Award

J UNE 2017 | 81 Toronto Zoo Wildlife Health Centre MODEL + RENDERING COURTESY DIAMOND SCHMITT ARCHITECTS Toronto Zoo Wildlife Health Centre by YVAN MARSTON T here are over 5,000 animals representing 450 different species at the Toronto Zoo, and its new Wildlife Health Centre is designed to deliver care to all of them. And while it's tempting to compare the construction of this 32,464-square-foot Centre (part of an overall 50,000-square-foot complex) to that of a small hospital, the delivery of health care is only one aspect of this structure. It is also a state-of- the–art research centre that includes an endocrinology lab and a gamete lab used to study reproductive physiology. Besides the animals, the veterinary staff and the researchers, the building was also designed for another population: the public. The Centre's Windows on Wildlife gallery is a two-storey, light-filled atrium that provides large viewing windows into a surgery room, a treatment room, radiology, as well as some clinical spaces for parasitology, clinical pathology and water analysis. It offers patrons not only a first- hand look at how care is delivered, but also insight into other aspects of the Toronto Zoo's mission. "You will be able to see activities in each of these spaces and outside the spaces, there will be graphics and interpretives," says Leona Mitchell the zoo's director of facilities and services. "It will be an opportunity to provide information about what is happening and why it is important to both the zoo and the animals." The Centre is a key part of the zoo's ongoing commitment to wildlife health and nutrition, not to mention species survival research and conservation. It is this mix of programming with a focus on education that makes the $16-million facility stand out, quite literally, from its surrounding buildings. The original zoo veterinary facility dated back to the 1970s and was part of the operations complex set discretely in a corner of the zoo's 710-acre property located in the Rouge River Valley. While the rest of the buildings, with their bland, grey barn-board siding featuring punched windows and capped with metals roofs, are dressed as rural structures to blend with the natural surroundings, the new facility, with its dark brick and two-storey curtain wall facade accented with Solera panels, makes itself known. "Our building looks like a public building," says Diamond Schmitt Architects' Jon Soules, who together with colleagues Eric Lucassen and Nigel Tai began work on the project in 2011. The building's presence and how it departs from its setting serves as an invitation to explore, he explains. Beyond the public realm and on the other side of the walls past the viewing windows is a labyrinth of concrete- block corridors and animal wards with stainless steel cage apparatus – all surprisingly well-lit by daylight. "The zoo wanted natural light throughout, but it's a deep floor plan," says Soules, "so we made the space higher and used clerestories as a way to get light in." Structural consultant Eric Gordon recalls a number of early discussions regarding the durability of the interior finishes. Not only, he explains because of the size and strength of some of the occupants, but also because the need to continually wash down the spaces makes it a very moist environment. That's why the project minimized the use of exposed structural steel. "We used the majority of the animal ward walls as load bearing," he says, explaining that they set precast hollowcore floor slabs onto these load bearing walls to essentially build a masonry and hollowcore structure. Gordon's firm, Entuitive, provided the construction phase services part of the structural consulting, while the original design was completed by CH2M Hill. Working with concrete block and precast hollowcore slabs meant that many of the penetrations for mechanical services were planned in advance. And given that it is a medical building, there were a number of services to consider, not least of which was a robust ventilation system. Peter Gordon, a senior mechanical engineer for mechanical and electrical consultants H.H. Angus & Associates Ltd., explains that the systems in the animal care spaces throughout the centre need 100 percent fresh air supply with no return air. This is to ensure that contaminants are not circulated through the ventilation system. As for the surgical and treatment areas, these use dedicated supply air systems that incorporate higher air change requirements and filtration needs, which are comparable to that of a regular hospital. A heat energy recovery system balances the high energy demands required by infection control and lower air change and delivery rates are provided for normal use areas. Running services such as power and water were not only an important part of the project but a critical component of the construction logistics, explains Gillam Group Inc. senior project manager Mike Loma. Since the original building stood connected at either end to the zoo's Conservation Research Centre, Gillam Group had to demolish the old hospital structure while maintaining the existing services such as the sprinkler system, water lines as well as heating pipes, data communication and power lines. "We had a temporary unistrut apparatus set up to run services at the lower level through one part of the construction and had to build around it," says Loma. The building's masonry foundation rests on poured concrete footings and the precast concrete floor slabs were topped with a layer of concrete that was ground to expose the aggregate and then polished. "It's an application you often see in heavily trafficked areas," explains Loma, adding that the corridor walls are coated with epoxy-based paint, a common treatment for spaces requiring frequent wash downs, but also used in light-industrial spaces where heavy equipment is moved around. A ceiling-mounted rail system and hoists in the ambulance bay and treatment rooms enable staff to move patients weighing hundreds of pounds, or shift heavy cages from one area to the next. Despite the ample space the centre has for handling animals, providing post-operative care and performing modern diagnostics, the centre won't host every animal in the collection. "There are still some that we have to go out on site to treat," says the zoo's head veterinarian, Chris Dutton. Indeed, just like humans, sometimes the doctor just has to make a house call. A LOCATION 361A Old Finch Avenue, Toronto, Ontario OWNER Toronto Zoo ARCHITECT Diamond Schmitt Architects GENERAL CONTRACTOR Gillam Group Inc. STRUCTURAL DESIGN CONSULTANT CH2M Hill STRUCTURAL CONSULTANT OF RECORD Entuitive MECHANICAL/ ELECTRICAL CONSULTANT H.H. Angus & Associates Ltd. LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT PMA Landscape Architects Ltd. ANIMAL HEALTH CARE CONSULTANT DesignLeveL, LLC (Columbus, OH) TOTAL SIZE 32,464 square feet TOTAL ADDITION AND RENOVATION COST $16 million

• Cover