Heritage Projects

Holy Family Personal Care Home Building Expansion

This phased project consisted of a 5 story addition to the existing personal care facility with tie-in and renovation to the existing facility. Mechanical work consisted of plumbing, heat pumps, boilers, RTU’s, AHU’s, MUA, pumps, humidifiers, infloor heating, walfin, radiant panels and reheat coils.

Typical site mockups were done to identify installation issue prior to installation. At the time the 2 Tempeff roof top units were the largest units Tempeff had built and installed. The heating/cooling Geothermal System consisted of 90 foot to 400 foot deep vertical wells and a clima-cool heat pump with a two boiler back-up system and state of the art control system. Using our in-house cad design software Westwood was able to virtually move the equipment around to confirm everything would fit prior to fabrication the piping in the penthouse mechanical room.

Cad drawings of the five-story heating system and shop fabrication of the heating mains allowed Westwood to deliver the material ready for install when the build construction required.

The plumbing waterlines were fabricated in Westwood shop to reduce installation time on site.

Completion of the building expansion and revitalization makes Holy Family Home the largest stand-alone personal care home in the province. Work was done to the existing mechanical, new four car garage for the Sister’s Residence, adult day program area, front entrance, rehabilitation clinic, treatment room, staff education room, central locker area chapel and new family dining area. Multiple changes on the project resulted from the need to accommodate client needs as well as site conditions.

University of Winnipeg Commons Colony Street Housing Project

Construction of new 14 story student housing complex at the University of Winnipeg built to LEED standards (Owner opted out of attaining full LEED accreditation). Work involved installation of complete mechanical and HVAC systems including fan coils, heat pumps, condensing units, boilers, makeup air equipment, and associated appurtenances.  The domestic water piping system included copper hot, cold, and recirc risers, copper branch piping on each floor, a duplex domestic water booster package and the supply, install, and testing of backflow preventers.  Copper pipe transitioned to pex at the isolation valves serving each suite runout.

During the initial design phase, Westwood was requested to provide drawing review and budgeting assistance. Clearly defining and understanding the scope of work early on helped flush out potential issues and reduced the potential for costly overruns and unforeseen issues that could result in schedule delays during the construction phase.

University of Winnipeg – Richardson College for the Environment

Richardson College for the Environment is a new 160,000 sq ft 4-storey LEED Gold accredited education facility comprised mainly of offices, classrooms and laboratories from the basement through to Level 3. The 4^th level houses the mechanical penthouse.

Westwood Mechanical Inc. participated in the project from the start and worked closely as part of design team to determine the overall design, scope and budget. The scope of work entailed the installation of complete mechanical plumbing and heating systems including low consumption fixtures, heat pumps, reverse osmosis and aquatic water systems, acid waste drainage, vacuum, rainwater leader overflow system, chilled water, air handling units c/w heat wheels, boilers, variable volume control boxes, etc.

The result is a state-of-the-art building for The University of Winnipeg’s for new home science, sustainability initiatives and community learning programs. The new addition facilitates cutting-edge research in biology, chemistry, environmental studies, Indigenous science and the social sciences in one of the most energy efficient educational buildings in North America. The complex itself is a model of green building technology, with recycled materials and a tree-filled atrium, and labs with state-of-the-art energy efficiency and heat recovery system.

Health Sciences Centre Central Energy Plant 2

The Central Power House #2 is located on the Health Sciences Centre Complex, Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Central Power House #2 is located on the Health Sciences Centre Complex consisted of a large (34,444 sq ft) industrial building designed to house backup generator power and supply chilled water to the existing grid to cool both the existing and new buildings as they come on-line. Three large backup diesel generators and three large chillers were installed with room to expand as required.

When this project started, there were still contemplated design changes that required both credits and extras to the project. As Westwood was aware of this, diligence was taken to ensure changes were priced in a timely manner.

This project required very large pieces of equipment with long lead time for delivery. At time upwards of 60,000 lbs were moved using cranes and other heavy duty moving equipment. Westwood’s purchasing department ordered these large pieces as soon as approval of the shop drawings were received. They confirmed a delivery schedule and followed up with suppliers on a regular basis to ensure the deliveries were to come as scheduled. Detailed drawings were made for all equipment connections to ensure sufficient materials were ordered.

Piping on this project ranged from 4 inch to 30 inch, requiring specialized tools such as a magnacut welding torch beveler/cutter and large fitting clamps and tools. This project required different piping installation including long sections of vertical piping from the main floor to the roof cooling towers inside the existing hospital. Long sections of multi layer racking required that in one area Westwood employed hydro vac under the basement slab to install 20 feet of piping to accommodate the limited space to run piping.

University of Manitoba, Engineering and Information Technology Centre

Due to an ever increasing demand for skilled Engineers, the Engineering Faculty at the University of Manitoba’s Fort Garry Campus recognized a need for a new technologically advanced facility to house training laboratories, classrooms, and administrative offices.

Through phased construction, work began on a new 6 story E2 building. Extensive renovations and upgrades to the existing building E3 services took place in conjunction with the new construction. Communication and coordination between all parties was paramount in balancing construction efforts with the challenging task of providing the Faculty with a functional building to aid in maintaining their ongoing operations. Completion of the new facility afforded the owner the ability to relocate operations to the new building so renovations to the existing 4 story building E1 facility could be completed. Historical preservation of the exterior façade coupled with total renovations to the interior of the building provided a twofold advantage to the Faculty, the ability to maintain its historical significance on campus while reaping the benefits of a new state of the art laboratory facility inside.

Notable mechanical items included; services being fed from the existing main campus grid and distributed to each building through new & existing tunnel systems to deliver high pressure steam, high pressure compressed air, pumped condensate and chilled water throughout each facility.

State of the art smoke evacuation system coupled with a pre action dry pipe sprinkler system was utilized in the E2 Building to bring in fresh air and clear the atrium space of smoke in the event of a fire. A multi-purpose atrium connecting the existing and the new facility.

St. Boniface Hospital Cardiac Surgery

The St Boniface Cardiac Surgery Ward is located in the Asper Building on the St Boniface Hospital Complex, Winnipeg, Manitoba.

This project consisted of redevelopment of 53,100 square feet of the main, fourth and fifth floors of the existing building to accommodate the Cardiac Unit post open-heart surgery ward complete with a 6,500 square foot addition to accommodate a new patient elevator.

New full turn key medical gases system equipment and piping were installed. The system included standard rooms as well as ICU complete with specialty overhead or booms to the renovated floors. New refrigeration lines were run throughout the building.

Renovation to the St Boniface General Hospital O and L blocks included dedicated access route through a new link. The link required main floor chilled water and RO mains be relocated within a working hospital with minimal shut down times.

Operations of the second and third floors of the Asper Builder were not interrupted during construction.

Other renovations and systems included a main floor clinic complete with medical gases, isolation rooms, dialysis hook-up in ICU rooms, ICU room bed washers and additional plumbing fixtures. This project achieved LEED Silver certification.