$10.00 dec/12 v.57 n.12
2012 Awards of Excellence
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Contents
20 Atelier Big City, Fichten Soifer man et Associés, L’OEUF
22 BattersbyHowat architects Inc.
26
L’OEUF
28 The Marc Boutin Architec tural Collaborative INc. + El Dorado Inc (associated archi tectural firm)
36
Zeidler Partnership Architects
38 T B A | Thomas Balaban Architecte
24 Dundee Kilmer Integrated Design Team: Joint Venture of archi tectsAlliance and Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects in association with DAOUST LESTAGE inc. and MacLennan Jaunkalns Miller Architects
30
Kobayashi + Zedda Architects
40
Lemay (LemayLab)
34 Paul Laurendeau | François R Beauchesne | Architectes en Consortium
41
gh3
9 Awards of Excellence Despite the seemingly disparate nature of this year’s select ed projects, they all form part of an unintended but nationally coherent and collectively subconscious thread of common traits, instincts and promise.
12 The Winners Profiles of the 2012 award recipients. Danielle Berwick, University of Toronto 42
Andrew Neuman, University of British Columbia 43
DECember 2012, v.57 n.12
The National Review of Design and Practice/ The Journal of Record of Architecture Canada | RAIC
46 List of Entrants COVER Rendering of a student cabin at the UBC Geological Field School in Oliver, British Columbia by BattersbyHowat Architects Inc.
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5
courtesy of Gehry International Inc.
Viewpoint
Editor Elsa Lam Associate Editor Leslie Jen, MRAIC Editorial Advisors Ian Chodikoff, OAA, FRAIC John McMinn, AADipl. Marco Polo, OAA, FRAIC
LEFT A proposed development by Frank Gehry looms 80 storeys over Toronto’s King Street West. RIGHT A model of the podium, containing retail, OCAD facilities, and a gallery.
Frank Gehry’s next Toronto project is a game changer. In late September, owner David Mirvish unveiled plans to remake his properties on King Street West, adjacent to the downtown core, into a trio of 80-storey mixed-use towers. Two images of the proposal have made the media rounds. The first, a site massing model, shows the condo towers as brilliantly rendered sculptures in a sea of plain wood block sur roundings. Like Gehry’s towers in Prague and Frankfurt, they’re not triplets, but rather sib lings: the west high-rise is the edgy yuppie in a houndstooth jacket, the middle a sparkling dame in a brilliant white gown, and the eldest brother elegant in a smart, conservative suit. A second image zeroes in on the podium levels, a combination of retail space, OCAD facilities, and a new gallery. An amorphous volume is sug gested by a dramatically backlit cloud of torn paper fragments. Moss-clump trees are gener ously sprinkled throughout. The lower levels of the two west-end towers rise from behind the screen. At first glance, they’re handsome, detailrich renditions. But they’re also clever in what they choose to reveal and conceal. Take the first image. It mitigates the height of the towers by choosing a southwestern vantage point foregrounding the TIFF Lightbox and Metro Hall. The 53-storey Ritz-Carlton hotel bal ances out the composition, a tall dark mass at the right of the image seemingly rising to the same height as the Gehry condos, making the proposed development appear more acceptable. The close-up model is more evocative than accurate. Instead of built form and materials, it conveys a concept—the idea of a sculptural, eye-catching podium, with sky gardens and art displays. The issue of scale is elided by repre senting only the lower levels of two of the towers, rather than their total breadth and height. As the proposal navigates the court of public opinion, these model images steer debate to wards the level of formal daring that Toronton ians are prepared to accept. The issue of scale is present, but downplayed. Surrounded by the 6 canadian architect 12/12
tallest buildings in the neighbourhood, the three towers appear high, but not wildly inap propriate. The radicalness of the proposal be comes more apparent in comparison to the twostorey buildings of Restaurant Row, some of which appear in the model as vague suggestions, perhaps to diminish the contrast in scale. The low bulk of Roy Thomson Hall, across the street, is excluded from this perspective. The demoli tion of several renovated heritage buildings, including the Princess of Wales Theatre and a turn-of-the-century warehouse, is absent in the two depictions. This year, the Canadian Architect Awards jury considered some 167 entries, brought to life by a combination of renderings, drawings and texts. 3D renditions of projects—whether computergenerated, hand-drawn, or very rarely photos of physical models—were often the most compelling element of the entries. But sometimes, they proved deceptive. A rich set of renderings accom panied by underdeveloped plans disappointed jurors. Gorgeous watercolours suggested a poetic building—but one whose program, concept and scale proved elusive to determine. And bland computer renderings masked what proved, on closer examination, to be an intelligently planned scheme. While the winners were chosen based on quality of design, the strongest entries were often those where images, drawings and texts cohered in a clear, consistently developed presentation. As both the award winners and other entries move from drawing board through planning ap provals, the images used to present these pro jects are worth a second look. In our current era, images seem more than ever to be a pervasive, and even cheap currency. Yet a well-crafted image can still be enormously influential in conveying a design vision to both public and professional audiences, often shaping the course of the ensuing discussion and debate. Architects are skilled image-makers, and it is worth re calling our expertise in that domain and using it to strategic advantage. Elsa Lam
elam@canadianarchitect.com
Contributing Editors Gavin Affleck, OAQ, MRAIC Herbert Enns, MAA, MRAIC Douglas MacLeod, ncarb, MRAIC Regional Correspondents Halifax Christine Macy, OAA Regina Bernard Flaman, SAA Montreal David Theodore Calgary David A. Down, AAA Winnipeg Herbert Enns, MAA Vancouver Adele Weder Publisher Tom Arkell 416-510-6806 Associate Publisher Greg Paliouras 416-510-6808 Circulation Manager Beata Olechnowicz 416-442-5600 ext. 3543 Customer Service Malkit Chana 416-442-5600 ext. 3539 Production Jessica Jubb Graphic Design Sue Williamson Vice President of Canadian Publishing Alex Papanou President of Business Information Group Bruce Creighton Head Office 80 Valleybrook Drive, Toronto, ON M3B 2S9 Telephone 416-510-6845 Facsimile 416-510-5140 E-mail editors@canadianarchitect.com Web site www.canadianarchitect.com Canadian Architect is published monthly by BIG Magazines LP, a div. of Glacier BIG Holdings Company Ltd., a leading Canadian information company with interests in daily and community newspapers and business-tobusiness information services. The editors have made every reasonable effort to provide accurate and authoritative information, but they assume no liability for the accuracy or completeness of the text, or its fitness for any particular purpose. Subscription Rates Canada: $54.95 plus applicable taxes for one year; $87.95 plus applicable taxes for two years (HST – #809751274RT0001). Price per single copy: $6.95. Students (prepaid with student ID, includes taxes): $34.97 for one year. USA: $105.95 US for one year. All other foreign: $125.95 US per year. Single copy US and foreign: $10.00 US. Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: Circulation Dept., Canadian Architect, 80 Valleybrook Dr, Toronto, ON Canada M3B 2S9. Postmaster: please forward forms 29B and 67B to 80 Valleybrook Dr, Toronto, ON Canada M3B 2S9. Printed in Canada. All rights reserved. The contents of this publication may not be reproduced either in part or in full without the consent of the copyright owner. From time to time we make our subscription list available to select companies and organizations whose product or service may interest you. If you do not wish your contact information to be made available, please contact us via one of the following methods: Telephone 1-800-668-2374 Facsimile 416-442-2191 E-mail privacyofficer@businessinformationgroup.ca Mail Privacy Officer, Business Information Group, 80 Valleybrook Dr, Toronto, ON Canada M3B 2S9 Member of the Canadian Business Press Member of the Audit Bureau of Circulations Publications Mail Agreement #40069240 ISSN 1923-3353 (Online) ISSN 0008-2872 (Print)
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Awards of Excellence 2012
LEADING BY EXAMPLE The projects selected for the 2012 Canadian Architect Awards of Excellence indicate a welcome resurgence toward a resumption of the architect as part catalyst and part steward. Marie-Chantal Croft
ABOVE Donald Chong, Bruce Haden and Marie-Chantal Croft hard at work, conscientiously sifting through the 167 submissions to the 2012 Canadian Architect Awards of Excellence.
Marie-Chantal Croft has been practicing as a design architect since 1992. Co-founder of the firm Croft Pelletier, she is now a partner at Coarchitecture, an architectural firm based in Quebec City. She also teaches architectural design at the Laval University School of Architecture and has served on the Urban Planning Commission for Quebec City. MarieChantal works actively to meet the challenge of balancing sustainable development with meaningful, experiential architecture. Although materiality and scale may vary from one project to another, they each bear the distinctive mark of her artistic approach and her ability to harmoniously anchor them in relation to their environment. Her work is known for its close relationship to context and landscape, warm and luminous public spaces, inspiring architectural promenades, and for generating a richly complex variety of moods and emotions. In addition to being involved in the design of numerous cultural and public projects, MarieChantal actively participates in major competitions which she frequently wins, such as the Bibliothèque Nationale du Québec, the Bibliothèque de Charlesbourg, and the Musée de la Gaspésie. Her team was selected as one of the 15 finalists in the competition for the Musée National des Beaux-Arts du Québec. Her projects have been widely published in Canada and abroad, and have also received prestigious awards such as the 1999 Ronald J. Thom Prize from the Canada Council for the Arts, along with a Governor General’s Medal in Architecture in 2010, the highest distinction in the country. Bruce Haden
Donald Chong
A principal of Toronto-based Williamson Chong Architects, Donald Chong is a registered architect with the Ontario Association of Architects and a member of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada. He has firmly established himself in Toronto’s architectural culture through his inventiveness and investment in place-making. His project skills volley between the strategic planning of large-scale urban and institutional work to the detailing of finely crafted furniture. Among his speaking and teaching engagements, Donald has visited the University of Toronto, Queen’s University, University of Waterloo, University of Lethbridge, University of Massachusetts and Switzerland’s École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). He collaborated with Nigel Smith and Rem Koolhaas on the design for the reissue of Delirious New York and, in 2004 with Brigitte Shim, he co-edited the award-winning book Site Unseen: Laneway Architecture and Urbanism in Toronto. Recent distinctions include: participation in the 2007 Interior Design Show for his project entitled Small Fridges Make Good Cities, and publication in the Architectural Review’s “Houses by Emerging Architects 2008” and Dwell magazine’s “The Future Issue” and “Top 100 Houses of the Decade” in 2010. He was also nominated for the 2009 Marcus Foundation Architectural Prize. With Williamson Chong Architects, Donald received the 2011 Canadian Architect Award of Excellence for Abbey Gardens, a master-plan strategy for a food com munity in Haliburton, Ontario. Williamson Chong was also awarded the 2012 Canada Council Professional Prix de Rome for a research itinerary entitled Living Wood in selected destinations including Austria, South Korea, Japan, Finland and Denmark.
