Canadian Architect June 2022

JUN/22 V.67 N.04

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URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE

CANADIAN ARCHITECT

JUNE 2022 03

JAMES BRITTAIN

04 VIEWPOINT

A Canadian architecture firm’s people-focused proposal to revamp Britain’s rail stations.

06 NEWS

Remembering Claude Provencher, 1949-2022.

11 AIA CANADA JOURNAL A preview of this year’s AIA conference in Chicago.

36 INSITES

D’Arcy Jones revisits the enduring architecture of the hydroelectric power plant at the W.A.C. Bennett Dam, British Columbia.

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41 TECHNICAL

16 R.C. HARRIS WATER FILTRATION PLANT An architectural photographer’s year-long look at Canada’s iconic temple to water.

PHOTOS Amanda Large

21 9TH AVENUE PARKADE + INNOVATION CENTRE 506-car parkade by 5468796 and Kasian is designed for future conversion into A residences and offices. TEXT Trevor Boddy

29 WATER WAYS DAVID BOYER

uildings by gh3*, Local Practice, and Smith Vigeant celebrate the infrastructure B needed to process drinking water and urban stormwater. TEXTS Courtney Healey, Odile Hénault, and Elsa Lam

Detailed sourcing matters in determining the embodied carbon of mass timber buildings, according to architect and researcher Kelly Alvarez Doran.

46 BOOKS

Adele Weder delves into Alex Bozikovic and Raymond Biesinger’s new book on Canada’s lost buildings.

48 PRACTICE

Jake Nicholson explores how the industry can improve on the requirement for previous experience in RFP processes.

50 BACKPAGE

Defensive urbanism pervades our cities. Pamela Young looks at how architects can fight back by creating more inclusive designs.

9th Avenue Parkade + Innovation Centre, Calgary, Alberta, by 5468796 Architecture in collaboration with Kasian Architecture, Interior Design and Planning. Photo by James Brittain.

COVER

V.67 N.04 THE NATIONAL REVIEW OF DESIGN AND PRACTICE / THE OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF THE RAIC / THE OFFICIAL

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MAGAZINE OF THE AIA CANADA SOCIETY

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CANADIAN ARCHITECT 06/22

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VIEWPOINT Workshop’s shortlisted proposal invites local station agents to re-activate Britain’s small rail stations.

LEFT

EDITOR ELSA LAM, FRAIC ART DIRECTOR ROY GAIOT

STATION AGENT In architecture competitions, the runner-up scheme is sometimes the most interesting one.

That’s the case in the recent Re-imagining Railways design competition, run by RIBA and Network Rail, which aimed to rethink Britain’s over 2,100 small and medium-sized railway stations. The winning proposal, by Edinburgh-based 7N Architects, is an elegant design with a beacon-like clock tower and a modular station layout. But a more impactful and unexpected re-thinking of the nature of infrastructure can be seen in the proposal by Toronto’s Workshop Architecture, one of five finalists selected from over 200 entrants.

Workshop co-founder Helena Grdadolnik was familiar with rural British rail stations from a stint working in the UK. “They were often an unpleasant 30-minute walk outside of town, and not that visible from the road. If you didn’t know where you were going, you wouldn’t necessarily see them,” she says. The fact that many of the buildings are shuttered, more than half of the stations are unstaffed, and few have washrooms, all make the experience even more uncomfortable—especially, say, for a woman travelling alone at night. According to Network Rail’s surveys, 61 percent of passengers do not feel safe at its 1,192 unstaffed stations.

Workshop determined that the core issues with Network Rail’s stations wouldn’t be solved with nice new buildings, but would need to start instead with having a person onsite at each and every station. In their vision, a station agent—not an employee of the railway, but a local selected through an open call process—holds the keys to the site and fosters its use by other local groups.

“The agent could be an individual, a collective, a not-for-profit or a social enterprise.

