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The York Region Administrative Centre Annex (ACA) is a municipal administration office in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada. It was completed by the architect firm WZMH Architects (Webb Zerafa Menkes Housden), in 2019 and opened to the public in 2020. The architects included many passive design strategies into this building so that it could be as sustainable as possible, which led it to receive the LEED Gold award because of this.

History

As a newer building finished in 2019, there is not much to its history but the site it sits on does and what is located around it. Located within walking distance from the building is the existing administration headquarters, designed by Douglas Cardinal in 1992. A bridge was added in during the construction of the new Administrative Centre Annex to connect the existing building to the new one in order to provide easy access to both.

Geography

To help concentrate and deal with stormwater the architects at WZMH designed bioswales in the landscape around the building. This not only helps with managing stormwater but it also gives plant life a place to grow with a natural watering system.

Sustainability

Many sustainable design features were incorporated into the design of the York Region Administrative Centre Annex. Features inside, and outside the building and even in the construction process were all used throughout this building to make it be as sustainable as it is today.

One of the most noticeable features about the inside of the building would have to be the eight story atrium with its massive glass curtain wall. This provides the entire building with natural lighting, along with views of the adjacent landscape. A six story living biofilter wall is located in this atrium and its purpose is to circulate the air inside to improve the overall air quality. Low flow plumbing fixtures are also used in the building to reduce the amount of water waste which resulted in saving over 2.7 million liters of water per year. Cooling towers were also added into the building to control the interior climate while saving energy. These towers require a lot of water to run so the use of harvested rainwater was incorporated into the design.

As for the outside 25% of the roof is vegetation, this green roof will reduce the heat island effect as well as minimize heat loss in the winner and protect it from heat gain in the summer. Carpooling parking spots and indoor and outdoor bike racks are added to increase a more eco-friendly way of transportation to the site.

Locally sourced materials were chosen to reduce the transportation of materials, and the use of recycled materials were a key goal in this project. About 60% of the overall materials used were either locally sourced or recycled materials, and in the end this project was also able to divert over 89% of construction waste by using excess materials such as insulation for other projects instead of sending it to be reprocessed or recycled.

Awards


 * LEED Gold


 * 2021 Architecture MasterPrize, Design of the Year Honourable Mention, Institutional Architecture Category
 * 2021 Architecture Press Release, Global Future Design Award, Institutional Architecture Category