Bruce Haden is a principal at DIALOG, and works out of the firm’s Vancouver office. His design accomplishments have been recognized globally, most notably the Nk’Mip Desert Cultural Centre in Osoyoos, British Columbia, which was recognized in 2008 by a Governor General’s Medal in Architecture and by a World Architecture Festival Award the same year. Bruce’s work encompasses both urban design and architecture, and ranges from large-scale public/university/mixed-use developments to smaller projects such as pump stations, cafés, and the recent competitionwinning design for the Canadian Navy Monument in Ottawa. He is currently working on two projects at the University of British Columbia— the Student Union Building and the District Energy Centre, along with the new Downtown Eastside/Strathcona branch of the Vancouver Public Library, which incorporates YWCA housing for single mothers on its upper floors. Additionally, he is DIALOG’s principal in charge for Westbank Developments’ Beach and Howe mixed-use project in collaboration with the Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG). Bruce is also interested in the overlap between industrial design and architecture. His current work with the cell industry is illustrative of this and includes cell towers for Highway 1 in the Vancouver region, and a combined micro-cell antenna/electric vehicle charging station in Vancouver. Bruce has twice chaired the Vancouver Urban Design Panel and has taught at the UBC School of Architecture. In addition to conducting extensive freelance work for CBC Radio with respect to design and social issues, he was the Vancouver correspondent for Canadian Architect magazine for 10 years. He is also the recent Past President of the Board of the Contemporary Art Gallery in Vancouver. 12/12 canadian architect
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Awards of Excellence 2012 2012 marks the 45th edition of the Canadian Architect Awards of Excellence, and the program continues to attract a respectable number of entries from across the country: this year, we received 139 professional submissions but a disappointingly few 28 student submissions—a result of the prolonged student strike in Quebec which precluded any entries from the Université Laval and the Université de Montréal. Generally speaking, however, the quality of work did not disappoint, as the jurors found it challenging to narrow their selections to just 13 from the many that made the shortlist. Most of the projects will be no less than transformative for their respective communities, and unquestionably elevate the discussion of how architecture can ensure a sustainable future for generations to come—in both urban and rural contexts. Our exceedingly conscientious jurors have been generous enough to share their thoughts about the current state of architecture in Canada—if the project submissions they so painstakingly canvassed can be accepted as an accurate representative sample. Bruce Haden: Awards programs have distinct
purposes. An ideas competition, for example, can have adventuresome provocation as its central focus, while the Governor General’s Medals in Architecture recognize a final built product. For the Canadian Architect Awards, we try to identify excellence in work that is partway through the curve of the design process from ideation to realization. This recognition at an intermediate stage carries with it the responsibility to ask particular questions: Is the work both ambitious and realizable? Does the graphic and written story give a robust dimensionality and reality to the project, or are words and images used to conceal hard truths about the weaknesses of a scheme? Will an award help support an extraordinary vision through realization? Accordingly, I was less interested in those projects that were graphically seductive but lacking in real information that would suggest the project was a step towards a serious and disciplined architectural proposition. The projects with critically important information missing were easy to set aside. More complex were the ones where photorealistic renderings created an image of the built work not subject to the rigours of detailing and construction—is that column really going to be that slim? I also believe an awards program designed to acknowledge the full range of work in Canada should support an advanced conversation about work of different scales. In my view, the singlefamily house is a font of architectural invention, but has been over-represented in most awards programs. A scan of many past CA awards issues 10 canadian architect 12/12
would conclude, for example, that there was not a single multi-family housing project in the country that rises to the level of excellence. An extraordinary house can be created through a narrow range of concerns and means; an extraordinary city not only can’t be created with too narrow a lens, it must not be. The scale and sharp focus of a house design can produce a precise beauty that jumps out from a table laden with awards entries, but if architects want a strong voice in Canadian society, we must also be seen as successfully tackling the tougher layered complexities of cities and large buildings. We must support both the crisply elegant proposition and the messy wrestle with complexity. As is frequently the case, Quebec was well represented in the list of honoured work. It seems clear that the cultural attitudes in Quebec—in combination with an advanced system of open competitions—nurtures a deep pool of talent across multiple generations while advancing the ability of firms to tell a story succinctly, graphically and in words. Ultimately, we chose to bestow Awards of Excellence on those projects that addressed issues with effectiveness and poetics, and that were clearly on the road to construction. The two Merit winners were seen as projects which piqued our interest and had the possibility for excellence, but which generated important unanswered questions. Marie-Chantal Croft: While the project presen-
tations often possessed a clarity and vision that was inspiring, there remains still the tendency of some firms to include an excessively disproportionate number of schematic drawings intended to convey the concept and process of the project, but which are frequently unhelpful. It cannot be stressed enough that selective editing of text, images and drawings is critical in submitting for awards programs, as it is in client presentations in professional practice. I also noted in some cases, deficiencies in the provision of a detailed sustainability strategy along with specific information about site and context—both key components necessary in the comprehension and assessment of the overall scheme. Donald Chong: One of the privileges of gathering as a jury for a national awards program is the unexpected spinoff of healthy conversation and the anchoring of relationships with counterparts from across the country. Any unique and regional perspectives that we individually may have brought to the table at the outset of these sessions only began to open up and reshape—as we arced through a wonderful and debate-filled two days of dialogue and discourse. There is, of course, an
elegant irony in a country our size, as the degree to which we are physically widespread is matched by the degree to which we manage to espouse common, particularized beliefs—evidenced by the array of submissions from across Canada. We appreciated the architecture of “the hard fight”—where the balance of a project’s realization was ultimately cradled by the sheer architectural will to make it happen. These projects that shared the aspects of unlikelihood brought out the best not only in the specific design but also in the innate notion of what architecture should be doing more of. If it’s possible that architecture may be uncomfortably close in teetering towards a rote and superficial process of late-stage handling, surface-driven administering and feature-based styling, then the work we wanted to single out was work that paid deep attention to reasserting architecture’s original role as a process which both seeks and cultivates a built-in intelligence and a nimbleness for worthy visions. The selection of projects shown here are what may in fact be a welcome, albeit gradual, resurgence toward a resumption of the architect as part catalyst and part steward. Globally, nation-states are scrambling to reconfigure and revisit just what their stance is economically and ecologically. And architecture can’t not be part of that equation. Whether by Darwinian advances or by conscious choices, the hand of architecture is being forced, more than ever, to be a viable and essential vocation. Suddenly, what we want to do and what we need to do are becoming one and the same. Stepping back, it can’t go unnoticed as to the role of the exemplary project, and therefore the role of the awards program at large. Inadvertently (and necessarily) serving as a common “diagnostics report” of architecture, these programs can tell us where we’re at as a country, and where we might suitably be headed. It would be too simple to discount any alignments (as merely forced and convenient categorizations) among the wide range of projects from an even wider range of locales. But we can’t preclude the opportunity to consider whether these seemingly disparate projects—especially for those of a noteworthy degree of architectural resolution—are part of an unintended but nationally coherent and collectively subconscious thread of common traits, instincts and promise. It’s this kinship, as it were, of an aspiring and a committed architecture: one that aims to net a higher-order outcome and figuratively appears to be launching flares to signal an architecture worth pursuing—well beyond the boundaries of the lot, the precinct, the region or the territory. Perhaps this is leading by example. Perhaps this is what it means to be exemplary.
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Brigitte (223)
winners
Left to right: Philippe Larocque, Randy Cohen, Anne Cormier, Howard Davies, Traian Dima, Sebastien St-Laurent.
Top row, left to right: Eric Jofriet, Sébastien Gagnon, Yves Melin, Alexander Kravec, David Vieujean, Marcelo Wengierko, Mostafa Aqel, Étienne Gibeault, Claudiu Olaru, Ali Mojtabavi. Middle row, left to right: Félix Tue, Brigitte Merran, Jessica Cuevas, Julie Dionne, Hanen Dhakouani, Courtney Posel, Jacqueline Skoda, Stella Cano, Christine Latreille, Marie-Élaine Trudeau. Bottom row, left to right: Andrij Serbyn, Jacob Fichten, Robert Lacoste, Gerald Soiferman.
Top row, left to right: Dieter Toews, Simon Jones, Bernard Olivier, Ivan Sylva, Danny Pearl, Chantal Cornu, Sudhir Suri, Hugues Daly, Nathalie Heroux. Bottom row, left to right: Jessica Dan, Matthieu Schleiss, Morgan Carter, Aradhana Gupta, Jean François St-Onge, Cecilia Chen. Missing: René Chevalier. 12 canadian architect 12/12
Atelier Big City was established in Montreal in 1987 by Anne Cormier, Randy Cohen and Howard Davies. The group’s name as well as their slogan “Make Architecture a Public Policy” reflects a commitment to exploring work that is based on an informed understanding of the city as an ongoing project rich in ideas and untapped potential. A strong conceptual approach is based on the interpretation of program and siting strategies. Of particular interest to the group is the notion of public space in buildings and the importance of the architectural promenade, a spatial journey animated by relations established between elements of the program, and between the built project and its environment. Each project is an exploration in generating an architectural milieu of grand sensual stimulation through the use of very simple means: colour, volume, material and structure. The work of Atelier Big City explores the potential for the creation of spaces in which the various themes of movement, structure, function, materiality and form are dynamically employed. The firm has received a number of awards and honours in architectural design, urban integration and landscape design, including the Prix de Rome in 1998 and a Governor General’s Medal in 2006 for their innovative urban housing project called U2. Work by Atelier Big City has been exhibited and presented through lectures in North America and in Europe, and its principals are committed educators at the university level. Founded in 1991, Fichten Soiferman & Partners Architects (FSA) is a well established Canadian firm. Its repertoire includes numerous projects of varied scope, complexity and magnitude for both the private and public sectors, as well as for national and international clients. Many of its projects have been cited for their design merit by prestigious institutions such as the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada, the American Institute of Architects, the Ordre des architectes du Québec, Concordia University, the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec and the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. FSA has formed a number of successful strategic alliances with recognized designers with whom it has participated in recent competitions for important institutional projects. These partnerships have been enhanced by the firm’s commitment to teamwork, close collaboration and its skill in directing multidisciplinary teams. The ability to develop technical detailing for sophisticated and high-quality buildings and to complete them within the expected budgets and schedules has contributed to the firm’s reputation as a highly competent and efficient organization. Building types recently com pleted by the firm include: sports and recreation, university, penitentiary, health care, religious and airport facilities. L’OEUF is an award-winning firm with a diversified practice founded by Daniel Pearl and Mark Poddubiuk in 1992, with Bernard Olivier and Sudhir Suri as more recent additions to the partnership. L’OEUF has won the prestigious HOLCIM Foundation international prize for its Greening the Infrastructure at Benny Farm project, an innovative neighbourhood development promoting community empowerment and proactive participation of stakeholders. With a deep commitment to research and teaching, a strong sense of the importance of socially equitable space, and an acute sensitivity to cost, L’OEUF is renowned for its expertise in sustainable and socially progressive design. The firm focuses on and revels in the elegant resolution of complex design problems, with vast experience in designing at residential, institutional and urban scales.
DUNDEE KILMER DEVELOPMENTS LIMITED
architectsAlliance believes in the intensity and vitality of cities. Each of the firm’s architecture and urban design projects—which include the Cairns Family Health and Bioscience Research Complex at Brock University, the Four Seasons Hotel and Residences, and the Bloor Street Transformation—is a conscious act of citybuilding. In every case, aA works to articulate a convincing and urbane response to context, and a compelling and appropriate reaction to density that enriches both the public realm and the individual’s experience of urban life. aA’s approach reflects the personality of the city itself, which is shifting, multivalent and mutable. The city is not a monolithic statement, but a meandering conversation that takes place over generations—that is by turns respectful, fractious, tentative and insistent. The buildings and public spaces that aA creates represent lines of dialogue, through which the firm continues the conversation and advances the language of architecture. Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects was founded in 1987 by Bruce Kuwabara, Thomas Payne, Marianne McKenna and Shirley Blum berg. The firm has since earned over 175 awards for architectural excellence. In the last decade, KPMB contributed to Toronto’s evolution as an international destination with projects for the Toronto International Film Festival, Canada’s National Ballet School, the Gardiner Museum,
the Young Centre for Performing Arts and the Royal Conservatory. Projects across Canada include Manitoba Hydro Place (LEED Platinum) in Winnipeg, the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa, and the forthcoming Remai Art Gallery of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon which earned KPMB its 11th Canadian Architect Award of Excellence in 2011. Recent projects include the Rotman School of Management Expansion at the University of Toronto, the CIGI Campus in Waterloo and the Quantum-Nano Centre at the University of Waterloo. KPMB is currently working on projects for Princeton University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Northwestern University, as well as the new headquarters for the Elementary Teacher’s Foundation of Ontario and The Globe and Mail in Toronto. Since 1988, DAOUST LESTAGE inc. has been actively involved in the fields of architecture and urban design. Involved in design at every scale, this multidisciplinary firm strives to bridge the limitations of traditional design practice and to overcome boundaries between urban design, architecture, landscape, graphic, interior, industrial and furniture design. For each project, the approach rests on a careful understanding of the site’s present and his torical characteristics in order to anchor the proposed intervention with the intrinsic qualities of the surroundings, revealing traces
of the past through a resolutely contemporary language. Characterized by simplicity, the firm’s designs demonstrate an ability to conceptualize projects of varied nature and scope. From large-scale urban improvement projects and architectural schemes to interior and furniture design, the DAOUST LESTAGE inc. team has acquired unique expertise in the planning, design and realization of diverse and awardwinning projects. MacLennan Jaunkalns Miller Architects is a Toronto-based design practice with over 25 years of experience and the proven ability to deliver sustainable civic projects to meet the requirements of universities, municipal clients, and other public institutions. The work of the firm is centred on developing hybrid forms of public architecture that incorporate highperformance sports, recreation and community programs into the vibrant social hearts of many campuses and municipalities. From field houses, gymnasia, arenas and aquatic centres to community rooms and libraries, the volume and quality of the practice’s portfolio are rep resented by more than 50 projects and over 45 national awards including the Governor General’s Medal in Architecture. Left to right: Pat Moran, David Klassen, Renée Daoust, Peter Clewes, David Miller, Ken Tanenbaum, Jason Lester, Bruce Kuwabara.
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Josh Dunford
BattersbyHowat started informally as a design studio in 1996. Now an 11-person architectural practice, the office has a strong track record in both design excellence and the inclusive and considered nature of its design process. As partners and friends for 25 years, Battersby and Howat hold combined degrees that encompass architecture, landscape design and interior
design. This multidisciplinary approach gives the firm a distinct advantage to conceive of a project holistically, and reflects the receptive and collaborative nature of the studio’s culture. BattersbyHowat simultaneously considers the architectural resolution of a space or building, the material and physical occupation of an interior space with people, furnishings and
fixtures, and thoughtfully engages the surrounding landscape both on the level of its formal and ecological potential. Left to right: Tillie Kwan, Scott Lawrie, Cindy Lee, Fang Liu, Jessica McGillivray, Ben Tiffin, Heather Howat, David Battersby, Mona Tsui, Mary Cuk, Bettina Balcaen.
