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2013-02-08 4:47 PM

14 Hôtel La Ferme and GrandePointe Station

James Brittain

André-Olivier Lyra

Tom Arban

Contents

9 News

New life is brought to the striking landscape of rural Quebec through an ambitious hotel complex and a sleekly elegantly train station. TEXT Odile Hénault

22 Commonwealth Community Recreation Centre and Edmonton Eskimo Fieldhouse Combining a professional football stadium with community facilities results in a winning formula for the city of Edmonton as well as for the design team of MacLennan Jaunkalns Miller Architects in joint venture with HIP Architects. TEXT Alexandra McIntosh

28 Brooklin Community Centre and Library

34 Insites

Helena Grdadolnik discusses improvements to learning environments for young children in Ontario.

40 Calendar

esign Thinking and Teaching symposium D at the University of Saskatchewan; Craig Dykers of Snøhetta lectures at the University of Manitoba.

42 Backpage

L eslie Jen introduces Brian O’Brian’s design of a backyard structure for a Vespa enthusiast in Toronto.

Brian O’Brian

Drawing on the historical agrarian structures of the region, Perkins+Will Canada design a sprawling new complex in small-town Ontario. TEXT Paige Magarrey

ational Music Centre breaks ground in N Calgary; submissions due for the 2013 Western Living Designers of the Year Awards.

march 2013, v.58 n.03

The National Review of Design and Practice/ The Journal of Record of Architecture Canada | RAIC

COVER The Commonwealth Community Recreation Centre and Edmonton Eskimo Fieldhouse by MacLennan Jaunkalns Miller Architects in joint venture with HIP Architects. Photograph by Tom Arban.

03/13 canadian architect

Elsa Lam

Viewpoint

Editor Elsa Lam, MRAIC Associate Editor Leslie Jen, MRAIC Editorial Advisor Ian Chodikoff, OAA, FRAIC Contributing Editors Annmarie Adams, 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

A view of the alberta countryside, an idyllic landscape in the minds of many city-dwelling Canadians. above

Call it the latest in farm-to-table cooking: hay is emerging as a signature ingredient in some of the world’s cutting-edge kitchens. I recently dined on a whole chicken baked in hay and, on a separate occasion, hay ice cream. Hay-smoked bread, hay-roasted veal chops, and duck cured in burnt-hay ash are also making appearances to much foodie fanfare. To some, hay reeks too much of barnyard. To my palate, raised in a suburban neighbourhood where visits to the farm were carefree school field trips, the hay-infused dishes I sampled were intriguingly grassy, subtly earthy, and quite delicious. Rustic forms are increasingly appearing in North American architecture, and a similar dynamic is arguably at play. In the urban environments where the majority of Canadians reside, farm life is quickly receding into distant memory. Agricultural land is yielding to suburban and recreational developments on the fringes of most major cities, while family farms are being displaced by higher-efficiency agribusiness. In the past 20 years, the numbers of workers directly involved in crop and animal production in Canada has decreased by approximately 25%. These economic shifts are mirrored in cultural shifts: the sights (and smells) once associated with the hardships of rural life are now widely accepted symbols of blissful escape from city life. The popularity of pioneer frontier-life blogs, country-home décor, and DIY preserving testify to nostalgia for what, through the lens of time, now appears to be simple, wholesome farm life. Two projects in the current issue explicitly reference rural forms. La Ferme, a newly opened hotel in rural Quebec, uses a farm analogy both to inform its pavilion site strategy, and to brand the resort as a distinctive destination. Its luxe rooms and serene spa are far removed, incidentally, from farmyard dirt and din. 6 canadian architect 03/13

The Brooklin Community Centre and Library in Southern Ontario models the scale and form of its building volumes on barns. The reference is clearly present, although again, one would be hard-pressed to mistake its light-filled, airy interiors for actual farm structures, with their solid doors and tiny windows. In both cases, the finished buildings are presented as contextual responses to the history of their sites. However, it’s interesting to note that the analogies they embrace are neither absolute nor inevitable. La Ferme, for instance, could just as easily have taken the grand, Châteaustyle Manoir Richelieu—a landmark of early landscape tourism in the region—as its model. A retrofit of a barn that resided on the site until a fire in 2007 would, for its part, likely have produced a heavier, more monolithic hotel. For Brooklin, the architects at one point proposed a more contemporary rendition. While this may have functioned equally well in accommodating the program, the local community rejected the flat-roofed proposal. Had it gone through, a review in a magazine such as this one might have suggested a certain resonance between the complex and modern bungalows in the area. In buildings embraced by local communities, stylistic choices often reference their historical context and cultural landscape in a sensitive, thoughtful manner. But perhaps most revealing is what these decisions tell us about a community’s relationship to its past—which history it accepts as its official story, how it interprets this history, and how it chooses to build on it in the present. Some legitimately see barns as utilitarian sheds and hay as animal bedding. But if a barn can inspire a lovely library, then why not hay ice cream—or for that matter, hay sundaes? Elsa Lam

elam@canadianarchitect.com

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 ALLIANCE FOR AuditED MEDIA Publications Mail Agreement #40069240 ISSN 1923-3353 (Online) ISSN 0008-2872 (Print)

We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Periodical Fund (CPF) for our publishing activities.

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The National Music Centre (NMC) recently broke ground on its new 160,000-square-foot building in downtown Calgary’s East Village. Sited opposite the Stampede Grounds in Calgary’s historic East Village, the new NMC, along with the restored King Eddy Hotel, will catalyze the future redevelopment of the district. Under the direction of Allied Works Architecture’s principal Brad Cloepfil, the new NMC will resonate with expanded programming including education, performance, entertainment, recording, artist incubation and community-building collaborations—both in Calgary and across the country. The building is a gathering of resonant vessels that hold the many diverse programs, spaces and experiences of the NMC. Nine towers form the body of the building; the vessel walls, clad in terra cotta, rise in subtle curves that merge, part and intertwine, modelled by light, gravity and acoustics. Entering from the street, the building is filled with the reverberation of voices and music, drawing visitors up into five floors of performance, education and collections spaces. The apertures at each gallery create a threshold of sound, introducing the content and programs of the particular exhibition. The spaces between are filled with silence and ambient light; views between the towers frame the city and landscape beyond. Bridging across the street and back again, the building creates a gateway for the new quarter, uniting the artists’ residences, recording studios, the historic hotel and club with the new presentation spaces. The campaign total for the National Music Centre is $150 million: $135 million for the building project and $15 million for related development and programming costs. www.nmc.ca/our-future/

Awards 2013 Western Living Awards.

Entries are now being accepted for Western Living magazine’s 2013 Designers of the Year Awards. Architects, designers and other creative types are invited to take part in this program, which celebrates the best new designs in Western Canada. Categories include Architecture, Eco, Fashion, Furniture, Industrial, Interiors, Industrial, Landscape, and the Arthur Erickson Memorial Award for an emerging architect or designer. This year’s judges include: Tom Kundig of Olson Kundig Architects (Seattle), interior designer Robert Ledingham (Vancouver), Jeremy Sturgess of Sturgess Architecture (Calgary), Vivian Manasc of Manasc Isaac Architects

National Music Centre

National Music Centre breaks ground in Calgary.

ABOVE A night-time rendering of the National Music Centre in Calgary reveals a cluster of resonant vessels containing a variety of diverse programs, spaces and experiences.

(Edmonton), and Thomas Mueller, President & CEO of the Canada Green Building Council. The entry deadline is April 1, 2013. http://westernlivingmagazine.com/HD/Designers-ofthe-Year-Entry-info-2013.html RAIC College of Fellows Centennial Fund for Intern/Intern Architect.

The College of Fellows Centennial Fund for Interns or Intern Architects was created with donations received from members of the College of Fellows and members of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada to support a deserving intern or intern architect or group of interns/intern architects wishing to promote the value and image of the profession. The Fund will be awarded to individuals who have shown leadership and who have made significant contributions to the profession at an early stage of their architectural career. Any RAIC member who is an intern or intern architect registered with a provincial/territorial association at the time of the submission deadline is eligible. A team of RAIC members who are all interns can submit a collective candidacy and proposal. The award shall be given to: an intern/intern architect whose personal work has demonstrated excellence in design or in the practice of architecture and who has made significant contributions to the quality of architecture; or an intern/intern architect whose work related to architecture has demonstrated excellence in research or education. A cheque in the amount of $5,000 for the RAIC Intern/Intern Architect Fund Award will be presented at the Festival of Architecture in Halifax this June. The deadline for submission is April 30, 2013. www.raic.org/raic/raic_foundation/awardsintern_e.htm

Call for nominations for the 2014 Lee Kuan Yew World City Prize.

