Morrison Hershfield
Encyclopedia
Morrison Hershfield is an employee-owned professional services firm providing engineering
and management consulting
services in the areas of energy
and
industrial
, buildings, technology
and telecom
, transportation, environment
, water
and wastewater
, and land development
. The firm has delivered notable vertical and horizontal infrastructure
projects from 16 offices across North America.
, Charles Hershfield
, Joe Millman and Mark Huggins responded to needs of the post-war building boom by forming a partnership offering civil, structural and mechanical engineering services. Since that time systematic growth has come from within and through mergers with Rolf Jensen and Associates; Maunder Britnell Inc.; Maxim Engineering; Mitchell, Pound and Braddock Ltd., Ruys & Company, Suncord Engineering Ltd., Jeffers Engineering Associates and Structural Design Inc. Morrison Hershfield is a minority equity partner in Sikon Inc.
The firm remains committed to the standards of ethics and technical excellence set by the founders. Carson Morrison was considered to be a touchstone for professional ethics and morality in engineering and authored the book “Professional Engineering Practice: Ethical Aspects”.
, civil engineering
, code consulting, construction management
, electrical engineering
, environmental science
, fire protection engineering
, hydraulic engineering
, industrial engineering
, mechanical engineering
, petroleum engineering
, project management
, structural engineering
, sustainable design
, telecommunications engineering and transportation engineering.
Engineering
Engineering is the discipline, art, skill and profession of acquiring and applying scientific, mathematical, economic, social, and practical knowledge, in order to design and build structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and processes that safely realize improvements to the lives of...
and management consulting
Management consulting
Management consulting indicates both the industry and practice of helping organizations improve their performance primarily through the analysis of existing organizational problems and development of plans for improvement....
services in the areas of energy
Energy
In physics, energy is an indirectly observed quantity. It is often understood as the ability a physical system has to do work on other physical systems...
and
industrial
Industry
Industry refers to the production of an economic good or service within an economy.-Industrial sectors:There are four key industrial economic sectors: the primary sector, largely raw material extraction industries such as mining and farming; the secondary sector, involving refining, construction,...
, buildings, technology
Technology
Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...
and telecom
Telecom
Telecom refers to:* An abbreviation of telecommunication.* Short for telecommunications company, in general.* A short name for any telecommunications company with "Telecom" specifically in the name, where context allows media or people to commonly exclude the rest of its name without confusion,...
, transportation, environment
Environmental science
Environmental science is an interdisciplinary academic field that integrates physical and biological sciences, to the study of the environment, and the solution of environmental problems...
, water
Water
Water is a chemical substance with the chemical formula H2O. A water molecule contains one oxygen and two hydrogen atoms connected by covalent bonds. Water is a liquid at ambient conditions, but it often co-exists on Earth with its solid state, ice, and gaseous state . Water also exists in a...
and wastewater
Wastewater
Wastewater is any water that has been adversely affected in quality by anthropogenic influence. It comprises liquid waste discharged by domestic residences, commercial properties, industry, and/or agriculture and can encompass a wide range of potential contaminants and concentrations...
, and land development
Land development
Land development refers to altering the landscape in any number of ways such as:* changing landforms from a natural or semi-natural state for a purpose such as agriculture or housing...
. The firm has delivered notable vertical and horizontal infrastructure
Infrastructure
Infrastructure is basic physical and organizational structures needed for the operation of a society or enterprise, or the services and facilities necessary for an economy to function...
projects from 16 offices across North America.
History
Morrison Hershfield was established in 1946 in Toronto, Ontario when Carson MorrisonCarson Morrison
Carson F. Morrison, P.Eng. was a university professor, innovative engineer, magazine editor, co-founder of the North American firm Morrison Hershfield, and president of a standards association. He was considered to be a touchstone for professional ethics and morality in engineering...
, Charles Hershfield
Charles Hershfield
Charles Hershfield, B.Sc., M.A.Sc, F.E.I.C, P.Eng. was widely recognized by the engineering community and known for his innovative structural engineering solutions, as a Senior Assistant Engineer and Lieutenant with the Department of National Defense, a Professor at the University of Toronto, as...
, Joe Millman and Mark Huggins responded to needs of the post-war building boom by forming a partnership offering civil, structural and mechanical engineering services. Since that time systematic growth has come from within and through mergers with Rolf Jensen and Associates; Maunder Britnell Inc.; Maxim Engineering; Mitchell, Pound and Braddock Ltd., Ruys & Company, Suncord Engineering Ltd., Jeffers Engineering Associates and Structural Design Inc. Morrison Hershfield is a minority equity partner in Sikon Inc.