They could be a gardener-in-residence, an outreach worker or a yoga instructor. They could manage a community kitchen, run a farm store or a book exchange,” writes Workshop. “The role can help to remove the operational barriers that keep Network Rail from allowing small stations to have green landscaping, public amenities and a fence with wide openings and multiple entry points.”

While paying for an extra person may make

the project seem like a non-starter, research shows that every $1 spent through such a partnership scheme would generate over $4.60 in community benefits, increased rail ticket sales, and reduced crime and vandalism. Moreover, local stewardship could allow the rail stations to become community living rooms, says Workshop, “with cats, plants, rugs and mugs.”

The proposal also saves money in its thrifty approach to the station buildings, which advocates for renovating existing structures.

Such retrofits would aim to enhance their energy performance, and to convert singlepurpose waiting rooms into maker spaces, galleries, and community halls.

For sites where new buildings must be created, the team envisaged bridge-like structures, with an elevated indoor community space that doubles as a pedestrian crossing over the rails. These projects would piggyback onto an already-planned rollout of accessible footbridges. “Constructing a station building and footbridge together will minimize disruption, save costs, and be a more efficient use of resources,” writes Workshop.

Site planning was not part of the original design brief. Workshop nonetheless suggested that it would be key to readjust site plans to focus on pedestrians rather than parking and improve accessible access to the rail platforms.

In their vision, the platforms are widened to add allotment gardens, pollinator planting beds, and shaded rest areas.

While the project did not win—in part, Grdadolnik thinks, because they did not develop a showpiece building the way that Network Rail expected—she still values the experience of developing the proposal. She believes it’s important to put architectural thinking to work not only in designing buildings, but in unpacking multi-faceted problems linked to the built environment. “For me, it’s a dream project to look at a system,” she says, “and to try to make a meaningful improvement that isn’t about our ego or a visual, but about improving people’s lives.”

Elsa Lam

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS ANNMARIE ADAMS, FRAIC ODILE HÉNAULT DOUGLAS MACLEOD, NCARB, FRAIC ONLINE EDITOR CHRISTIANE BEYA REGIONAL CORRESPONDENTS MONTREAL DAVID THEODORE CALGARY GRAHAM LIVESEY, FRAIC WINNIPEG LISA LANDRUM, MAA, AIA, FRAIC VANCOUVER ADELE WEDER, HON. MRAIC SUSTAINABILITY ADVISOR ANNE LISSETT, ARCHITECT AIBC, LEED BD+C VICE PRESIDENT & SENIOR PUBLISHER STEVE WILSON 416-441-2085 x3 ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER FARIA AHMED 416-441-2085 x5 CUSTOMER SERVICE / PRODUCTION LAURA MOFFATT 416-441-2085 x2 CIRCULATION CIRCULATION@CANADIANARCHITECT.COM PRESIDENT OF IQ BUSINESS MEDIA INC. ALEX PAPANOU HEAD OFFICE 126 OLD SHEPPARD AVE, TORONTO, ON M2J 3L9 TELEPHONE 416-441-2085 E-MAIL info@canadianarchitect.com WEBSITE www.canadianarchitect.com Canadian Architect is published 9 times per year by iQ Business Media Inc. 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.

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CANADIAN ARCHITECT 06/22

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NEWS

PROJECTS

AGO selects design team for expansion project

The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) has selected Selldorf Architects, Diamond Schmitt and Two Row Architect to lead the design phase of AGO Global Contemporary. The three architects will work together to design an expansion that will display the museum’s growing collection of global modern and contemporary art.

“A project with global impact requires an international perspective, grounded in this land and this city,” said Stephan Jost, Michael and Sonja Koerner Director, and CEO of the Art Gallery of Ontario. “AGO Global Contemporary is poised to launch the museum as a force in the international art world—and this team will get us there.”

AGO Global Contemporary will increase exhibition space for the museum’s growing modern and contemporary collection, and present the museum with the opportunity to deliver exhibitions and programming that lead global conversations about art.

The proposed 4,600-square-metre building will be the seventh expansion that the AGO has undertaken since it was founded in 1900.

