ects was one completed for the Richardson
College for the Environment at the University
of Winnipeg. Important green features in that
school included heat reclamation of labora-
tory exhaust. Another in 2003, one of Walkes’
first LEED targeted projects, was Oscar Lath-
lin Collegiate at the Opaskwayak Cree Nation
where he completed a geothermal design with
a dedicated outdoor air delivery system. Put
on hold for about five years after design was
completed, it was restarted in 2011, becoming
one of SMS’s first LEED “shadow” projects.
“It was quite an interesting school. This
whole soccer field has a geothermal heat ex-
changer built underneath it, and then you’ve
got distributed heat pumps throughout the
building, and heat recovery in the ventila-
tion system. It was one of the best buildings
that we’ve done in a while. The architect used
some day-lighting strategies and the use of
a “trombe” wall to use solar energy to heat
a corridor with ceiling fans to help distribute
heat” recalls Walkes.
“We’ve pushed the envelope a little bit
and been rewarded for things like that.” SMS
has recently received awards from ASHRAE
and the Association of Consulting Engineering
Companies of Manitoba for the Richardson
College for the Environment.
As for current projects, SMS is wrapping
up the construction phase in the next two
months on the Assiniboine Park Zoo’s Journey
to Churchill exhibit— the most comprehensive
project ever undertaken in Canada related to
climate change, polar bears and other north-
ern species.
“We’ve designed a district geothermal sys-
tem there where we’re connecting four differ-
ent buildings to a common geothermal loop
and sharing energy between each of those
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