The firm remains committed to the standards of ethics and technical excellence set by the founders. Carson Morrison was considered to be a touchstone for professional ethics and morality in engineering and authored the book “Professional Engineering Practice: Ethical Aspects”.
Operations
Morrison Hershfield has interests in the following fields but is not limited to building services engineeringBuilding services engineering
Building services engineering, technical building services, architectural engineering, or building engineering is the engineering of the internal environment and environmental impact of a building...
, civil engineering
Civil engineering
Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including works like roads, bridges, canals, dams, and buildings...
, code consulting, construction management
Construction management
Construction Project Management is the overall planning, coordination and control of a project from inception to completion aimed at meeting a client’s requirements in order to produce a functionally and financially viable project that will be complete mingement is project management that applies...
, electrical engineering
Electrical engineering
Electrical engineering is a field of engineering that generally deals with the study and application of electricity, electronics and electromagnetism. The field first became an identifiable occupation in the late nineteenth century after commercialization of the electric telegraph and electrical...
, environmental science
Environmental science
Environmental science is an interdisciplinary academic field that integrates physical and biological sciences, to the study of the environment, and the solution of environmental problems...
, fire protection engineering
Fire protection engineering
Fire Protection Engineering is the application of science and engineering principles to protect people and their environments from the destructive effects of fire and smoke....
, hydraulic engineering
Hydraulic engineering
This article is about civil engineering. For the mechanical engineering discipline see Hydraulic machineryHydraulic engineering as a sub-discipline of civil engineering is concerned with the flow and conveyance of fluids, principally water and sewage. One feature of these systems is the extensive...
, industrial engineering
Industrial engineering
Industrial engineering is a branch of engineering dealing with the optimization of complex processes or systems. It is concerned with the development, improvement, implementation and evaluation of integrated systems of people, money, knowledge, information, equipment, energy, materials, analysis...
, mechanical engineering
Mechanical engineering
Mechanical engineering is a discipline of engineering that applies the principles of physics and materials science for analysis, design, manufacturing, and maintenance of mechanical systems. It is the branch of engineering that involves the production and usage of heat and mechanical power for the...
, petroleum engineering
Petroleum engineering
Petroleum engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the activities related to the production of hydrocarbons, which can be either crude oil or natural gas. Subsurface activities are deemed to fall within the upstream sector of the oil and gas industry, which are the activities of...
, project management
Project management
Project management is the discipline of planning, organizing, securing, and managing resources to achieve specific goals. A project is a temporary endeavor with a defined beginning and end , undertaken to meet unique goals and objectives, typically to bring about beneficial change or added value...
, structural engineering
Structural engineering
Structural engineering is a field of engineering dealing with the analysis and design of structures that support or resist loads. Structural engineering is usually considered a specialty within civil engineering, but it can also be studied in its own right....
, sustainable design
Sustainable design
Sustainable design is the philosophy of designing physical objects, the built environment, and services to comply with the principles of economic, social, and ecological sustainability.-Intentions:The intention of sustainable design is to "eliminate negative environmental...
, telecommunications engineering and transportation engineering.
Notable projects
- The Hibernia Gravity Base StructureHibernia Gravity Base StructureThe Hibernia Gravity Base Structure is the world's largest offshore oil platform, on the Hibernia oilfield south east of St. John’s, Newfoundland....
- An oil platform off the coast of St. Johns, Newfoundland, Morrison Hershfield was retained to assist in the development of a structural solution with adequate strength which was also constructible. Hibernia was the first Gravity Base Structure ever designed to withstand iceberg impact. (Completed in 1997) - The Alberta SuperNetAlberta SupernetThe Alberta SuperNet is a high speed performance network connecting 429 communities in both urban and rural Alberta. The network consists of over 13,000 kilometers of trenched fibre optic cables and 2,000 kilometers of high-speed wireless links. One of the two main network components is owned...
- Provided engineering and management services for a high speed performance network connecting 429 communities across Alberta, Canada. High bandwidth (OC3) microwave radio was used for a 121 km wireless link to a remote community. The link was believed at the time of construction to be the longest of its kind in the world. (Completed in 2005) - The Richmond Olympic OvalRichmond Olympic OvalThe Richmond Olympic Oval , or the Richmond Oval is a facility in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada. It was the venue of the speed skating events and the official Olympic anti-doping lab of the 2010 Winter Olympics...