A public presentation of a design concept is anticipated later this year. www.ago.ca

Montreal Holocaust Museum announces four finalists of architectural competition

The Montreal Holocaust Museum (MHM) has announced the finalists of the international architectural competition for the construction of its

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Polymétis, James B. Lennox & Associates, and GRC Architects won the competition to design a Global Affairs Canada memorial in Ottawa.

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new Museum on Saint-Laurent Boulevard. They are: Atelier TAG et L’OEUF architectes en consortium, Saucier + Perrotte Architectes, KPMB Architects + Daoust Lestage Lizotte Stecker, and Pelletier de Fontenay + NEUF architect(e)s. Following a second stage of the competition, the winning project will be selected in July 2022.

The $80-million museum addresses a growing public interest—and need for public learning opportunities—about the history of the Holocaust, genocide, human rights, and the fight against racism and antisemitism. www.museeholocauste.ca

Global Affairs Canada reveals commemoration design

A team has been selected to design a memorial honouring those who have died during Global Affairs Canada missions abroad. Team MacLeod comprises Polymétis, an artist from Toronto; James B. Lennox & Associates, a landscape architecture firm from Ottawa; and GRC Architects, also from Ottawa.

The winning artwork is a solar device. The form and alignment of the sculpture is inspired by the analemma, the figure-eight shape created by tracing the sun’s annual movement relative to a fixed point in space and time. The analemma is used throughout the project to explore notions of the infinite related to the persistence of love and memory.

A globe-shaped void at the center of the work expresses the absence of the missing loved ones. Within this inner chamber of remembrance, the names of those who died in service at Global Affairs Canada missions abroad are aligned to the noonday sun on their date of death.

A ceremonial forecourt and pathway, as well as a garden of reflection, surround the artwork. www.canada.ca

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Hudson’s Bay Co. donates Winnipeg building to First Nations group

The Hudson’s Bay Company’s f lagship store in Winnipeg is being handed over to a First Nations group. The six-storey, 60,000-squaremetre building is to be transformed to include almost 300 affordable

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housing units, a child-care centre, a museum, an art gallery and restaurants. There are also plans for a health centre offering western and traditional medicine, a governance office for the 34 First Nations, and a place of ref lection to honour victims of residential schools.

The former store opened in 1926 and has been vacant since 2020.

It was handed over to the Southern Chiefs’ Organization, a group which represents 34 First Nations, in a ceremony on April 22, 2022.

Hudson’s Bay company governor and executive chairman Richard Baker acknowledges the company’s involvement in colonialism.

“As we considered the future for the Winnipeg building, it was important to ensure a sustainable plan for the site that also had meaningful purpose for the city of Winnipeg,” said Baker. “HBC ’s Truth and Reconciliation journey requires actions that demonstrate our commitment to moving forward together with Indigenous communities. We believe SCO is the right steward for this location, and can create a new community landmark that will help advance reconciliation.”

The project’s working name is Wehwehneh Bahgahkinahgohn, or “it is visible.” www.scoinc.mb.ca

RAIC College welcomes 29 new Fellows from across Canada

The Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC) has announced the 29 Fellows to be inducted into the RAIC College for this year.

A Fellow of the RAIC College is a member of the RAIC who has achieved professional eminence or has rendered distinctive service to the profession or to the community at large. Fellowship is bestowed upon individuals through a nomination process administered by the RAIC College and recognizes members for their contribution to research,

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scholarship, public service, or professional standing to the good of architecture in Canada, or elsewhere.

The 2022 new Fellows are: Valerie Allen, Duff Balmer, Gregory Borowski, Kyra Clarkson, Jason Dobbin, Tarisha Dolyniuk, Luigi Ferrara, Sonia Gagné, Omar Gandhi, Doug Hanna, Derek Heslop, Simon Robert Kastelic, Mansoor Kazerouni, Clifford Korman, Ching-Po Ma, Jennifer Mallard, Lindsay Oster, Patricia Poulin, Jason Robbins, Stuart Rothnie, Erica Sangster, Eladia Smoke (KaaSheGaaBaaWeak), John F. Steven, Patrick Stewart (Luugigyoo), Dermot Sweeny, Judith Taylor, Katja Aga Sachse Thom, Alfred Waugh, and Mason White.