Based in Whitehorse, Yukon, Kobayashi + Zedda operates in fairly extreme climatic conditions. Working above the 60th parallel in a rugged and mountainous territory adjacent to Alaska, there are five caribou for every human and, in some areas, the ground is permanently frozen. With the lowest recorded temperature in Canada at –63°C, there is not much of a summer to speak of but the continuous daylight in June convinces residents otherwise. Aboriginal people comprise one-quarter of the population, and it has been only 60 years since the Alaska Highway connected the outside world to them. The firm realizes that a small community discourages specialization, and has been known to tackle any project as long as there exists the potential to do interesting work. Recently, in order to bring design to the neglected urban landscape of Whitehorse, KZA decided to lead by example by building and renovating its own buildings and to run a coffee house. Behind the bar, left to right: Antonio Zedda, Jack Kobayashi. Front row, left to right: Ryan McLennan, Sheelah Tolton, Cali Battersby, Susana Barr, Jackie Burgess, Chris Chevalier.
T B A | Thomas Balaban, architecte is an emerg ing Montreal architecture practice formed in 2009. During the past three years the studio has garnered local as well as national recognition through a growing list of awards, exhibitions, publications and competitions for projects that 14 canadian architect 12/12
thoughtfully search for a new contemporary expression within Montreal’s existing fabric and vernacular traditions. It is a critical practice that favours the omnivorous integration of art, technology and pedagogical research over the increasing fragmentation and specialization of
architectural practice. Left to right: Jennifer Thorogood, Julia Manaças, Thomas Balaban, Justin Boulanger. Naomi Frangos, Maxime Lefebvre, Elliott Sturtevant.
Marc Gibert/adecom.ca
Left to right: Boris Morin-Defoy, Erwan Le Diraison, Paul Laurendeau, Renée-Claude Left to right: Francois R. Beauchesne, Maxime Gervais, Nathalie Langlois, Benoît-Simon Lagacé. Lord, Robert Mailhot, Joanie Desrosiers, Étienne Paradis, Chantal Corbin. Absent: Jean-Yves Rouleau, Marie-Ève Lachapelle, Julie Martel. Paul Laurendeau established his firm in Mon treal in 1995 after gaining international experience with renowned architects in London and Paris. His initial work includes competition submissions in which he explored and devel oped a style of creating stark spaces organized along orthogonal axes. Laurendeau’s archi tecture is an artistic undertaking rooted in proportions and geometry that play on symmetry, repetition and verticality to create a tangible effect with one’s perception of space. His work has received numerous design awards
including Awards of Excellence from the Ordre des architectes du Québec for Fashionlab in 2003, Desert in 2005 and Dolbeau-Mistassini Theatre in 2009, along with a Canadian Architect Award of Excellence in 2006. His most important project to date is the 9,000-seat Trois-Rivières amphitheatre currently under construction, the result of a competition he won in 2011. Established in 1990, Beauchesne Architecture Design is located in Trois-Rivières. With its team of architects, technicians and designers,
it integrates various skills allowing it to offer complete professional services to its clientele throughout the province of Quebec. Focusing primarily on institutional, health care, education, commercial, housing and industrial projects, Beauchesne stresses the need to create good working conditions for its staff where client respect is paramount. It derives the greatest satisfaction from creating quality spaces for the users that will inhabit them.
Zeidler Partnership Architects has been established for 50 years in Toronto, which now serves as headquarters for the firm with additional offices in Calgary, Vancouver, Victoria, Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Abu Dhabi, London, Berlin and West Palm Beach. With over 200 professional and support staff members, most senior personnel have been with the firm for 10 to 30 years, and are currently led by senior partners Alan Munn, Tarek El-Khatib and Vaidila Banelis. The firm’s projects cover virtually the entire range of architectural, urban and interior design work, varying from large mixed-use complexes to small residences and offices. The major body of work is located in Canada and the United States, but the firm has also, over the past 25 years, developed a significant international presence in Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Zeidler has been recognized by its peers with over 140 national and international awards, and more than 400 articles on the firm have been published in its distinguished and long history. Left to right: Don Vetere, Tarek El-Khatib, Dalibor Vokac, Neal Panchuck. 12/12 canadian architect
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MBAC—Top row, left to right: Marc Boutin, Kristin St. Arnault, Jerry Hacker, Richard Cotter, Sean Knight, Michael McGie. Middle row, left to right: Katherine Kovalcik, Tony Leong, Mauricio Rosa, Jonny Hehr, Mike deBoer, Jenny Kim. Bottom row, left to right: Alison MacLachlan, Matt Lamers, Jodi James, Nate Dekens, Liam Woofter. The Marc Boutin Architectural Collaborative is a research-based critical practice. The work in the studio is focused on the design opportunities that lie at the confluence of different disciplines, seeking a density of meaning that can only be achieved through the synthesis of art, architecture, urban design and landscape architecture. The concepts of negotiable space and imprintable architecture have been central contributors to the value of the design projects pursued. Equally important is the firm’s capacity to dynamically and responsively engage clients in order to develop project accountability. MBAC’s resultant design portfolio has received numerous international and national awards for architecture and public space design and has been internationally published and exhibited. Recent work includes the Eau Claire Plaza Redevelopment, one of Calgary’s significant public spaces; the revitalization of Calgary’s river pathway system through a series of plazas and nodes; the restoration of the historic Calgary Public Building; the Calgary Centre for Global Community; the National Mountain Centre; and The Roadshow: Architectural Landscapes of Canada.
el dorado inc started as a firm providing architectural design and construction services in Kansas City, Missouri. Its history is shaped by a constant and rigorous exploration of the relationship between designing and making, from smaller-scale installations to larger-scale architect-led design-build projects. By incorporating the construction of its designs into its project delivery, the firm is able to more effectively control the project schedule and cost, and to achieve a higher level of craft. el dorado’s 25-person company is a collaborative enterprise, focused on work in six target sectors: commercial, residential, industrial, civic/institutional, public art and planning. As a group, it is understood that every project it takes on, regardless of sector, scale or budget, must be exceptional.
el dorado inc—Left to right: Brandon Froelich, David Dowell, Josh Shelton.
Andrew Neuman recently graduated with a Master of Architecture degree from the University of British Columbia where he received the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada Student Medal. His thesis project went on to win the Award of Excellence in the City of Vancouver’s re:Think Housing ideas competition for its affordable housing contributions in the private sector. Neuman holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Hawaii at Manoa and a Diploma of Fine Arts from Langara College in Vancouver. In October 2012, he and his wife Christine welcomed their third child into the world. He plans to begin his architecture internship in January 2013. 16 canadian architect 12/12
Founded in 1957 as an architectural firm, Lemay is now a leading integrated firm with broad services in architecture, urban design, interior design, landscape architecture, branding and project management. To address the increasingly complex and interdisciplinary nature of a design practice, 2009 saw the emergence of LemayLAB, the associated creative think tank and architectural research development studio headed by Lemay chief creative officer Michel Lauzon. Based in Montreal, the 150-person firm also has offices in Quebec City, Toronto, San José (Costa Rica) and Algiers (Algeria). Comprised of architects, urban planners, interior designers and graphic specialists, the firm is renowned for its ability to solve large-scale projects with complex social, heritage and technical constraints. It has extensive experience in health care, institutional, cultural, residential and commercial projects, as well as an established reputation in interior design. Urban design is also emerging as a driving force, garnering large-scale winning commissions and competitions. Lemay uniquely combines the capacity and expertise of a large
firm with the creativity and personalized service of a boutique outfit, creating enduring value through the design of built spaces. Back row, left to right: Damien Leman, Victor Rodrigue, Valentin Guirao. Middle row, left to right: Bryan Marchand, Didier Heckel, Jean-François
Gagnon, Geneviève Telmosse. Front row, left to right: Katrin Bindner, Jean-François FortinGadoury, Sandra Neill, Gino Mauri, Michel Lauzon, François Desmarais, Jean-François St-Onge, Annie-Claude Galland. Missing: Michel Lepage and Brittany Marshall.
gh3 designs in the complex realm where architecture, urbanism and landscape overlap. With a Modernist’s eye to order and beauty, and an environmentalist’s awareness of sustainability and long-term thinking, the studio-based practice brings together expertise in architecture, landscape, urban design and ecology. The firm believes that the full spectrum of the built
environment should benefit from thoughtful design, and approach every design problem with a context-specific strategy supported by technical research that uses site and architecture to make inspiring and beautiful places to live, work and play. gh3 was founded in 2006 by Pat Hanson and Diana Gerrard, each with over 30 years of experience in their respective
careers. The firm has quickly established itself as one of Canada’s most innovative integrated design practices in six short years by garnering 14 major awards, including a 2010 Governor General’s Medal. Left to right: Pat Hanson, Diana Gerrard, Raymond Chow, Byron White, John McKenna.
After graduating from the Master of Architecture program at the University of Toronto, Danielle Berwick went to work for RCR Arquitectes in Olot, Spain. She has worked as a designer on numerous projects in Canada, as well as in the United States, Spain, France and Finland. She won the Yolles scholarship in 2011 and was offered a fellowship at the University of Manitoba in 2009. Prior to this, she worked as a paediatric palliative nurse, a health professional in India, as well as a composer and musician. Danielle’s work and research conceives of cinematic spaces using a reasonable suspension of disbelief to envision scenes of daily life with its inevitable fragility, dirt and uncomfortableness. Experimenting with the vulnerabilities of built form, her ambition is to seek out the balance between architecture that is humble and that which is radical. 12/12 canadian architect
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Award of Excellence
Centre Culturel de Notre-Dame-de-Grâce
Architects Atelier Big City, Fichten Soiferman et Associés, L’OEUF Location Montreal, Quebec
The winning scheme from a competition that took place in August 2010, the new Cultural Centre for Notre-Dame-de-Grâce will be located in a residential neighbourhood on a block dominated by a World War II veterans’ housing complex called Benny Farm. The L-shaped building volume sits coherently within the Benny Farm context, framing a landscaped garden court which provides both a gracious public amenity and forecourts the secondary entrance to the building. In this courtyard, a balance is struck between hard surfaces for cars, bicycles and special events and functions, and landscaped features such as a large parterre under the existing maples, which may serve occasionally as an outdoor performance venue under the stars in summer. The Cultural Centre is structured clearly as a biaxial composition around an entrance court and main public lobby. In the north-south axis one finds the multipurpose hall and its service wing, while the east-west axis contains the library. The fundamental principle underlying the design of the library is that of an articulated communal space, all generations and user groups brought together under one roof, sharing an image of the library as a great public room. Furthermore, the library is articulated around a central desk and light court, the various user groups each finding its own identity in the composition of this centrality. The continuous nature of the floor spaces permits each of the groups to interact and “migrate” over time 20 canadian architect 12/12
ABOVE Framed by the exhibition hall, the café and periodicals, the entry courtyard is a microcosm of the cultural centre—certain to attract generations of community.
around the space, yet each of the architectural manipulations allows for clear identification of the groups. The main areas of the library are organized in a zig-zag manner: the visitor proceeds gently down towards the children’s section, dramatically back and up towards the adolescent zone, and then back across towards the adult section. It is a spatially dynamic and recognizable structuring of the library’s main spaces, meant to encourage discovery of a multiplicity of choices and environments. It is a place in which the community will grow: children reaching up to
Isometric of Ground Floor
adults, adolescents running with newfound liberty—only to return slowly as adults. The building is “enveloped” by a great brickand-steel curtain—the idea being to confer upon the Cultural Centre, and in particular the library spaces, a generous feeling of luminosity and of being almost outdoors. The curtain-like exterior abstracts the traditional systems of enclosure, offering inhabitants a protected environment within the comforting envelope, and controls light and temperature while maintaining infinite views and relationships to the neighbourhood.
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Community, comfort, flexibility, economy and innovation organize the sustainability agenda. Understanding the limited means of the present, we look to the future and propose a building that will become more green with time, and will educate and engage the community. As for LEED, 26 credits are presented with no cost impact—and six with minimal cost impact—to achieve the required 32 credits. Additional credits are presented as potential directions if priorities change. These will be continually evaluated to ensure the most efficient means of achieving LEED certification. DC: A nimbleness is evidenced here by a confident arrangement of well-
packed and earnestly interlocked programmatic components—where the limited dollars/square foot ratio intriguingly seems to have leveraged the project forward more than to handicap it. The circulatory space is creatively “borrowed from” to enhance and better address the otherwise formulaically prescribed programmed spaces. The building’s efficiency suddenly becomes less a defensive budgetary strategy but one of a compact Hertzberger-like series of shared spaces, offering an array of incidental and chance cross-sectional experiences amongst its users. MCC: The primary strength of this project lies in the richness of the inter-
ior spaces. The community will very easily embrace the building for its compelling variation of scale and atmosphere, and the continuity of interior spaces. Though the sustainability agenda is very coherent, a more overt physical connection between the Cultural Centre and the Benny Farm complex and gardens would have enhanced the project. BH: Of several public buildings of this scale, we felt that this project correctly captured the essence of a neighbourhood community building. It is easy to imagine the building in use—an invigorating architectural environment that would not be spoiled by bad posters. Bright colours and an intelligent plan, careful use of overlook, and a robust but not extravagant materiality all created a spicy package for a small public building.
TOP The library’s program articulates around a grand stair that offers itself as a place to read and relax while bathed in natural light. ABOVE The boldly colourful and voluminous entrance hall contains the grand stair which leads up to the theatre.