The Lee Kuan Yew World City Prize is a biennial international award that honours outstanding achievements and contributions to the creation of liveable, vibrant and sustainable urban communities around the world. The prize seeks to recognize cities and their key leaders and organizations for displaying foresight, good governance and innovation in tackling the many urban challenges faced, to bring about social, economic and environmental benefits in a holistic way to their communities. To facilitate the sharing of best practices in urban solutions that are easily replicable across cities, the prize will place an emphasis on practical and cost-effective solutions and ideas for the benefit of cities around the world. Through this prize, Singapore hopes to promote exemplary thought leadership and exchange of ideas among cities, so as to spur further innovation in the area of sustainable urban development. The Lee Kuan Yew World City Prize Laureate will be presented with an award certificate, a gold medallion and a cash prize of $300,000 (SGD). The closing date for Stage A nominations is March 29, 2013. Previous winners include the city of New York (2012) and Bilbao City Hall (2010). www.leekuanyewworldcityprize.com.sg

Competitions LEMAY and EXP win high-profile competition in Algeria.

Montreal-based LEMAY and Canadian consulting firm EXP recently won a high-profile international competition launched by l’Agence de gestion et de régulation foncière urbaine de la 03/13 canadian architect

Wilaya de Constantine en Algérie. The $2.4-billion project focuses on the future city of El-Minya, a multifunctional and autonomous urban agglomeration on a 47-hectare plateau directly in front of the heritage city of Con stantine, the third-most important city in Algeria and the country’s cultural capital, located some 431 kilometres east of Algiers. The city will house more than 20,000 residents, as well as various offices, shops, recreation centres and schools for a growing population of workers, visitors and tourists. Extending over an area of 1.2 million square metres, the overall development plan also includes the architecture and construction of public spaces, traffic networks, and 6,500 to 7,500 housing units. The iconic silhouette of the new city of El-Minya is inspired by the sinuous lines of Arabic calligraphy and by the walls of medieval cities. A model city in its ecological planning, El-Minya is based on leading best practices in sustainable development, especially in terms of reducing dependency on cars, and promoting the integration of large, open and independent green spaces that promote biodiversity.

What’s New Major art installation by artist and architect Philip Beesley unveiled.

Simons, the renowned family-owned fashion retailer from Quebec City, unveiled a permanent in-store art installation called Simons Aurora at its new West Edmonton Mall location last month. Designed by Canadian artist and architect Philip Beesley, Simons Aurora is a canopy of crystalline columns that uses sensory mechanisms to respond to human movement, creating a gently swelling and rippling ocean of light. Inspired by the aurora borealis, Simons Aurora is composed of laser-cut acrylic, mylar and custom glassware. Suspended from the ceiling of the store’s north atrium, the installation is 68 feet long, 26 feet wide, and has more than 40 electronically active columns of varying lengths. Consistent with Beesley’s Hylozoic Ground installation at the 2010 Venice Biennale in Architecture, this piece employs a new generation of electronics that allows a highly complex, intelligent digital fabric to create responsive chain reactions of light. The installation process took eight members of Philip Beesley’s studio and a large team of local artists, designers and students 17 days to complete. TXTilecity project reveals Toronto’s urban landscape history.

Produced by the Textile Museum of Canada, TXTilecity is a highly engaging interactive project that brings Toronto to life in stories and memories that show the significant part textiles have played in defining the urban landscape—offering a unique lens into the rich history and cultural diversity of this dynamic, multi-faceted city. Navigate Toronto with TXTilecity—an interactive map that builds community knowledge by drawing together experiences and stories to show the significance of textiles in shaping the city’s social, cultural, economic and architectural terrain. Through the website as well as the mobile app, encounter key locations and discover the role of textiles in shaping the urban landscape—from early garment manufacturing and the performing arts to the rise of the fashion industry and contemporary design. Explore some of Toronto’s foundational stories, meet some of the city’s greatest characters, and experience its diverse history in sites brought to life through audio and video documentary accounts. TXTilecity activates intangible culture in the form of layered stories associated with the city’s textile history, offering unique encounters with historical moments and collective memories that are essential to Toronto’s past, and definitive to its future. www.txtilecity.ca

Erratum Architect Mark Shapiro was mistakenly identified as George Shapiro in the last paragraph on page 26 of the article entitled “More Than Meets the PHI” in the February 2013 issue of Canadian Architect. 10 canadian architect 03/13

winter/spring 2013

Plan to be in Nova Scotia this June This year the RAIC Annual Festival is being held in partnership with the Nova Scotia Association of Architects in Halifax June 5-8, 2013 at the Marriott Halifax Harbourfront. As well as offering a full complement of Continuing Education courses, social activities and tours, during the Festival two of the most important architects in the profession today will be honoured – Ed Feiner, Hon. FRAIC, and Eduardo Souto de Moura, Hon. FRAIC. Photo: Communications Nova Scotia / Courtesy of Destination Halifax

American Architect Ed Feiner, Hon. FRAIC, is among the leading experts in the US Public Buildings Design and Planning, and recipient of the AIA Thomas Jefferson Award for public architecture and the United States Government Distinguished Service Award. He currently serves as director of the Perkins+Will Design Leadership Forum. Mr. Feiner will be the keynote speaker for the Plenary Session June 6 at 8:30 a.m. Prestigious Pritzker Prize recipient for 2011, Eduardo Souto de Moura, Hon. FRAIC, a Portuguese Architect, has completed over sixty spectacular and innovative buildings, leaving his mark in Portugal and throughout Europe. He will speak during the College of Fellows Convocation being held at Pier 21 June 6 beginning 7 p.m.

A complete schedule of Events and Continuing Education courses, and flight and accommodation discounts is available at festival.raic.org.

Membership has its benefits RAIC had a momentous year in 2012 with a successful Festival, important advocacy work, and seeing the word keep spreading that Architecture Matters. This success is all because of its members and it’s time to renew commitments to a strong national professional institute. If you are a member – we ask that you take a moment to support the profession by logging into your account in the member services portal and renewing your membership for 2013. You can pay online with a credit card, or if you haven’t yet received it in the mail, use the renewal form to request an invoice to pay by cheque. It’s quick and easy! We know your time, especially volunteer time, is limited and precious and appreciate all the support we get from members. Join RAIC on a committee – or send comments and ideas, we are happy to have input from the members.

Not a member? Join us – enjoy savings and the benefits of membership while supporting the Profession. Become part of Canada’s National Community of Architects. It is through the strength of membership and the commitment of those in the profession that RAIC is able to tell Canadians, and indeed the world that in Canada – Architecture Matters. To join, please contact Membership Coordinator Angie Sauvé at asauve@raic.org or 613-241-3600 ext 219.

Editor: Sylvie Powell Masthead photo: Language Technologies Research Centre at University of Quebec in Outaouais | Menkès Shooner Dagenais Letourneux Architects / Fortin Corriveau Salvail Architecture + Design | Photo: Michel Brunelle

hiver/printemps 2013

Prévoyez un séjour en Nouvelle-Écosse en juin Le festival de l’IRAC se tient cette année en partenariat avec la Nova Scotia Association of Architects et se déroulera du 5 au 8 juin au Marriott Halifax Harbourfront, à Halifax. En plus d’offrir de nombreuses activités de formation continue, d’activités sociales et de visites, l’événement donnera l’occasion d’entendre deux des plus importants architectes contemporains qui seront par ailleurs intronisés à titre de fellows honoraires – Ed Feiner, Hon. FRAIC, et Eduardo Souto de Moura, Hon. FRAIC. Photo : Communications Nova Scotia / Avec l’autorisation de Destination Halifax

Ed Feiner, Hon. FRAIC, est un architecte américain qui figure parmi les principaux spécialistes de la conception et de la construction des édifices publics aux États-Unis. Il a occupé le poste d’architecte le plus élevé dans la fonction publique des États-Unis. il est le récipiendaire du prix Thomas Jefferson pour l’architecture publique de l’AIA. Il a de plus reçu le prix du gouvernement des États-Unis pour services exceptionnels. Ed Feiner est actuellement le directeur du Forum sur le leadership en conception chez Perkins+Will. Il sera le conférencier d’honneur de la séance plénière, le 6 juin à 8 h 30. Eduardo Souto de Moura, Hon. FRAIC, récipiendaire du prestigieux prix Pritzker en 2011, est un architecte portugais qui a réalisé plus de soixante bâtiments spectaculaires et innovateurs. Il a laissé sa marque au Portugal et à la grandeur de l’Europe. Il prononcera une allocution dans le cadre de la cérémonie d’intronisation du Collège des fellows qui aura lieu au Quai 21, le 6 juin à compter de 19 h.

