Segal Graduate School of Business
V A N C O U V E R
Building Program
Graduate School of Business
Building Area / Cost
5,760 SM / $20 million
Construction (Existing/New)
Masonry on concrete frame/cast in place
concrete slab
Development Manager
KC Jones
Prime Consultant
Merrick Architects
Consultant Team
Structural: Bush Bohlman
Mechanical: Earth Tech/Omicron
Electrical: FLA/Acumen
Interiors: Hopping Kovach Grinnell
Signage: Raven Interiors
C A M P U S
Project Description
The Segal Graduate School of Business is located in the 1910 Bank of Montreal
headquarters building located in Vancouver’s historic downtown financial district. The
building is named for SFU chancellor emeritus Joseph Segal who donated the building. It
was carefully restored and is now the SFU Graduate Business School.
The project won a City of Vancouver Heritage Honour Award as well as the AIBC
Lieutenant-Governor of BC Special Jury Award.
Design Concept
The original structure required major structural upgrading to meet current seismic and
building code. The heritage designation required preserving the heritage windows, heritage
ceilings and heritage interiors in the main floor areas. At the same time, the program
required that the spaces be fully equipped with the latest technology and demanding audio
visual equipment. The design brilliantly met all the competing requirements by
unobtrusively inserting a new mezzanine floor level inside the open original banking hall.
This intervention allowed many of the original building features to be retained and restored
while fully updating the building systems.
Contractor
Norsen Construction
Completion Date
May 2005
Figure 1: Segal Graduate School of Business
SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY • PROJECT OVERVIEW • 01
Project Detail Description
Mechanical System Features:
 Radiant heating/cooling ceiling panels
 Displacement ventilation
 Dedicated outdoor air systems
(DOAS) with heat recovery
 High efficiency delta-T heating
system
 Heavy mass existing building re-use
 Night pre-cooling
The original windows had to be retained to preserve the heritage character resulting in high
heat gain. However, the heavy masonry and concrete building mass was used to advantage
by using the thermal mass to moderate the internal building temperatures. A combination
of displacement ventilation, served by 100% outdoor air/exhaust air units with heat
recovery, and suspended radiant heating/cooling ceiling panels provides an energy efficient
HVAC system. The displacement ventilation system was modeled extensively using
computational fluid dynamics software to ensure that the supply air temperatures and air
delivery locations would provide the optimum room comfort conditions.
Low energy lighting, operated by occupancy schedules and local manual switches, allows
lighting to be turned off when not required.
A web-based controls system allows access to the building automation system from
anywhere to allow the system to be monitored and controlled by the SFU Facilities Office.
Despite the design challenges of fitting into a heritage building, the SFU Segal Graduate
School was successful in designing to meet 30% less energy per unit area compared to other
similar buildings.
Advantages:

Heritage ceilings were restored with full integration with HVAC and tee bar
ceilings

Ultra-quiet DV system

Heavy mass building tempers climate swings

Lower energy use in spite of single glazed windows

High temperature chilled water (59F) allows high efficiencies in chillers

Fast acting radiant panels allow conventional local zone control

Met a conventional building systems budget cost target
Figure 2: Restored Heritage façade
Figure 3: Restored Heritage ceilings
SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY • PROJECT OVERVIEW • 02