Course Overview
As society strives toward lower-carbon construction and increased operational efficiency of the built environment, we know that a building’s envelope significantly impacts a project’s overall environmental performance. This panel presentation offers attendees a glimpse into three different façade systems being employed in three important mass timber projects in Toronto.
Industrialized exterior wall system for the 1925 Victoria Park project in Toronto, Canada.
From local to global, global to local – the CREE building system is used locally in various markets and continents. 1925 Victoria Park is an example of how you can use this exterior wall system. Since 2010, the CREE building system is constantly evolving and adapting to different markets. Now it is reaching North America. This presentation will give you insights into the project developments, design processes, challenges, and details of the exterior wall of the 1925 Victoria Park project in Toronto, Canada.
Learning Objectives
- Understand the integration of wood products in building envelopes and their role in achieving high-performance in mass timber projects.
- Analyze the challenges and technological solutions involved in combining wood products with other building materials for envelope construction.
- Evaluate the impact of prefabricated wood product systems on construction efficiency and environmental sustainability – in terms of construction timelines, labor efficiency, and carbon footprint reduction.
- Discuss the future implications and potential innovations in wood product applications in building envelope systems.
Course Video
Speaker Bio
Chris Ertsenian, Dip. Arch. Tech.
Associate
Moriyama & Teshima Architects
Case study presentation on the façade at Limberlost Place, Georg Brown College’s 10-storey, mass timber, net zero carbon emissions academic building on Toronto’s waterfront.
Chris Ertsenian, a long-standing MTA Associate and Senior Job Captain, facilitates competitive contractor bids, expedites construction, and minimizes change orders by ensuring that the firm’s contract documents optimize constructability and are clear, complete, and well-coordinated. He brings a breadth of experience on a wide range of project types and has been an integral member of the production and quality control team on many highly complex and exacting projects.
Chris is currently serving as Job Captain for Ontario’s first institutional mass timber building, Limberlost Place (formerly “The Arbour”) at George Brown College; managing the consultant team and monitoring construction progress. He is also the Senior Technologist on the University of Waterloo Faculty of Mathematics Academic Building.
Previously, Chris has worked with all of MTA’s partners to realize many major college and university buildings, including the Brian Mulroney Institute of Government at St. Francis Xavier University, Nova Scotia Community College’s Sydney Waterfront Campus, Toronto Metropolitan University’s Centre for Urban Innovation, and many more to name a few. He has also worked on several public and cultural projects, such as Place des Arts in the City of Greater Sudbury, the Government of Canada’s Visitor Welcome Centre Phase 1 on Parliament Hill, the City of Surrey (British Columbia) Civic Centre, as well as the Ismaili Centre and Aga Khan Museum in Toronto. With strong organizational skills and the ability to manage multiple complex projects at once, Chris’ impact on MTA’s portfolio is wide-ranging and highly influential.
He authored Moriyama & Teshima Architects’ CADD standards and user manual, as well as more recently authoring MTA’s Drawing Standards and assisting in BIM Standards which exemplify his organizational abilities, attention to detail and comprehensive knowledge of building technologies.
Kelsey Saunders, M.B.Sc., CPHD, LEED® AP BD+C.
Project Manager and Building Scientist
RDH Building Science Inc.
Case study presentation on the façade at the University of Toronto’s new 4-storey, 346-unit, mass timber student residence at Trinity College.
Kelsey Saunders is a Project Manager and Building Scientist at RDH Building Science and has been in the building science field for nearly 10 years. She holds a Bachelor of Architectural Science and a Master of Building Science degree from Ryerson University. She is a Certified Passive House Designer and a LEED AP in Building Design and Construction.
Kelsey’s work is focused on early-stage building enclosure consulting on new construction projects across North America with a particular specialty in low carbon buildings both in terms of operational and embodied carbon. She takes an enclosure-first approach to low carbon design and has worked on many Passive House, Net Zero Carbon, mass timber, and prefabricated panelized enclosure projects.
Kelsey has also been involved in numerous public and private research projects, including a current study of the embodied carbon impact of building enclosure systems in whole life carbon emissions to support early-stage decision making for low carbon design.
Tim Steffinger
Structural Consultant specialized in Engineering and System Design
CREE Buildings
Case study presentation on the façade at 1925 Victoria Park, an 11-storey, 154-unit mixed-use rental apartment building with ground floor commercial.
Tim Steffinger is a civil engineer from Germany specializing in Engineering and System Design. He studied at the University of Stuttgart and received his master’s degree in civil engineering with a focus on structural design. At CREE Buildings, he is our expert in exterior wall systems and is constantly improving the CREE System with his expertise and ever-expanding know-how through practical experience and exchange with the international network. As Structural Consultant at CREE, he supports our license partners in the realization of timber hybrid structures and coordinates CREE projects worldwide.
From local to global, global to local – the CREE building system is used locally in various markets and continents. 1925 Victoria Park is an example of how you can use this exterior wall system. Since 2010, the CREE building system is constantly evolving and adapting to different markets. Now it is reaching North America. This presentation will give you insights into the project developments, design processes, challenges, and details of the exterior wall of the 1925 Victoria Park project in Toronto, Canada.