It is with heavy hearts that we begin this New Year by saying goodbye to one of the founding Partners of the MCW Group of Companies. John Martin passed away on New Years day surrounded by family at his home on the Family Farm near Moose Jaw Saskatchewan.

John Martin was the “First” Engineer of what was to become the MCW Group of Companies. Most of you would know John by name, many of you would know John through having worked on Projects with him and preparing design packages incorporating his design concepts. A lucky few of you would have enjoyed collaborating with John at the conceptual design stage of a project. Each one being a, unique and effective design solution that John loved to developed for our clients.

When it came to MCW, John always delivered what the circumstances required. When the founding Partner running MCW’s Vancouver office fell ill in the late 80s John and his wife Coralie left their home in Winnipeg (where MCW originally started) and moved to Vancouver. Not only did the Martins make a move to Vancouver it became their family home for many years. As a result of that commitment today MCW’s Vancouver operation is a very strong and successful office enjoying an enviable reputation in the BC market place.

Throughout his career John was always willing to go were ever the work was.

In the early 80’s John came to Toronto to work with George Bellamy and Ernie Amor on one of the biggest projects ever awarded to MCW, the King Abdul Aziz University in Saudi Arabia. This project single handedly catapulted MCW into the International markets. Who could have known that this body of work and the reputation it helped to build would result in MCW being commission for another of the Saudi Royal Family’s name sake facilities King Abdula University more than 25 years later. (Finished just this past year) John and George’s development of international expertise resulted in a healthy run of work for MCW in the Middle East and brought John & Coralie back to Toronto just 2 years ago. This time to help design and mentor the team that was working in Dubai on a Billion Dollar project called “Oquiana”.

John’s design concepts were always practical, cost effective and above all energy efficient. In hind sight it makes total sense that an Engineer from the Prairies could find a way to be conservative yet innovative all at the same time.

For example the fresh air injection downstream of the compartmental units used in commercial high rise office buildings is exactly that type of concept, very cost effective, providing excellent ventilation and saving energy. This uniquely John Martin design concept is imbedded in buildings that grace the skylines of Canadian cities from coast to coast, Vancouver (BC Gas), Halifax (Maritime Life), and in between Winnipeg (Winnipeg Square Trizec Building), Ottawa (55 Metcalfe Street), Toronto (438 University Avenue).

When it comes to elementary school designs both Manitoba and BC can boast about the lowest operating costs because a long time ago they allowed John Martin and MCW to employ a simple concept which includes radiant slab heat at the exterior zone, a VAV box with an occupancy sensor serving each classroom, and a single central VAV air handler that serves both classrooms and areas of congregation allowing the air to literally follow the children through their daily travels within the school.

Being “Green” way before it became a fad John developed expertise with ground water cooling & storage systems. This became a forte of John’s which was recognized internationally many years ago with an invite to give a paper at the Hague in the Netherlands on the novel, then “new” concept, of seasonal thermal storage.

The fact is John spent many years putting together design concepts that mirrored his way of looking at life, be practical, throw in a dash of innovation and above all conserve money and energy. Another fact is that his design concepts will live on for many years to come in the multitude of MCW designed buildings which provide places for people to live, work, heal, and learn.

As those of us at MCW go about our daily work every time one of us visits our corporate knowledge data base for a touch of help we will be tapping into concepts which John Martin had a significant hand in developing.

Although it is sad to realize that we have spoken to John for the last time we should take some comfort as we realize how lucky we are that we will be consulting with him every time we access the legacy he has left us in his body of work.

Thank You John.