The new Fellows, and Honourary Fellow Wanda Dalla Costa, will be officially inducted to the RAIC College on October 2, 2022 at a convocation ceremony during the RAIC Congress on Architecture in St. Andrews, New Brunswick.

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www.raic.org

Exhibition on the work of Renzo Piano to open in Toronto

An exhibition showcasing the work of Renzo Piano is set to open in Toronto’s Waterfront Centre this summer.

Piece by Piece: Inside Renzo Piano Building Workshop is composed of 11 tables with 11 projects selected to ref lect RPBW’s working process.

The works present the studio’s diversity in architectural production, spanning a wide range of places and times. “Visitors will experience a world-tour of sorts that provides impressions of our firm’s DNA,” writes Amaury Greig, associate at RPBW. “The vastly different projects are connected by a design approach that is driven by the specific context of each site, and by a fundamental objective of designing ‘places for people’.” A careful consideration of the construction process is also key

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NEWS

to RPBW’s work, which places importance from the early stages on how each project will be designed “piece by piece.”

The selection of projects includes the Centre Pompidou (Studio Piano & Rogers, 1977), The California Academy of Sciences (with Stantec, 2008), the London Shard (with Adamson Associates, 2012), the Children’s Hospital in Uganda (with TAMassociati, 2021) and the soon-to-be-completed New Toronto Courthouse (with NORR, 2022).

The exhibition is being hosted by the Harbourfront Centre in partnership with the Instituto Italiano di Cultura, Toronto, and runs from July 16 to September 11, 2022. www.harbourfrontcentre.com

IN MEMORIAM Claude Provencher, 1949-2022

One of Quebec’s most important architects died on Friday, May 6. Claude Provencher was a generous man—and an architect with a visionary mind.

He loved Montreal, his hometown, and had a major impact on the city’s urban fabric over the last four decades.

Claude started his practice in the early 80s, at a time when the city was still reeling from the massive controversy that surrounded the 1976 Olympics. But for someone as passionate—and inventive—as he was, this period also held opportunities.

We owe to Claude—along with a developer friend—the idea of transforming a half-dilapidated Old Montreal city block into a majestic galleria, a horizontal reinterpretation of the World Trade Centre. Claude imagined connecting the existing street into a long, linear court, skylit by an immense glazed roof. Framing the court, the once grandiose

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Architect Claude Provencher, co-founder of Montreal firm Provencher_Roy, passed away in early May, at the age of 72.

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banks along St. James Street would be rehabilitated, and lots left vacant by years of neglect would be filled. The Centre de commerce Mondial de Montréal was inaugurated in 1992. The architectural team did include Claude’s firm, Provencher_Roy, although not as lead designer.

Meanwhile, Claude Provencher’s longstanding relationship with the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts led to his taking an active part in a discussion about the museum’s expansion. At the time, the Sherbrooke Street museum was looking for new space. As satellite locations were examined, Claude came up with the idea of creating an underground passage that would link the museum’s 1912 building with a new pavilion, just across the street. This would allow the museum to build the Jean-Noël Desmarais Pavilion (1991), now the heart

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Provencher_Roy led the design of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts’ Claire and Marc Bourgie Pavilion of Québec and Canadian Art, connected to the original museum through a link under Avenue du Musée.

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of the institution. Another underground link was later built, this time going east, under Avenue du Musée. This move made it possible to turn the Romanesque Revival Erskine and American Church into the Claire and Marc Bourgie Pavilion. This time, Provencher_Roy was at the helm of the entire project, which not only included the rehabilitation of the heritage building, but also the design of an elegant addition tucked behind it.

