The Ken Soble Tower Transformation Project was recently featured in SAB Magazine’s Fall 2019 edition. At 18 storeys and more than 80,000 sqft, the Ken Soble Tower will be one of the largest EnerPHit certified projects in the world. The rehabilitation project will modernize 146 units of affordable seniors’ housing, while reinvigorating community spaces and outdoor gathering areas, allowing for aging-in-place and barrier-free living, and a changing climate. It is slated for completion in 2020.

As North America’s first high rise Passive House-certified retrofit, its design and construction has yielded many important lessons learned, particularly in an Ontario context. The article features contributions from lead architects ERA Architects, mechanical engineers Reinbold Engineering, building envelope engineers Entuitive, electrical engineers Nemetz and Passive House Consultants Transsolar KlimaEngineering and JMV Consulting. Each party identified important learnings from their work on this project.

As one of the most complex EnerPHit projects in the region, the design of this project required the development of a number of new strategies and processes. From the start of the project, a much more coordinated and integrated approach was required of the whole team than in typical builds or retrofits. Lessons were learned across the architectural, structural, building envelope, mechanical and electrical disciplines, are identified in an effort to support the dissemination of the Passive House standard in the Ontario context.