Academic: Post-Secondary

Originally built in 1993 and located in the MacKimmie Complex’s West Block, the Professional Faculties Building at the University of Calgary needed a mechanical and electrical refresh to help meet the MacKimmie Complex’s Net-Zero Carbon goals. The Professional Faculties Block (home of Nursing and Social Sciences) underwent a complete mechanical and electrical upgrade on floors 2, 3, and 4, creating new spaces for research and collaboration, as well as the redesign of teaching areas to provide flexibility.

Centered around a four-storey atrium, the building provides the users with a comfortable, free-thinking space, emphasizing natural and artificial lighting to enhance wellness and promote creativity. The lighting design played a significant role in the redesign of this project. One of the challenges met was designing around a slanted ceiling that could not be changed. SMP created a unique design using surface mounted linear fixtures that transition to suspended luminaires to maximize the light around the perimeter, providing a unique aesthetic.

SMP’s scope of work for this project included new lighting and lighting control systems, including a new centralized low voltage lighting control system; new power, data, and AV branch infrastructure; and an update to the fire alarm design.