BMW Group Canada Head Office Richmond Hill Ontario

The underlying strategy behind the design of the new headquarters for BMW Group Canada is to create a building that reflects the forward thinking philosophy of the client. The building has been designed to mirror the corporate image of BMW and to confirm its commitment to its employees and the neighboring community. &Co was retained by BMW Canada to develop their new headquarters project north of Toronto. After crafting a specification document for a turn-key facility &Co worked with Urbacon to design a building that features state-of-the-art systems and technologies that will contribute to achieving LEED® certification while providing dramatically reduced initial tenant fitup, furniture, ongoing operating and churn costs. The building is a response to new and critically important business requirements to: - increase human comfort - acknowledge green value - provide maximum flexibility - build the corporate brand The main facade faces a major highway (404) and it is designed to reflect BMW's stellar reputation for performance, innovative design and quality. Human Comfort is the primary driver of our approach as it enhances staff satisfaction. Overall comfort increases productivity and reduces staff absenteeism and turnover. Human comfort can be measured by air quality, temperature, noise and lighting. The building is designed to maximize human comfort without additional cost by creating: - measurably better interior air quality through increased levels of individual control over temperature - a reduction of glare from both external natural and internal artificial light sources using automated controls and indirect lighting - Increased natural light penetration into the workplace environment - higher exposed reflective concrete ceilings that make the work environment feel warmer and more open than conventional office spaces The Work& business environment facilitates change rather than constrains it. The BMW building is designed to maximize flexibility without additional cost by: - reducing the cost of future cable upgrades by up to 75% - increasing usable floor space as a percentage of gross area by 15% - 20% - allowing for a large uninterrupted planning space as compared to a centre core type building Workplaces using BTP supply conditioned air to every individual occupant in the building allowing individuals to control the temperature in their own space. Private offices and meeting rooms are temperature regulated with motorized dampers and individual thermostats with manual override for total comfort and control. All in-floor air diffusers are easily relocated for added comfort and allow for almost instant reconfiguration. The manual diffusers are not connected to duct work or mechanical equipment and can be located as required to provide maximum comfort and convenience. The BMW Building features indirect lighting using all standard energy efficient T5 fluorescent in-line fixtures. Indirect lighting provides a glare-free and even distribution of light throughout the space with far less need to move or adjust light fixtures to suit the tenant's program. This allows for ongoing flexibility with reduced costs in both energy and churn. In addition, the elimination of glare is beneficial to all occupants resulting in less eye strain, better comfort and higher productivity. Augmenting the high-output and high-efficiency artificial lighting is access to a maximum level of natural light. The buildings feature vision glass from the floor to the underside of the ceiling. When adequate light levels are achieved at the perimeter of the building, light sensors automatically turn off artificial light within the affected zone and further energy savings are realized. All cabling will be installed within the floor plenum and is easily accessible through the floor system and in-floor flush distribution boxes. Each in-floor box can be configured as needed with combinations of power, voice and data outlets. These are fed from the floor back to the core telephone communications room and/or electrical room. The power distribution is a zone circuit approach providing one distribution in-floor panel per 30' x 30'ù structural bay that supports up to 16 separate circuits (more than one per person). Provided for individual circuits from each distribution box (four spare circuits) are 12 whips. Each whip is plug-and-play connected at the distribution box and to the underside of the air floor outlet boxes. All connections from the user side are covered when not in use, easily accessible, reconfigurable and simple to connect to. The in-floor cable system results in significant savings on the cost of systems furniture. Furniture panels can be simple without integrated wireways etc. As a result, furniture is less costly and far easier to reconfigure/relocate. The BMW building features a technologically advanced building envelope. Exterior sunshades protect the exterior skin from direct exposure to sunlight. This eliminates glare within the interior and substantially reduces solar heat gain,ù a crucial factor necessary with the large amount of exterior glazing. The upper surfaces of the sunshades, however, are treated with a reflective material which redirects the sunlight towards the ceiling within, and by extension into the inner areas of the floor. The sunshade is assisted by a light shelf constructed along the interior of the facade. The light shelf continues the plane of the sunshade further blocking direct glare and redirecting sunlight into the interior. It has been custom-designed for integration with the wall system to assist in the overall energy and lighting strategy. Like the lighting, sensors govern its position and maximum efficacy. Operable window units in the curtain wall are another innovation that adds another degree of flexibility in environmental response and human comfort.
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