As a developer with a recognized reputation for green condominiums, Tridel has recently shifted its focus to a new demographic. The company is evolving in a natural progression from building condominiums for empty nesters to building retirement residences for those empty nesters who are ready for the next stage in their lives.

Selling one's home and downsizing into one of Tridel's condos would free up plenty of time for those who are tired of the endless hassles of home ownership but when they're ready to truly retire, Tridel is preparing to receive them in the style to which they're accustomed as condo-dwellers.

Tridel's Delmanor Northtown is located in Toronto's North York district on Yonge Street just south of Finch Avenue in a community that the developer has been working on for the past decade. It is the final stage of the project, and it is being built to match the other condos on the site in every way.

"The Delmanor Northtown has many traditional elements such as bow windows and archways. The composition of the three-storey podium, especially, is inspired by the Doge's Palace of Venice," explains the architect, Ken Lee.

Eight storeys in height, it has landscaped terraces on the ground floor, second floor and top floor. The exterior of the building is clad with beige precast panels to match the neighbourhood of condos that surround it. And just like other Tridel buildings, it will be Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design or LEED compliant (aiming for silver).

Green buildings provide a quality of life that is healthier and more comfortable for the resident and cheaper to operate in the long term. Green buildings have a comfortable atmosphere free of drafts because proper attention was taken to insulate with double-glazed, gas-filled, airtight windows and thermally insulated walls. Measures are taken to allow solar energy in as light, but to keep the solar heat from penetrating the windows.

Building green includes selecting finishings that are low in the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that are irritants to sensitive lungs and cause indoor air pollution. Seniors, who spend the majority of their time indoors, are particularly susceptible to the effects of indoor air pollution. Tridel is banking on the notion that in ten years, when condominium owners are looking for a retirement residence, they won't be willing to give up the comforts and the health benefits of green living.

It isn't, however, only about providing a healthy interior where seniors will thrive. Tridel has a deep sense of concern for the environment that is reflected in every project it takes on. Green building is a trend that isn't going away. Buyers are becoming more educated and savvier to the language of energy efficiency, recycled materials and local sourcing. Eliminating indoor air pollution is beneficial to the building's residents, but reducing the facility's ecological footprint is beneficial to everyone.

"Basically, after a long drawn out discussion, it came down to a commitment of Tridel and Leo [Delzotto, the President of Tridel] that this was the right thing to do. This is the direction of the future," explains Sheldon Gould, Vice President of Development and Operations for Delmanor Seniors Communities.

"I've been in the retirement home industry for 23 years and I've never heard anybody use the word LEED. I'm sure that if we did a survey of all our current residents none of them would know what LEED is," he adds. "But the residents have changed a lot over the past five to ten years and are becoming much more sophisticated, much more knowledgeable."

Tridel may not have set out to build its retirement residence green merely to stay ahead of the curve, but this is what the company is achieving. Whether this certification will attract residents, or simply pique the interest of green-minded people looking to place beloved family members in a safe and comfortable residence, remains to be seen. The building will attract the attention of seniors looking for the comfort of a condo with the services and peace of mind associated with retirement residences.

KEEPING IT LIGHT

One of the first design features that visitors will notice is the colour of the building, the brickwork in the lanes and even on the roof. In efforts to reduce the heat-island effect associated with dark colours, paved roads and parking lots, Tridel's design team has located all parking underground and kept all the building's surfaces light to reflect the sun's rays as opposed to absorbing them. These concepts have been practiced in the Mediterranean for centuries.

"We actually have landscaped roofs for the most part. And other than that we don't have any dark materials that we're using. We're keeping it very light," explains Tim Wiseman, Project Manager.

The entire roof is used as an amenities space along with a huge second floor terrace. Seniors will be able to play shuffleboard on the terrace decorated with lattice screens, interlocked brick and planters. The west side of the main roof is landscaped for use. There's a seating area, barbeques, terraces, a putting green and other features typical of Tridel condominiums for the residents' enjoyment.

"We've taken a lot of our condo amenities package and thrown it onto the senior's development," says Robert Tomei, Director of Project Management.