Vous trouverez sur le site Web du festival, à festival.raic.org, le programme complet des activités et des cours de formation continue et toute l’information utile sur les tarifs réduits pour le transport aérien et l’hébergement.

Les avantages d’être membre de l’IRAC L’année 2012 a été riche en événements pour l’IRAC. Le Festival a remporté un grand succès, nous avons poursuivi nos efforts de défense et promotion de la profession et nous constatons que notre message selon lequel l’architecture a son importance se répand de plus en plus. Cette réussite, nous la devons à nos membres et nous avons besoin de leur appui continu. Si vous êtes membre, nous vous invitons à prendre quelques instants pour appuyer la profession en ouvrant une session dans votre compte sur le Portail de services aux membres et en renouvelant votre adhésion pour 2013. Vous pouvez payer en ligne avec une carte de crédit ou utiliser le formulaire de renouvellement pour demander une facture et payer par chèque. C’est rapide et facile!

Rédactrice en chef: Sylvie Powell photo en cartouche de titre : Centre de recherche en technologies langagières de l’Université du québec en Outaouais | Menkès Shooner Dagenais Letourneux Architectes / Fortin Corriveau Salvail Architecture + Design | Photo : Michel Brunelle

Nous sommes bien conscients que votre temps est rare et précieux, surtout le temps consacré au bénévolat, et nous apprécions pleinement tout l’appui que nous obtenons des membres. Nous vous invitons à faire partie des comités de l’IRAC ou à nous transmettre vos suggestions et commentaires. Nous les accueillons toujours avec grand plaisir.

Vous n’êtes pas membre? Joignez-vous à nous et profitez des rabais et des avantages de l’adhésion tout en appuyant la profession. Faites partie de la communauté nationale des architectes du Canada. C’est par la force de notre effectif et l’engagement des membres de la profession que nous pouvons dire à tous les Canadiens et même au monde entier qu’au Canada, l’architecture a son importance. Pour adhérer à l’IRAC, veuillez communiquer avec la coordonnatrice à l’adhésion, Angie Sauvé, à asauve@raic.org ou au 613-2413600, poste 219.

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Rural Chic

An ambitious recreational development centres on a farm-themed hotel complex, tied to ski hill Le Massif by a scenic train route. Hôtel La Ferme, Baie-Saint-Paul, Quebec and Grande-Pointe Station, Petite-Rivière-Saint-François, Quebec ARCHITECTS LemayMichaud Architecture Design in Joint Venture with St-Gelais Montminy + Associés Architectes and Coarchitecture (Hôtel La Ferme); St-Gelais Montminy + Associés Architectes (Grande-Pointe Station) TEXT Odile Hénault PHOTOS André-Olivier Lyra unless otherwise noted PROJECT

The recent completion of La Ferme, a hotel complex in rural Quebec, invites comparison with the Fogo Island Inn, currently under construction in Newfoundland. Envisioned as bold architectural statements, they are personality-driven projects, involving Daniel Gauthier in the former case and Zita Cobb in the latter. Both Gauthier and Cobb had a modest start in life, made substantial earnings in business, retired early and returned to reinvest in their adopted hometowns. For Cirque du Soleil co-founder Gauthier, home meant Baie-St-Paul, a small regional centre an hour from Quebec City, where the Cirque was born in the early 1980s. Spectacular landscapes—rugged and isolated on the Atlantic Coast, tamer on the St. Lawrence River—are what Cobb and Gauthier banked on as they devoted time and money to their respective projects. The two widely travelled, well-informed individuals each combined contemporary architecture with traditional craftsmanship, in bids to bring new life to a relatively remote community and boost its economy. The year after Gauthier returned to Baie-St-Paul in 2001, he acquired local ski resort Le Massif, then deep in debt and in dire need of funding. It became obvious that the resort’s survival hinged on new hospitality facilities specifically linked to outdoor recreation. The project started to take shape as Gauthier identified a property 20 kilometres away, which would lend itself to the construction of a major resort hotel. Gauthier’s vision also 14 canadian architect 03/13

ABOVE Inspired by barn doors, oversized sliding red steel gates form a grand entrance to Hôtel La Ferme’s porte-cochère and main courtyard. OPPOSITE, TOP AND MIDDLE Clad with locally harvested tamarack boards, the riverside Grande-Pointe railway station provides direct access to Le Massif de Charlevoix mountain from the new tourist train, seen in these three images. OPPOSITE BOTTOM An early schematic shows the activities planned around Le Massif de Charlevoix (left), linked by a tourist train and hiking routes to Hôtel La Ferme (right).

included re-establishing a scenic train route that formerly brought passengers from Quebec City to the Charlevoix area. In Gauthier’s scheme, the train, departing from the Quebec City area and terminating near Le Manoir Richelieu in Pointe-au-Pic, would include two new stations, one at the foot of Le Massif, and one at the new resort hotel, in Baie-St-Paul. From the 1850s well into the 20th century, steamships and later trains transported socialites and celebrities to the area’s pristine and dramatic landscapes. Here, architects such as Edward Maxwell, John S. Archibald, Charles McKim and Frederick Todd developed a rich built heritage of cottages, summer villas, gardens and hotels. Perhaps the best-known building from that era is Le Manoir Richelieu, now a Fairmont property. It first opened its doors in 1899, then again in 1929 after a major fire, and was long the destination of choice for the upper-class elites who chose to spend their summers in the region. For Gauthier’s 21st-century attempt at reigniting local tourism, a first overall concept was drafted in 2005 by Schème consultants, a group of professionals that established a solid working relationship with the Cirque du Soleil when landscaping their headquarters in Montreal. Unusual in scope for a resort facility, their idealistic concept reflected Gauthier’s regionally scaled, multifaceted dream for the 120-squarekilometre territory that included mountains, valleys, villages and a town,

03/13 canadian architect

15 Stéphane Groleau

Stéphane Groleau

A view of the courtyard and main building, with the public market and train station at left and the multipurpose hall at right. La Basse-Cour, with Le Spa du Verger and outdoor whirlpool in the foreground; the hotel pavilions share a similar scale and material vocabulary; A historic barn on the site was lost to fire in 2007. Above

OPPOSITE, TOP TO BOTTOM

Site Plan A Main Building B Le Clos C Le Moulin D La Bergerie E Le Spa du Verger F La Basse-cour

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50M

all bordering the St. Lawrence River. The prime Baie-St-Paul land, where the resort proper would be located, had been owned for decades by the Petites Franciscaines de Marie nuns, and featured a magnificent H-shaped wood barn from the 1940s. Purchased in 2006, the former farm—and particularly its barn—would be at the heart of the project. A Quebec-wide search began for architects capable of transforming this barn into a major resort hotel. No clear design direction had been taken when, one night in late June 2007, the barn went up in smoke. So did part of Gauthier’s dream. Months of limbo followed while he and his partners grappled with what to do next. With the historical building still on everyone’s mind but its constraints removed, architects came and went. Projects were drawn and redrawn—too often oversized, over budget and oblivious to Gauthier’s original vision. Finally, project consultant François Courville, formerly of Schème, and Marie-Chantal Croft from Quebec City’s Coarchitecture, joined forces in an ultimate attempt. After an intense 15-day charrette, they came up with a scheme that re kindled everyone’s enthusiasm. Courville and Croft returned to the basics— the mountain setting, the proximity of the river, the area’s farming tradition, the century-old domestic architecture, and the indelible presence of a religious order that had played a major role in local history. Through careful consideration of this context, they arrived at a fundamen-

the exterior court and the nearby pavilions. The station and hotel each have separate entrances under this grand portal. A multipurpose hall that hosts concerts and community events occupies nearly a quarter of the main building’s ground floor. Both hall and hotel share the same lobby, overlooking the exterior court and featuring numerous objects made by Quebec and Charlevoix designers. Of particular interest are the distinctive tubular light fixtures by talented Montreal-based Antoine Laverdière. Overall, there was a concerted effort to buy local, which meant commissioning quite a number of artisans to craft tables, beds, bookshelves, chairs and marvellous contemporary weavings. The four thematic pavilions lie beyond La

Ferme’s main three-storey structure, in full sight of the neighbour’s grazing cows. Varying in size and height, they bear slightly contrived names associated with farm outbuildings: 39-room Le Clos (The Farm Yard), 7-suite Le Moulin (The Mill), 49-room La Bergerie (The Sheep Pen) and 12-room La Basse-cour (The Chicken Coop). Le Spa du Verger (Orchard Spa), partially below grade, links La Bergerie and La Basse-cour. One of the strongest aspects of this project is this breaking down of program, which if amalgamated under a single roof would have resulted in a massive volume. This type of planning recalls traditional siting strategies based not just on fire routes and zoning regulations, but also on prioritizing views, protection from the wind, topography and natural light.

