The Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC) has awarded the LEED Platinum certification to the headquarters of Manitoba Hydro Place located in downtown Winnipeg. This is the first office tower to receive this certification in Canada. The headquarters has 22 stories and covers a total area of 700,000 sq. ft. and was inaugurated during 2009.
Manitoba Hydro Place is Canada's first large office tower rated LEED Platinum for integrated holistic design. Photo credit: Gerry Kopelow. (PRNewsFoto/Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects)
Design architects Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects, Smith Carter Architects, climate engineers Transsolar and Manitoba Hydro Place collaborated together to implement the Integrated Design Process for the building. The building was monitored continuously by Manitoba Hydro over the past two years to ascertain the success of green features installed in the building. The hydro usage of the office tower is less than 85 kW-h which results in annual energy savings of $500,000. Manitoba Hydro will release the details of the building’s performance during the fall of 2012. Ever since the building was inaugurated, 70% of employees have adopted a healthier lifestyle such as travelling by public transport instead of their own car.
Over the past two years, the building has been presented with many awards such as the Best Tall Building in the Americas Award, 2011 RAIC Innovation in Architecture, 2010 AIA/COTE Top Ten Green Projects Award, Project Winner 2010 Royal Architectural Institute of Canada and the 2006 Canadian Architect Award for Excellence.
Thomas Auer of Transsolar Engineering stated that this recognition for the building emphasises the fact that the building is a model for integrated and holistic design.
Source: http://www.prnewswire.com