Client Arrondissement Côte-des-Neiges—Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, Ville de Montréal Architect Team Atelier Big City: Randy Cohen, Howard Davies, Philippe Larocque, Triana Dima, Justin Nguyen, Muhidin Kadric, Sébastien St-Laurent, Vi Ngo. Fichten Soiferman et Associés Architectes: Andrij Serbyn, Gerald Soiferman, Étienne Gibeault, Ali Mojtabavi, Jessica Cuevas, Eric Jofriet, Alex Kravec, Brigitte Merran, Mostafa Aqel, Christine Latreille, Claudiu Olaru, Yves Melin. L’OEUF: Sudhir Suri, Aradhana Gupta, Mark Brightman, Hugues Daly, René Chevalier, Morgan Carter, Ivan Sylva, Matthieu Schleiss, Daniel Pearl, Marjorie Bolduc-Provost, Bernard Olivier. Structural Groupe EGP Mechanical/Electrical Pageau Morel et associés Landscape NIP Paysage (Mathieu Cassavant, Claude Cournoyer) Civil Vinci Consultants (Marie Dugué) Graphics Atelier Pastille Rose (Tamzyn Berman) Lighting CS Design (Conor Sampson) Acoustics Sonar Consultants (Michel Leduc) Accessibility Société Logique (Emilie Martineau) Ergonomics Patrick Vincent Daylighting Knot Shop (Andrew Hruby) LEED Synairgis (Emmanuel Merliere) LEED Commissioning EXP (Karine St. Germain) Project Managers Monique Coté, Myrith Yassa Area 4,500 m 2 Budget $12 M Completion Spring 2014
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Award of Excellence
UBC Geological Field School
Architect Location
BattersbyHowat Architects Inc. Oliver, British Columbia
The facilities for the University of British Columbia (UBC) Geological Field School are located at the edge of an 80-acre parcel of land near Oliver, British Columbia, adjacent to the White Lake Grasslands Protected Area and the Susie Mine. The site falls within the Southern Okanagan Basin Ecosection, characterized by dramatic rock outcroppings, dry grasslands and open pine forests. The intention is to build 10 new buildings to replace the existing camp buildings that are reaching the end of their lifespan and to augment the facilities for increased capacity while better facilitating course instruction. The new camp consists of a dining and lecture hall combined with a map-study cabin, as well as sleeping and bathing facilities for students and faculty. The Geological Field School will be used by UBC Earth and Ocean Science students, faculty
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ABOVE A cross-section of the site at the fire pit reveals a clustered assemblage of pavilions. BOTTOM A long section indicates the gentle slope and open pine forests characterizing the site. OPPOSITE, TOP RIGHT A faculty cabin melds effortlessly into the landscape.
and staff for two weeks in May and will accommodate approximately 90 people. Design investigations led to a substantial reconsideration of the project scope both programmatically and architecturally. The total number of structures containing the facility program was reduced from 13 to 10. Sleeping accommodations were consolidated into larger bunkhouses and washing facilities were centralized. In addition, the teaching facilities and dining hall were consolidated to create a more efficient and physically substantial central structure. This programmatic modification allowed for a reduction in the development’s footprint and the consolidation of services while minimizing physical disruption of this site’s sensitive ecology. Taking the thought of minimizing the site impact further, one of the main design compon-
ents is the use of canted walls throughout the project to minimize the buildings’ footprint at grade without compromising interior volumes. These canted walls do not carry roof loads but they allow sleeping bunks to be staggered, opening up what might otherwise feel like cramped sleeping quarters. The canted wall meets the roof at its outer edge eliminating the requirement for soffits resulting in less area to be finished and ultimately maintained. The new structures remain in the vicinity of the replaced camp buildings to minimize the impact on the site and to maintain existing utilities. The dining and lecture hall plays a central role, located near the entrance of the property and across from the communal fire pit with views to a seasonal creek and open field beyond. Conjoined with the dining/lecture hall is the map cabin. These two pieces of program were
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brought together with a covered exterior deck that can be used for communal and social gathering purposes. The resultant building mass provides the necessary weight to identify this as the facility’s centre while also creating an outdoor classroom to augment the indoor facilities. This covered deck space also acts as an oversized porch, reinforcing the essential communal nature of the “camp and campus” experience and atmosphere. On a smaller scale, clusters of sleeping cabins also incorporate social entry porches, and are placed along a meandering and permeable pedestrian path. The cabins are oriented to maximize interaction and exposure to neighbouring cabins. Wash houses are centrally located between the clusters to allow for short travel distances. Further strategies were employed to reduce the site impact. The structures are founded on concrete piers and isolated pad footings with a system called “Bigfoot.” The footing forms are pre-molded bell-shaped footings that are easily placed with minimal excavation. As a result, concrete usage is limited along with the site disturbance, further reducing trauma to the root systems of existing trees and vegetation. Material that is excavated from the site is used to create a semi-circular berm around the proposed communal fire pit. This proposed berm also addresses concerns surrounding noise pollution that has historically disturbed neighbours. A low-tech water collection system will be used to capture the runoff water of the main buildings in an effort to manage storm water. The water will be utilized for rock cutting and equipment cleaning to help reduce the pressure on the well. Materially, the project is constructed and finished almost entirely in wood which is readily available and locally produced. Inspired by the vernacular of rural buildings around the site while also adhering to a budgetary limit, the low-slope roofs and canted walls are clad with
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corrugated galvanized metal panels. Recessed areas and exterior walls at entries are painted in a palette of muted colours inspired by the lichens and grasses that cling to the rugged hillsides that surround the site. DC: The tiered/staggered section for the top
bunks in relation to its lower bunks creates a critical mid-scale detail which in concert with the minimizing footprint creates what appears to be the defining canted exterior wall condition in the project. As a result, a somewhat playful but well-earned generative form emerges, enough so that the volume of the pitched roofs results in an eaveless, tight-wrap volume. Accordingly, a legitimate syntax is deployed in which overhangs and breezeways elegantly accommodate inflected walls in plan often resulting in a pleasing figure-ground balance of public-to-private spaces. MCC: The relationship between the landscape
and buildings is key in this project, and the pavilion approach allows nature to exist between these humanly scaled discrete structures. The
form and materiality of the buildings are sensitive to their natural context, and the variations in shape of each pavilion bring a richness to the whole. BH: This project has a great program—a professional summer camp. A light-touch site-ordering strategy that is responsive to the landscape, combined with an intelligent and deeply habitable cross-section creates a delicate balance of understated architecture entirely appropriate for this building form.
Client University of British Columbia Department of Earth and Ocean Science Architect Team David Battersby, Heather Howat, Bettina Balcaen, Jose Casal Structural Axis Engineering Ltd. Landscape BattersbyHowat Architects Inc. Interiors BattersbyHowat Architects Inc. Project Manager Crystal Roche, UBC Properties Trust General Contractor Scuka Enterprises 3D Model and Renderings Tomas Machnikowski Area 10,140 ft2 building area on 80 acres Budget withheld Completion May 2014
C1 student cabin C2 faculty cabin C3 wash cabin C4 lecture/dining hall
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Award of Excellence
2015 Pan Am/Parapan American Games Athletes’ Village | Canary District
Architects Dundee Kilmer Integrated Design Team: Joint venture of architectsAlliance and Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects in association with Daoust Lestage inc. and MacLennan Jaunkalns Miller Architects Location Toronto, Ontario
Unlike many international athletic games projects, which are purposebuilt and then converted to other uses, the 2015 Pan/Parapan American Games Athletes’ Village accelerates the build-out of a key site in the redevelopment of Toronto’s West Don Lands. Originally planned for completion in three phases over 12 years, the new 14.3-hectare downtown neighbourhood will be designed and built in less than three years. This new community, part of a broader development initiative for the city’s waterfront, is being undertaken by Infrastructure Ontario and Waterfront Toronto using a Design-Build-Finance procurement process. Initially, the project will provide a home away from home for more than 10,000 athletes and officials participating in the 2015 Pan/Parapan American Games. Following the Games, the Village will convert into the Canary District, a sustainable mixed-use neighbourhood for people at all stages of life and income levels, including market and affordable housing, student housing for George Brown College, and a new YMCA community centre. The site stands at the eastern edge of downtown Toronto on the 32hectare West Don Lands, bordered by the Don River, King Street East,
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An aerial rendering of the 2015 Pan/Parapan American Games Athletes’ Village, sited on Toronto’s West Don Lands. BOTTOM, LEFT TO RIGHT Interior courtyards are frequently elevated above grade to bring open green space up to the level of residential units; in Block 14, the eastern bar contains seven floors of student housing and projects out over the Front Street promenade, supported by canted columns; Blocks 1/14 comprise the YMCA recreation centre and a 257-unit student residence. ABOVE
Parliament Street, and the rail line adjacent to the Gardiner Expressway. Front Street East, one of the city’s major arterials, extends through the site to terminate at the Don River Valley. The Integrated Design Team developed a suite of core design principles through which to establish a new community with an authentic character built into it. These principles imbue the project with a coherent diversity: individualized expression from building to building within a vibrant, integrated urban fabric. Each building is designed by a different team member according to these principles, which include: Historic and Contemporary Gateways Architectural gateposts identify the western and eastern entrances into the Village. At the west, the heritage CNR and Canary Restaurant buildings are restored as signifiers of the historic uses of the site. At the east, new residential buildings address Bayview Avenue and the new Don River Park.
Diverse Architectural Typology The massing, scale and height of every building relates to its neighbour, street to street and block to block. Where one façade steps back, the next projects forward; rooflines rise in a rhythmic pattern from the west end of the site to the east. Pedestrian Scale A strong horizontal expression of stacked volumes reduces the visual impact of buildings at grade. Across the site, a standard ground-floor height of six metres and extensive glazing creates a spacious, permeable ground plane. Tracing Railways North and south of the principal arterial of Front Street, a secondary system of pedestrian routes traces the former CNR rail lines across the site. Allusions to these vestiges of past uses unearth the genius loci of the site. Intensification of Green Space The Village’s network of laneways, mews, courtyards and planted terraces—inspired by the site’s history as a parkland and proximity to the Don River Valley—draws green space from the ground plane upward, and from the Park westward through the site. Connecting with the Distillery District Massing and material connections, including the historic gateway described above, connect the Village with the extraordinary Distillery District heritage site to ensure the urban, economic and social viability of both neighbourhoods. Animating the Public Realm of Front Street The CNR building is the focal point of a new public plaza that extends the Front Street pedestrian promenade west to Cherry Street. A uniform depth of 60 feet is established for ground-floor retail/commercial spaces along both sides of Front, animating the street and supporting a dynamic retail strategy. Sustainability: Environmental, Social and Economic The Village is informed by a holistic philosophy of sustainability. Live-work uses are integrated with community athletic facilities, an extensive network of pedestrian walkways, ample public and resident bicycle parking, direct links to the Don River Park, and pathways down Lake Ontario and into the cultural hub of the Distillery District. The collective massing strategy was orchestrated to escalate the scale and boldness of expression of each building from east to west, maximizing variety in scale and mass, and placing every building in conversation with adjacent and facing blocks. Brick, stone and wood add texture and substance to the ground floors of buildings at the west end of the Village, in response to the fabric of the Distillery District. From west to east, greater amounts of glazing at the ground and upper levels increase to reduce the impact of the massing on the streetscape, and put “eyes on the street.” The design vision celebrates the best qualities of Canada: open, inclusive and welcoming. In the short term it will give Pan/Parapan American athletes a unique experience of Toronto and Canada. In the long term it will give Toronto another great neighbourhood, in the “City of Neighbourhoods” beloved of Jane Jacobs and the global village of Marshall McLuhan. DC: The mixed-use, mixed-income makeup in this vision is balanced by a
mature determination to build an enriching and disciplined civic fabric— evidenced by the dual dexterity to work at the scale of the street and, ultimately, at the scale of the urban block. The Canary precinct is sophisticated proof (and a quiet rallying cry) that intelligent cities should renew the currency of the well-crafted “block” as the real medium in which we can grow good neighbourhoods. MCC: The amount and quality of work that was presented was impressive,
and a standard of excellence is present everywhere in the project—seen in the public spaces, the streets, the private courtyards, and the architecture and interiors of the buildings. The “eyes on the street” theory of Jane Jacobs has been appropriately employed here, and the result is convincing, from both an individual and collective perspective.
Block 4 stands as the eastern gatepost of the Village, establishing Bayview Avenue as a prime residential address with grade-related residential units and a landscaped street edge facing Don River Park, which has views to downtown.
ABOVE
BH: Designing a “pop-up city” for an event such as the Pan Am Games is tough. The city must accommodate a momentary event while offering the much more important long-term pleasures of civitas. The submission used the term “coherent diversity” and suggests a convincing possibility of achieving this objective, and so provides long-term “bread” to nourish civic life before leveraging a “circus” event.
