Quebec hospital engineers win ASHRAE award

A Canadian building has won the first place in this year’s Technology Awards from the American Society of Heating Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) in the existing health care facilities category.<br>
The Honore-Mercier Hospital in Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec was chosen for the award. Engineers Laurier Nichols, Rejean Blais, Simon Pelletier, Oanh Nguyen, Jean Molina and Marco Freitas of the engineering company DESSAU in Montreal were named as the award-winners. Dessau has won several technology awards from Ashrae in the past decade.<br>
The 1970s Honore-Mercier hospital had to be completely gutted following the discovery of aspergillus contamination in 2003, which had spread through mildew in the walls. The building was decontaminated and temporary facilities for 300 beds and other services had to be set up in a neighbouring building.<br>
The rehabilitation of the mechanical-electrical systems through a life-cycle cost approach have reduced the building’s emissions by 3,576 tons per year. <br>
The project also won a Canadian Consulting Engineering award in 2007. Full details were published in the October-November issue of Canadian Consulting Engineer magazine.<br>
A senior engineer with Stantec Consulting in Seattle won first place in the new public assembly category in the ASHRAE Awards. Rick Grove won for the design of Firstenburg Community Centre in Vancouver Washington. The two-storey, 72,500-sq.ft. facility uses extensive natural ventilation and 97 per cent thermally efficient natural gas condensing boilers for heating water and ventilation. Grey water from the swimming pools’ backwash filters is used for flushing toilets, reducing municipal water use by 500,000 gallons per year.<br>
The ASHRAE Awards are being presented at the society’s winter meeting held in New York City, January 19-23. <br>
Twenty-two people individual people were honoured by being made Fellows of ASHRAE. Among them were Fariborz Haghighat, P.Eng., a professor in the department of building, civil and environmental engineering at Concordia University in Montreal. Another was T. David Underwood, P.Eng., president of Isotherm Engineering in Mississauga, Ontario.<br>