Archives des Petites Franciscaines de Marie

tal conclusion: the 145-room hotel could not possibly be a monolithic building, which would dwarf its surroundings and block many of the views. What they proposed instead was to build several pavilions that would respect and mimic the scale of the surroundings. The project was dubbed La Ferme, alluding to the agricultural development of Baie-St-Paul from the beginning of the 18th century. Seen against monolithic grand hotels such as Manoir Richelieu, the thematic choice and pavilion strategy suggested a close link between the hotel and its French-Canadian rural environment. The resort centered on a three-storey U-shaped building that would include a small train station, public market and multipurpose hall along with the hotel reception, lobby, restaurant and 38 rooms. Each of four additional pavilions, oriented to optimize views and natural light, would offer a distinct type of accommodation. Croft and Courville set out clear guidelines in terms of narrative and materials. Wood was favoured for symbolic reasons, but also as a strategy to employ local workers and make use of Quebec wood products. The one exception was the main building, where a steel structure was specified to comply with fire regulations. With a new concept clearly articulated, Daniel Gauthier confirmed the involvement of two firms from Quebec City, LemayMichaud architecture design and St-Gelais Montminy + Associés Architectes (STGM). Well known for their boutique hotels, and particularly for the HôtelMusée Premières Nations in Wendake, Quebec, the LemayMichaud team was mainly responsible for the Baie-St-Paul project’s interiors. Their design mandate included first and foremost the hotel’s rooms, but also its lobby, lounge, restaurant and spa. STGM, on the other hand, was commissioned to plan the multipurpose hall and market (both open to the community at large) as well as to supervise the construction of all exteriors. They built the unassuming train station attached to the main building, the second of two new stations envisaged in the overall scheme. STGM had previously designed the graceful train stop at the foot of Le Massif, completed the year before. Simple and straightforward, the small but elegant Grande-Pointe Station hugs the mountainside. Its exposed wood-slat walls provide basic shelter without hiding the striking views of the river. The vocabulary used here is different from La Ferme’s, and is more in keeping with mountain shelters typically found in Quebec’s wilderness regions. In La Ferme, the main building faces the town of Baie-St-Paul. Through a giant portecochère, equipped with sliding red steel barn doors, one catches a glimpse of the surrounding mountains, creating a dramatic backdrop for

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CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT Restaurant Les Labours, situated on a mezzanine level in the main building; A room in Le Clos features rustic walls; 12 guest rooms comprise La Basse-cour and include barn-inspired doors; the sauna in Le Spa du Verger; The hotel lobby and lounge. OPPOSITE, LEFT TO RIGHT In the water-themed La Bergerie, bed platforms fold upwards to form partial washroom walls; the reception area includes sculptural light fixtures by a Quebec designer.

While making agricultural allusions, the buildings here are contemporary: volumes are straightforward and avoid the nostalgic imagery that so often dominates in country resorts. In terms of colour, most of the façades are left in a natural wood shade, although each of the pavilions perhaps unnecessarily features balconies, soffits and other details in anthracite, yellow, aqua or burgundy. Vertical slate signals the presence of the train station and the multipurpose hall on the hotel’s main façade. Galvanized steel, seen mostly along the side and back of the multipurpose 18 canadian architect 03/13

hall and on secondary exit staircases and on railings, completes the material palette. Room layouts were carefully researched so that each pavilion would have its own distinctive room type—or types, as double-height rooms on upper floors were designed differently. Le Clos is perhaps the most evocative, with all interiors strongly reminiscent of barn architecture. Meticulously designed interior walls give the impression of being casual assemblages of studs and planks. This strategy in turn informed the wall motifs

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used throughout the complex, a constant reminder of the original farm. Also of particular interest are the rooms developed for La Bergerie. Here, LemayMichaud decided to distance themselves from the theme’s constraints, and converted the word Bergerie into Berge, meaning shore. This allowed them to create a totally different type of room where they quite successfully explored placing beds on raft-like structures, which fold up semi-vertically to form walls separating the sleeping areas from the open bathrooms. Noteworthy as well are the four-bed dorms, probably the best in the country, placed above the hotel train station—a type of accommodation Gauthier had insisted on. Overall, the parti adopted for Baie-St-Paul differs greatly from what is underway on Fogo Island—although it is still difficult, at this stage, to visualize Todd Saunders’s finished 29-room hotel in Newfoundland with its art gallery, restaurant, spa and cinema. The Fogo Island Inn will no doubt be more sculptural in form than La Ferme, where partners, context, and tighter budgets strongly impacted the project. In the end, both resorts, if they are successful, may demonstrate that contemporary architecture provides an often forgotten added value, appreciated not just by initiates but also by members of the public at large. One hopes that the passion and ambitious vision that drove La Ferme and the Fogo Island Inn will serve as inspirational examples for private patrons and mainstream developers alike. CA Odile Hénault has worked as an architect, critic, editor, curator, school director, teacher and professional advisor. She presently lives on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River near Quebec City.

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HÔTEL LA FERME Client Groupe Le Massif/SOGEPC Architect Team LemayMichaud—Kevin McCandless, Katrine Beaudry, Roméo Coté, Annie-Claude Gilbert, Marie-Christine Baillargeon, Cynthia Roy, Tony Demers, Philippe Gagnon, Réal Lessard, François Gaudreault, Marc Leblond, Marie-André-Morin, Audrey Chabot. STGM—Michel Gingras, Stéphan Langevin, Guylaine Lafortune, Maxime Arcand, Raymond Boucher, Cathy Gagné, Alexandre Guérin. Coarchitecture—Marie-Chantal Croft, Marie-Ève Cantin. Structural EMS Ingénierie Mechanical/Electrical Génécor Experts-Conseils Civil Génio Experts-Conseils Landscape François Courville Interiors LemayMichaud Architecture Design Contractor L’intendant Theatre Guy St-Amours (Productions Artefact) Acoustics Claude Vanier (Audiofax) Area 14,430 m 2 Budget $52 M Completion December 2012 GRANDE-POINTE STATION Client Groupe Le Massif Architect Team Michel Gingras, Stéphan Langevin, Guylaine Lafortune, Valérie Godbout, Marcel St-Louis, François Chabot, Raymond Boucher Structural BPR Tetratech Mechanical/Electrical SNC-Lavalin Contractor Qualité Construction Project Management L’intendant Gondola Doppelmayr Area 630 m2 Budget $1 M Completion May 2012

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Commonwealth Conversion

Combining a pro football stadium with community facilities, Edmonton’s latest recreation centre is a welcome addition to an inner-city neighbourhood. Project Commonwealth Community Recreation Centre and Edmonton Eskimo Fieldhouse, Edmonton, Alberta Architects MacLennan Jaunkalns Miller Architects in joint venture with HIP Architects Text Alexandra McIntosh Photos Tom Arban

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Large-scale professional sports facilities often make for daunting surroundings. While animated during events, in the off-season their banal con struction materials, superhuman scale, suburban location and automobilecentric access result in hulking structures, afloat in a sea of asphalt. Edmonton’s Commonwealth Stadium, built for the 1978 Commonwealth Games, is one of the largest outdoor sports venues in Canada, and until recently, one such lonely giant. Located north of the downtown core and bordered by vacant grounds, light industry and post-WWII bungalows, the site was largely inaccessible, due as much to a lack of means as to one of desire. The recently opened Commonwealth Community Recreation Centre (CCRC) results from a partnership between the City of Edmonton and the Edmonton Eskimo Football Club. Designed by MacLennan Jaunkalns Miller Architects (MJMA) of Toronto and HIP Architects of Edmonton, the project builds on and expands the 1978 facilities, combining stadium activities, football operations, and a fitness and community centre. Along

Above From the main entrance plaza, a cross-section of the centre’s activities is put on display, framed by angular canopy and façade elements. In place of standard horizontal flashing at the roofline, a custom detail allows the standing-seam siding to run up and over the top of the parapet, maintaining continuity of its vertical lines. OPPOSITE BOTTOM A View of the staDIUM.

