MacKimmie Complex

The MacKimmie Complex Redevelopment project entailed a comprehensive renovation and expansion of the existing Library Tower, full demolition and reconstruction of the adjacent Link and Block facility, and complete revitalization/redevelopment of the surrounding landscape area known as Swanmall. The new MacKimmie complex (the old having been previously underutilized) will serve to revitalize the campus community while providing the University with a new administration space and high-performance and collaborative learning facilities. The project was awarded the Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC) Net Zero Carbon Standard — the first in Alberta and the largest project in Canada to receive this certification.

Unique to this project was the deployment of a full IP-based lighting control system, dually utilized for control of building and landscape lighting as well as building plug load — ingenuity in line with the project’s Net Zero mandate. Additionally, this mandate directly supported the incorporation of three systems of photovoltaics inherent in the design of the Tower, Link/Block, and the Block curtain wall system. Both the Tower and Block buildings are equipped with rooftop, fixed tilt, horizontal solar arrays (design combined output of 500kW DC [STC] and simulated annual production over 500MWh). The block façade was equipped with glazing integrated, semitransparent crystalline silicon-based cells (design combined output of 100kW DC [STC] and simulated annual production of over 75MWh).

The telecommunications systems infrastructure is also the first of its kind on campus, as the MacKimmie Complex consists of a full Gigabit Passive Optical Network (GPON) solution. Telecommunications services were distributed from two new campus head-end Optical Line Terminals (OLT) throughout a raised access floor system and grid of Optical Network Terminals (ONT) via fibre optical cabling (at all levels of network architecture) direct to user, providing local gigabit upstream and downstream capability. Adoption of the GPON solution also allowed a minimization of communications active equipment requirements throughout the complex, which, in turn, drastically lessened the floor-by-floor cooling requirement (from a heating and ventilation standpoint), another step towards achieving the project’s Net Zero goal.