Deloitte Tower Becomes First LEED Platinum Office Building in Montreal

By Rachel Leber

MONTREAL — The Deloitte Tower in Montreal is the first office tower in the city to receive LEED Platinum status by the Canadian Green Building Council (CaGBC), awarded for multiple energy-efficient features that made the achievement possible. In addition, Cadillac Fairview Corporation Limited in Toronto, the building’s owner, is currently asking tenants to pursue LEED for Commercial Interiors (CI) at the Gold or Platinum level.

The LEED Platinum certification of the Deloitte Tower was part of a nationwide effort initiated by Cadillac Fairview called Green at Work. The program tracks energy consumption, water usage and waste diversion in new developments that Cadillac manages across Canada. Along those lines, the decision was made to target a LEED Platinum certification for the Deloitte Tower for the Core and Shell (CS) of the building, with the recent tracking for LEED for CI being the next step in this process. This progressive approach puts the development and its tenants at the forefront of sustainable office design in Canada.

The 560,000-square-foot, 22-story building is one part of a multiyear $2 billion plan by Cadillac Fairview to develop a prime sector of downtown Montreal. Architecture firms Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates PC (KPF), based in in New York City, and Toronto-based Bregman & Hamann Architects (B+H) were the architects on the project. The two architecture firms collaborated with glass and curtainwall fabricators to optimize the energy efficiency and visual appeal of the building. The sustainability measures of the building that earned it LEED Platinum status are intended to help tenants increase productivity while providing a more comfortable indoor environment, and have already reduced the building’s energy consumption by 40 percent, according to Cadillac Fairview.

The architectural team implemented a curtainwall design using lightly tinted gray vision glass to allow significant daylight to enter the interior space, and used the glass for more than 80 percent of the perimeter walls on all of the office floors. Additionally, to control heat gain and loss, the Deloitte Tower’s glazing is made up of dual-pane IGUs with a low-emissivity (low-e), gray-colored coating on the inside surfaces for optimal energy efficiency.

The glass supplier and fabricator of the IGUs was Multiver, which assisted the architects with performance calculations and color selection, and provided support throughout the design and construction process for energy efficiency and aesthetics. The TGI-Spacer hybrid spacer system incorporates a high-performance polymer and low-conductivity stainless steel, which provides minimal heat transfer, while maximizing protection against gas leakage and moisture penetration.

“Our pre-build simulations clearly indicated that the TGI-Spacer offered superior U-Factor, vapor barrier, site-line temperature and condensation resistance — exactly the right combination of quality, value and appearance for the tower project,” said Luc Cormier, vice president of operations at Multiver.

To maintain a congruent aesthetic appearance throughout all glass units, Multiver also used the TGI-Spacer in the project’s spandrel glass panels.

“The Deloitte Tower is a stunning example of design and functionality coming together beautifully by paying attention to the details of the glazing system,” said Brian Stephens, TGI market team member, in a statement. “The collaborative effort of the owner, design team, fabricators and installers created an environment that eliminates visual barriers, thus offering a desirable and productive office setting. The TGI-Spacer played an appropriately subtle, but very important role in seeing these results achieved.”