Front Street elevations looking North—Block 1/14, 15, 16, 4
Client Infrastructure Ontario Developer Dundee Kilmer Developments RFP Team Peter Clewes, Bruce Kuwabara, Renée Daoust, David Miller, Adam Feldmann, Andrew Dyke, Rachel Stecker, Andrew Filarski, Heather Rolleston, Richard Unterthiner, Emerich Kaspar, Mariela de Felix, Shane Neill, Virginia Fernandez, Mary K. McIntyre, Rogelio Bayaton, Helen Tran, Chris Pfiffner, Irene Chan, Taewook Eum, Gabriel Fain, Sanaz Shirshekar, Anna Sulikowska, Amanda Sebris, Johanna Radix, Catherine St-Marseille, Hala Mehio, Carl Pineau, Stéphane Savoie, Viktors Jaunkalns, Rick Galezowski, Chi Nguyen, Chen Cohen, Patrick Kniss, Jason Wah Project Team Student Residence (Blocks 1/14)—architectsAlliance: Peter Clewes, Adam Feldmann, Blair Robinson, Emerich Kaspar, Jason LeBlanc, Oliver Laumeyer, Clint Langevin, Mariela de Felix, Evan Saskin, Nicolas Peters. YMCA Community Centre—MacLennan Jaunkalns Miller Architects: David Miller, Viktors Jaunkalns, Andrew Filarski, Chen Cohen, Janouque LeRiche, Afsaneh Tafazzoli. Market Housing (Blocks 4 & 11)—KPMB Architects: Bruce Kuwabara, Luigi Larocca, Andrew Dyke, Irene Chan, Claudio Venier, Chris Pfiffner, Taewook Eum, Joseph Kan, Julie Bogdanowicz, Aiden Loweth, Jose Emila, Ramon Janer. Affordable Housing (Blocks 3/15)—Daoust Lestage inc.: Renée Daoust, Rachel Stecker, Jean-François Bilodeau, Carl Pineau, Catherine St-Marseille, Stéphane Savoie, Marie-Josée Gagnon. Structural Halsall Associates for Block 11; Adjeleian Allen Rubell Consulting Engineers for Block 4 Mechanical/Electrical/Communications/Security Hidi Rae Consulting Engineers Civil/Traffic Cole Engineering Landscape NAK Design Group Interiors Munge Leung Contractor/Construction Manager EllisDon Ledcor PAAV Building Envelope Brook Van Dalen and Associates Limited Sustainability/Building Envelope Halsall Associates for Block 11 Elevator HH Angus & Associates Building Code Leber/Rubes Inc. Environmental Terraprobe Environmental Services Acoustics Valcoustics Canada Ltd. Commissioning HFM Renderings Dundee Kilmer Integrated Design Team Area 14.29 hectares mixed-use development; 7,700 m2 community centre; 17,500 m2 student residence; 60,400 m2 market housing; 22,400 m2 affordable housing Budget $514 M Completion Spring 2015
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Award of Excellence
House In Four Fields
Architect Location
L’OEUF La Conception, Quebec
The site of the project is in the Rouge River Valley, a gently undulating farmer’s field crossed by the meander of an ancient oxbow, structured by wire fences and surrounded by forest. The approach weaves through some aged agricultural and livestock buildings to the south and reveals a view of Mont Tremblant to the east. Although the mandate was for a quiet house, it was also for an active landscape. The client’s program includes a certified organic farm while respecting the site ecology. Iconic agricultural building forms dot the regional landscape: here, the house has the tall, austere and reserved form of a slender gabled barn, perched eastwest on the wall and against the fencerow, creating a sheltered terrace and outdoor summer kitchen. The reclaimed post-and-beam structure, aged and reclaimed exterior siding, and quarried Mer de Champlain exterior stone are all “harvested” locally. From the outset, the project imagined a sheltered courtyard to offset the harsh winters and strong winds—washed in sunlight, and protected
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ABOVE A view of the house’s west façade on approach reveals a shell of reclaimed wood resting lightly upon the stereotomic mass of the stone wall. BOTTOM, LEFT TO RIGHT Cattle and seedling images provide a regional and pastoral context to the site; a winter rendering of the main living spaces, with picture views across the fields towards the mountains, and southern light filtering in through the double-height space.
by a wall of local stone. The wall is calibrated by a series of apertures which allow for views, thresholds, and the movement of air and light. The house itself rests lightly on this wall—a skeleton of reclaimed wood upon a stereotomic mass. As the armature for the program, the wall hosts a series of functions including a greenhouse, outdoor kitchen, covered living spaces, and the residence itself. A breezeway along the south elevation sets up two circulation axes—one separating the courtyard from the entrance, the other connect ing a series of indoor/outdoor spaces including the orchard and gardens. The plan is simple and comfortable, and the elevations are punctured for views, passive solar gain, and access to the agrarian landscape. The envelope is a thick thermal blanket. Designed to potentially attain Canadian Passive House certification, the residence directly responds to the client’s interest of balanced thermal comfort and simplified maintenance.
The house opens to the summer winds, ventilating at central skylights and end gables, and lends itself to passive night-time flushing. This also enables the family to attain a level of autonomy in sync with the overall farm’s lifestyle. The project design team was tightly integrated, and the initial envelope strategy was modelled with a superior, air-tight envelope (0.5 AC/H at 50 pa), integrating passive solar strategies throughout with the annual specific heat energy demand near 15 KWh/m 2y. An internal wood post-and-beam structure and offset prefabricated wall and roof panels drastically limit thermal bridging, bringing related energy losses down by 6 KWh/m 2y while providing comfort near the exterior walls. Evenly distributed thermal mass steadies the interior temperatures through the shoulder seasons. While benefiting from current technological advancements, the house also revisits local
zinc roofing membrane plywood furring strips air barrier wood fibreboard 16” I-joist
semi-rigid insulation plywood vapour barrier furring strips semi-rigid insulation recuperated oak
zinc flashing zinc gutter steel angle recuperated timber beam
Longitudinal Section
1 wood walkway 2 covered porch 3 front entrance 4 mudroom 5 kitchen 6 dining room 7 living room 8 outdoor fireplace 9 summer kitchen 10 greenhouse 11 outdoor spa 12 stone terrace
recuperated wood cladding furring strips air barrier wood fibreboard 14” vertical I-joist semi-rigid insulation plywood vapour barrier furring strips semi-rigid insulation gypsum panel
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recuperated timber column, anchored in slab natural stone flooring
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A section through the site reveals an active landscape.0RIGHT The house is super5 10 20 40 insulated and opens to the south, while the internal wood post-and-beam structure and prefabricated wall and roof panels drastically limit thermal bridging.
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BH: This was the strongest and most interesting of multiple house submissions this year. A combination of siting rigour, material inventiveness, advanced sustainability, respect for historic typology and modern landscape strategy provided a disciplined example of house design that was rigorous while being determinedly untrendy.
animal husbandry
horseback riding
hay farming
wildflower picking
orchard blossoms
firefly catching
The approach is guided by green design and is inspired by the traditional architecture and art de vivre Québécois throughout the seasons. The extreme simplicity of the architecture, the perfect merging of site and landscape, the richness of the indoor and outdoor spaces, the beauty of the house’s volume floating over the
apple harvesting
canning/preserving
berry picking
vegetable gardening
pumpkin picking
splitting firewood
snowshoeing
winter
toboganning
fall
deer watching
mushroom picking
summer
cross-country skiing
spring
MCC: This is an exemplary project in every way.
germination of seedlings
maple sugar
stewardship matched by an honesty in building; it resists “design by composition” but instead pursues “design by intent.” The deftly placed aggregation of components produces areas spatially rich but highly performative; as a
stone wall is significant. The result is a perfect example of a great coherence between form, sustainable design, high- and low-tech, and traditional methods.
skating
DC: This project exemplifies an honesty in site
contemporary insertion this project is not out of place but, in fact, comfortably fitted within a landscape befitting time-honoured agricultural structures.
bird migrations
building culture. A local palette of materials is interwoven with responsive, programmed components. It is this dialectic—between low- and high-tech, between the simple form and the high-performance envelope—that breathes both tension and calm into the farmhouse.
Client Stephen and Claudine Bronfman Architect Team Danny Pearl, Simon Jones, Morgan Carter, Matthieu Schleiss, Chantal Cornu, Dieter Toews, Bernard Olivier, Jessica Dan, Nathalie Heroux, Hugues Daly, Sudhir Suri, Aradhana Gupta, René Chevalier, Jean-François St. Onge, Cecilia Chen, Ivan Sylva Structural Jan Vrana and Jean-Marc Weill—C&E Ingénierie Mechanical/Electrical Pageau Morel et Associés Inc. Civil Marchand Houle et Associés Landscape NIP paysage Interiors Adelson Design Organic Farming Runaway Creek Farm Lighting Lightemotion Sustainabililty/PassivHaus Malcolm Isaacs Project Manager/Contractor Omnia Technologies Inc. Photography/Graphics L’OEUF Area 3,720 ft2 Budget withheld Completion Summer 2013
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Award of Excellence
1st Street SW Underpass Enhancement
The Marc Boutin Architectural Collaborative Inc. + El Dorado Inc (associated architectural firm) Location Calgary, Alberta Architect
Calgary’s growth has always been linked to the Canadian Pacific Railway. Since 1883, the CPR corridor has been the heart of the city—symbolically, physically and economically. Today, the track corridor is embedded in the core of the city and although it continues to be a vital economic factor, the corridor also poses challenges for the ongoing development of communities which border the rail lines. Unfortunately, the current physical state of deterioration of the 1st Street SW Underpass is in contradiction to its critical mobility and gateway functions. Accordingly, it was identified as a priority project for improvement by the City of Calgary. Connective, pedestrian-centred and multi-sensory, the redesigned underpass has the capacity to honour Calgarians’ collective history and poetically project into their future. At the same time, complexities of the context required the design be an inclusive, robust and serviceable part of the urban infrastructure. The realm of the underpass engages a very particular and poetic moment within the city. Users moving beneath the underpass leave one particular urban realm to re-emerge within a new and different condition; thus, the underpass represents a transition, a gateway between the downtown core to the north and the historic Beltline district to the south.
Southwest corner Enhancement
Continuous light datum
Site Section Through Roadway
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ABOVE The designed insertions are lenses that facilitate the progressive understanding, through user movement, of a sense of place; a simultaneity within the city characterized as both a north/south bridge between the Beltline community and downtown and the CPR trajectory that connects eastern and western Canadian territories.
Simultaneously, the bridge supports a complex network of railcar movement which geographically connects disparate eastern and western territories. As such, the centre of the bridge is a critical juncture where the simultaneity of local transition and geographical connection situate the city of Calgary as a liminal territory. The initial gesture, a layering of two folded skins, forms a composite wall assembly interdigitizing the mitigation of prevailing safety and comfort issues with the creation of a meaningful experience for the user. The outer skin serves to control the widespread water ingress issue; at the same time, large-scale imagescapes of rolling prairie and soaring mountains form the east-west thematic basis of a supergraphic film, applied to the front face of this layer. The inner skin, an anodized aluminum screen, is encrypted with large-scale wayfinding information which announces the upcoming urban district as users move north-south through the underpass. Perforations within the screen are choreographed to control legibility of the
Previous extent of guardrail
supergraphic behind; thus, connections to both geographical and urban conditions create a sense of anticipation beyond the confines of the underpass. Three eras of construction throughout the life of the bridge create distinct zones within the pedestrian and vehicular realms, distinguishable both in terms of their structural logic and their impact on the visual connectivity between users. Coordinating the inner skin’s role (as lens or text) with the inherent structure of the underpass allows each bay to retain its unique character, while creating a new dialogue with the site. Through notions of infrastructure as facilitator, and movement as catalyst, the viewer is empowered to create his or her own picture of “place” and is left to define a personal understanding of the underpass’s historic and contemporary meaning to the city at large. DC: The project operates with the necessarily infrastructural gesture of
multiple (but unique) instances with a commitment to a delicacy of detail—by catering to dynamically oblique view angles, directions and speeds of experience in contrast to the industrial-strength civil monu mentality above. This confluence of the various modes of city transport, complete with the inventive recapturing of the pedestrian realm, is a prog ressive game plan for delaminating disparate conditions into consolidated new urban spaces. MCC: The strength of this project is revealed in its capacity to integrate a
large-scale problem in the city with small-scale artistic materiality. Pedestrians will enjoy a lively experience while moving securely through the underpass, and the perforated screen will provide a constantly shifting perception dependent on changing viewpoints, resulting in a richly textured promenade. BH: This intervention displayed a robust tectonic inventiveness harnessed to address the extraordinarily difficult design challenge of underpasses. Integration of light, graphics, and sophisticated material pixellation to create directionally distinct views point to a possibility of not just making an unpleasant urban touch point palatable, but actually invigorating.
ABOVE Three images depict urban design strategies that enable a broader public realm, including a comprehensive lighting strategy and an extended guardrail, along with the potential for the establishment of personal narratives inspired by the imagery behind the underpass’s perforated inner skin.
