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100 Kellogg Lane
Customized Air Handlers Address Ventilation Needs of Cereal Factory Adaptive Reuse Project
In 1905, 100 Kellogg Lane in Ontario was churning out Kellogg’s Toasted Corn Flakes. Today, the 1-million-square-foot campus is home to Canada’s largest entertainment venue, a manufacturing-facility-turned-destination that is home to indoor sports, restaurants, shops, and more. Modifying the buildings into modern, segmented spaces—and into the 21st century—required a massive overhaul of the HVAC systems. New Systemair Geniox air-handling units are tailored to the varying needs of each business while dramatically enhancing energy efficiency and ensuring serviceability.
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Preserving an Icon
For nearly 110 years, Kellogg’s produced cereals at 100 Kellogg Lane, expanding in scope and acreage over time as it grew to 27 product lines. In 2014, the plant closed due to declining cereal sales. But two years later, the site began a rebirth, bought by the Cribbage Group with visions of creating a tourist destination.
About 50% filled today, the adaptive reuse project is now home a range of businesses, anchored by The Factory, an indoor adventure park with ropes courses, trampolines, and ziplines; the Powerhouse Brewery; the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame; the London Children’s Museum; the Hard Rock Hotel, the Carfax Canada Headquarters, Compass Group Canada, a Bavarian-style Brewery called “The Beer Kitchen” that makes fresh beer from “Tank to Glass,” a Grand Events Centre, and even a hidden speakeasy restaurant hidden within the doors of the butcher shop. Rounding out the project are small businesses such as Shaw’s Ice Cream and Eastown Barbershop; The Clubhouse, featuring indoor mini putt, seven simulator bays, and restaurant service; a Starbucks; meeting and event spaces; and a general store. A four-story atrium floods the front entrance space with light.
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Meeting Ventilation Needs at 100 Kellogg Lane
With such a variety of venues throughout the campus, each unique in size, shape, and function, incorporating heating, cooling, and ventilation adequately without overdoing capacity required a thoughtful approach to sizing and grouping air handling systems.
Systemair’s Geniox air handling units were an ideal option as they come in 16 sizes and allow for complete customization of heat and energy recovery, cooling, filtration, mixing, and other elements. The engineering team was able to specify optimal units for individual and adjacent spaces while maximizing functionality and efficiency.
Working with Oxford Energy Solutions, Systemair provided 13 roof-mounted Geniox units to service nearly half of the facility’s 1 million square feet, with separate centralized systems for the atrium, the Factory, The Clubhouse restaurant, the Beer Kitchen restaurant, the Grand Events Centre, the lower level of the Medical Hall of Fame (plus a nearby comic store and pottery studio), the offices of Compass Group Canada and Carfax Canada, and a collective handful of small businesses.
Contractors removed decades-old gas-fired, belt-driven systems, replacing them with upgraded, efficient plenum-drive boilers and chillers. They moved to a four-pipe system for hot water and chilled water cooling, which required designing and coordinating new pipes across the roof. The team was able to tap into existing ductwork, which helped reduce some of the renovation costs.
One initial design challenge was footprints: The Geniox air-handling units are significantly smaller than the older systems, but also heavier. The team repurposed existing mounts, stands, and stilts, but added additional reinforcement to support the smaller size and heavier weight. The riggers attested to the units’ robust construction, with each AHU lifted and placed with zero deflection or bowing.
Engineers also were able to save money by standardizing many of the unit sizes for the same footprint, using nominal sizing for CFM, and choosing a pure water system for its modularity. They also sought a service-conscious design, standardizing as many fans and VFDs as possible for ease of replacement and ensuring access to all units for maintenance. Systemair factory-installed the VFDs, some of which communicate wirelessly. Oxford Energy can monitor all of the systems from a central database, and Kellogg Lane maintenance teams can access them through an app.
The atrium area called for a less standardized approach, due to the high radiant heat gain from four stories of glass on two sides. The engineering team oversized the cooling system for this area with two Geniox AHUs. Using Geniox units here brought additional benefits: Geniox casing can be used as ductwork due to its high insulation values; other units would have required insulating the ductwork, adding cost and labor.
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A Showpiece for Systemair and Ontario
100 Kellogg Lane isn’t just a top destination spot for London and the province, it’s a point of pride for Systemair. The company brings customers from all over the world to the venue to showcase the customization capabilities and efficiency possibilities of Geniox systems as well as the expertise of Systemair team members to address even the most unique of applications.
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