reject solar heat in the summer...
elements (e.g., the south-facing winter gardens, natural daylighting, and the solar chimney) as well as active
Active solar
Active solar technologies are employed to convert solar energy into another more useful form of energy. This would normally be a conversion to heat or electrical energy. Inside a building this energy would be used for heating, cooling, or off-setting other energy use or costs. Active solar uses...
systems (e.g., dimmable, programmable fluorescent lighting and a computer-operated building management system
Building Management System
A Building Management System is a computer-based control system installed in buildings that controls and monitors the building’s mechanical and electrical equipment such as ventilation, lighting, power systems, fire systems, and security systems...
).
Key specifics of the design include siting of the building to take advantage of prevailing winds and solar gain, minimizing north-facing surface area, using the building's south-facing atria to provide and precondition the building's constant fresh-air supply and using several 24-meter-tall waterfalls to humidify and dehumidify the fresh air intake. Green roof
Green roof
A green roof is a roof of a building that is partially or completely covered with vegetation and a growing medium, planted over a waterproofing membrane. It may also include additional layers such as a root barrier and drainage and irrigation systems...
s at the base of the building use plants to reduce stormwater
Stormwater
Stormwater is water that originates during precipitation events. It may also be used to apply to water that originates with snowmelt that enters the stormwater system...
runoff and minimize the building's heat-island effect
Urban heat island
An urban heat island is a metropolitan area which is significantly warmer than its surrounding rural areas. The phenomenon was first investigated and described by Luke Howard in the 1810s, although he was not the one to name the phenomenon. The temperature difference usually is larger at night...
, including such native prairie plants as sweet grass
Sweet grass
Hierochloe odorata or Anthoxanthum nitens, also known as sweet grass, buffalo grass, bison grass, holy grass , manna grass, Mary’s grass, seneca grass, sweetgrass, or vanilla grass, is an aromatic herb which grows in northern Eurasia and in North America...
.
The design uses the building's concrete thermal mass
Thermal mass
Thermal mass is a concept in building design which describes how the mass of the building provides "inertia" against temperature fluctuations, sometimes known as the thermal flywheel effect...
to mitigate extreme temperature swings and integrate radiant heating
Radiant heating
Radiant heating is a technology for heating indoor and outdoor areas. Heating by radiant energy is observed everyday, the warmth of the sunshine being probably the most commonly observed example. Radiant heating as a technology is typically more narrowly defined...
and cooling systems, with a solar chimney
Solar chimney
A solar chimney — often referred to as a thermal chimney — is a way of improving the natural ventilation of buildings by using convection of air heated by passive solar energy...
to provide 100% fresh air by moving exhaust air to the bottom of the chimney to combine with the atria's preconditioned air and preheat incoming cold air to within room temperature, and employing geothermal
Geothermal
Geothermal is related to energy and may refer to:* The geothermal gradient and associated heat flows from within the Earth- Renewable technology :...
technology via a closed loop system of 280 boreholes, six inches in diameter (variously reported as five inches in diameter), 400 feet deep, located between elements of the foundation. The geo-thermal boreholes are filled with tubing carrying glycol, which extracts heat from the building in warmer months while warming the thermal mass of the floor slabs radiantly in colder months. Heat pumps and exchangers maximize the system's efficiency, providing conditioned water that is then circulated in tubes in the exposed ceiling slabs, providing 100% of the mechanical temperature conditioning.
MHB features a high performance building envelope
Building envelope
The building envelope is the physical separator between the interior and the exterior environments of a building. Another emerging term is "Building Enclosure". It serves as the outer shell to help maintain the indoor environment and facilitate its climate control...
with a glass skin that is effectively triple-glazed — where the interior layer is single-glazed and separated from the double-glazed exterior layer by a one meter wide buffer zone. Windows at the east and west include operable sashes of both motorized, centrally controlled panels in the outer glazing and manually operated panels at the inner glazing as — well as shading located in the interstitial space. The floor plan shapes themselves (also known as floorplates) of MHP are shallow, with a distance of 11 meters from the face of the building to its interior core, facilitating natural daylighting.
Other systems integral to the design include high ceilings to maximize natural lighting, exterior walls of low-iron glass for maximum solar gain, automated solar shading, raised floors with a displacement ventilation system, high-output lighting with occupancy and light sensors on each fixture, a computer-based building management system
Building Management System
A Building Management System is a computer-based control system installed in buildings that controls and monitors the building’s mechanical and electrical equipment such as ventilation, lighting, power systems, fire systems, and security systems...
to coordinate operation of energy management and building systems as well as a group of green roof
Green roof
A green roof is a roof of a building that is partially or completely covered with vegetation and a growing medium, planted over a waterproofing membrane. It may also include additional layers such as a root barrier and drainage and irrigation systems...
s at the building's podium.