- As Building EnvelopeBuilding envelopeThe building envelope is the physical separator between the interior and the exterior environments of a building. Another emerging term is "Building Enclosure". It serves as the outer shell to help maintain the indoor environment and facilitate its climate control...
consultants for this facility, one of Morrison Hershfield's roles was the use of of inventive cladding materials. They used polycarbonate cladding (similar to a translucent plastic) to cover very large wall areas. Traditional materials such as curtain wallCurtain wallA curtain wall is an outer covering of a building in which the outer walls are non-structural, but merely keep out the weather. As the curtain wall is non-structural it can be made of a lightweight material reducing construction costs. When glass is used as the curtain wall, a great advantage is...
, metal siding and composite metal cladding were also used. (Completed in 2008) - Ontario Highway 33 - Provided detail design for the realignment and reconfiguration of the existing intersection at Highway 33 and Country Road 1 in Ontario, Canada into a single lane roundabout with a central island and truck apron. (Completed in 2009)
- The Vancouver Convention Centre - Building envelope consultants for this LEED Platinum project. Morrison Hershfield was a key partner to ensuring quality assurance and conducting enhanced field review during construction of all building envelope components including innovative curtain wall glazing and green roofGreen roofA green roof is a roof of a building that is partially or completely covered with vegetation and a growing medium, planted over a waterproofing membrane. It may also include additional layers such as a root barrier and drainage and irrigation systems...
. (Completed in 2009) - The Simcoe Street TunnelSimcoe Street TunnelThe Simcoe Street tunnel is located between Front Street and Bremnar Blvd. in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. This $40 million tunnel is situated in a densely urban site below a pedestrian skywalk and in close proximity to Toronto Union Station and an adjacent hotel...
- A $40 million project with a roof structure designed to carry all 16 pre-existing railway tracks while the ground structure provides 2-lanes north bound and 1-lane south bound vehicular connections as well as one bicycle lane and one extra wide pedestrian sidewalk on each side of the tunnel. Morrison Hershfield provided the project management, design, contract administration and site engineering for this tunnel. (Completed in 2009) - Highway 403 / Aberdeen Avenue Bridge - Rapid Bridge Replacement technology was used in the City of Hamilton, Canada for the first ever multi-span bridge replacement in North America. The replacement was completed in 51 hours. (Completed in 2010)
- Grouse MountainGrouse MountainGrouse Mountain is one of the North Shore Mountains of the Pacific Ranges in North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Exceeding 1,200 m in altitude at its peak, is the site of an alpine ski area in the winter season overlooking Greater Vancouver with four chairlifts facilitating 26 runs...
Wind Turbine - Retained as the structural engineer for this 1.5 megawatt wind turbine, it is the first wind turbine built in North America in an extreme high altitude location and is expected to supply 25% of the Grouse Mountain resort’s electricity. (Completed in 2010) - The Edmonton Transit SystemEdmonton Transit SystemThe Edmonton Transit System, also called ETS, is the public transit service owned and operated by the city of Edmonton, Alberta. It operates Edmonton's bus and light rail systems.-Service:...
Centennial GarageCentennial GarageThe Centennial Garage is part of the Edmonton Transit System and is a targeted LEED Silver project. The bus garage was designed for the storage and maintenance of 250 regular and articulated buses as well as administration offices, dispatch and support spaces for staff. It is located at 15520...
- As prime consultant, managed a large multidisciplinary team to deliver a state-of-the-art LEED Silver certified 313000 square feet (29,078.7 m²) facility for the storage and maintenance of 250 regular and articulated buses. (Completed in 2010) - The City Creek CenterCity Creek CenterThe City Creek Center is a development with a shopping center, office and residential buildings, and fountain and stream under construction near Temple Square in downtown Salt Lake City, Utah. It is an undertaking by Property Reserve, Inc. and Taubman Centers, Inc...
- Located in Salt Lake City, Utah, Morrison Hershfield was retained for the building envelope work for two underground parking garages, five residential/office buildings, multiple retail stores, one building rehabilitation, and areas around and beneath the man-made stream and fountain areas. (Expected completion 2012) - The Grand River BridgeGrand River BridgeThe Caledonia Bridge, also known as the Grand River Bridge is a road bridge located in Caledonia, Ontario, Canada on Argyle Street....
