Multi-Unit Residential Projects

Palace Pier

At 47 stories, Palace Pier is one of Canada’s tallest residential buildings. We have performed a number of engineering projects over the years including replacing their domestic water booster pump station, installing a DDC-controlled fire alarm and voice communication system and replacing their cooling towers. The replacement of the booster pumps involved the application of variable frequency drives to control pump speed. This was one of the first such applications. The savings paid for the entire pump installation in less than 5 years.

75 Bamburgh Circle Heating Plant

We were retained to replace the boiler plant in this adult condominium. The boilers had failed because of poorly designed piping circuitry. A new boiler plant using primary-secondary-tertiary (PST) pumping and high efficiency boilers was installed to replace the large water tube boilers. The PST system allowed us to send out water at different temperatures to each zone, as well as provide for domestic hot water generation through a double wall heat exchanger.

15 Scadding Court Co-Gen Plant

This building had a co-generation plant installed consisting of a diesel-driven generator to be used for peak load shaving and various heat exchangers to absorb the excess heat produced by the engine. This system had never worked despite attempts by a number of engineering firms. The engine would over-heat within minutes and shut-down. We re-engineered the circuitry used to recover the engines excess heat, recovering more heat and using it more efficiently thus solving this problem. We were also retained to engineer a new, energy efficient boiler plant.

Gilder/Mornelle Heating Plants

Weinstein Taylor and Associates was retained to replace the boiler plant in three apartment buildings. The old atmospheric boilers were replaced with  high efficiency boilers that were also used to generate domestic hot water through double-wall plate heat exchangers. These new boiler plants are estimated to save about 25% of the annual fuel costs for each building. We were also retained to replace the makeup air units at one building, for which we specified new units with energy-saving ‘drum and tube’ heat exchangers and BI fans. 

140 the Esplanade Heating Plant

We were retained to engineer a boiler plant by the Toronto Housing Company to replace a failed adsorption chiller. The new system featured our PST design, high efficiency boilers and DDC controls. The domestic hot water was heated by the central plant using a double wall heat exchanger.

40 Asquith Fire Alarm System

40 Asquith is a 16-storey residential building with 240 units owned by the Toronto Housing Company. We were hired to engineer a replacement fire alarm system for the building, including the ground-floor commercial spaces.  We relocated the lobby fire alarm panel and increased the audibility of the system. In addition, we did a full building lighting retrofit which increased the energy efficiency of the building with a payback of less than three years. 

Nellies

Built in the late 1800s, this heritage home was converted to a women's shelter in the 1970s.  In 1999, we worked with our associate architect to do a complete building renovation, including exterior, interior and landscaping.  The engineering included designing a new heating system, a new building ventilation system, updating the electrical system, retrofitting the fire alarm system to meet code requirements, redesigning all building lighting and designing a new commercial kitchen and ventilation.  Our work features a radiant heat panel system on the ceiling, designed to free up floor space and to keep the heating source away from young children.

Bayshore Resort

This is part of the Deerhurst Resort. We were retained by Stannair to design a hydronic heating system to replace electric heating in this recreational condominium and conference centre. The design made extensive use of Kitek flexible piping for the distribution system because if its ease of installation. We also did a complete energy audit for the other buildings that are part of Deerhurst complex for Stannair as well as doing some engineering projects for CP Hotels, the managers of the Deerhurst.

2515 Bathurst St. Steam Plant

Our redesign of the heating plant for this 10-storey residential building included a steam boiler, venting, packaged condensate boiler feed unit with vacuum pump, steam to water heat exchanger for domestic hot water, direct digital controls (DDC) and full boiler room remodelling.

Ventilation Projects for the Toronto Housing Company

Weinstein Taylor and Associates was retained to engineer new make-up air units and exhausters on six of their buildings. These installations covered a range of applications. One of the installation used hydronic coils. One was a completely new installation. One MAU was mounted indoors. Both clam shell and drum and tube units were used.

Meadowvale Gardens

Meadowvale Gardens is a 326-unit complex of town homes and apartments in 16 buildings. The purpose of the project was to convert the heating from electric baseboards to gas-fired heating, and to add to air-conditioning.  We designed a central 'campus' style hydronic system.  An unused squash court was converted to a boiler room and a chiller plant was built.  Heated and chilled water is sent to each building, each of which is a separate zone, and to ducted fan coils in each suite.  Domestic water is heated by heat exchangers and storage tanks in each building.  The entire system is controlled by a direct digital control (DDC) system which is operated by the property manager.

140 The Esplanade Chiller Plant

Weinstein Taylor and Associates was initially retained to troubleshoot a problem with the control of condensing water temperature in this high-rise building. While we were investigating this problem, the absorption chiller failed. We were subsequently hired, on an emergency basis, to design a replacement boiler plant and centrifugal chiller-based cooling system.

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