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with several other large-scale infrastructure projects (see CA, January 2013), the CCRC participates in a citywide plan to revitalize neighbourhoods through civic-minded facilities and good design. The new four-storey construction adjoins the south end of the stadium and projects outwards in a triangulated plan. Three main masses— gymnasium, aquatics area and field house—define the structure and frame a central lobby. Built into the canted geometry of the site, the facility meets the underbelly of the stadium, filling in awkward angles and underused spaces. A playful façade clad with standing-seam metal siding begins at ground level and angles upwards to form a canopy above the main entrance. Undercut with pale-stained Prodema panels and supported by slender columns, the canopy dips down to grade and rises to frame the aquatics area, projecting like a ship’s prow toward the street. Generous ceramicfritted glazing offers partial views into the pool, lobby and upper floor fitness area, where patrons on treadmills run their interminable race. To the west, the frontage zigzags around the indoor field house, dipping below grade for delivery and service areas. From all sides, the angular geometry and bold gestures of the roofline mimic the skyward thrust of the stadium seating, jutting into the air like the extended arm of a football player following through on a pass. Inside, sunshine streams in through ground-floor windows, clerestory glazing and baffled skylights. The generous use of reflective and transparent surfaces results in a striking interplay of light and shadow, with

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views through and beyond the building. Light reflected by the water of the pools mingles with shadows from the patterned glass, multiplying and bouncing off the polished concrete floor, white walls and ceramic tiling. From the central lobby, the three distinct masses of the building are discernible. Deep window wells overlook the gymnasium one storey below, while on another side, an enclosed poolside lounge is furnished with lozenge-shaped seats and tables. Lining the glass wall that separates the field house from the lobby, poured concrete benches evoke Le Corbusier’s integrated chaise longue at Villa Savoye. Across the green expanse of artificial turf, further glazing allows for views of the adjacent grounds and stadium outbuildings. Within the field house, a series of enormous industrial fans combined with windows that open directly onto the practice field provide natural ventilation and air circulation. This connection of interior and exterior expands the sense of space around the indoor field, resulting in an open-span structure that seemingly hovers above the ground plane. The architects’ ample use of glazing throughout the ground floor of the CCRC was initially resisted by the clients out of fears it would become an easy target for vandalism—but also because they felt there was nothing worth looking at outside. The bordering communities of McCauley, Parkdale and Alberta Avenue—ethnically diverse areas with median household incomes that fall significantly below the city average—saw little urban development over much of the 20th century. According to city architect Carol Bélanger, however, the CCRC has seen a reduction in vandalism. An increased sense of security is achieved through these “eyes on the street”

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along with well-lit entrance courts and exterior pathways. In addition, openings at the upper storeys create lines of sight onto the park and frame glimpses of the stadium at unusual angles. These vantages offer new, intriguing perspectives—both literal and figurative—on the surrounding area, framing the once disregarded as a place worthy of attention. Access to the fitness area and running track on the upper floor is gained by a central stairway wrapped in laminate panels, machine-milled with patterns of circular holes. This material recurs on the upper storey as a railing alongside the fitness area, overlooking the lobby. Exercise bikes and weight machines are aligned along the glass frontage of the building, with views of the pools and street rather than the usual wallmounted gym televisions. Around a corner, a punchy orange running track wraps above the rectangle of the field house. A series of cardio machines on a platform adjacent the track act like a VIP box, offering privileged views of the field, park and stadium. With its curlicue waterslide, spurting fountains and heated whirlpool, the light-filled aquatics area is a delight for children as well as adults inclined to messing about in water. The lap pool has a tendency to be usurped by non-lap swimmers, but this is perhaps more an issue of education than of architecture. Each pool has a gently sloping access ramp for patrons with reduced mobility, particularly appreciated by this writer with a knee injury and sore back. Balancing transparency and obscurity is a theme throughout the building, apparent in the dot patterning on interior and exterior glazing. The frit pattern in the fitness area, for example, increases in density as the

OPPOSITE TOP A dynamic dot pattern graces the main stair and railing surrounding the second-floor fitness area. Above Wood lami nate panels add warmth to the aquatics area, consisting of several separate pools. OPPOSITE BOTTOM, left to right The north façade offers glimpses into the fieldhouse and views of cardio machines above; the fieldhouse offers an open, spacious atmosphere for practice during winter months; from the lobby, windows open onto a gymnasium associated with a small athletics centre that previously adjoined the stadium; a running track surrounds the upper level of the fieldhouse.

weight machines become heavier, creating a visual parallel to the requisite muscular exertions. Exercise classes are glimpsed through partially screened glazing, providing a sense of privacy for those who consider themselves unfit, uncoordinated or arrhythmic. Accounting for comfort and privacy was intentional, according to MJMA principals Viktors Jaunkalns and Ted Watson. They explain that the visibility of multiple activities, from Zumba to community art classes, “creates a sense of the overlay of activities at the Centre, serving to both condense and boost the use of the space.” The architecture itself encourages participation. Beyond the publicly accessible spaces of the CCRC, the Edmonton Eskimo Football Club’s administration and athletics areas directly connect with the stadium. In marked contrast to the light-filled airiness and transparency of the community centre, the football team stipulated an aesthetic somewhere between golf and gentlemen’s club. Liberal use of the team’s green and gold colours was clearly a non-negotiable. The original, mostly subterranean, sports complex adjoining the stadium was torn out and replaced with offices and meeting rooms on two levels. Floor-to-ceiling windows and a balcony overlook the playing field, where on this visit, a disproportionately small tractor was engaged in the Sisyphean task of clearing snow from the field. One floor below the of-

fices, a sequence of meeting rooms opens onto a large deck which projects over the field. Used for coaching sessions, the rooms are convertible into event spaces that may be rented by community groups but seem more suited for corporate schmoozing—upscale gameside tailgating, as it were. The Eskimos’ locker and equipment rooms as well as areas for physiotherapy and medical treatment are located at the playing-field level, two floors below grade. No metal closets or pungent odour here: the locker room is an elliptical space with carpeted floors, wood panelling, and curved walls lined with throne-like seating for players. The not quite football-shaped area contributes to the team’s sense of unity prior to playing, not to mention the impossibility of avoiding eye contact after a particularly bad play. For training, the players share the community centre’s gymnasium, fitness centre, field house and outdoor Clarke Field, all of which are accessible through interior stairwells. One of the principal advantages of the club’s reconfigured spaces, according to Eskimos staff, is their proximity to the fitness areas and the stadium field. The locker room gives almost directly onto the field, so players can emerge through the new glass frontage into the stadium in proper ceremonial fashion. As a partnership, the CCRC’s program is uniquely polarized: aiming to

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enhance and offer services to underprivileged neighbourhoods while meeting a professional sports team’s administration and athletic needs. Since the CCRC opened last spring, use of the facility has continued to climb exponentially. As one front-desk attendant remarked, there has been a steady influx of people, “and not just New Year’s-resolution types.” The CCRC’s managers have responded in kind, in one instance converting a multipurpose room into a drop-off day-care centre. On an average Saturday, the lobby is teeming with parents pushing strollers, twentysomethings in workout gear, kids bouncing basketballs, and—apparently inevitable in new

Building Section

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Level 2 1 box seat patio 0 10M 2 Eskimo meeting room/ box seating 3 coaches’ office

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buildings—a fashion shoot. Muscles freshly exhausted, two 6-foot-tall linebackers with a combined weight of at least 500 pounds amble past the weight machines in that slow, stiff-limbed gait that is the province of the overly fit. Meanwhile, an elderly gentleman stretches on a mat and teenagers do full-out time-trial sprints around the running track. The CCRC’s mixing of pools and play, of pro-sports athletes and low-income families, of public good and private enterprise, seems positive and sustainable. The considered effort in creating views between and beyond differently programmed spaces provides legibility to the building and its

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combined functions. Visual and physical connections to the surrounding neighbourhood, including new formalized pedestrian and parking areas, also help to identify the site as a destination. The building is a democratized, permeable and participatory space where the community can see and recognize itself, or perhaps envision what it would like to become. The heroic Modernism of the 1978 stadium was the product of an era vastly different in terms of social and economic optimism. The new Commonwealth Community Recreation Centre aspires to its namesake, balancing the needs of its diverse user communities, and creating a space for common wealth. CA Alexandra McIntosh writes on architecture, design and visual arts. She is based in Banff, Alberta.

