Award

FEBRUARY 2015 | 67 45 Parliament PHOTOGRAPHY + RENDERING COURTESY WZMH ARCHITECTS 45 Parliament by YVAN MARSTON T he irony of data centres is that while their purpose is to provide access to information, as buildings, they are designed to provide very limited access. Typically large, windowless concrete blocks fitted with hundreds of CCTV cameras, passcard-protected elevators and a small garrison of security per- sonnel that monitor a tightly controlled front lobby, these are the fortresses of the information economy. They are designed to house thou- sands of computer racks for storing data as well as to provide a place where a physical connection can be made to the major telecom links that connect the downtown core of the city to other financial centres. And to keep the flow of information 100 per cent reliable, these centres fea- ture all manner of emergency measures, including redundant or backup power supplies, redundant data communica- tions connections, as well as environ- mental controls such as air conditioning and fire suppression. From this perspective, the Interna- tional Business Exchange Centre at 45 Parliament is very much in keeping with the majority of data centres – but this one is easily one of the largest in Canada. A design-build project for tenant Equinix, which operates data centres in 32 markets around the world, this five-storey, 236,000-square-foot data centre houses approximately 140,000 square feet of "white space" for serv- ers. Its 35,700-square-foot fifth floor is dedicated to building systems as well as generator space, and a screen-enclosed rooftop penthouse provides an addi- tional area for mechanical units. Typical floor slabs are designed to hold loads of 250 pounds per square foot, which Zoran Tanasijevic, a princi- pal with Stephenson Engineering Ltd., the project's structural consultants, says is approximately six times more than the loading in residential build- ings. That said, the loading on the foun- dation system for this four-storey (plus mechanical) data centre would be the same as a 24-storey condo. And in cer- tain areas of the building, the structure was designed for the heavier loads of uninterruptable power supplies, bat- teries and generators. This kind of heav y loading can require some special structure, but Stephenson used its engineering cre- ativity to introduce a common struc- tural system of the flat slab. "We used drop panels with minor modification in order to reduce the structural construc- tion cost, which significantly contrib- uted to the feasibility of this challenging but exciting project," says Tanasijevic. Indeed, data centres are nothing if not extremely robust and loaded with redundant power systems. "If anything happens in the city, this is the building you want to be in," adds Ron Carinci, COO at Urbacon, the developer and design builder of this project. The art of this centre, however, and where it differs from other data centres is its obvious dedication to an esthetic. Located just south of Front Street East on a section of Parliament that is seeing evermore foot traffic as pedestrians walk from downtown to the Distillery District, the building responds to its rich context through the use of a visually interesting skin and by its stepped massing. Clad entirely in a combination of smooth and ribbed porcelain panels, and set upon a clear glass base, the patterned facades are designed to pay homage to the early computer punch- card technology, an early form of data processing. A glazed box at the south- west corner forms the entrance and is the main window element in this other- wise solid structure. But the animation offered by the dynamic terracotta- coloured panelling system can make you forget this fact. While the idea of the "punch card" is attributable to the building's designer Nicola Casciato, a principal w it h Toronto-based WZMH Architects, it was conceived after a meeting with Waterfront Toronto's review panel, an independent advisory body of leading architects and engineers that guides the revitalization of the city's waterfront. Having presented some initial concepts, the project team was encouraged to do something different. "They suggested that we try not to pretend the building was something that it's not. And that was one of the most important meetings we had," says Carinci, because it resulted in designing a signature data centre. And he is quick to recognize the lead- ership of the building's owners BML Group, and its willingness to commit to a more expensive exterior cladding sys- tem just to create a more visually inter- esting building. Urbacon has been building and designing data centres since 1990, but Carinci says the site challenges over soil remediation were the toughest he has ever encountered and easily the most extensive the city has ever seen. "We literally took out everything," he recalls. A former coal gasification plant operated by Consumer's Gas stood on the site and was the source of ground contamination for the entire area. But the epicentre of that contamination was exactly where Urbacon was build- ing its data centre. More than one-mil- lion cubic feet of earth was removed as crews excavated the entire site right down to the bedrock. Since the site was the only contami- nated land in the area to be remediated, the team had to build a barrier around the site's entire perimeter using imper- meable caisson walls that were sunk into the bedrock. The first five metres of fill consisted of a geo environmentally suitable clay on which they could build the foundation for the structure. Another of the site challenges, recalls Carinci, was doing all this excavation work while contending with the ruins of the former gasification plant. "A lot of the sub-surface infrastruc- ture of the old coal plant was there, including brick and concrete tanks, building foundations. And much of it was covered in coal tar, which caused environmental issues as the excavation and removal work went on," he says. Around the clock, real-time air monitoring and analytical testing – all of which was backed by analytical soil testing – mitigated concerns over air quality. And when material was being stockpiled for removal, or crews stopped digging for the day, the team would cover the contaminated soil and rubble with a special foam used to sup- press the vapours. The team went through a lot of trou- ble to make the site usable precisely because the location was important. And not for its adjacency to the burgeon- ing Distillery District but rather for its proximity to the city's TorIX exchange at 151 Front Street West and the financial core. Being situated physically closer to the country's largest Internet exchange point means it can offer incrementally faster connections to businesses where the speed of information flow is critical. "From an internet perspective," says Carinci, "it's like having access to the 401 [highway] connecting to the key networks around the globe." A LOCATION 45 Parliament Street, Toronto, Ontario OWNER BML Group Inc. DEVELOPER Urbacon Development Management Ltd. DESIGN-BUILD DEVELOPER Urbacon Buildings Group Corp. ARCHITECT WZMH Architects STRUCTURAL CONSULTANT Stephenson Engineering Ltd. MECHANICAL/ELECTRICAL CONSULTANT Smith + Andersen Consulting Engineers ENVIRONMENTAL CONSULTANTS Pinchin Ltd. TELECOM & AV CONSULTANT Mulvey & Banani International Inc. SECURITY CONSULTANT G4S Canada SIZE 236,000 square feet COST $105 million (base building and first phase tenant fit out)

• Cover