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X’’Xv*:ow:vyA\w\\w.*,v.v Vvwwyv; »v -v^-Vp§pS$lt;$§S : ICWrt “* ^' k*» *» *A\V.i.lt;“.*»*» r.VAV.i’A*»v.ssvTall tales frominside a skyscraperBy'Charles WilkinsIt sounds like some sort of burlesque on life in the 20th century. But it isn’t, There actually is a man the sum of whose work day is replacing burnt-out light bulbs in the Richardson Building.Every day at 3:20 p.m. ho arrives for work. At the engineer's office he picks up a list of the locations where bulbs have burnt out that day. ile makes his rounds, floor by floor.By floor.If he stays on the job long enough he will eventually replace every one of the building’s 43,758 bulbs.The long-suffering bulb-man is just one of 150 men and women who devote themselves eight hours a day to the operation of Winnipeg’s tallest skyscraper.* ★ *Skyscraper: It is possibly the most graphic and appropriate bit of word coinage in our era. It is also one of the most poetic, capturing both the menace and the soaring grace of a towering building. Yet, so accustomed are we to the concrete monsters represented by the word that we tend to taku ihem for granted. Most of us know something.nf the colossal labors that bring them into being, but few understand the equally colossal labors — and expenses — that keep them going.Winnipeg’s resident authority on skyscrapers is a peppery, white-haired engineer — Jack Sedo.Chief engineerseems rather steep until one compares it to the amount of income generated by office space rentals.Let’s say you wanted a small office in (he Richardson Building — say 500 square feet. If such an office were available, the rental would be $12 a square foot a year-$6,000 annually.If you wanted to rent an entire floor (18,500 square feet) the rate would drop to $11.50 a square foot a year — $180,750.If the whole building were under lease at current rates, the annual income would be approximately $5.7 million — about -as per cent of the build-■ mg's original value of $15 million. The figure is, of course, hypothetical inasmuch as a number of the offices are under long-term lease at rates established years ago.fullReal estate tax costs Richardson Building’s owner $1 million annuallyAir Canada is the building's biggest —a—... tenant with 800 employees on the firstFor 13 years Sedo has been chief six *loorti- The top six belong to James____. T-I •! 1. R'tf'hatvforttt OnH Coon (Int.___Lengineer at the Richardson Building, For the last few years he has also been property manager, responsible for rentals and other business matters.Sedo keeps few secrets about his place of work. He’ll tell you-what you want to know._For instance:Li The building’s electricity hills are often as high as $40,000 a month;□ The heating bills are $110,000 a year, the water biils dose to $20,000;Richardson and Sons (and their subsidiaries) with 600 employees.According to Richardson public relations manager Pat Burrage, the namesake companies are treated no differently from any of the other tenants ... except of course that they have the preferred top floors and consequently the best view of the city.The building’s tiny tot is the Manitoba Kidney Foundation, which occupies 318 square feet on ihe 1 Ith floor.V..V HUU.I U.LIO (.ivot III * ~ 1 UJI 1JUUI.□ The real estate tax is a whopping Leasing is handled by Lombard Place $1 million per annum. Ltd., a company founded in the late ’60sT he cleaning bills alone are $500,000 fay James Richardson and Sons, a year. Every work day at 5 p.m. The working population of the 407-an army of 83 cleaners attacks the foot building is about 3,000 people, building from the inside out. Their' Huge machinesresponsibilities include nearly a half- Not all of the building’s 34 storeys aremillion square feet of floor space, about offices. Floors 4 and 32 are hume to 500 sinks and toilets. some of the biggest and most powerfulJust taking out the garbage is a machines imaginable. Two air condi-gargantuan task. The daily accumula- tioners on 32 weigh 700 and 900 tons non is often as much as 6,000 pounds, respectively. “I. have more tonnage in Disposal begins about suppertime with refrigeration than Winnipeg Cold Stor-tlie dumping of nearly 3,000 waste age and Manitoba Cold Storage put containers. The refuse is funnelled together,” Sedo says, gradually to the basement where, dur- “The big chillers,” as Sedo callsmg the night it is compacted into them, cost $65 an hour to operate. Theytrunk-sized blocks At dawn it is carted are flanked by a pair of 500-horsepowerU°Jhf,aiH , . boilers, each verging bn the dimensionsThe building s windows are