FOLLOWING A GREEN MODEL

The building was designed with the City of Toronto's Energy Efficiency Office (EEO) in order to optimize energy performance and reduce the amount of energy the building would use by 25% or more using a modeling tool.

The energy modeling simulation tool makes a computer model of the condominium with walls and windows, an HVAC system, etcetera, that would just meet Building Code requirements and then it changes them to be more efficient. It can then simulate how much energy this better-designed building would use compared to the original building plans.

"At the early design stages, we'll throw a whole bunch of things on the table as far as possibilities for us to do in order to achieve savings and then you start to weigh out which is going to make more sense from a cost and from a performance perspective. It's the boilers, it's the pumps, chilling systems, the types of lighting figures you use, lighting controls, windows, all those types of things all contribute," Wiseman explains.

Other considerations include architectural design, the orientation of the building, the ratio of windows to walls (designers try not to exceed a ratio of 40% windows to walls for energy efficiency purposes), the type of glass and other energy saving technologies.

A heat recovery ventilator transfers heat energy from the bathroom exhaust without mixing the two air streams. This provides pre-warmed, fresh air directly into each suite and improves the indoor air quality as it reduces the amount of heat wasted.

"To give an example of the savings, you can save probably about 40% of the gas bill over the period of a year compared to a building that didn't have these types of systems," Tomei projects.

STORM WATER MANAGEMENT

But it isn't just about saving energy and heat. It's also about helping the city manage the extra load a building this size exerts on the area's infrastructure. The City of Toronto is increasingly concerned about the runoff from high-rise condominiums and their use of water. Tridel has taken steps to reduce water use and to slow down the runoff after storms, which puts a heavy load on sewage systems.

"We're gathering some rain water, but we're not using it [for irrigation]. We're capturing it to meet the [LEED] storm water requirements but we're not using it. We're discharging it as we're allowed to," Tomei says.

The water will be retained in order to slow down how much is actually going into the municipal sewers after a heavy rain. It is discharged once the system has had a chance to process the heavy rains.

Alternatively, water could be filtered and used for landscaping or even in the building's toilets, but Tridel has opted instead for measures to reduce the water use. For example,  a drip system that's tied together electronically to rain sensors will provide only the amount of water that is necessary to keep the plants alive instead of using large sprayers that water regularly and inefficiently.

THE THREE RS

The construction process is a wasteful one and Tridel is earning LEED credits by recycling and using recycled materials as well as local materials whenever possible. They've set the goal for waste diversion at 75%.

Contractors on the project map their waste as they separate it to locate where the materials are going. Any steel product will go to a steel manufacturer who will reuse it to make recycled steel. Drywall gets reused - broken down and made into new drywall. Wood can sometimes be chipped into mulch or used as a fuel source for incinerating.

And Tridel is providing a market for these recycled materials by establishing a goal to use 15% of recycled content by cost of materials. A lot of it comes through the rebar that is used in the concrete structure itself, but there is a lot of recycled material in the glass, aluminum and the drywall and more recycled material is being picked up for the project through the process.

Drywall, for example, can have from 5 to 95%  recycled content depending on the supplier and how the product is manufactured. The drywall Tridel gives back to the manufacturer can be reprocessed into drywall and is then purchased for new projects.

The team also puts an emphasis on local materials. The majority of the building material is the concrete structure, and this is locally sourced. Even the outside skin, which is precast, is made up of local concrete including aggregate and cement. Twenty per cent of the materials that are used on site come from within a radius of 500 miles of the site depending on whether it is delivered by truck, but LEED allows for a longer distance if it is delivered by rail or ship.

"We're fairly fortunate here in Ontario that we're rich in resources as far as the type of construction that we're doing," Wiseman says. "We're able to achieve this without too many problems."

With growing concerns about global warming and Toronto's heat-island effect, building green is becoming the norm. Tridel may be the first to extend the concept into seniors' housing, but it's unlikely to be the sole green builder in this housing market for long.

Improved indoor air quality, better insulation and lower maintenance fees are just the most obvious benefits of green construction methods. Northtown residents will enjoy these benefits as well as easy access to public transit and the benefits of living in a diverse community in the heart of North York.