Builders’Builders’Toronto Construction Association’s Quarterly Perspective DigestDigestVol. 2 No.2 Summer/Fall 2008 RBCRBC CentreCentre Toronto’sToronto’s mostmost environmentallyenvironmentally friendlyfriendly officeoffice towertower SSCRCRAPINGAPING TTHEHE SSKY:KY: THETHE NEWNEW BAYBAY AADELAIDEDELAIDE CENCENTRTREE AA NEWNEW EERRAA ININ STSTEELEEL STRSTRUUCTCTUURREESS PPUUBBLILICC-P-PRRIVAIVATTEE PAPArtrtNENERSRSHIPHIPSS PIPICCKK UPUP SSPEEDPEED PM# 40787580 PM# 140 Years of Service photo by John Leperre, Ellis-Don Walters Group 1318 Rymal Road East Hamilton, Ontario, Canada L8W 3N1 Tel: 905-388-7111 www.waltersinc.com 14 YOURTOTALSERVICECOMPANY Does your insurance program have structural problems? Put the proper framework in place with HKMB HUB Property & Casualty > Surety > Loss Control HUB International is a leading insurance and surety broker for the construction industry. 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HKMB HUB International Construction & Surety Team www.hkmb.com ANYWHERE/ANYTIME www.hubinternational.com 416-597-0008 • 800-232-2024 1 888 457-8120 www.graffconcrete.com At your service across Canada and the United States. | Builders' Digest Summer/Fall 2008 contents FeatURES 9 Setting a 'gold' example With the new RBC Centre, Toronto is set to welcome the city’s most environmentally friendly office tower to date By Liz Katynski 16 P3s pick up speed A look at public-private partnerships and the increasingly important role they play in the GTA By Liz Katynski 17 Scraping the sky The Bay Adelaide Centre represents the first tower skyscraper to be built in Canada in more than two decades By Kelly Parker Page 9 FeatURES 21 Steeling for change Modern technology drives a whole new era in the design and construction of steel structures By Kelly Parker Page 21 Page 17 DEPARTMENTS 6 President’s Message By John Mollenhauer 25 Upcoming Events 26 Advertisers' Index Builders' Digest Summer/Fall 2008 | 5 PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE Builders’Toronto Construction Association’s Quarterly Perspective Digest TCA Builders’ Digest is published for the Toronto Construction Association 70 Leek Crescent, Richmond Hill, ON L4B 1H1 The modern Tel: (416) 499-4000 • Fax: (416) 499-8752 constructor www.tcaconnect.com TORONTO CONSTRUctION ASSOCIatION AS LIttLE as 10 Years AGO, I WOULD NOT Publisher Robert Thompson have characterized the construction Editors Jeanne Fronda, industry as "dynamic." Dan Kenning By that I mean that methodologies and Associate Editor Roma Ihnatowycz technologies related to how we designed and constructed buildings had been rela- Sales Supervisor Sharon Komoski tively unchanged since the turn of the cen- Sales Executives Les Bridgeman, Gary Fustey tury. Admittedly, we had the advent of the Bruce Jones, personal computer in the early ’80s and Contributing Writers Natalia A. Feduschak, global communications with the intro- Nestor Gula, Liz Katynski, duction of the Internet in the early ’90s, Eric Lee, both of which had considerable impact. John Mollenhauer, John Schofield But realistically, the notion of becoming sophisticated and embracing these new Production Team Leader Adrienne N. Wilson John G. Mollenhauer, President technologies was clearly not our highest Senior Graphic Design Specialist James T. Mitchell Toronto Construction Association priority. Part of that was pure economics. Computer aided design (CAD), for exam- ple, took years to become commonplace. Published by: But times have changed. And we have without question become a dynamic industry. These days, conversations prefaced by “remember when” are usually referring to the way things were just three or four years 5255 Yonge Street, Suite 1000 Toronto, Ontario M2N 6P4 ago … not three or four decades ago. Toll Free: (866) 216-0860 ext. 229 The “modern constructor” has morphed into a construction science [email protected] professional preoccupied by such things as structured financing, quanti- 1 Wesley Avenue, Suite 301 Winnipeg, MB Canada R3C 4C6 fied risk mitigation, labour productivity indicies, sustainability, building Toll Free: (866) 201-3096 information modelling, occupational health and safety protocols and Fax: (204) 480-4420 www.mediaedgepublishing.com “footprint” reductions. Good God! It’s no wonder we have so many disputes. We’ve all had to President Kevin Brown learn a foreign language and every time we get it halfway figured out, it Senior Vice-President Robert Thompson changes again. From a builder’s perspective, managing a construction company used Production Manager Nancie Privé to be all about bricks and mortar. As a result, the average Joe with the wherewithal to arrange a little bonding could hang a shingle and open for All rights reserved. The contents of this publication may not be reproduced by any means, in whole or in part, without the prior written consent of the business. Not so anymore. On the contrary, the modern constructor