Pan Am Games Athletes Village, Toronto

During the 2015 Pan Am Games, one district had the eyes of the world.

That district was the Canary District of Toronto, Canada. Selected to be the Athletes Village, it became the home of world class athletes and champions.

Working closely with Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects, ArchitectsAlliance, Daoust LeStage, TEN Arquitectos, MacLennan Jaunkalns Miller Architects and Page & Steele/IBI Group, The HIDI Group provided the mechanical, electrical, communications, A/V and security design for this $514 million project.

Designed to achieve LEED Gold certification, the development is roughly 1 million ft² and is comprised of residential units, recreational and fitness facilities, pools, food services, polyclinic , market housing, affordable rental housing and George Brown College housing.

After the games concluded the area was converted to legacy mode, including 7 buildings made up of 300 affordable housing suites, 1,000 condominium suites, 220 student residence suites, large retail spaces, the YMCA and a historical building.

Ward Sellars led the Low Voltage team at Hidi, for Communications Infrastructure, Audiovisual and Security. We became integrally involved with the end-users for both the Games and the Legacy operation after the conclusion of the games. All of the residences and retail units are designed for fibre to the Suite, using Gigabit Passive Optical networking, provided through partner Beanfield Metroconnect. All TV services are delivered as IPTV, with high speed Wi-Fi routers inside each unit. All public areas of the project are also provided with high speed Cisco Wi-Fi, through a JV with Cisco Canada. Security cameras and access control are provided throughout each building, with both local nodes in each building and a central head-end for all buildings. Data networking, Wi-Fi, TV, AV systems and digital signage were also designed for the George Brown College Residence building and the Cherry Street YMCA located below the residence. The Security Access Control system for the George Brown Residence is configured to allow for both student use during the school year and for conversion to Hotel use during the summers. Duress Alarm/Code Blue stations are also installed in parking areas and in public interaction locations in the buildings, ensuring safe operation for both residents and staff.