To achieve personal comfort levels, users have access to the operable elements of the façade and receives natural lighting 80% of normal office hours. In addition to the operable sashes, users can control their immediate environment via task lighting, shading devices and user-operable floor grilles.
Incidental to the building design itself, another idea behind MHP was indirect energy savings the project would facilitate by combining 15 disparate company entities in a single downtown location. Before MHP opened, 95 percent of the employees commuted to work via automobile. After working at the new building for less than helf a year, 50% of commuters were using forms of transportation other than the automobile.
MHP energy use
MHP targets electric usage less than 100 kWh/m²/a compared to 400 kWh/m²/a for a typical large scale North American office tower, located in a more temperate climate.Specifically, the average cold-climate Class A
Class A
Class A may refer to:* Class A airfield, a standardised design for military airfields built throughout Britain from 1942* Class A airspace, an airspace class defined by the ICAO* class A amplifier, a category of electronic amplifier...
Canadian office uses 400–550 kWh/m2 per year. A typical office space in Manitoba uses 495 kWh/m2 per year. Five years before the MHB was designed the typical office space in Canada utilized used 550 kWh/m2 per year. Because of recent work to reduce energy consumption in Winnipeg, a typical office highrise in the city uses approximately 325 kWh/m2 annually. Current annual Canadian energy targets for Class A office towers are 260kWh/m2.
MHP has a projected annual use of 88 kWh/m2 per annum, exceeding the Model National Energy Code for Buildings (MNECB) by 66%.
The building targets Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design consists of a suite of rating systems for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings, homes and neighborhoods....
certification at the platinum level, the highest level of a four tier rating sytem. By mid-2011, two and half years after it opened, MHP still awaited formal certification, a time-consuming process that none of the province's seventy buildings seeking certification had achieved (by mid-2011).
Cost
MHP was constructed at a cost of C$278m, or $400 per square foot. This would place the cost of the building much higher than local building developers would typically target for a city that is not expanding rapidly. The building was also financed internally, with a target construction payback period of more than 60 years rather than the much shorter typical return projection.During the initial phase of construction, in 2006, engineers discovered a higher water table
Water table
The water table is the level at which the submarine pressure is far from atmospheric pressure. It may be conveniently visualized as the 'surface' of the subsurface materials that are saturated with groundwater in a given vicinity. However, saturated conditions may extend above the water table as...
than anticipated. As the basement had originally been designed to accommodate numerous mechanical systems, the building underwent substantial redesign, including it's foundation. A level of the basement was also eliminated during the redesign.
Awards
- 2009 Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH)Council on Tall Buildings and Urban HabitatThe Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat is an international body in the field of tall buildings and sustainable urban design...
's Best Tall Building Americas award. At the time, CTBUH said Manitoba Hydro Place "was designed to be completely site specific. The design could not be transplanted to another city and still work, thus making it the perfect response to the seeming homogenization of the world's skylines." - 2008 IBS Award, Highly Commended
- 2009 Building of the Year, Office Category by Arch Daily.
- 2010 American Institute of ArchitectsAmerican Institute of ArchitectsThe American Institute of Architects is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach to support the architecture profession and improve its public image...
Committee on the Environment (COTE), Top Ten Green Buildings. - 2010 Sustainable Architecture & Building Magazine Award, Project Winner
- 2010 Royal Architectural Institute of CanadaRoyal Architectural Institute of CanadaThe Royal Architectural Institute of Canada , founded in 1907, is a Canadian association representing over 3,600 architects, and faculty and graduates of Canadian Schools of Architecture.RAIC is the voice for architecture and its practice in Canada...
, National Urban Design Award - 2010 the SAB (Sustainable Architecture and Building) Canadian Green Building Award.
- Engineers Canada – National Project Achievement Award
- 2010 ACEC Canadian Consulting Engineering Award – Buildings
- 2011 Royal Architectural Institute of CanadaRoyal Architectural Institute of CanadaThe Royal Architectural Institute of Canada , founded in 1907, is a Canadian association representing over 3,600 architects, and faculty and graduates of Canadian Schools of Architecture.RAIC is the voice for architecture and its practice in Canada...
, Innovation in Architecture - Canadian Consulting Engineering – Award of Excellence
- Association of Consulting Engineering Companies – Manitoba (Consulting Engineers of Manitoba) – Keystone Award and Award of Excellence
- Consulting Engineers of Alberta – Award of Excellence Sustainable Design
External links
- dedicated website at Smith Carter Architects
- dedicated website at Manitoba HydroManitoba HydroManitoba Hydro is the electric power and natural gas utility in the province of Manitoba, Canada. Founded in 1961, it is a provincial Crown Corporation, governed by the Manitoba Hydro-Electric Board and the Manitoba Hydro Act. Today the company operates 15 interconnected generating stations. It has...
- Emporis.com
- Construction Photos at Skyscraperpage Forum