Maintaining energy performance and occupant comfort in a multi award-winning mass timber structure
Located in the heart of Liberty Village, 80 Atlantic Avenue hails as Toronto’s first new timber-frame commercial building to be constructed in over thirty years.
This innovative office building, with its unique work environments and collaborative spaces, incorporates natural and high-performance materials, setting a new standard of development in the City. Exposed mass timber columns and beams are highlighted—and complimented—by exposed crosslaminated timber ceilings.
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The Challenge
The design’s return to heavy timber construction for an office setting aimed to create a unique building that is sustainable, aesthetically striking and cost-effective. The building’s designers wanted to set a new standard of development in Toronto by not only incorporating natural and high-performance materials, but also by achieving sustainability goals.
Our Approach
RWDI provided comprehensive building systems commissioning services for this unique downtown development. Extensive functional testing ensured proper control and operation of both temperature and humidity. RWDI continues to monitor the performance and control of the building, which is vital to protecting the structure, preventing building “drift”, and maintaining both energy performance and occupant comfort.
The Outcome
The five-storey building shadowed the LEED program and the design achieved over a 25 percent energy-use reduction above the Ontario Building Code. Not only is 80 Atlantic sustainable and cost-effective, it is also award-winning. In 2015, the structure was a finalist in the WAN Future Projects Awards hosted by World Architecture News. It has also been recognized with a Citation Award from the Wood Design and Building Awards, organized by Wood Design and Building magazine in partnership with the Canadian Wood Council. In 2018, 80 Atlantic was recognized in the office category of the Architectural Review/ MIPIM Future Project Awards, and in 2020 the building won the Mass Timber Wood Design Award at the WoodWORKS! Ontario Award. In 2022, 80 Atlantic received the Governor General's Medal in Architecture, once again illustrating design excellence.