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Client City of Edmonton and The Edmonton Eskimo Football Club Architect Team MJMA—TED WATSON, VIKTORS JAUNKALNS, AARON LETKI, ANDREW FILARSKI, JOHN MACLENNAN, LUKASZ KOS, TROY WRIGHT, KYUNG SUNG HOR, JASON WAH, COHEN CHEN, BI-YING MAO, JAMES ANDRACHUK, SIRI URSIN. HIP ARCHITECTS—STEWART INGLIS, CRAIG HENDERSEN, ERWIN RAUSCHER, GARETH LEACH, JIM DOBEY, BRENT CONNER, CHRISTIAN PAROYAN, BOB MURRAY. Structural Read Jones Christoffersen Engineering Mechanical/Electrical Hemisphere Engineering Landscape/Civil ISL Engineering Interiors MJMA/HIP Contractor Clark Builders Code David Hine Engineering Inc. Specifications Digicon Information inc. Sustainability Cobalt Engineering Commissioning CDML Geotechnical EBA Enginneering Envelope Building Science Engineering Ltd. Elevator Lerch Bates Survey Navland Geomatics Inc. Wind RWDI Rendering Cicada Area 220,000 ft2 Budget $96 M Completion Spring 2012

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Raising the Roof

Employing a vernacular aesthetic, a handsome community centre brings together residents at the threshold of a Golden Horseshoe town. Brooklin Community Centre and Library, Brooklin, Ontario Perkins+Will Canada Text Paige Magarrey Photos James Brittain Project

Architect

Its bustling energy is evident before even entering. Standing in the entryway to the Brooklin Library and Community Centre, the entire sprawling complex comes into view. Children running through the library, elderly ladies learning to salsa in the seniors’ centre, an aerobics class underway in the gym. For a moment it feels like the epicentre of the small town at the northern edge of Whitby, and in many ways it is: bringing together longstanding citizens with newcomers to the surrounding suburbs and linking together groups that previously gathered at opposite ends of the village. “None of these spaces were together before,” says Perkins+Will’s Andrew Frontini, who headed up the project. “When you bring it all together you have a real energy.”

Brooklin represents an ever more common type of Ontario small town: a historic village of independent shops and small bungalows whose edges are seeping outward as surrounding farmland and forests are replaced with residential developments and big-box stores. Existing community buildings were fast becoming inadequate: a 19th-century brick community hall, an old mill-turned-multipurpose space, and a 185-square-metre library spread seniors, youths and new parents to different facilities across the community and separated newly arrived residents from the village core. Enter Perkins+Will. The Canadian chapter, formed in 2011 as an amalgamation of Vermeulen Hind Architects, Shore Tilbe Perkins+Will and Busby Perkins+Will, brought a diverse range of experience in the realm of community facilities, including the serene sunlight-filled Angus Glen Community Centre and Library, and the dramatic stone-clad Whitby Public Library and Civic Square. For Brooklin, the firm was selected from a 2005 competition to design a new community centre replacing an existing library and attached fire hall. The site featured decades-old greenery and backed onto Kinsmen Park and Lynde Creek. Their winning entry focused on the “bald spots” that would be created when the existing buildings and playground were torn down; the design proposed a series of linked structures that wove through the site, leaving as much of the sur-

An elegant roof system creates a spacious library interior, reminiscent of local mills and heavy-timber barns. TOP, left to right A pergola leads visitors to the main entrance from the parking area; a new courtyard is framed by the three buildings. BELOW The complex comprises an interconnected community centre at left, library at right, and gymnasium, hidden in this view. OPPOSITE

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rounding nature intact as possible. “Our approach was to really work with this long narrow site,” says Frontini. “We thought these three spots could be our building blocks.” By the time they began to fine-tune the concept—the project remained in limbo until 2008 due to the possibility of a post office being added—the team all but redesigned it while keeping with the basic linked pavilion idea, which allowed the 3,716-square-metre complex to be broken into smaller parcels that would be easier to fill with light and maintain. They presented a series of modern flat-roofed buildings,

but it didn’t resonate with the community. “We’d been struggling with an architectural language,” says Frontini. An understandable challenge, considering the vernacular context— a mix of ’70s bungalows, century-old farmhouses, developer-built homes and old-fashioned storefronts. They wanted to find a design that jived with its surroundings while also responding to the nearby hardwood forest and the village’s historic roots. After surveying the area, Frontini and his team discovered the community was home to several simple Victorian-era structures, large-spanned with sloped shed

roofs and gables, including the 1876 Brooklin Township Hall (now a community centre), the 1848 Brooklin Flour Mill, and the now-demolished Brooklin Saw Mill. “We said, let’s work with that form,” says Frontini. “It was purely a matter of abstracting this idea of agrarian architecture.” Several other early 20th-century timber barns just outside of Brooklin’s core inspired the project’s large scale. The team developed an idea of three linked barns that each held a specific purpose: the library in one, the gymnasium in another, and the remaining community services—seniors’

A computer area overlooks the community centre atrium; a sliding panel reveals a youth room with pool table; the generously daylit gymnasium; young spectators peer into the gym from a corridor adjacent to the preschool room.

Below, clockwise from top left

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centre, computer lab, youth space and multipurpose rooms—in the third. The wings would weave around the narrow site, making the most of the forest and creek views and allowing for ample daylighting. With that, something clicked. Not just with the community, but within the firm as well. Frontini had already been connecting modern rural aesthetics and the natural environment with projects like the Fathom Five National Park Visitor Centre in Tobermory, completed in 2007. “We were exploring the relationship between these indoor/ outdoor spaces and buildings framing courtyards that captured existing vegetation,” he says. “There were a lot of elements in that project that I wanted to take a second crack at.” At the same time, the concept for Brooklin was very much a departure from previous work by the firm; Frontini sought to evoke a barnlike aesthetic in the simplest terms possible, merging warm materials and an easily relatable shape to modern lines and streamlined volumes. “This was the first time that we had applied a simple shed roof to a structure of this scale,” he says. “We were very concerned about adapting this archetypal form to a modern idiom, in terms of structure, materiality and detailing.” On the exterior, a heavy Wiarton limestone base is balanced by panels from Spanish manufacturer Prodema and ample glazing that reaches all the way to the top of the A-line frame. Wood louvres on the upper windows—installed between the two layers of glazing to minimalize maintenance—are barely visible at night, but by day control glare and solar gain without limiting the entry of natural light from lower windows. Situated along the western edge of the site, the community pavilion is set back slightly from the sidewalk behind existing trees and stone benches. Inside the lobby, views of the entire complex can be seen. “We created this common perspective from which you can view the activities on both floors, and walk in the door and get a sense of everything that’s going on,” says Frontini. The lobby also offers an overview of the simple yet warm interior palette. Spruce, pine and fir ceilings, pale oak millwork, a butcher block-style reception desk and oak veneered wall panels merge seamlessly throughout the space, particularly when accented by natural surroundings from virtually every sightline. Despite all the different types of wood in the interior, Frontini sought to keep a simple, uncluttered aesthetic. “We’re trying to create a clean modern language,” he says. On the first floor, the wing includes a seniors’ centre designed to facilitate everything from dance classes to euchre tournaments, as well as change rooms, administrative facilities and a multipurpose room that can be rented out for

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Gutter Detail

Wood louvres embedded between glass panes control solar gain and lend a fine texture to the curtain wall. Above

community events. Smaller multipurpose rooms on the second floor accommodate art classes and meetings, adjacent to a youth centre complete with pool table and video game consoles. The barn vernacular is particularly felt in a hayloft-style panel that opens the youth room up to the floor below. A computer lab with floor-to-ceiling glazing overlooks the quiet street below and offers a peek of Brooklin’s downtown core to the east. Alongside the community pavilion, the library—the most public element of the building—juts out toward the street. The project’s truss system takes centre stage: though present in all three pavilions, the library affords the most dramatic, uninterrupted view of the streamlined yet highly complex steel cable system. This is especially apparent because its entrance features a lower ceiling that opens up dynamically to the full double height. Panels running along the upper level of the space offer acoustic protection for readers while mimicking the sliding panels in the entrance area. A large seating area with a stone-clad fireplace anchors the southern edge. The fireplace chimney, jutting out above the three wings, acts like a beacon for the complex and is viewable from downtown. At the back of the site, the double-height gymnasium veers off the rear of the community pavilion at a 90-degree angle. While the wing was sited to preserve some of the older trees on the site, it also created an inset courtyard between the library and the gym, bringing more light into all three pavilions and allowing for additional views. The gym’s easternmost wall is completely windowless to avoid light pollution to neighbouring houses. But the glazing on the other walls affords some of the most beautiful views of the whole complex, with the forest to the north and the courtyard to the south. A security shutter isolates the gym and multi purpose room, allowing night-time events such as dances to take place without powering the rest of the building. 32 canadian architect 03/13

