JEAN CANFIELD BUILDING

Description:

The Jean Canfield Building is a Government of Canada office building located in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. It is a four-storey office building with one level of underground parking on a brownfield site. A cast-in-place concrete flat plate structure with exposed columns and slab soffits was selected to help maximize daylight penetration and for ease of churn management. 

Recycled materials were used throughout the building and included fly ash, recycled rebar, recycled structural steel and recycled aggregate. The building was designed for loading above code minimum and to accommodate a single-storey addition to suit potential tenant requirements and growth. The project included many other sustainable features such as photovoltaic cells, fuel cell for emergency power, grey water storage, geothermal heating and cooling and an in-slab radiant piping system. It is the first building to achieve LEED® Gold certification in Atlantic Canada. [1]

The Jean Canfield Building is a showcase for many innovative environmental technologies, and uses natural light to reduce indoor lighting requirements, recycles rainwater to reduce water usage and has a reflective roof to reduce the amount of heat the building absorbs from the atmosphere. 

The four-storey, 17,500-square-metre facility was officially opened on April 25, 2008, and currently houses approximately 500 federal employees representing more than 10 federal departments and agencies. [2]

At [the building’s] grand opening celebration, the Department of Public Works and Government Services Canada had declared the facility “one of the most environmentally friendly buildings ever constructed by the Government of Canada.” Complementing the building’s impressive list of environmental technologies and design efficiencies, the Carmanah grid-tied solar power system uses a 636-square meter rooftop array to generate up to 111,000 watts of electrical power from the sun’s energy. A web-based interface displays key system information – including the amount of energy produced and greenhouse gases avoided – on a display screen in the lobby. 

 As a complement to the building’s primary electricity supply, the grid-tie solar power system offsets the amount of power drawn from the grid and helps keep monthly power bills low, all while reducing the building’s dependency on the electrical utility. According to Ron St. Onge, project manager with Public Works and Government Services Canada, the grid-tie solar power system supplies approximately 8-10% of the building’s electrical requirements, helping to keep demand, and electricity bills, under control. “It requires virtually zero maintenance, and aside from monitoring electrical production, it’s self sufficient,” said St. Onge. [3]

References:

[1]      “RJC Project Details.” RJC Engineers. Accessed July 15, 2021. https://www.rjc.ca/project-details/jean-canfield-government-of-canada-building.html.

[2]       “Jean Canfield Building Receives LEED Gold Certification.” Go Power, August 7, 2018. https://gpelectric.com/a-golden-moment-for-the-jean-canfield-building/.

Additional information:

Architecture, City, Completed Projects, Functional, Gold, Government, LEED, LEED Gold, Multi Use, Partnership, PE, PEI, Permanent, Prince Edward Island, Public