cleaned of a tank car. Under liormal winter in April and October. The job takes an conditions the boilers are fuelled by average of four days and, in the words natural gas, but in extremely cold of Jack Sedo, costs $2,700 a wipe.” weather a transition is made to oil. Thehis years total maintenance bill transition can be ordered at two hours'will run close to $1.5 million, which ■ notice by Winnipeg Gas, whose fuelsupplies tend to run low during coldsnaps.A tank in the basement holds 12,006 gallons of fuel oil, enough for four days’ heat at -34.4°C.Perhaps the most Intriguing aspect of the 32nd floor Is a large pane! of buttons and lights that could be called the building's climate control centre. The panel monitors all mechanical equip--mem —furnaces, fans, etc. —as well as environmental conditions throughout the skyscraper.Water pumpAt the press of a button the temperature can be taken in any part of the premises at any time. Temperatures are monitored regularly and adjustments made to-maintain a comfortable climate.Another feature of the 32nd floor is the annunciator pane] for the fire alarms. The building is protected by three separate systems, one activated by smoke, one by heat and one by mechanical alarm stations. Each floor ■ has its own fire hoses, though Jack Sedo notes that without the help of a special high-powered pump located in the basement, the city water pressure would not be great enough to fight a fire above the fifth floor. In the history of the building,- three fires have occurred, and each has been promptly doused.God forbid that it should ever happen,” Jack Sedo says, “but in the rare instance that a fire should break out during a general blackout (meaning that neither city water pressure nor the special purhp would be effective) we have a 5,800-gallon emergency water supply on the 34th floor.”During blackouts, a large diesel generator automatically begins supplying power to the building’s emergency lighting system. “Without the lights it’s as black as coal in here.”An interesting component of the building’s communications equipment is a 12-foot hook-up panel for the building’s 3,0110-odd telephones. The wires coming out of that thing,” Sedo says, arc as thick as hairs on a dog.Lately, Sedo has been struggling to reduce the building's massive energy consumption. “It’s a matter of engineering technology. You change this, you change that. If I were to go into detail we’d be here ’til the end of the week.” One change has been switching off the building’s lights at night. Until recently many were left on for die sake of outside appearance. Each tenant pays four cents a square foot each month toward the cost of electricity: roughly $70) a floor.Another of Sedo’s concerns is vandalism. Although majiagement puts $35,-000 a year into security, it isn’t enough to prevent the odd mischief-maker from getting in and doing a little impromptu redecorating. “They mark things up with spray paint,” Sedo says. They tear the vinyl off the walls.”In a structural sense, ihe Richardson Building has had feiv problems since its opening in 1969. It’s a very-fine building, Sedo boasts. “It’s extremely wellXM WUV/WHNKQ nux PRESSJack Sedo is the man responsible for keeping Richardson Building running at peak efficiency.made.”The occupancy levels support his assertion. Since 1969 there has never been more than a half-floor available for lease at any one time.Sedo mentions one structural problem that his engineering staff is helpless to solve. As he puts it: “The building won’t stretch ... We could use more space.”“On the Richardson floors we could certainly use more,” Pat Burrage says.“When we moved in here we thought we’d have enough space to last us a long time ... Of course, 10-years is a long time.”Burrage reveals that the original plans for Lombard Place allowed for the construction of a second Richardson tower. There’s plenty of space for it down there on the other side of the garage,” he points out. “And we own the space. I don’t think management is going to go that way, although 1wouldn't rule-it out completely.”The Trizec tower across the street has helped create a glut of office space in the downtown area.Though T rizec is perhaps viewed as a rival to Richardson supremacy at Portage and Main, Richardson management seems quite happy to have the new skyscraper nearby. It completes the comer, Put Burrage says. “Of course it’s good for the downtown gen-Krally.
Newspaper Details
Winnipeg Free Press
Winnipeg, Manitoba, CA
Tue, May 12, 1981
Page 32
Full Page
Clipped by
Jay F.
CA 25 Jul 2020
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