Recognizing firms for projects which demonstrate "...an exceptional degree of innovation, complexity, achievement, and professional dedication", these awards have been given out annually for the past 15 years at the Consulting Engineers of Ontario's Annual Gala. This year, the gala was held on Saturday April 8th in Mississauga, welcoming some of the industry's most respected leaders.

At the gala this past weekend, Smith + Andersen was honoured to receive the OCEA 2017 Award of Merit for the Environmental Science and Chemistry Building on the University of Toronto's Scarborough Campus. This LEED Gold, 110,000 sf project was completed in 2015, and was designed by Diamond Schmitt Architects. Elaine Guenette, Associate at Smith + Andersen, accepted the award on behalf of the team, accompanied by Jeff Miller (Director of Facilities Management, University of Toronto Scarborough), and Nigel Tai (Associate, Diamond Schmitt Architects).

"Thank-you for the recognition for such an amazing project," Elaine shared with the room at the International Centre in Mississauga on Saturday night. "The team really worked hard to bring together the sustainable engineering elements, including a geothermal heating and cooling system, low velocity fume hoods, a cascading outdoor air system through the atrium, air sampling technology to optimize exhaust requirements, and giant underground concrete earth tubes for pre-treating outdoor air...to name just a few. Measured results by the University for 2016 are showing that the building is using about 50% of the energy of other, similar laboratory buildings on the campus."