Client City of Calgary, Land Use Planning + Policy Architect Team The Marc Boutin Architectural Collaborative: Marc Boutin, Richard Cotter, Mike DeBoer, Nate Dekens, Jerry Hacker, Jonny Hehr, Jodi James, Jenny Kim, Sean Knight, Kat Kovalcik, Matt Lamers, Tony Leong, Alison MacLachlan, Michael McGie, Mauricio Rosa, Kristin St. Arnault, Liam Woofter. El Dorado: Josh Shelton, David Dowell, Brandon Froelich. Structural Entuitive Electrical Mulvey + Banani Civil Delcan Lighting Design Lighting Design Innovations (LDI) Budget $1.5 M Completion Fall 2013
CLIP SYSTEM TO POSITION/ATTACH OMBRAE WATER SHEDDING SYSTEM TO EXISTING STRUCTURE
FLEXIBLE NYLON FLASHING
LED LIGHTING FLEXIBLE NYLON FLASHING
CLIPS TO ATTACH TO EXISTING STRUCTURE, PROVIDE FASTENING SURFACE
OMBRAE PERFORATED ALUM. PANEL FASTENED TO ALUM. ANGLE FRAME 50MM MECHANICALLY FASTENED TO ALUM. HSS FRAME, C/W 19MM BACK UPWATER RESISTANT SUBSTRATE W/ SUPER GRAPHIC FILE TOTAL ASSEMBLY +/ 75MM
EXISTING STRUCTURE PAINTED WARM CHARCOAL GREY WRAP ALUM. PERF TO OTHER SIDE TO CONCEAL LIGHT
LED LIGHTING BO TH ENDS CONTINUOUS WATERPROOF MEMBRANE SLOPED 2% TO RETAINING WALL
OMBRAE PERFORATED ALUM. PANEL FASTENED TO ALUM. ANGLE FRAME 50MM MECHANICALLY FASTENED TO ALUM. HSS FRAME, C/W 19MM BACK UPWATER RESISTANT SUBSTRATE W/ SUPER GRAPHIC FILE TOTAL ASSEMBLY +/ 75MM MECHANICALLY FASTENED TO ALUM. HAT CHANNEL 38MM MECHANICALLY FASTENED TO EXISTING RETAINING WALL
ALUM. FLAT BAR TOP + VERT.
ALUM. HANDRAIL
CONTINUOUS LED LIGHTS, SPACED ACCORDING TO PANEL WIDTHS
WATER DRAINAGE SYSTEM BELOW NEW CONCRETE SIDEWALK
EDGE OF CONCRETE WALKWAY PULLED AWAY FROM STRUCTURE
CONTINUOUS LED LIGHT
HANDRAIL SUPPORT: ALUM. FLAT BAR WELDED TO ALUM. GUARDRAIL
CO-PLANAR RETAINING WALL + PERFORATED GUARDRAIL
TYPICAL SECTION THROUGH ASSEMBLY WEST WALKWAY
Pedestrian Section
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Award of Excellence
Children’s First Centre
Architect Location
Kobayashi + Zedda Architects Inuvik, Northwest Territories
In Inuvik, Northwest Territories, the Children’s First Centre will be the only purpose-built building for early childhood care in the community. Once it is completed in the spring of 2013, it will provide a safe, secure and nurturing environment that will act as an anchor and hallmark of education, play and community in Inuvik. Inuvik’s strength as a community, its remote location, and the extreme environment all helped shape the design of the building. The plan is oriented north-south to provide protection and shelter from prevailing north winds 4
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Site Diagram 1 children’s first centre 2 Sir Alexander Mackenzie school— to be demolished
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3 future community park 4 prevailing northwest wind
ABOVE In the dark days of winter, the courtyard formed by the gently curving arc of the building welcomes. BOTTOM Children play hockey in the outdoor play area.
that are frequent in the Inuvik area. The plan of the building gently arcs around a central playground area that faces south to maximize solar exposure and to provide shelter against the cold northwest winds. The building design also maximizes solar orientation, bringing natural light deep into the building core in the winter. Classroom and group-use spaces straddle the south-facing arc, while a covered walkway connects the active use areas to the sheltered outdoor play area. There has been a longstanding waiting list for access to early child care in Inuvik. Employers
in the community have reported that the lack of proper child care is the number one reason why employees miss work or quit their jobs. Provision of quality child care ensures parents and guardians are able to return to the workforce or attend further training and education. Inuvik is located at 68 degrees north, 2 degrees above the Arctic Circle and 100 kilometres south of the Arctic Ocean. It is a traditional meeting place of the Inuvialuit (Inuit) and Gwich’in (First Nations) people. Located on the banks of the Mackenzie River, it delineates the end of Canada’s boreal forest and the begin-
ning of the arctic tundra. Temperatures range from -56 to +31 degrees Celsius. There are 37 consecutive days in the winter where Inuvik residents do not see the sun rise above the horizon, and 56 days in the summer when it does not leave. Due to the remote location of the project, where trees are scarce and too small to use for construction, most building materials are shipped from the south. Furthermore, the town of Inuvik is located in a region of continuous permafrost, a condition that requires a specialized adfreeze steel-pile foundation system. Consequently, the project team, using northern ingenuity, was able to source 2,000 lineal metres of steel drill pipe abandoned by the oil and gas industry in the 1980s, and used the material for the extensive adfreeze steel-pile foundation system. The foundation also includes an exposed exterior cavity below the building, which is naturally ventilated to ensure that the building does not inadvertently transfer heat to the ground below, causing melting and shifting of the foundation. Due to the vented cavity and interior crawlspace requirements, as is typical in many buildings in Inuvik, the main floor will be situated approximately eight feet above the existing grade. Extensive earthworks and grading were required to gracefully transition barrier-free access to the raised building. Cladding will consist of a pine wood soffit, steel grate, corrugated metal siding, and composite resin laminate panels that will be inspired by the colours of the northern landscape. A covered walkway serves as an outdoor play area for children while protecting them from the elements. ABOVE Transparent glazed walls permit daylight to stream from the classrooms and activity rooms into the generously scaled corridors. TOP
DC: This project stands tall in addressing these
conditions in a vocabulary that is dignified and poised—while being self-aware as to its construction type and construction culture. The compact, low-lying and efficient volume finds a way to delightfully ration out the scarce daylight while ensuring shared sightlines around the courtyard, further entrenching the communal quality sought after. It is fitting that the reuse of abandoned steel pipe for raised thermally respectful foundation systems would be the underpinning—in more ways than one—of a project which honestly and delightfully suggests an indigenous “why wouldn’t we do this” attitude vs. a “we should be doing this” attitude.
context, I appreciate the technical solutions and the appropriate choice of materials. But the most enjoyable elements are the ultimate simplicity of the Children’s First Centre and the intelligence of the sustainable solutions proposed.
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Client Children First Society Architect Team Antonio Zedda, Ryan McLennan, Justine Copestake, Alan McDiarmid, Philippe Grégoire Structural Ennova Structural Engineers Inc. Mechanical Thorn Engineering Electrical Associated Engineering Landscape Kobayashi + Zedda Architects Contractor Cofly Construction Ltd. Area 1,216 m2 Budget $5 M Completion June 2013
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its exhaustive research on the local context and population as well as for the coherence of the solution. The strength of the gesture is a response to the extreme climate but also conveys a sense of gentle embrace for the children. Given the difficulties of construction in this Northern
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BH: This project displayed an economy of means and materials, an important respect for climate, and a sense of play. It will be a bright spot in an often (literally) dark landscape.
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2011 Canadian arChiteCtural PraCtiCes
BenChMarK studY e l B a l i Va a nOW
FOR DETAILS ON THE 256 PAGE RESEARCH REPORT AND TO ORDER A COPY GO TO: www.canadianarchitect.com/benchmark
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Award of Excellence
Amphithéâtre Trois-Rivières Sur Saint-Laurent
Architects Paul Laurendeau | François R Beauchesne | Architectes en Consortium Location Trois-Rivières, Quebec
Situated at the junction of the St. Maurice and St. Lawrence Rivers, the new Amphithéâtre de Trois-Rivières acts as keystone to the new urban development of Trois-Rivières sur Saint-Laurent. Intended to reconnect the existing harbourfront park and St. Quentin Island to the city’s downtown core, this new urban redevelopment will transform this once overlooked industrial area into a vibrant neighbourhood. The amphitheatre is meant to be the first of a series of projects, infrastructure pieces, cultural institutions and public spaces intended to transform the site into a cultural promenade along the St. Lawrence between Montreal and Quebec City. Delicately held up by eight columns, a thin and elegant roof takes advantage of the natural beauty of the site and frames the majestic St. Lawrence River. This slender roof gently slopes from 10 millimetres at its edge to six metres at its centre and captures the shimmering lights being reflected off of the water. The various programmatic elements—including the 3,500 orchestra seats, stage, dressing rooms and administrative spaces—are covered by the 80 x 90-metre structure. The stage and fly tower’s volume are based on the proportions of Montreal’s Place des Arts, accommodating a variety of shows ranging from rock, jazz and pop concerts to Broadway musicals to ballet and circus acts. Sloping upwards and out from under the roof, the lawn has the capacity to accommodate an additional 5,500 visitors outdoors. The main access to the building is located on the southeast façade
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An aerial view of the amphitheatre, a project that will most certainly transform this industrial waterfront area in Trois-Rivières into a vibrant and populated neighbourhood.
ABOVE
where a double-height foyer creates a link with a newly created urban square beside the amphitheatre. The lobby is flanked by reception areas, cloak rooms and dining rooms that reunite in close proximity the programmatic elements necessary for year-round use of the building. During winter months, a guillotine door closes the stage opening, allowing its interior to be used for receptions, private events, shows and banquets. The loading docks, stage, workshops and storage rooms are situated on the same level to facilitate handling of scenery equipment. Black and red steel cladding covers the exterior of the building, while the interior reveals raw concrete floors, bright white walls and black acoustical mineral-fibre panel ceilings. Spaces that are used daily such as the reception, offices and meetings rooms are awash in natural daylight achieved through ample fenestration. On the second level, a fully glazed wall in the green room reveals a scenic view of the St. Maurice River. DC: There’s something to admire in a water’s edge project for a small city
that is unapologetic in pursuing its own terrain of “monumentality.” It is refreshingly undertaken here with what appears to be a singularly prominent and elegantly structured canopy. In a scale at par with the overhead canopy, the grass-raked deck which extends out from beneath unexpectedly emerges as an equally striking physical gesture, ultimately rewarding any of the ascending public with a grassy commons in the form of a vista-laden promontory.
A striking graphic bearing an acronym of the region’s name is constructed right into the waterfront façade. OPPOSITE the building’s transparency takes maximum advantage of the majestic St. Lawrence River views; The stage and covered seating area, which accommodates 3,500 patrons; an elegantly thin canopy roof caps a sublimely minimal structure. ABOVE
BOTTOM, LEFT TO RIGHT
MCC: The formal resolution of this project is very attractive, and the
liaison between site, landscape and architecture is highly successful. However, the elegance of the building may face structural challenges during the design and construction process. BH: This is a stunningly presented project that proposes an extraordinary place on an extraordinary river. A clean plan combined with adventurous (perhaps challenging) tectonics and a strong combination of architecture and graphics suggests the possibility of a dramatic enhancement to the public realm at a great Canadian river edge.
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Client Ville de Trois-Rivières Architect Team Paul Laurendeau, François Beauchesne, Robert Mailhot, Renée-Claude Langlois, Boris Morin-Defoy, Erwan le Diraison, Maxime Gervais Structural Dessau-Pluritec Mechanical/Electrical Dessau Landscape VLAN | Paul Laurendeau Interiors Paul Laurendeau | François R Beauchesne | Architectes en Consortium Project Manager Verreault Lighting Éclairage Public Scenography Trizart Acoustics Octave Signage Bryan-K. Lamonde Code Technorm Rendering MIR Contractor Ville de Trois-Rivières Project Manager Verreault Area 14,000 m2 Budget $41 M Completion 2014
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Award of Excellence
Go Roof, Union Station
Architect Location
Zeidler Partnership Architects Toronto, Ontario
Located at Union Station, one of Canada’s national historic sites, the renovation of the train shed roof covering the passenger platforms and tracks which connects GO Transit’s Union Station Bus Terminal to the station building delivers part of the “Big Move” promise, Metrolinx’s 25-year regional transportation plan for Ontario. A major component of the Union Station renewal project, the objective was to renovate and restore the east and west portions of the shed totalling 30,000 square metres and to replace the central 5,000 square metres of the train shed with a large glass atrium. An early 20th-century Beaux-Arts-style building, the train shed is a designated heritage structure on a national historic site, so the architects worked closely with Parks Canada during the design stages, ensuring preservation of the heritage character. While most of the seven-acre train shed roof will be refurbished, the central portion will be removed and replaced with a new glass atrium to celebrate the station. The glass jewel box will float over the tracks, providing daylight at platform level and a visual connection from the station to the waterfront. Midway in this overlap, delicate curtains of clear glass louvres will be suspended from the roof on a light network of steel tubes and cables to repel penetration by rain and snow while naturally ventilating the train shed. The view of the roof, visible from offices and other tall buildings in the area, will be improved by the glass jewel and a green roof with photovoltaic (solar) cells. These changes will help reduce the heatisland effect that raises temperatures in urban areas, reduce the concentration of rainwater runoff, and generate electricity to offset the needs of 36 canadian architect 12/12
ABOVE The transparency of the new glass atrium floods Union Station’s tracks and platforms with natural light.
the station. Another major element of the project is the provision of additional access stairs and elevators to increase the number of connections between the concourse level and the platforms. When completed, more than 50 new sets of stairs and elevators will have been added to greatly improve passenger access to and from the trains. GO Transit is also working with the City on separate projects to increase the concourse space in the station. The firm has designed the enclosures to the stairs, escalators and elevators as minimalist glass boxes, similar to the floating atrium roof glass box. A combination of clear and fritted patterns will give mostly transparency while screening some views for privacy. After many years of planning and design, the jewel box atrium is taking shape. Installation of the glass fascia and soffit panels began in midSeptember 2012, and construction of the atrium is expected to run until late 2014. The overall work of the project is being phased over six years to minimize disruption to daily train service. When completed, the project will fully restore, repair and renovate all elements from the top of the roof down to track level, honour Union’s Station’s legacy as the most opulent railway station in Canada, and celebrate the nation’s busiest transportation hub. DC: Its singularly monolithic gesture is pleasingly detailed in a decidedly
restrained though refined way—which may do more to lessen the individuality of the project as a standalone feature, but is a welcome and true “last piece of the puzzle”—a piece that also reintroduces the nearly
century-old Bush shed as a sophisticated and significant part of the overall composition of Union Station. Suddenly, the new glass-covered court space legitimizes the “back” into what may become a new “front”—particularly since it also becomes a navigable and highly identifiable floating (and by night, glowing) canopy reaffirming Toronto’s doorstep to the downtown district. MCC: This project at Union Station reminds me of the monumentalism of
19th-century buildings like Gare du Nord or Gare de Lyon in Paris, seen in the lightness of the structure and the abundance of natural light. The proposal is very elegant and will provide Toronto with an interesting public space. The high-tech vocabulary is very appropriate and illustrates the challenges that we should be able to realize in this century—in a similar way that the architects of the 19th century did in the past. BH: In a country where train station architecture has historically been underexpressed relative to the dramatic examples of great train stations in other parts of the world, the Union Station train shed provides an opportunity for large-scale urban intervention in the very difficult layered and grimy context of historic Union Station and its more recent sadder additions. The solution proposed has the potential to create a dramatic new public realm, while elevating the conversation about architecture for transportation.