1 curtain wall with integrated wood grille 2 steel structure 3 standing-seam metal roof 4 concealed gutter

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steel outrigger system wood deck soffit aluminum fascia wood veneer bulkhead

While the community centre’s agrarian references, warm materials and gorgeous views—not to mention its deep roots in local history and surrounding landscape—are all key to the project, it’s perhaps what they stand for that’s even more important: a building constructed to be used. “You want to bring the best design that you can to the situation,” says Frontini. “But it’s got to be design that can take being occupied. It can’t be too precious or too delicate in its expression. The buildings have robust components that should be able to stand up to anything.” That’s a good thing, considering the volume of people the building is designed to serve. The area’s current population of 30,000 represents two subcultures, the locals from the downtown core as well as the ever-growing number of newcomers that populate the periphery. For Frontini, projects such as this have the power to bring these groups together. “A building like this gives them the opportunity to develop a new culture,” he says. “It provides a common space for village residents and for the people in the outlying suburb. It is sited in the village but at a threshold where old fabric gives way to new, so it acts as a gateway to the community.” CA Paige Magarrey is a Toronto-based architecture and design writer. Client Town of Whitby, Whitby Public Library Architect Team Andrew Frontini, Aimee Drmic, D’Arcy Arthurs, Linda Neumayer, Liz Livingston, Sarah Elliot, Gavin Guthrie, Dimitri Simos Structural Blackwell Bowick Partnership Mechanical Smith + Andersen Electrical Mulvey + Banani International Inc. Civil MMM Group Landscape Fleisher Ridout Partnership Interiors Perkins+Will Canada Inc. Contractor Aquicon Construction Area 48,000 ft2 Budget $12 M Completion January 2012

SOPREMA_PubSoprabase-CanadianArchitect.pdf

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Building Blocks Ontario’s current full-day kindergarten additions and renovations allow architects to go beyond the design brief in contributing to learning environments for children. Text

Helena Grdadolnik

opportunity to introduce added value, smart design solutions that go above and beyond client expectations,” says firm principal Tania Bortolotto. As part of a larger project to expand Oakridge Junior Public School, Bortolotto transformed three existing classrooms into kindergarten spaces with a three-metre-wide addition to make space for students’ individual storage cubbies. The minimal intervention tripled the amount of natural light entering the east-facing rooms by the use of continuous glazing above the cubbies, and provided direct access to a newly landscaped play area. At Willow Park Junior Public School where Bortolotto was tasked with adding two kindergarten classrooms, the firm’s design also included improvements to the outdoor play area, upgrades to the storage space for the existing kindergarten rooms and a new engaging and welcoming building façade. This last element is important when you think of how anxious fouryear-olds—and their parents—can be when starting school for the first time. Montgomery Sisam Architects, a larger firm with a reputation for considered school designs, also have full-day kindergarten projects in their portfolio. In their three-storey addition to house two kindergartens and four classrooms at Maurice Cody Junior Public School in Toronto, they incorporated a central multipurpose atrium. This new space benefits the entire school community by adding light to what had before been dark double-loaded corridors and Scott Norsworthy

Shai Gil

One of the most important recent opportunities for several architecture firms in Ontario has been a series of education renovations. While individually modest, collectively, these represent a significant expenditure in communitylevel architecture. The Province of Ontario has allocated $1.4 billion in capital funding in the last two years to support the creation of new full-day kindergarten classrooms in close to 3,400 schools, with further investments planned to fully implement the program by 2014 to serve 250,000 kindergarteners. More than a billion dollars represents a huge investment in school buildings, although the figure is put into perspective as a long-term investment within the province’s $21-billion annual education budget. Both the recent Drummond Report and the Progressive Conservative party’s policy paper on education call for delaying the remaining roll-out of the full-day kindergarten program in an effort to balance the provincial budget. There is a serious need to shrink the deficit— ratings agency Moody’s changed its assessment of Ontario’s economic outlook from stable to negative in 2011—but cuts to kindergarten funding, and its building program that is moderniz-

ing early education spaces, would be a significant loss for the children in early education that would be felt for many years to come. Independent studies have supported what architects instinctively know: that well-designed learning spaces have a powerful positive effect on education. An assessment by PricewaterhouseCoopers for the UK’s Department of Education and Skills in 2000 found a favourable relationship between capital investment in schools, student performance and staff morale.1 A Georgetown University study showed that after controlling for variables such as economic status, pupils’ standardized achievement scores rose significantly in relation to the quality of a school’s physical environment.2 For small to mid-sized firms specializing in education, additions and renovations to support the full-day kindergarten program may represent a significant portion of current work. At Workshop Architecture, we are presently designing new kindergarten classrooms for four schools in Grand Erie District School Board to open in September. Our colleagues at Bortolotto Design Architect are working with the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) on 15 projects rolling out this year and in 2014. Although modest in scale, these projects represent occasions to deliver the necessary requirements while also addressing other issues and re-energizing the entire school. Bortolotto’s recent designs demonstrate a smart, userfocused design attitude in action. “We look at every full-day kindergarten project as an

34 canadian architect 03/13

Shai Gil

Montgomery Sisam Architects added new kindergartens and classrooms to the Maurice Cody Junior Public School, along with an atrium that brings fresh light and energy to the existing building. OPPOSITE BOTTOM, left to right Bortolotto Design Architect’s dynamic façade for Willow Park Junior Public School; interior of Workshop Architecture’s new kindergarten classroom for the Princess Elizabeth Public School; an exterior play area created from a dead-end space at the Princess Elizabeth Public School. Above

and development of the work,” he notes. “Principal, teachers, parents, caretakers, community representatives, trustee, superintendent, TDSB design specialists, planners and consultants met and planned the work to ensure the response fit the need.” For a $500,000 addition to the Princess Elizabeth Public School in Brantford by Workshop Architecture, designer David Colussi proposed a solution that added a new learning space while also turning a dead end in the U-shaped

plan into a courtyard. Although outside of the original project scope, the courtyard was brightened through inexpensive pavers, paint and tile, becoming a secure outdoor play area accessible from both new and existing kindergarten classrooms. This design solution addressed graffiti issues and removed the need for a fenced-in play area facing the street. The addition also linked two previously unconnected existing hallways into a continuous circulation loop through the kinder-

Scott Norsworthy

responding to innovative teaching methods that call for breakout spaces. Tucked into the inside corner of the existing L-shaped school, the addition removed the need for two portables on the site while providing ample room for upgraded playgrounds. Design lead Robert Davies points to the positive role the Local School Community Design Team played in assuring a successful outcome. “The design process assembled a large group of stakeholders to help steer the front-end design

03/13 canadian architect

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Shai Gil

garten boot room and reoriented the student arrival sequence, resulting in a new shared resource and storage area. “The courtyard provides a bonus space that we would not have otherwise had,” school principal Annette Blake remarks. “The entire school benefits from this exciting, bright, cheerful space which sets a positive tone for a wider school revitalization.” These case studies exemplify how, when given the opportunity—even with a small scope and budget—architects have been able to address existing issues and support new approaches to teaching and learning within our country’s aging school infrastructure. By contrast, fullday kindergarten was recently introduced in British Columbia, but its provincial government decided to award a single contract for custombuilt modular units for most of the 156 schools requiring more space. Only 21 schools were thought to need site-specific designs. There may be a lower cost to building multiple modular units. However, beyond furnishing additional classroom spaces, capital investment in customdesigned kindergartens could make a positive impact more broadly in each individual school. Full-day kindergartens are just the tip of the iceberg for instances where architects are using small projects to add value beyond the brief. The success of the projects executed so far should

Above At Oakridge Junior Public School, Bortolotto Design Architect added new classrooms on the second storey, at left, as well as a narrow strip on the ground floor to create room for three kindergarten classrooms, at far right. The renovations build on earlier additions by Teeple Architects.

serve as a model worthy of emulation by education ministries across Canada, as well as other agencies involved in commissioning retrofits and additions to serve public needs. CA Helena Grdadolnik is an Associate Director at Work shop Architecture Inc.

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1PricewaterhouseCoopers (2000). Building performance:

an empirical assessment of the relationship between schools’ capital investment and pupil performance. Research Report No. 242. 2Edwards, M. (1991). Building conditions, parental in volvement, and student achievement in the DC public school system. Unpublished Master’s thesis, Georgetown University.

