Efficiency in the news

Montreal, March 30, 2009

Bouthillette Parizeau - lucky winner of the 2009 Leonard Award

It was with great pride that Nathalie Boulet, engineer LEED^® AP and project manager at Bouthillette Parizeau, accepted on behalf of the entire team, the 2009 Leonard Award for the École de Technologie Supérieure de Montreal student residences, phase III, in the “Building” category during the Grands Prix du génie-conseil québécois awards ceremony organized by the Association des ingénieurs-conseils du Québec (AICQ).

The new residence at the École de Technologie Supérieure is located in downtown Montreal. More and more students are arriving on the campus.  The current residences are overcrowded. ETS has a waiting list of students wanting to claim a space of their own.  Therefore, in order to serve this growing clientele, the university decided to build a residence housing 266 contemporary units.  On the ground floor is a food market.  Unique feature: a rectangular building with an inner courtyard on the roof of the market.  Further innovation is demonstrated with the use of geothermal energy at the heart of downtown.  With the multiple constraints inherent with such a proposed building on a site regulated by various governing agencies, this project is an example of a building where renewable energy can thrive in the middle of the urban jungle.

Responsible for the mechanical and electrical building engineering, the firm continued to respect the original vision of the project, despite the many challenges related to emergent technologies such as geothermal energy and BubbleDeck^® structural technology, and the need for two distinct vocations to share infrastructure. The use of geothermal energy at the heart of downtown Montreal and the fact that the building is a living laboratory for students as well as an orchestration of collaboration by the Bouthillette Parizeau team, were most certainly qualities appreciated by the jury members.

And finally, the professionalism and devotion of our team ensured success.