Nicolas Lemire, president and principal of the Montreal based engineering firm, Pageau Morel and Associates, is among the first place recipients of an ASHRAE Technology Award for the innovative design of the Anne-Marie Edward Science Building at John Abbott College in Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, Québec. The awards, which recognize achievement in energy management and indoor air quality in five building categories, will be presented later this month at ASHRAE’s 2016 Winter Conference in Orlando.

The six-storey, 125,000-square-foot building was designed as a showcase for sustainability to house collaborative learning space for classrooms, laboratories and informal meeting areas and reflect the interdisciplinary nature of science. It is named for a graduate of the John Abbott College CEGEP who was murdered at Montreal’s École Polytechnique in December 1989 while pursuing an engineering degree.

Completed in 2013, the building’s actual energy use is 10 per cent lower than the modelled design and 45 per cent lower than the baseline case. It features geothermal wells, electrical heating and cooling, natural gas heating and solar preheating, and water-efficient plumbing fixtures. Recovery and reuse of return air, coil condensation and rainwater contribute to building performance.

Other U.S. based winners of this year’s Technology Awards include: Benjamin Skelton, president of Cyclone Energy Group, for the Walgreens net zero store in Evanston, Illinois; Dylan Connelly, associate with Integral Group for DPR Construction’s net positive energy office building in San Francisco; Ken Warren, capital project manager, Port of Seattle, for the Sea-Tac Airport pre-conditioned air project; and Jonathan Heller, principal engineer with Ecotope Inc., for the Stack House Apartments in Seattle.

Photo courtesy of John Abbott College.