- A Context Sensitive Design Workshop was conducted for the heritage Caledonia bridge in Ontario, Canada. A number of issues were found requiring action, included structural deficiencies, structural deterioration, insufficient roadside safety, foundation problems and inadequate hydraulics. (Expected completion 2012) - Highway 401 / Hogg's Hollow BridgeHogg's Hollow BridgeHogg's Hollow Bridge, originally known as the Yonge Boulevard Viaduct, is a set of four separate highway bridges that span the Don River Valley in Toronto, Ontario and carries 14 lanes of Highway 401...
- Lead consultants for a Total Project Management (TPM) Detailed Design assignment for the rehabilitation of a busy 14 lane highway bridge in Toronto, Canada. (Expected completion 2012) - The Niagara Tunnel ProjectNiagara Tunnel ProjectThe Niagara Tunnel Project is the most recent in a series of additions to the Sir Adam Beck hydroelectric generation complex in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada.-Background:...
- Lead Consulting Engineer for the outside works including all tunnel intake works. (Expected completion 2013) - The Detroit River International CrossingDetroit River International CrossingThe Detroit River International Crossing , alternatively New International Trade Crossing , is a multi-national construction project and committee between Canada and the United States to create a new border crossing over the Detroit River...
- One of three engineering firms that developed cost estimates for right of way and utility relocation; design and construction; and operation and maintenance on the Canadian side of the crossing. (Expected completion 2016)
Awards
- Award of Merit, in the Consulting Engineers of British Columbia Awards for Engineering Excellence for the Grouse MountainGrouse MountainGrouse Mountain is one of the North Shore Mountains of the Pacific Ranges in North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Exceeding 1,200 m in altitude at its peak, is the site of an alpine ski area in the winter season overlooking Greater Vancouver with four chairlifts facilitating 26 runs...
Wind Turbine.
Morrison Hershfield provided the structual engineering services for this innovative project, 2011 - Ontario Concrete Infrastructure Award, for the Dufferin StreetDufferin StreetDufferin Street is a major north-south street in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is a concession road, two concessions west of Yonge Street. The street starts at the foot of Lake Ontario, continues north to Toronto's northern boundary with some discontinuities and continues into York Region where it...
widening and reconstruction project in Vaughan, OntarioVaughan, OntarioVaughan is a city in York Region north of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Vaughan is the fastest growing municipality in Canada achieving a population growth rate of 80.2% between 1996–2006, according to Statistics Canada having nearly doubled in population since 1991. Vaughan is located in Southern...
, 2010 - R & D Magazine’s Lab of the Year Award, Special Mention for the Steacie Superlab at Carleton UniversityCarleton UniversityCarleton University is a comprehensive university located in the capital of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario. The enabling legislation is The Carleton University Act, 1952, S.O. 1952. Founded as a small college in 1942, Carleton now offers over 65 programs in a diverse range of disciplines. Carleton has...
, 2009 - Canadian Consulting Engineering Award of Excellence in the Water Resources and Energy Production Category, for the Niagara Tunnel Intake Works, 2008
- Sustainable Buildings Industry Council, Best Sustainable Practice Award for the EcoCalculator, 2008
- Employer Award for Career Enhancement and Success of Women as Technology Professionals, 2007
- Alberta Public Works Association, Project of the Year for Technical Innovation for the East Rocky View Regional Wastewater Utility Network, 2007
- Canadian Consulting Engineering Award of Excellence in the Project ManagementProject managementProject management is the discipline of planning, organizing, securing, and managing resources to achieve specific goals. A project is a temporary endeavor with a defined beginning and end , undertaken to meet unique goals and objectives, typically to bring about beneficial change or added value...
Category, for Alberta SuperNet, 2005 - Ontario Chapter of the American Public Works Association's, Public Works Project of the Year award in the Transportation Category, shared with the City of OttawaCity of OttawaThe City of Ottawa is the corporate entity of municipal government in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The corporation is responsible for provision of services to the public as well as enforcement of municipal by-laws...
and Canadian Pacific RailwayCanadian Pacific RailwayThe Canadian Pacific Railway , formerly also known as CP Rail between 1968 and 1996, is a historic Canadian Class I railway founded in 1881 and now operated by Canadian Pacific Railway Limited, which began operations as legal owner in a corporate restructuring in 2001...
for the O-Train project, 2003