Case Study: How do you Meet the Demands of Current and Future Tenants?

Insight

July 06, 2022

65 King Street East’s converged network platform gives clients the flexibility to choose (and change) their level of connectivity and integration.

If you’re in downtown Toronto, you can’t miss the landmark 65 King Street East. The 18-storey tower deftly incorporates ground level retail, 400,000 square feet of office space, and a design that champions the existing heritage façade. But just as impressive are the features you can’t see – the “backbone” of this prestigious addition to the Toronto skyline.

The Challenge.

Smith + Andersen’s Intelligent Integrated Systems (IIS) team was engaged by the developer, Carttera, as the base building’s integration design consultant. The goal was to set 65 King East apart from other towers downtown via a flexible network platform that would attract and retain high quality clients who could then choose how they apply that flexibility. It was also important that, long-term, tenants would be able to operate their spaces cost-effectively.

The IIS team kept two perspectives in mind throughout the design process: utilizing technology that attracts high-quality tenants today, and creating a design that will meet the technology expectations of future tenants.

The Solution.

The immediate project scope was less about the building being connected to itself; instead, the goal was to give tenants the ability to connect to the outside world in different ways. S+A’s IIS and electrical teams created a flexible and redundant set of pathways and spaces to allow tenants flexibility in their selections and connections to local telecom service providers. As a Wired Certified Platinum base building, tenants have access to a choice of high-quality internet service providers and a variety of cabling types, including fibre.

The secondary design feature was a converged building network (CBN) “backbone” that allows all building systems sensors, devices, controllers, servers, to communicate with each other and the cloud if required.

And, importantly, 65 King East is “Smart Ready”. If current tenants want to increase their intelligent integration, or future tenants have other integration demands, the CBN provides the capability for any network-based systems to be added to the network…and then monitored or controlled by other systems!

A converged building network (CBN) “backbone” allows building systems to communicate with each other and the cloud if required.

The Result.

The outcome is a highly-adaptable converged building that will evolve with technology and business trends.

As a converged building, 65 King East gives tenants the flexibility to choose (and change) their level of integration and connectivity. Long-term tenant, Google, which occupies 18 floors, recently required the ability to integrate the base building security operations with their own systems. While both of the security systems function separately, the design of the CBN and integrated systems made this interoperability possible.

In the long-term, as technologies and ways of working evolve, the IIS design can support these changes – it all depends on what tenants (and their employees) want!

To learn more about this project, please visit the Project Page.

Leaders