Holiday Inn

This project included the construction of a new 9 storey hotel with 3 levels of underground parking garage and amenities such as a breakfast serving and seating area, indoor swimming pool, meeting rooms, gymnasium, and commercial unit. The mechanical and electrical systems included a central heat pump system with common area ERV units, a backup generator as well as central hot water for the hotel suites. A central water-source heat pump system with vertical stacked units in each suite offered an energy efficient HVAC system to the building compared to typical hotel PTAC units which were not suitable for the site as they do not offer great ambient noise reduction from nearby traffic. The water-source heat pump offers the capability of each hotel unit to be able to be in heating and cooling modes simultaneously in different zones which offers better thermal comfort to the occupants as well as offer thermal recovery when some units are in cooling and can reject their heat to the heat pump loop which will be used as “free heat” for the other heat pumps that can be in heating mode. This is useful for internal zones that require cooling or during shoulder seasons when one side of the building is exposed to the sun and can be under cooling and the other side of the building not exposed to the sun that can be in heating mode.

The project was developed and completed as a conventional design-bid-build process project. As the mechanical and electrical consultant, LRL collaborated with a general contractor, the project management team, the client and the architect to develop a cost-efficient building meeting the client expectations.

The project addressed the following activities:

• Review of all available background data;
• Participate in regular design and construction meetings;
• Prepared detailed mechanical and electrical engineering design;
• Communication with the architect, the project manager, the general contractor, the city, and the end users;
• Construction management services to assist the contractor and their sub-trades to tackle construction challenges;
• Regular construction inspections and reports;
• Final inspection and certificate.

Interesting fact: The building had to be designed with consideration of line of sight between Tommy D Douglas’s tomb in Beechwood Cemetery and the Parliament Peace Tower. The building roof height and equipment placement had to be considered to not infringe this line of site as per National Capital Commission (NCC) requirements.