The recently completed hydro project has won the CTBUH Best Tall Building Award for the Americas region and is now competing with buildings in Beijing, London and Doha for the rights to be called 2009’s best tall building in the world at an event in Chicago in October 2009.
The 22-storey 64,103 square meter head office for Manitoba Hydro was designed by Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects with the Canadian firm Smith Carter Architects and Engineers.
The award committee has appreciated the sustainable energy efficient design integrated in the building as an unparalleled approach to traditional sustainable design. All elements of Manitoba Hydro Place are integrated to achieve a record 60% energy savings over a typical large office tower.
The design uses a living building concept that interprets and reacts to its physical environment rather than the traditional method of achieving energy savings by isolation from the elements through highly insulated and sealed construction.
Manitoba Hydro Place uses geothermal energy storage which produces all the energy required to cool the building and 60% of the energy needed to heat it. Because of its positioning and other design features it also makes great use of passive solar energy.
Manitoba Hydro is a Provincial Crown Corporation providing hydro electric energy and natural gas to customers throughout Manitoba, Canada.
The CTBUH is an international not-for-profit organization based in Illinois which studies and reports on all aspects of the planning, design, and construction of tall buildings. CTBUH announces the title of ‘The World’s Tallest Building’ and is an authority on the official height of tall buildings.