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Professional Directory

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Thomas Demand: Animations

January 18-May 13, 2013 This exhibi tion at the DHC/ART Foundation in Montreal features internationally renowned German artist Thomas Demand. www.dhc-art.org Urban Vernacular

March 1-29, 2013 This exhibition at the AKA Gallery in Saskatoon fea tures Laura St. Pierre’s ongoing photographic project that imagines a series of cobbled-together dwell ings located on the fringes of urban spaces. www.akagallery.org

Judith Leclerc and Jaime Coll lecture

March 18, 2013 Judith Leclerc and Jaime Coll, principals of CollLeclerc Arquitectos in Barcelona, deliver the Gerald Sheff Visiting Professors in Architecture lecture at 6:00pm in the MacdonaldHarrington Building at McGill University. Eric Miller lecture

March 18, 2013 Professor Eric Miller of the University of Toronto’s De partment of Civil Engineering de livers the Margolese Prize Lecture at 6:30pm at Robson Square in Vancouver.

Elena Filipovic lecture

March 14, 2013 Elena Filipovic, cur ator at Wiels Contemporary Art Center in Brussels and co-editor of The Biennial Reader, speaks at 7:30pm at the Prefix Institute of Contemporary Art in Toronto about the relationship between the city and the contemporary art biennial. www.prefix.ca Bradley Cantrell lecture

March 14, 2013 Landscape architect Bradley Cantrell lectures at 6:00pm at the University of Mani toba Faculty of Architecture.

Innovation Talks: Is Public Art Really Important?

March 19, 2013 The Evergreen Brick Works in Toronto hosts a discus sion on how public art contributes to the cultural, social and econom ic value of a city, and how it con nects to and serves the public. The event is moderated by Christopher Hume, joined by panellists Ken Greenberg, Andrew Davies, Janine Marchessault, Michael J. Prokopow and Rebecca Carbin. http://ebw.evergreen.ca/whats-on/ special-events/innovation-talks Rahul Mehrotra lecture

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March 14-May 4, 2013 This installa tion by Scott Eunson at MADE in Toronto is an adaptable textural environment that evokes the scal ing, fractal patterns seen through out nature. www.madedesign.ca

March 19, 2013 Rahul Mehrotra of the Harvard Graduate School of Design and RMA Architects in Mumbai delivers the George Baird lecture at 6:30pm at the Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design at the University of Toronto. www.daniels.utoronto.ca

Design Thinking and Teaching

March 18, 2013 This is the last in stallment of the three-part sympo sium exploring the academic merit of a new school of architecture at the University of Saskatchewan and the interdisciplinary research and teaching opportunities on campus. Beginning at 8:45am in Convocation Hall on the U of S campus, this panel presentation features Katerina Rüedi Ray, Clive Knights and Leslie Van Duzer. www.archusask.ca

Sustainable and Healthy New Neighbourhoods: The Fundamental Building Blocks of Tomorrow’s Saskatoon

March 20, 2013 Renowned global urban planner Larry Beasley deliv ers a free public lecture at 7:00pm at Saskatoon’s Roxy Theatre on the need to transform the postwar suburban model for a sustainable future. www.facebook.com/events/ 304071079718803/

Calendar Rania Ghosn lecture

March 20, 2013 Rania Ghosn of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor delivers the Form and Energy Lecture at 6:30pm at the Orpheum Annex in Vancouver. The Ideal House Project

March 21-April 27, 2013 This exhibi tion at the Susan Hobbs Gallery in Toronto features the work of Ian Carr-Harris and Yvonne Lammer ich, positioning a model of a build ing as both a noun and a verb, a paradigmatic object to be decon structed and built again. Manuelle Gautrand lecture

March 25, 2013 Manuelle Gautrand, principal of Manuelle Gautrand Architecture in Paris, delivers the Sheila Baillie lecture at 6:00pm in the Macdonald-Harrington Building at McGill University. Innovation Talks: Who Pays for Regional Transportation?

March 26, 2013 Taking place at the

Evergreen Brick Works in Toronto, panellists will turn a critical eye to the GTHA’s funding structure, and how it could be improved—by ref erencing effective governance models from transportation agen cies around the world. http://ebw.evergreen.ca/whats-on/ special-events/innovation-talks

2013 One of a Kind Spring Show & Sale

2nd Annual Summit on Cultivating and Sustaining Your Creative Economy

Edward Dimendberg on Diller, Scofidio and Renfro

March 27–31, 2013 The fine work of 450 artisans and designers will be on display and for sale at this eagerly anticipated annual event, taking place at the Direct Energy Centre in Toronto. www.oneofakindshow.com

March 26-27, 2013 This summit in Toronto provides case studies and sessions presented by leaders around the world to support crea tive industries, economic develop ment and job growth. www.creativecitiescanada.com

March 28, 2013 As part of the Urban Field Speakers series at the Prefix Institute of Contemporary Art in Toronto, architectural historian and professor Edward Dimendberg speaks at 7:30pm about the work of Diller, Scofidio and Renfro. www.prefix.ca

Craig Dykers lecture

Rethinking Urban Equipment

March 27, 2013 Architect Craig Dykers of Snøhetta (Oslo and New York) delivers the Jeffrey Cook Memorial Lecture at 6:00pm at the University of Manitoba Faculty of Architecture.

March 28, 2013 Erkin Ozay of the Harvard Graduate School of Design delivers a midday talk at 1:00pm at the Daniels Faculty of Architec ture, Landscape and Design at the University of Toronto.

Leon van Schaik lecture

April 3, 2013 Leon van Schaik, architecture professor at the RMIT in Melbourne, speaks at 6:00pm at the Faculty of Environmental De sign at the University of Calgary. http://evds.ucalgary.ca/events Peter Busby lecture

April 3, 2013 Peter Busby of Perkins+ Will Canada delivers an Honorary Professor Lecture at 6:30pm at the Liu Institute in Vancouver. www.sala.ubc.ca Julie Bargmann lecture

April 8, 2013 Julie Bargmann of DIRT Studio in New York delivers the Corneilia Hahn Oberlander Lecture at 6:30pm at Robson Square in Vancouver. www.sala.ubc.ca For more information about these, and additional listings of Canadian and international events, please visit www.canadianarchitect.com

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BACKPAGE

Scooter House

A charmingly simple backyard structure in the city is achieved through an admirable economy of means. TEXT

Leslie Jen Brian O’Brian

A Vespa rests on the Scooter House’s lowered door, which does double duty as a work platform for the owner to indulge in his hobby.

ABOVE

PHOTO

A relatively new presence on the Canadian scene, O’Brian Muehleisen Architecture Studio (OMAS) is making a name for itself around the world. With most of its work thus far in the United States, the firm is currently toiling away on projects as far flung as Costa Rica and Ireland. Canada was introduced to the practice in 2011 through the firm’s inclusion in Twenty + Change, a biennial exhibition and publication series focused on the promotion of emerging Canadian designers in architecture, landscape architecture and urban design. With its origins in New York, the firm expanded operations when coprincipal Brian O’Brian relocated with his family to Ontario in 2010. While partner Carl Muehleisen continues to run the Manhattan office, O’Brian steers operations north of the border, tucked away on charming Gilead Street in Toronto. Despite the distance and often challenging commuting schedule, the former classmates and architectural graduates from the New Jersey Institute of Technology work better together than apart, and have no plans to go their separate ways. In stark contrast to OMAS’s work on high-end residential projects— mostly posh apartment penthouses and luxe carriage houses—the Scooter House is the most elemental of forms. Measuring a mere 7’9” x 10’, this is a 42 canadian architect 03/13

modest backyard shed for a Vespa enthusiast in Toronto’s east end. Housing two handsome scooters and a couple of road bikes, the structure features a sizeable door that lowers via a manually operated winch to form a functioning platform for all the tinkering that client Joe Park does on his prized collection. O’Brian basically detailed a kit-of-parts strategy for Park to build on his own. Costs were kept to a minimum with simple wood-frame construction, cedar shingle cladding and an asphalt shingled roof; the entire budget was $3,000 including materials and labour. Instead of glass, inexpensive polycarbonate panels form a band of clerestory windows that permit daylight to enter the work/storage space, eliminating the need for artificial light. The Scooter House is a fitting counterpoint; a dialogue is established as the height and slope of its roof mimics the roof pitch of the main house, and its form creates a complementary termination at the back of the garden. The humble quality of this tight little structure charms with its honesty and simplicity; and in true man-cave fashion, a taxidermied deer head is mounted on the back wall of the Scooter House, evoking the rusticity of an iconic hunting lodge in the Great White North—so, so apropos for one of OMAS’s first projects in Canada. CA

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