The new McCaig Tower is part of the first phase of a major redevelopment for the existing Foothills Medical Center, which serves as part of the University of Calgary teaching facility. The West Tower consists of seven clinical floors plus a two story high penthouse. The total building gross area is 60687m2.
The new building and renovations will include: eight new operating rooms; 36 bed Intensive Care Unit; 93 inpatient beds; 21 short-stay beds, Musculoskeletal Clinic with Diagnostic Imaging; shell space for 16 additional ORs in the future; Emergency Department renovation and expansion; Surgical Processing Dept.; and Admissions. Phase One also included a major renovation to the existing Power Plant including extending the cooling tower and adding two new 2500 ton chillers in a purpose-built addition.
Trotter & Morton Mechanical was chosen to be the construction manager for the mechanical systems, after an exhaustive competition backed by 80 years of experience building health care facilities in North America. Upon award of this contract, Trotter & Morton mobilized forces and was on site two days later to start site clearing. This process took 14 months to relocate services and access tunnels so that new construction could start.
As the Mechanical CM for this project, Trotter & Morton is in a partnership with EllisDon and the CHR (Calgary Health Region) to build this premier facility on a cost reimbursable and shared risk project. Trotter & Morton is overseeing the full installation of all mechanical systems including sheet metal, sprinkler, insulation, Controls, and Building Management System including all medical equipment and piping.
The Power Plant Expansion - the expansion to the existing power plant, which had a construction value of $6.5M, was completed in five months. To not disrupt hospital operations, all work had to be completed in winter months. River water was used as back up while up grades were made to the cooling tower.
Existing chilled water and condenser water systems in the power plant were upgraded by replacing the two old centrifugal chillers with two new, larger centrifugal chillers. The new equipment is better suited to integrate with energy production and energy usage of the plant. | 