needs association. Published October 2008. a plethora of new management skills to survive profitably … and the tools Publication Mail Agreement #0787580 to apply that knowledge effectively. Return undeliverable copies to: Toronto Construction Association Before we talk about new technologies, let’s deal with the new face 70 Leek Crescent, Richmond Hill, ON L4B 1H1 of an old problem: cash flow. As North American contractors, we are Phone: (416) 499-4000 • Fax: (416) 499-8752 used to doing the work first and being paid later. I say North American because in some parts of the world, the cash flow shoe is on the owner’s foot. In any event, the cash flow related challenge for the modern con- structor isn’t simply coping with the added layers of scrutiny that push average payment terms out past 45 days. That, theoretically, is surmount- able if contractors have the wherewithal to increase their lines of credit, interest rates stay affordable, lien acts adjust timelines, and all parties to a contract manage to keep their paperwork current. | Builders' Digest Summer/Fall 2008 PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE Yes I know, that’s a lot of "ifs." However, in terms of complex- Finding qualified office staff will be equally difficult. As a ity, this pales when compared to understanding the financing/ result, our industry will inevitably continue to rob Peter to pay cash flow nuances for contractors who choose to bid AFP work. Paul in key project management roles. The alternative is dealing Infrastructure Ontario’s DBFM model, for example, requires with an unknown and there is far too much at risk for that. that successful consortia members be accountable for maintain- Enough about things we can relate to like money and ing an asset for upwards to 30 years in addition to the deferred people. Who amongst the old school practitioners understands cash flows associated with their build-finance model. electronic plans rooms, BIM, sustainability, green rating systems As a result, the modern constructor who plays the private- and the notion of a zero footprint, to name a few of the newer public partnership game has to be able to talk the talk, put real technologies/methodologies? numbers to mitigating risk and find creative ways to securitize The answer is simple. Unless we are committed to continu- enormous bonding increases. The alternative is opting not to do ing professional development and/or relying on kids just out AFP work of course, but we are talking about billions of dollars of school to act as technology mentors, we can’t possibly keep worth of new construction. up with the changing demands of an industry that is changing Another old problem with a challenging new twist for the con- so rapidly. structor is labour. In fact, despite the fact that employment in The good news is that our industry is never intimidated and the trades has grown at nearly double the aggregate provincial always manages to adapt, so I like our chances. We have proven total labour rate since 2001, we have still managed to exhaust time and again that we can pull through. the entire available skilled labour pool in Ontario. But fasten your seat belts, folks. The ride is just beginning to Add the fact that many trades are targeting higher levels of get interesting. |BD certification and it becomes clear that successful contractors Respectfully, will need to plan their labour requirements months in advance. Failing to plan will jeopardize labour quality at a minimum and put contractors at risk of increased skilled labour-related legal liability and/or occupational health and safety infractions, both John G. Mollenhauer, President of which are expensive. Toronto Construction Association Builders' Digest Summer/Fall 2008 | 7 ENVIRONMENT SSETTETTIINNGG AA BY LIZ KatYNSKI ‘golD’ EXAMPLE ‘golD’ EXAMPLE With the new IT MAY BE ONE OF THE FIRST HIGH-RISE OFFICE buildings to be built in downtown Toronto RBC Centre, since the building boom of the '80s, but the $300-million RBC Centre marks a far more Toronto is set important "first." It is in fact one of the most environmentally friendly office towers to welcome going up in the country. Located at the southwest corner of the city’s most Wellington and Simcoe streets, the 43- storey, 1.2-million-square-foot building was environmentally completely designed to LEED NC Gold friendly office standards, which stipulate the industry’s toughest measures to ensure sustainability. tower to date Everything from heating and lighting all the way to waste management was planned and devised with an eye on the environment. PCL Constructors Ltd., the general contractors for the project, left “nothing to chance,” explains Darius Zaccak, the company’s construction manager for the Centre. To ensure that all coordinators and project managers were aware of LEED guidelines, PCL appointed a LEED coordi- nator responsible for all related documen- tation for certification.