June 20, 2012

Algonquin Centre wins green innovation award

TORONTO

The Algonquin Centre for Construction Excellence (ACCE) at Algonquin College in Ottawa has won the Academic Leadership Award for green building innovation. The award was presented at the Canada Green Building Council’s (CaGBC) national conference.

The landmark building, which opened in 2011, consolidates under one sizable green roof the college’s building design and construction technology programs.

Designed by Diamond Schmitt Architects in collaboration with Edward J. Cuhaci and Associates Architects, ACCE is a showcase of sustainable design where real-time monitoring of the building’s operations is part of the curriculum for students and on display for the public.

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“Algonquin College developed a vision for the creation of an integrated learning and applied research environment, which resulted in the Algonquin Centre for Construction Excellence, a 190,000-square-foot uniquely green and architecturally iconic learning centre,” said Thomas Mueller, president and CEO of the Canada Green Building Council.

Donald Schmitt, principal with Diamond Schmitt Architects, said the many sustainable design features of this building — from the high-performance envelope to the green roofs and living wall — serve as a visible expression of the building’s identity as an energy-efficient structure.

The centre features “a lively interplay” of landscape elements — different ecosystems expressed along a vegetative “ribbon” of park, garden spaces, an undulating green roof and the bio-filter wall.

Together, these form a single system of connected outdoor and indoor spaces.

“These elements are designed to enrich the student experience, enhance bio-diversity, reduce storm water run-off, lower energy consumption and filter the indoor air,” Schmitt said.

Against this verdant setting, the school functions as a living laboratory that reveals through wall cutaways, glass floors and exhibits, the building’s energy, plumbing and electrical systems and the construction materials and techniques.

Built-in sensors located throughout the building provide real-time and historical building diagnostics via on-site LCD screens and a unique website, allowing students to monitor the building’s temperature, humidity, air quality, structural load, and other dynamic features of its day-to-day operation.

In May, the ACCE facility won a SCUP/AIA-CAE Award for Excellence in Architecture, presented by the Society for College and University Planning / American Institute of Architects — Committee on Architecture for Education. ACCE is one of three recently opened LEED Platinum-candidate facilities designed by Diamond Schmitt.

The others are The Centre for Green Cities at Evergreen Brick Works in Toronto and the CANMET Materials Technology Laboratory in Hamilton, Ont.

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