Sherbourne St.
Jarvis St.
Yonge St.
Bay St.
York St.
Simcoe St.
Spadina Ave.
Client Yolles (CH2M HILL)—lead for GO Transit/Metrolinx Architect Team Tarek El-Khatib, Don Vetere, Neal Panchuk, Dalibor Vokac Heritage Architect ERA Structural Yolles Mechanical/Electrical Smith and Andersen Contractor Aecon Construction Administration RJC Area 6,580 m2 Budget $50 M Completion December 2014
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT The new roof transforms Union Station into a luminous jewel against the nighttime sky of downtown Toronto; the south face of the structure is transparent and welcoming to passengers; an aerial photo illustrates the expanding urban context surrounding Union Station.
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Award of Excellence
Spa Le St-Jude
Architect Location
T B A | Thomas Balaban Architecte Montreal, Quebec
The St-Jude Spa and Wellness Centre is housed in the decommissioned structure of the Dominican church and sanctuary to Our Lady of the Rosary and to Saint Jude, a turn-of-the-century stone, brick and steel structure occupying a busy stretch of rue St-Denis. Situated at the heart of one of Montreal’s more vibrant districts, the adaptive reuse project for a neighbourhood spa, fitness centre and restaurant conceives the reintegration of the dormant structure into the daily ritual of the district’s community. Programmatically, the project combines a Nordic spa, gym, health facilities and a restaurant, all functioning nearly 24 hours a day year-round. Given the stereotypes often attributed to the program, it is hard to ignore a connection between the original vocation of the church and its new vocation of body worship. Outside of a few tongue-in-cheek moments such as housing the massage rooms in the place of the original altar, the project attempts to eschew the notion of the contemporary spa as a destination for seclusion or contemplation, offering up instead the idea of the hydrotherapy spa as a space for the community. By interweaving spaces and juxtaposing functions common to the various programmatic elements, the project promotes social interaction over the creation of personal bubbles. The project resists the urge to insert a contrasting, solitary object into 38 canadian architect 12/12
ABOVE An aerial view of the enclosed roof terraces reveals ample seating and plantings for maximum comfort.
the hollowed-out church. Instead, the assembly nestles itself deep into the existing shell. The church interior is divided into two levels that orchestrate a fluid series of ritualistic experiences through distinct program loops. These loops interconnect and overlap at a series of opportunistic pockets cut out of the program’s mass. These pocket spaces celebrate unique moments native to the original structure. Stairs, corridors and communal spaces are oriented towards and locked onto the church’s existing windows. Spaces intersect and slip into each other. Walls are dissolved through the use of glass partitions, connecting views to the adjacent spaces. The configuration ultimately facilitates serendipitous encounters and catalyzes human relations. DC: This is a refreshing solution for the “elephant in the room” of decommissioned, unprogrammed church structures often left stagnating in neighbourhoods across the country. The deft sequentially based hierarchy of program and circulation adapt tactfully throughout the space, in full awareness of the residual meaning of the original church—thus offering a deeply layered experience playing on aspects of ritual. The full-span steel structural insertion provides a welcome syntax of the load-bearing-free new space against the earth-bound masonry of the old structure.
ABOVE A Plexiglas concept model reveals the coloured insertion of the spa components into the existing church structure, a sensitive intervention that maintains the integrity of the historic building. TOP RIGHT Visitors cross a bridge overlooking a lush garden to enter the restaurant on the first floor. RIGHT The rooftop terrace is equipped with hydrotherapy pools.
MCC: The conversion of the existing building into a spa is unusual, but
Client Aquaeris Architect Team Thomas Balaban, Justin Boulanger, Naomi Frangos, Maxime Lefebvre, Julia Manaças, Elliott Sturtevant, Jennifer Thorogood Structural Ivan Hébert-Croteau Mechanical/Electrical GRV Experts Conseils Contractor Construction de Laberge Area 1,570 m2 Budget $2.65 M Completion January 2013
the intervention is quite sensitive and will not alter much of the original structure. The new and old components have an interesting dialogue through interconnected spaces and continuous views, and the simplicity of the interior along with a restrained material palette is harmonious with the more detailed architectural vocabulary of the church. BH: The older parts of this country are dotted with extraordinary
churches, many of whose community of users are now shrinking. This creates the challenge of reusing architecture that is highly formally specific, and inherently less flexible. We were excited by the possibilities of this precisely detailed project and respectful of the careful balancing of modern insertions and existing church volumes. This project could provide a benchmark for the adaptive reuse of these important public buildings across the country.
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N 6 women’s change room 10’ 7 men’s change room 8 multi-functional room 9 massage room 10 restaurant
11 washroom 12 boutique 13 garden
13
0
10’
10’
10’
12/12 canadian architect
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Award of Merit
Mount Stephen Club 9
8
7
8
5
6 11
11 4
5 2
10 12
1
12
12
3 Level 1
0
1
2,5
5
10
1 main entrance 2 secondary entrance 3a ccess to underground parking 4 reception 5 bistro/bar 6 lounge
0
10M
7 coatcheck room 8 banquet halls 9 services 10 main stairway 11 dining room 12 meeting rooms
LEFT A clever strategy tucks the pixellated boutique hotel structure behind the street- facing Mount Stephen Club, suitably framing the historic landmark. Architect Location
Lemay (Lemay Lab) Montreal, Quebec
The project concerns the revitalization of the historic elite Mount Stephen Club located on Drummond Street in downtown Montreal. In addition to being a designated heritage landmark, the building is a true gem of 19th-century bourgeois architecture. In order to reposition the Mount Stephen Club in Montreal’s cultural landscape, the owner plans to build a prestigious 80-room boutique hotel and banquet rooms for 500 patrons. New attributes such as a modern kitchen, underground parking for 96 cars, and diverse amenities such as a spa, fitness centre, meeting rooms and two lobby bars are also planned for the complex. Consequently, the main challenge of the project was to fit the entire building program on a small landlocked site containing a heritage landmark. To address this challenge, the urban design approach dictated siting the new hotel structure at the back of the site behind the historic building. This innovative strategy will consolidate the perimeter of the site and suitably frame the landmark. The new hotel tower will serve as a dramatic backdrop for the heritage building set in the foreground. The deceptively straightforward layout uses the front door of the Mount Stephen Club as the main entrance to the complex, and the circulation spine runs north-south through the heritage building, linking all the main components of the complex. Exterior elevations aim for formal simplicity 40 canadian architect 12/12
with the creation of an abstract pattern that will be a fitting counterpoint to the Neoclassical ornamentation of the existing historic building. Inspired by textures and motifs drawn from the Club’s tapestries, lacework and carpets, the intention of this pattern was to create a precious, iconic and luminous object. On the three demising walls, a signature feature is established through a series of reflective LED fixtures—normally used in landscaping and pavers and powered by photovoltaic cells—which are set into the concrete panels in a diamond grid pattern.
BH: The revitalization of the Mount Stephen Club is a project that piques our interest in part because of its resistance to current architectural discourse and accepted expression. While multiple entries this year (too many, in fact!) included pixellated façades, this project took the theme of a textured façade to a graphically unusual extent while proposing an adventurous series of hotel rooms.
DC: This is a clever solution to mine for density
in a city block already occupied with a designated building; using a foreground/background solution of massing, respectively, toward preservation and new construction. By repurposing the historically designated building as a frontispiece, the boutique hotel maintains a respectful “veil” backdrop structure owing much to its evenness of a disciplined fenestration pattern and crisply kerfed top. MCC: The graphic approach to the façades is in-
novative, offering a dynamic contrast to the existing Mount Stephen Club building. However, the new structure is sensitively sited to permit the existing building to breathe, acting more as a theatrical backdrop inspired by the textiles adorning the interior spaces.
Section
Client Tidan Group Architect Team Michel Lauzon, Gino Mauri, Didier Heckel, Sandra Neill, Jean-François St-Onge, Bryan Marchand, Jean-François Fortin-Gadoury, Virginie Pontbriand, Damien Leman, Geneviève Telmosse, François Desmarais Structural Nicolet, Chartrand, Knoll Ltd. Mechanical/Electrical Pageau Morel et associés inc. Interiors Lemay Life Safety & Code Technorm Contractor Tidan Group Photographer Marie-Claude Beaudet Area 120,000 ft2 Budget $25 M Completion June 2014
Award of Merit
Real Time Control Building #3
3 •
1
• 2
1 RTC #3 Rat Creek Crossing 2 Rossdale Water Treatment Plant 3 Gold Bar Waste water Treatment Plant
• RTC System Network
Location
gh3 Edmonton, Alberta
BH: This project is a tectonic response to the challenges of this type of frequently opaque urban infrastructure. Both the client and the architectural team should be recognized for a willingness to add to the urban theatre by applying design intelligence to a building type that too often completely lacks vision.
7 •
6-metre-diameter main shaft. In addition to the main shaft, the building contains related ancillary spaces. Adjacent to the main shaft is a control room specifically dedicated to floodgate control which is equipped with gas-monitoring and ventilation equipment. This room and adjacent service room are also equipped with a removable roof for the maintenance of the floodgates. The building will also accommodate gate actuators; a generator room equipped with noise control, ventilation, control panels and a motor control centre; a small washroom; and base building mechanical rooms. The site is largely hard surface to accommodate service vehicles and to provide lay-down areas for the two removable roofs. Site water is directed to a gutter that surrounds the building from which it is collected and discharged into the main shaft.
5 3
4 •
This project is an opportunity to invest in the design of the plant enclosure and the site of Real Time Control Building #3 (RTC#3), and by doing so, celebrates the importance of municipal infrastructure and recognizes the role infrastructure buildings have in shaping the built fabric of the city. The engineering of the facility recognizes the dynamic loading of urban storm and wastewater, and as such represents state-of-the-art handling and treatment of urban water for the City of Edmonton. Correspondingly, the architecture makes apparent the engineering occurring below the ground. To this end, the form of the main shaft is notionally extruded to make the circular enclosure for the plant equipment and the secondary shafts, and out-and-in flow tunnels are telegraphed to the surface, imbuing the site with an interpretive strategy and signalling that RTC#3 is part of a larger and complex system. The site is on the corner of 84th Street NW and Jasper Avenue, on the northern bank of the North Saskatchewan River and just east of the downtown core. The building will be highly visible from the north, south and east, seen from a series of vantage points ranging from distant to near. As such, RTC#3 exploits the potential to become a landmark building, playing a crucial role in punctuating open public space along the river’s edge. The proposed building will accommodate equipment that controls the flow control gates in the shaft below. It is one part of a larger strategy to reduce untreated runoff and sewage flowing into the North Saskatchewan River. The 100+square-metre building is positioned above the
CLOCKWISE FROM ABOVE A night view of the monolithically austere form of RTC#3; a gutter encircles the building and collects site water which is then discharged into the main shaft; A diagram of the Combined sewer overflow control strategy.
2 1
•
Architect
6
DC: This project restores the value of the
physical image of infrastructure within the city, a presence which aims to be conspicuous and part of the urban fabric—with a thoughtfully low-maintenance, efficiently detailed exterior envelope which is unapologetically monolithic. This project guards the notion that a utility building can be admired for its succinctness in use and expression, and therefore be an elegant (if tough) component in the urban landscape. MCC: The contrast between the programmatic
engineering components and the project’s sculptural and poetic solution is striking. The proposed structure, with its glass-block skin, is more a piece of art than a city infrastructure building.
