Kurt Monteiro, B.A.Sc., P.Eng., LEED AP, HFDP, HBDP
Kurt Monteiro, P.Eng., HFDP, HBDP, Smith + Andersen, Toronto, Ontario, received first place in the new health care facilities category for Humber River Hospital, Toronto (2016). The building is owned by the hospital.
A 656 bed facility, the hospital is one of Canada’s largest acute care facilities. The hospital leadership had a vision of “lean, green and digital,” with a goal of reinventing patient care.
The facility achieved many milestones in meeting that vision, including:
• Being the first fully digital hospital in North America
• Largest modular green roof installation in Canada
• Largest installation of electrochromic glass in North America
• 100 percent outside air operation for improved indoor air quality and infection control
The building is designed to exceed ASHRAE Standard 90.1-2007, Energy Standard for Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings, by 40 percent. Several approaches were used to achieve this goal, including an integrated heating and cooling plant with highly efficient ventilation equipment and distribution; air side enthalpy recovery; enhanced building envelope design that incorporates automatically adjusting electromechanical glass to reduce solar gain during peak cooling times; and a lighting design featuring controls accessed via patient bedside computer terminal, which achieves a lighting power density 46 percent lower Standard 90.1-2007.
To enhance infection control and indoor air quality, all air handling units supply 100 percent fresh air with no recirculation. Design of HVAC systems with energy efficiency and energy recovery features reduced the energy impact of these 100 percent fresh air systems.
The hospital automated 75 percent of deliveries, including laboratory specimen testing, linen and garbage transportation, guided vehicles to deliver supplies and food to patient rooms.
With a career that spans 20 years, Kurt Monteiro has established a reputation that carefully balances innovation with client satisfaction. Kurt first started at Smith + Andersen as a co-op student, before graduating from the University of Toronto in 2000 with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. Since then, Kurt has spent the majority of his career with Smith + Andersen and, over the last decade, has focused on healthcare and laboratory projects – particularly large P3 projects and renovations to existing healthcare facilities. Kurt has been an active member of the ASHRAE Toronto Chapter for many years, serving on the board of governors and currently acting as Secretary of the Chapter’s Executive Committee. He is a voting member of the ASHRAE Certification Committee, as well as a provisional corresponding member for several healthcare and laboratory technical committees. Kurt is also an active member of the CSA Medical Gas technical sub-committee that published CSA-Z7396.1 Medical Gas Pipeline Systems. Kurt led the Smith + Andersen team that won first place in the New Healthcare Facilities category at the 2017 ASHRAE Society Technology Awards for their work on the $1.2-billion Humber River Hospital project in Toronto.