High-Level Integration for High-Rise Building

Owners of the 46-story Canterra Tower in Calgary, Alberta, needed a strategy to control and monitor all building systems, meet the needs of multiple tenants and reduce operating costs. To achieve this end, they established an on-site staff that focuses on building management and tenant satisfaction and works to continually upgrade the building and security systems.

By Staff March 1, 2001

Owners of the 46-story Canterra Tower in Calgary, Alberta, needed a strategy to control and monitor all building systems, meet the needs of multiple tenants and reduce operating costs. To achieve this end, they established an on-site staff that focuses on building management and tenant satisfaction and works to continually upgrade the building and security systems. The result has been the upgrade of the building-automation system (BAS), the addition of a state-of-the-art security system and the facilitation of energy and other cost savings.

The on-site team

The on-site team comprises an in-house staff, consultants and contractors. “The philosophy of this team,” says Bruce MacKenzie, general manager at Canterra Tower, “is to provide the best operational value, not be reactionary, but rather proactive and anticipate needs and problems.”

The team has contributed to continual enhancements in the design and operation of the building’s electrical, mechanical and security systems. For example, when MacKenzie decided to install a cogeneration system, the team worked closely with the manufacturer to install and later to maintain the system, which realized a fast one-year payback.

For nearly a decade, the building has maintained a 100-percent occupancy rate. “Most buildings make use of about 50 percent of a system’s capabilities,” says MacKenzie. “We were easily pushing 100 percent.”

In the mid-1990s the BAS was upgraded to incorporate technology that would allow building managers to control peak energy demand at pre-selected kilovolt-ampere levels, facilitating chiller sequencing and control of heating and cooling demands. Through the use of diagnostic data presentation, managers can make decisions based on the documented historical performance of the building systems.

The BAS currently controls nearly 2,500 operation points in the tower and generates information that has resulted in energy-saving adjustments to fresh-air supply and humidity levels, individual lighting controls and the office tower’s cogeneration system.

Security System Migrates

In 1999, the owners of Canterra Tower issued a request for proposal to replace the existing security system. The management wanted to offer tenants a proximity card-reader technology, replacing the old barium-ferrite technology throughout the facility and its parking lots.

The head-end unit was replaced with a new security-management system, proximity readers and additional elevator controls. However, as a cost-saving alternative to completely replacing the existing system, it was suggested that the system be “migrated” to allow the use of existing controllers, cutting replacement costs and time in half.

Depending on future needs, Canterra Tower now has the ability to integrate closed-circuit television, telephone entry and telephone redundancy. In addition, system databases can be partitioned for each tenant, and guards can be supplied with pagers that allow roaming capabilities without having to return to a central station to identify an alarm.

For more information about building systems from Johnson Controls, circle 103 on the Reader Service Card, page 65.