RTC Plan 1 2 3 4
actuator room generator room mechanical room WC
5 gate storage 6 actuator room access 7 entry
Client City of Edmonton Architect Team Pat Hanson, Diana Gerrard, Raymond Chow, Byron White, John McKenna Structural Chernenko Engineering Mechanical/Civil Vital Engineering Electrical Vital Engineering, Associated Engineering Landscape gh3 Envelope Consultants Best Consulting Martin Gerskup Architect Inc. Renderings gh3 Area 115 m 2 Budget $1.4 M Completion 2013
12/12 canadian architect
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Student Award of Excellence
Theatrics of Psychiatry
STUDENT
Danielle Berwick, University of Toronto
Combining a destabilized economic site with the uncomfortableness of psychiatry, this narrative is an experiment in juxtaposing the delicacy of brain health with the architectural invasion of single-room occupancies. Through the use of renovated construction equipment, a travelling road show of mental health workers navigates and infiltrates the windows of historic hotels in the fragile Downtown Eastside neighbourhood of Vancouver. It should come as no news here that architecture’s relationship to psychi atry is an uncomfortable one. Spaces with loaded intentions such as to hide, display, contain and treat psychiatric patients have been constructed since the prison became inappropriate. Furthermore, we must gaze over the rural healing landscapes and faked suburban houses designed to teach the insane how to act within a picket fence. Grappling with Victorian-era rules, the exhibitions of freaks and travelling road shows turned chemical imbalances into theatrical entertainment. The lure of the misfit continues with the digi tal carnival capitalizing on the performance of the diagnosable. Is this obsession because we identify with characteristics of madness within ourselves or reject it? Consequently, this project sees mental health as something that everyone must address, a precursor to physical health, and therefore the words misfit, freak, oddball or weirdo are used as pejorative adjectives. The invasiveness of psychiatric construction equipment rolling out onto the street provides a daily performance. For ease of steering into the berths, the buildings are retrofitted with ledges and bumpers indicating docking locations. The display of the scissor lift takes on the role of misfit, inhabiting and creating scenes, begging an audience to stare at and criticize psychiatry.
A daily performance by the travelling road show of men tal health workers infiltrating the windows of historic hotels in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. BOTTOM A streetscape ani mated by a scissor lift and other construction equipment in vasively enables access to psychiatric patients on upper floors.
ABOVE
A series of rules re-envision urban theatrics to include a designated lane and parking spots for psychiatric vehicles, as well as the use of latent construction equipment for suspending landscapes above the second storey of residential or office spaces. The therapeutic landscapes can be found outside different windows. One day you may just wake up with a tree or patch of grass outside your window. Teams of mechanical, doctor and mental-health workers outfit their rides in a warehouse on the perimeter of the neighbourhood. Three movable ceiling lifts are supported on a steel frame and every other bay has a garage door for the psychiatry vehicles to enter. The machines are made completely from readily available parts. Half architecture, half transportation, the trucks and lifts occupy the sidewalk carrying with them the living room, the landscape and the office. Each capsule is outfitted with the technology of construction equipment, such as a control pad and a directional light juxtaposed with antique furnishings and hardwood floors. Hinged collapsible stairs lower through the window ledge. Clamps reach through the window securing the capsule to the façade. Wooden screens can be rolled down to cover the windows for privacy that utilize the pulley mechanism of the crane. Metal pins secure the furnishings to the floor. There exists potential for future expansion into secondary and tertiary health care as well as residential programs and other uses of customizable lifts with replaceable upgrades. New typologies of vehicular congestion and invention lead to new uncomfortabilities. DC: In the milieu of Superstudio and Archigram, the utopic graininess of
this vision is well-formulated and unexpectedly disciplined despite its loose and irreverent nature. While the fictive character of the project heightens its direct commentary on architecturally neglected aspects of society, the audacious collage-based plan is counterbalanced with cerebral scaled drawings. The fantastical narrative shored up by a dexterity reminiscent of Cooper Union drawings and Lebbeus Woods images demands respect. MCC: While the approach and subject of this project is disturbing, the
main thesis doesn’t propose an architectural solution—as conventional architecture cannot resolve every problem. However, the critical point of view is refreshing and the result is poetic. BH: This thesis proposes an intentionally provocative intervention that
made me think of Architectural Association projects of similar inventiveness. Its combination of graphic distinctiveness and a willingness to address head-on the issues of psychiatry and privacy creates a real thesis. This project would not have been so convincing without its tectonic rigour and a resolute willingness to address the intersection of mobility and fixed historic buildings. Passion and craft addressing a volatile subject is brightened by humour. 42 canadian architect 12/12
Student Award of Excellence
Human Space: DEnsITY FOR COMMUNITY and the Socio-Ecological Neighbourhood (D) (B)
(E)
(A)
(C) (D)
Exploded Axonometric of Resulting Spaces for Design Intervention (a) Resulting Space for Housing (b) Private Garages removed to allow for Human Space (c) Sunken Laneway allows for density at/under rear yard (d) Future Expansion of Existing Unit (e) Existing House and Yard maintained with space for future development
Andrew Neuman, University of British Columbia
In an increasingly urban world, density remains at the centre of the housing debate. But in our digital age where human interaction is becoming progressively rare, to what degree can we rely on density and social media to effectively create community? Like digital technology, detached home ownership is partially responsible for social isolation; furthermore, the dominant program of individualism, investment and privacy has resulted in significant environmental damage and a considerable decrease in affordable housing stock. This project considers how local human networks and new models of ownership might contribute to the ecologically responsible city through community-centred, performance-based lot patterns and housing types, organized around shared energy and resources. These new networks begin with one relationship—the contract between two existing neighbours to collectively subdivide their properties at the side yard or lane while maintaining a share of the equity. This would allow two prospective buyers to each own 30% of 20% of the existing property (2 lots x $1M x 20% subdivision) x 60% share / 2 new owners = $120K. With instant capital, and the aid of government incentives, existing residents would be able to jointly invest with new owners in energy- or resource-procurement systems. Each party would then have a defined responsibility to a shared portion of the property, and therefore, a personal investment in the new community—one with four times the ability to make change. Shared equity ownership would help retain the existing and aging population by mitigating foreclosures and increased property taxes with the provision of collective, rather than foreign, investment. Towards a healthy socio-ecological city, this proposed evolution of the single-family neighbourhood was tested in four architectural interventions, each addressing the social, environmental, economical and infrastructural responsibilities of increased population density.
ABOVE LEFT The Air+Water Skinny House proposes two interlocking dwelling units with access to light and air on all sides.
assembling bits of land in a collective, neighbourly effort to decentralize infrastructures for energy, heating/cooling, waste and food. MCC: The thesis concerns a real and actual problem: the densification of
the suburbs. It is a thorough presentation of a formally interesting project with a convincing sustabinability agenda. I appreciate that this project is not strictly a theoretical abstraction but a relevant proposal undertaken with the intention that it can be applicable to the community. BH: The Vancouver Foundation, a multifaceted charitable endowment clear-
inghouse, identified loneliness as an overarching social issue in the city of Vancouver. This project provides a model for an intriguingly straightforward infill housing typology embedded in a rigorous, multifaceted strategy for healing the existing city fabric and enhancing connectedness. A passion for sustainability and community overlaps with a humane intelligence. a
b
c d e
4000 W. 20th Ave.
f Crown St.
STUDENT
g
H
4000 W. 21st Ave. i
DC: A brave manifesto which asks us to consider how a social belief in our
neighbourhood might be the one reliable choice we have left by effectively crowdsourcing our built environment’s future. Aggregated share equity is not entirely unrealistic since new leverage is likely required to navigate a future framed by financial and ecological uncertainty. This project reminds us of a fast-approaching reality in which we must reassociate land once more as true equity—from which we recognize the potential of jointly
l
k
j
Networks: Areas of Influence A. Future Longhouses B. Angled Parking Intervention C. Urban Rain Garden D. Earth Air Tubes E. Expandable Housing
F. Shared Workshop J. Geothermal Farm G. Repurposed Laneway K. Future Canning Facility H. Garbage Gasification Longhouse L. Future Mini-Solid Waste (powers 6.5 blocks) Facility I. Skinny Hot House (services 3.5 Blocks)
12/12 canadian architect
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Acknowledgements
LIST OF ENTRANTS LEFT Jurors Marie-Chantal Croft, Bruce Haden and Donald Chong are silhouetted against the treetops hovering over Philosopher’s Walk on the University of Toronto’s downtown campus.
Jean Verville Architecte, Le Consortium Hanganu–Provencher Roy Architectes, Les architectes FABG, Menkès Shooner Dagenais LeTourneux architectes, Onico Architecture, Pelletier de Fontenay Architectes, Philip Hazan Architect, Saucier + Perrotte/HCMA Architectes, Smith Vigeant architectes, St-Gelais Montminy + Associés Architectes. NEW BRUNSWICK Jim H. Bezanson. NOVA SCOTIA EXP (formerly Sperry & Part-
ners Ltd.), MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects Limited, Omar Gandhi Architect, Susan Fitzgerald Architecture. NEWFOUNDLAND Robert Mellin Architect. PORTLAND, OREGON Architecture Building 2012 AWARDS OF EXCELLENCE
Culture (ABC).
In addition to this year’s winners, the editors thank the following individuals and firms for participating in the 2012 Canadian Architect Awards of Excellence:
BEIJING, CHINA Insight Architects Ltd.
BRITISH COLUMBIA Bradbury Architecture, Campos Leckie Studio, Cannon Design, CEI Architecture Planning Interiors in joint venture with Parkin Architects, Christine Lintott Architect, D’Arcy Jones Design Inc., IBI Group, IBI/HB Architects, Irving Pitcher Architects Ltd., Johnston Davidson Architecture + Planning Inc. and Architecture | Arndt Tkalcic Bengert, Lubor Trubka Associates Architects, McFarland Marceau Architects Ltd. with Jarmund/Vignaes Architects, Taylor Kurtz Architecture + Design Inc., TRB Architecture Inc., Urban Arts Architecture. ALBERTA Abugov Kaspar Architecture Engin-
eering Interior Design, Manasc Isaac Architects, Sturgess Architecture. MANITOBA 5468796 Architecture Inc., LM Architectural Group, Smith Carter Architects in association with Martineau Architecture Inc., Stantec Architecture Ltd. ONTARIO ATA Architects Inc., B+H Architects, Baird Sampson Neuert Architects, BBB Architects Inc., BORTOLOTTO, COLE + Associates Architects Inc., David Small Designs, Diamond Schmitt Architects, Dubbeldam Design Archi46 canadian architect 12/12
tects, Elemental Architects Inc., Farrow Partnership, George Popper Architect, Gow Hastings Architects Inc., GRC Architects + Baird Sampson Neuert Architects in joint venture, H. Kashani Architects, Hariri Pontarini Architects, IBI Group, ICON Architects Inc., Julian Jacobs Architects Ltd., Kleinfeldt Mychajlowycz Architects Inc., Kohn Partnership Architects Inc., Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects, large [medium] design office inc., Lateral Office, Levitt Goodman Architects in joint venture with Phillip Carter Architects, Montgomery Sisam Architects, nkArchitect, Perkins+Will Canada, PLANT Architect Inc., RDH Architects, RVTR Inc., ssg Architecture Inc., Stantec Architecture Ltd., Teeple Architects Inc. + Architecture | Arndt Tkalcic Bengert, WZMH Architects, ZAS Architects Inc. QUEBEC AKA andrew king studio, AKA andrew
king studio + Nicolay Boyadjiev, ARCHITEM Wolff Shapiro Kuskowski architectes, Atelier Pierre Thibault, Atelier Ville Architecture Paysage, Cannon Design, Conrath Architecte + indesigninc, Consortium Éric Lirette architecte et St-Gelais Montminy + associés architectes, DAOUST LESTAGE inc. architecture design urbain, Eric Pelletier Architectes, Groupe A Inc.,
STUDENT AWARDS OF EXCELLENCE
In addition to this year’s winners, the following architecture students were chosen by their schools to enter their thesis projects in this year’s awards: Kyle Trenton Auch (University of Calgary), Claudia Barra de Vincenzo (McGill University), Kathy Chang (University of British Columbia), Jeffrey H.C. Cheng (University of Waterloo), Raymond Chu (Carleton University), Justin Cormier (Dalhousie University), Marianne de Cola (University of Waterloo), Andrew Foote (McGill University), Jason Fung (Ryerson University), Andrew Hill (Dalhousie University), Nicholas Steven Hoban (University of Toronto), Jodi James (University of Calgary), Andrea Lacalamita (University of Waterloo), Veronica Lorenzo-Luaces Pico (University of Waterloo), Brett MacIntyre (Dalhousie University), Gabrielle Marcoux (McGill University), Ryan Marshall (University of British Columbia), Esteban Matheus (University of British Columbia), Melissa Mazik (Ryerson University), Reena Mistry (McGill University), Matthew Parker (University of Calgary), James Rubio (University of Manitoba), Andrew Slade (Carleton University), Matthew Spremulli (University of Toronto), Hanna Tabatabaie (University of Toronto), David Tyl (Dalhousie University).
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