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MTE Consultants Acquires RIZZ Engineering, Strengthening Expertise in Structural Design and Precast Concrete

Hart House, University of Toronto
Education 

University of Toronto Hart House

Key personnel

Boris Milman, M.Sc., P.Eng.

Project overview

Since its opening in 1919, Hart House located within the University of Toronto campus has been dedicated to serving as a welcoming space for students, faculty, staff, alumni, and the broader community. Spanning more than 200,000 square feet in a historic building, Hart House offers a broad array of services. 

Open year-round, Hart House features an impressive range of facilities, including versatile rooms for study, dining, recreation, and socializing. It also houses a modern athletics and aquatics center, the renowned Justina M. Barnicke Art Gallery, a dynamic theatre, and event services. Additionally, it is home to the Gallery Grill Restaurant, all within a beautifully restored neo-Gothic building. 

MTE's Involvement

MTE has been delivering engineering services to the University of Toronto for over a decade. In 2011, we played a key role in the structural upgrades to the university’s iconic Hart House Building. 

CIUT.FM, the university’s community-run radio station, is located within Hart House and required significant upgrades at the time. Our Structural team provided the structural design for the structural supports for movable partitions, enabling the station to effortlessly reconfigure its space to meet its evolving needs. 

Given Hart House’s status as a heritage building with natural stone walls, integrating modern connections posed unique challenges. To address this, we replaced sections of the interior stone with concrete while preserving the exterior stone facade. We then employed a specialized bolt technology to securely anchor the steel frame. 

Additionally, we reinforced the sloped wooden trusses of Hart House’s roof to accommodate new HVAC equipment. With no existing structural drawings available, our team conducted a thorough survey of the building’s existing framework and carried out a series of detailed calculations, considering wind loads and up-to-date building codes.