Contract awarded to build new offices and centre for Waterloo North Hydro

WATERLOO CHRONICLE | Wednesday, June 16, 2010

The Waterloo North Hydro board of directors awarded the contract for construction of new office facilities and service centre to Melloul-Blamey Construction Inc. at a board meeting in May.

The new facilities will be built at 526 Country Squire Road in Woolwich Township.

Site preparation is nearing completion and construction is to begin within the next few weeks.

“We are simply bursting at the seams at our current facilities on Northfield Drive East,” said Eugene Moser, chair of the Board of Waterloo North Hydro Inc. “Expansion at our current location was seriously debated by the board of directors, but when all factors were taken into consideration, it just made much more sense to start from scratch with a new, state of the art facility.”

The new facilities will house all of the administration offices as well as the main service centre for Waterloo North Hydro for a total space of almost 104,000 square feet.

The building will be built to a LEED Silver standard, incorporating state of the art environmental technology and energy efficiency. The building will feature geothermal heating and cooling along with an exceptionally efficient building envelope, resulting in excellent occupant comfort and extremely efficient energy use.

“We’re very pleased to be able to incorporate innovative building concepts that will reduce the environmental impact of construction but will also have permanent sustainable benefits,” said Rene Gatien, Waterloo North CEO. “We were able to recycle or recover almost all of the material from the existing 100- year-old farm on the property.

“Many of the structural elements of the old barn such as the elm beams will be reworked to create beautiful board room tables and other esthetic features in the new building.”

Other features include operable windows and a 40,000 litre rainwater harvesting system.

Move-in date is expected in late 2011.

Waterloo North Hydro serves the city of Waterloo and the townships of Wellesley and Woolwich, delivering electricity to more than 140,000 local people.

Gatien said he is proud of the achievements that Waterloo North Hydro has made over the past 105 years.

“We’re pleased to be able to be leaders in environmental excellence and energy efficiency in our community.

“We realize that in our business we must be of service to customers to help make them successful.

“We will continue to strive for high reliability through continuous improvement, leadership and excellence.”


http://www.waterloochronicle.ca/news/article/212808

Construction starts on eco-friendly hydro offices

July 21, 2010 | Scott Nowoselski, Record Staff

WOOLWICH TOWNSHIP — The construction of Waterloo North Hydro’s new eco-friendly headquarters is officially underway after a groundbreaking ceremony yesterday morning on County Squire Road in Woolwich Township.

Waterloo mayor Brenda Halloran, Wellesley Township mayor Ross Kelterborn and Woolwich Township mayor Bill Strauss were all on hand Wednesday for the beginning of work on the $26 million facility that is scheduled to open December 2011.

The new hydro building near RIM Park will house administrative offices, truck and van garages and the main service centre for the public utility which delivers electricity to over 140,000 people living in Waterloo, Wellesley and Woolwich. The two-story facility will also double the office space for the company’s 100 employees, with the total floor area taking up almost 104,000 square feet.

Hydro service will be unaffected by the move, and could even improve as employees move out of their cramped quarters on Northfield Drive East into the bigger and newer building, hydro president and CEO Rene Gatien said.

The new office will also be eco-friendly, featuring geothermal heating and cooling along with a 40,000-litre rainwater harvesting system. Sitting on what had been the site of an old barn and farmhouse, the new hydro office will also reuse parts of the demolished buildings for furniture and board tables among other things.

Gatien said it was important for the hydro company to ensure its new office was energy efficient, saying it sends an important message to the rest of the community.

“It’s tough for us to ask our customers to make their buildings energy efficient if we’re not doing the same thing,” he said.

“This is really for the generations that are coming.”