Preserving Materials of Enduring Value
Paper Records
• Archival Holdings
• Fine Art Storage
• Film Preservation
In Trust for the Future
Collectively, the General Partners combine their expertise with a vision to build a cutting edge long term storage and preservation facility that exceeds standard structural, environmental and security norms in the industry.
Established in 2002, Archives ONE is a Canadian company that provides the highest possible storage environment for high value information assets, cultural artifacts, and artwork.
Our General Partners have over sixty years collective industry and business experience. We work with our clients to deliver exceptional service through innovative methods and cost-effective solutions.
The Archives ONE facility is the first and only one of its kind in Canada, featuring unique elements for managing and protecting high value information assets and an unmatched solution for preserving historical and cultural heritage.
Archives ONE's remote, undisclosed location was chosen in order to reduce or eliminate risks of natural disasters or manmade hazards such as flooding, toxic or harmful chemicals, electric or magnetic fields, and explosions.
• 110,000 Square Foot Facility • Positive Pressure Vaults • Hermetically Sealed Exterior
• Unidentified Facility • Above 100 Year Flood Plain • Outside Pearson Flight Path
• More than 1 km from Railway Tracks • 24 Hour Security and CCTV
Who We Are
Security
All possible efforts have been made to secure the facility, both physically and electronically.
• Single point of entry and exit with authorized card access.
• Gated with access code entry point limited to staff and management only.
• Visitors to facility are by appointment only and pre-authorized by management.
• Monitored 24/7 both through an internal monitoring station and an external monitoring service.
• High resolution interior and exterior CCTV cameras with step motion censors.
• All vault entrances are monitored and access is restricted to authorized staff only with an advanced card reader system.
Logistics
Archives ONE has built a segregated Transition Room that is environmentally conditioned, to temporarily house records during intake process. This room is fully equipped with computers, scanners, printers and internet connectivity for day-to-day processing, client use as necessary, and for data entry during accessioning of new records. A separate Audit/Research Room is also built for clients’ use for confidential records review.
The entire Shipping and Receiving area is designed to provide better controls from the time of receipt of client records, with features like:
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Internal air-lock loading bay
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Fire-proof and insulated overhead doors
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Fully monitored CCTV
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Access Card entry
Buffer Zone
The environmental integrity of the storage vaults is protected by pressurized buffer areas between the preservation storage vaults and the exterior building envelope, thus creating a 'building within a building'.
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Buffer is completey clear of any mechanical equipment
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Fully sealed ductwork and piping
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Emergency exits secured by magnetic locks, and can only be opened from the inside
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Exterior roof is insulated to provide impervious watertight barrier
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No access points, mechanical systems or storm drains are located on the roof to elimate the risk of roof penetration into the vaults
In addition to our Standard Preservation vaults, a Cool Vault and Cold Vault are provided for collections that are considered chemically unstable, such as film, microfilm, and similar media.
Storage Vaults
Standard Vault
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Constantly and precisely control teperature at 18°C with +/- 2°C tolerance,
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Relative humidity at 40% with +/- 5% tolerance.
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Vaults provide optimum protection for any textual records.
A specialized temperature controlled chamber is used to acclimatize media for 24 hours before being introduced into or removed from the Cool Vault and Cold Vault.
Cool Vault
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Constantly and precisely control temperature at 10°C with +/- 2°C tolerance,
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Relative humidity at 40% with +/- 5% tolerance.
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Vaults provide optimum protection for items such as microfilm/fiche, films, audiovisual, glass negatives, photographic, VHS/Beta, etc.
Cold Vault
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Constantly and precisely control temperature at -6°C with +/- 2°C tolerance,
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Relative humidity at 30% with +/- 5% tolerance.
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Vaults provide optimum protection for items such as colour films and moving images.
Humidity and Temperature Control
One of the more challenging aspects of long term preservation for any organization is that different archival records, media, and artifacts require diverse optimal environmental conditions. Archives ONE is designed to address this need by housing different collections in seperate vault areas with their own dedicated climate control systems.
Relative humidity and temperature, as well as light, pollutants, water damange and pests are recognized as the most serious factors impacting an archival collection. In order to achieve the level of protection we promise, the Archives ONE facility was constructed as a 'building within a building'. It boasts a unique design of seven environmental vaults independantly built within a hermetically sealed external building envelope.
Fire Protection and Suppression
Special attention has been devoted to maximizing protection against fire. Every storage area in the facility has been installed with a pre-action dry sprinker system, individually zoned, and linked to a laser based smoke detection system (VESDA).
Mechanical Systems
Richard Zimmerman is the President and co-founder of Archives ONE. With over thirty five years of experience as an industry professional in commercial and private record centres, Rick strategized an initiative to create and shape the unique and successful Archives ONE facility.
Tara Mattai is the Cheif Operating Officer and co-founder of Archives ONE. Her experience extends to more than twenty five years of management, operations, and consulting services with various public and private organizations.
