Toronto Toronto Paramedic Services Multifunction Station | 13m | 2s | City of Toronto | Diamond Schmitt

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Toronto Paramedic Services Multifunction Paramedic Station | Diamond Schmitt

The new City of Toronto Paramedic Services Station at 330 Progress Avenue is targeting Net Zero Energy and Net Zero Carbon.
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The new City of Toronto Paramedic Services Multifunction Paramedic Station at 330 Progress Avenue is targeting Net Zero Energy and Net Zero Carbon. The energy story shapes the form of the building, providing functional and elegant spaces for on and off duty paramedics, Paramedic staff at all hours of the day, and an educational centre for training and recruitment.

The vehicle bay contains spaces for 40 ambulances and 20 supervisor vehicles, with associated support spaces for logistics technicians. To mitigate the high rates of energy loss through the overhead doors, vestibules were introduced on both sides of the vehicle bay, the first ambulance facility in Canada to do so. This design feature alone conserves 17% of the entire building’s energy.

Connecting to the vehicle bay on the first floor, the two-storey administration block contains the District 2 Hub and provides amenity and education spaces for staff. A skylit atrium links D2Hub, the common kitchen, the 700-stall locker area and the parade room with the ready ambulances and the logistics team. A pair of stairs in the atrium connects arriving trainees and paramedic candidates with the second floor classrooms, seminar rooms and labs.

The architectural expression of the building is informed by the tilt of the south solar wall, which conserves a further 17% of the entire building’s energy by pre-heating make-up air. Additional sustainable design features include a high-performance building envelope, photovoltaic roof panels to produce electricity on site, and hydronic floors to heat the building from the borehole energy storage system.

The Station is on track to achieve an energy use intensity (EUI) of 139, a remarkably low number for this type of facility. The design is a signal to the industry that is it is possible to have compelling design that is informed by energy systems.
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AlexBozikovic said:
Interesting that GH3 and Diamond have teamed up here. Hard to imagine GH3 could win a job like this on their own, given the way procurement works.
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I'd wondered if this was DSAI on the arch and gh3 on the landscape. Alex is absolutely right about the nuances of procurement (especially in a large municipality), and it behooves municipalities to figure out a way to account for that, because gh3 has been able to deliver two fantastic projects in Alberta -- everyone here should check out the Kathleen Andrews Transit Garage and the Borden Park Natural Swimming Pool.
 
In a report to the June 29th meeting of Government and Licensing Ctte, the City is seeking approval to expropriate an easement for access purposes to this site, from the adjacent property.


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Apparently this is the second of the mega-sized Ambulance stations. The other is 1300 Wilson.

I'm not sure how many others are contemplated.

I'd be interested to see the details of their service/dispatch modelling, as I assume (I don't know) they aren't actually keeping most ambulances on-site all day as that would suggest poor response times in much of the City.
 

TPS Multifunction Paramedic Station Receives Canadian Architect Award of Merit​


Nov 29, 2021

Diamond Schmitt’s scheme for the TPS Multifunction Paramedic Station, in association with gh3*, was developed from net-zero strategies. It is a direct response to the specific energy requirements of this building type and site, resulting in a design with exceptional environmental performance that distinctly emerges along Highway 401.

The building takes shape in the form of a mass timber structure that reduces embodied carbon by 34% when compared to a steel structure. It is defined by a dynamic sawtooth roofscape that faces south, and has been optimally angled and rotated to support photo-voltaic arrays and maximize solar capture. The roof design also enables the integration of clerestory windows that allow natural light to flood into all interior spaces. The architectural silhouette is further informed by the tilt of a south facing solar wall that conserves an additional 15% of the building’s energy.

Organized around a linear skylit atrium, the programmatic functions of the station include an administrative and education block positioned to the south, with vehicle bays accommodating 40 ambulances and 20 supervisor vehicles located adjacent to the north. To reduce the amount of energy lost through the 12 overhead vehicle doors, interior vestibules are introduced on both sides of each vehicle bay—the first ambulance facility in Canada to do so—conserving 17% of the building’s overall energy.

From the atrium, paramedics can easily access the vehicle areas, command post, offices, parade room, a kitchen and lounge, meeting room, and lockers for 700 staff and visitors. Stairs in the atrium connect to the second floor learning area that can be configured into four separate classrooms, or be used as one larger space for events.

Jury’s Comment:

This project elevates the architecture of a service building. The building is largely designed to house vehicles for essential services, and offsets the energy and carbon in the vehicles’ use with its net zero carbon and net zero energy targets. The building shape is sculptural and purposeful, most notably the photovoltaic roof that unifies the individual sheds of the building, providing optimal angles for solar energy capture and clerestories to the occupied interior spaces. A mass timber structure is used to reduce embodied carbon, helping the project target net zero carbon certification. There’s something seductive and attractive about the resulting form that is a site-specific response to capturing solar energy.

Read more about Diamond Schmitt’s award winning project here.

dsai.ca

TPS Multifunction Paramedic Station Receives Canadian Architect Award of Merit | Diamond Schmitt

The Toronto Paramedic Services (TPS) Multifunction Paramedic Station was one of seven projects from more than 170 national entries in the design phase that received an Award of Merit by the 2021…
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New renderings are updated in the database! There are 2-storey in the institutional building with a height of 13.0m. The renderings are taken from the architectural plan taken via the Site Plan Approval submissions.

Here are the renderings for the Toronto Paramedic Services Multifunction Station:

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PLN - Renderings or Perspective Drawings - DEC 21 2021-1.jpg


PLN - Renderings or Perspective Drawings - DEC 21 2021-4.jpg


PLN - Renderings or Perspective Drawings - DEC 21 2021-3.jpg

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Silly question time: When the pandemic is really over (and not just "over" because there's a Spring election being called), what would this facility serve as during that hypothetical down time?

PS: If I haven't indicated it, I am really digging the design aspects here.
 
UtakataNoAnnex said:
Silly question time: When the pandemic is really over (and not just "over" because there's a Spring election being called), what would this facility serve as during that hypothetical down time?

PS: If I haven't indicated it, I am really digging the design aspects here.
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Well, there are other maladies encountered in life for which a fleet of ambulances and their human operators are required… …you know, limbs dropping off unexpectedly, cars running into pedestrians because the pedestrians dared to enjoy a movie at home in the family room where the exterior walls were not covered in reflective vests, other things that end up in TV hospital dramas…

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