undoubtedly bring to the On-
tario student community.
The special purpose build-
ing is also utility and energy
conscious with a perspective
to reduce utility consumption
and by extension operating
costs as well as the impact
of the building on the envi-
ronment. “We at York have
embraced sustainable devel-
opment. It manifests itself
through the building which
has LEED Silver as the design
objective, and is positioned
to achieve LEED Gold,” says
Francki. With an eye towards
21st-century learning, the
institution will encompass
evolutionary
technologies
through the expansion of ex-
isting building automation
systems to control the envi-
ronment and consumption of
utilities. As well, digitally con-
trolled glass will be installed
that will selectively increase
or decrease the dimming in
the large panels of glass, al-
lowing the minimization of
solar glare or the optimiza-
tion of solar heat at the stroke
of a switch.
VISION FOR
THE FUTURE
Prior to constructing the
new engineering school, the
likes of which has not been
built in Canada for over 40
years, extensive research was
conducted where industry
leaders, governments, busi-
nesses and alumni were con-
sulted to find out what was
lacking in their education, and
the majority stated that it was
JUNE 2014
H
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