It took serious coordination and a bit of quick thinking to turn a 95-year-old landmark Toronto hotel into a sustainability showcase while it was fully occupied, but the team on the Fairmont Royal York made it happen.

Five years of upfront planning followed by carefully orchestrated staging allowed the project team to install modern, efficient heat pumps and switch out the 28-story hotel’s aging diesel-fueled steam systems without major disruptions to guests. Preplanning and 3D modeling allowed pipefitters to upgrade and replace older components while minimizing downtime.

Photo courtesy PCL Construction

Working in such an old structure brought some unexpected challenges. As-built data missed a few crucial HVAC details, and a warm winter shortened the time the team could take the hotel’s cooling systems offline. But extensive use of scheduling software and laser scanning let the team track progress and adjust as needed.

There was still some ingenuity needed in the moment, such as when removal of a piece of ductwork revealed it was a supply air duct for the hotel’s ballroom.

Photo courtesy PCL Construction

Team members had no time to fabricate a new piece of ductwork before a wedding was scheduled to take place within 48 hours, so they quickly cobbled together a solution—deploying a reducer and three smaller spiral ducts to restore airflow to the hotel’s ballroom with only hours to spare.

With upgrades done, the hotel expects an 80% annual drop in carbon emissions and over 35% saved in utility costs in just the first year. The project has been certified by the Canada Green Building Council as meeting its Zero Carbon Building Performance Standard.

“As evidenced on this project, if a 95-year-old heritage asset can be decarbonized to achieve energy efficiency targets that reduce annual carbon emissions by 80%, the possibilities are endless,” PCL Canada Constructors Senior Vice President Marc Pascoli said in a statement.