Central Presbyterian Church

Completed: July 2018

About: This project has a lot of interesting components to it. Not only is it a fully functioning church with a brand-new pipe organ, but they also have a large day care, a kitchen designed to create meals for those in need and a rental equity program.

Challenges: Although this may look like one building there are two separate DDC systems within it. Bosa Properties owns the market housing on the upper floors and the Central Presbyterian Church owns and manages the church and the non-market housing. The two spaces operate and function as totally separate entities and therefore needed completely separate DDC systems.

Successes: CSL does not often do a lot of high density residential projects, so this was a nice change of pace for our team. As noted above this project is very community oriented, which as a family-owned and operated business is very important to the CSL family.

Iqaluit International Airport

Completed: June 2018

System: Automated Logic Corporation (ALC)

About: The Iqaluit International Airport is located on Baffin Island, at the northern end of Frobisher Bay near the mouth of the Sylvia Grinnell River. The airport is essential for the servicing of some of the most northern communities in Canada. With this upgrade, the airport grew from 1 to 5 terminals in total.

Challenges: Working in lows of -40 ℃, through months and months of darkness in the Arctic presented an interesting challenge for our team on the ground which was led by Brent Watson. Take out the environmental concerns, the logistics for this project were staggering. Every single item that our team needed had to be shipped to Montreal, Quebec, and be ready for transport for one of the three yearly barges to the island. Our first shipment almost didn’t make it before the water froze for the winter. Not to mention a case of coke cost $24!

Successes: Electricity in Nunavut is created through diesel combustion, which is not only expensive but hard on the environment. One of the biggest wins for this project was our team’s ability to recover 100% of the heat from the airport’s building generators. The heat recovery system that our team installed enabled this excess heat to be used through the rest of the building. While the airport building was the most prominent establishment in the area, there were actually two structures that our team worked on while in Iqaluit. The CSB, Combined Services Building, was also constructed and commissioned by the same team. That means our team had to simultaneously build two work sites that were not within walking distance, and without a car. All in all, I think it is safe to say this was definitely one of our more interesting and challenging projects.

Holt Renfrew

Completed: May 2018

System: Automated Logic Corporation (ALC)

About: Holt Renfrew is a chain of high-end Canadian department stores and its Vancouver location is found in the city center on Granville Street attached via a walkway to Pacific Centre. If you are a pedestrian, you will know it is the quickest way to get from West Pender Street to Robson Street without getting wet. That is some very important knowledge if you are a Vancouverite.

Challenges: As mentioned, Holt Renfrew is a high-end retailer, which means $7,000 shoes and $10,000 jackets. What that also indicates is no dust, dirt, ladders or dirty work clothes on the retail floor will be tolerated at any time. Our team upgraded the system, while keeping the store fully operational, without getting dust on any merchandise, and with two full phases completed outside of store hours. Great job team!

Successes: What makes this job stand out is the length of time it has taken to finalize. It is easily one of the longest running jobs that CSL has ever completed. In just over two years our team converted the entire Holt Renfrew building with five different phases of work to new mechanical equipment, controllers and full remote access. 

Sophos

Completed: November 2017

About: Sophos is located on the 14th and 15th floors of the CF Pacific Centre. The location at  777 Dunsmuir Street is pretty new as far as buildings go. It was constructed in 1990 and is a beautiful mix of traditional and post modern architecture.

Challenges: This job was done by our Special Projects division; Special Projects is for quick jobs turn around times and this job was no exception. Our team completed 800 hours of controls work  within 2 months. It was imperative that this work be completed on time otherwise 450 people  would be out of a job. Those in the Controls Industry know that it’s a tremendous amount of work  and pressure. To make things more interesting our team had to come in at the very end of every  project. That meant that if any of the other installers were late our time frame was shortened.

Successes: Not only did we complete this job on time under tremendous amounts of pressure, but we also successfully integrated a third party system into our ALC WebCTRL Software. This may  not have been our largest job but was definitely one with some high stakes.

Vancouver Public Library and YWCA

Completed: November 2017

About: The Strathcona Library building is a mix-use facility, with a 11,000 square foot library and 21 units of social housing for single mothers. Located in the heart of Strathcona, the last 
neighborhood in Vancouver without a library, this building was conceived out of a partnership between The City of Vancouver, the Vancouver Public Library and the YWCA.

Challenges: The entire structure holds three completely separate sections, with three very different  needs. There was the parkade with gas detection requirements, the Library which services the public,and the housing on top which of course is residential. Also, interestingly enough there are two  different types of frames. Typically the frame for a building is consistent and made out of one type ofmaterial, however this building has a concrete base and a wood frame on top.

Successes: Any building that includes social housing we would consider a success. It is always nice to be a part of a project that can support the community. As a family run and owned business we try  to do our best to support projects that we think will support the different communities where our employees and their families live.

SAP Data Centre

Completed: May 2016

System: Automated Logic Corporation (ALC)

About: The SAP building is 200,000 square feet and takes up an entire city block. Located in the  heart of Yaletown inside the building you’ll find 20,000 square feet of collaborative work space, an  entire gym facility, a bike room, maternity facility, therapy rooms, dry cleaning and a nap room.  Also, an interesting insider scoop, photographer Andrew Klaver, uncle to Control Solutions Ltd. owner Claude Nobauer (now retired), has his art up on the walls.

Challenges: The most common integration that we do is BACnet, but with our controllers being so diverse we can connect to just about anything. This job was a combination of BACnet and Modbus. Our team did a fantastic job learning the more detailed intricacies of Modbus, which included  building our own connectors and replacing all the UPS cards.

Successes: Due to the sensitive nature of the work done at SAP (their software runs the city of  Vancouver) we couldn’t create any downtime during the upgrade. Our team installed UPS’s and  generator communication cards, as well as 600V electrical meters and submeters while everything  was live. In addition to the huge success of upgrading a live data center, our team also tied the entire building lighting system into the DDC. This was no small job, needless to say the customer was  pretty happy when all was said and done.