The Centre de commerce Mondial and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts campus illustrate Claude Provencher’s ability to dream and think at a large scale. Both celebrate the transformative power of architecture and Claude’s amazing resilience. Over the past 25 years, the firm flourished with projects such as the J.-A. Desève Pavilion for the Université du Québec à Montréal (1998), the expansion of the Ritz-Carlton (2012), the Angus Technopôle Development Plan (2014), the reception pavilion of the Quebec National Assembly (2019), the new Samuel-DeChamplain Bridge (2019) and the National Film Board of Canada’s Headquarters at the Îlot Balmoral (2019), along with numerous schools, hospitals, transportation buildings, and other institutional projects.

As the seat of the federal government is about to be redefined, I can’t help but mention one of Provencher_Roy’s most lyrical unrealized projects, a 2003 competition entry for the Bank Street compound on Parliament Hill, in Ottawa. The scheme was contemporary, yet mindful of its historical and symbolical context, and unafraid of playing with topography. It remains as a strong testimony to Claude’s creative spirit.

Even though another firm was selected and the project was eventually shelved, the vocabulary that Claude Provencher’s team developed for the Bank Street project was not lost. It reappeared on several occasions, most particularly on the recently inaugurated National Film Board headquarters at the Îlot Balmoral (2019) and at the soonto-be completed Hélène Desmarais Building for HEC Montréal’s downtown campus.

Even though Claude was extremely diminished at the end of his life, he kept informed about his firm’s projects from his hospital bed.

He had even been hoping to take a last look at the HEC building.

Life decided otherwise.

We will dearly miss you, Claude. And so will Montreal.

-Odile Hénault, architectural critic and long-time friend For the latest news, visit www.canadianarchitect.com/news and sign up for our weekly e-newsletter at www.canadianarchitect.com/subscribe

CA jun 22.indd 9

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Canada Journal Lara Presber Architect, AAA, AIA, CPHD, WELL AP™

ne of the first AIA Conferences that I attended was in Chicago. I had initially added it to my travel itinerary out of desperation to collect continuing education credits prior to the looming deadline.

I have such fond memories of that conference that I’ve made a point of going every year since.

So much of our day-to-day as architects is governed by deadlines, budgets, and bureaucracy that it’s important to carve out time to remember why we ventured into this profession in the first place. At that first conference in Chicago, I scooped up as many experiential tours that I could cram into three days. I found myself inside the lobby of Mies van der Rohe’s Lake Shore Drive towers, complete with original Barcelona chairs. I bypassed the boat tour of famous buildings and opted instead for a bicycle’s view of inner-city neighbourhoods.

We started from Lake Michigan, heading up through Lincoln Park and the Zoo, past Chicago’s original Playboy Mansion, and ending at Wrigley Field: not your usual architecture landmarks. Finally, I took a day trip south to see what started as workers’ housing for the Pullman Company, and is now one of Chicago’s 77 official communities.

One of the best ways to learn is to step out from behind our desks, and experience new places and people. I’m looking forward to sharing that thrill with all of you, when we reconvene for the first time in two years in what has become one of my favourite cities, Chicago.

O

Spotlight on the AIA Conference on Architecture Chicago, June 22-25, 2022 his year’s in-person AIA Conference on Architecture will be held in Chicago—a fitting locale given its reputation for architectural ingenuity, innovation, and beauty. In addition to keynote speakers, seminars, and workshops, the event offers over 75 tours. It’s a great opportunity for making new connections and reconnecting with peers after a hiatus over the past two years.

The conference attracts participants from around the world, and is tailored to help further their knowledge in a design world with an ever-increasing focus on sustainability and responsibility. Here’s a few highlights from the schedule.

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Day 1 Keynote: Lakisha Ann Woods, CAE, in Conversation with Julia Gamolina, Assoc. AIA The conference will launch on June 22 with an Opening Night Celebration. At the keynote talk that kicks off the event, AIA’s new EVP/Chief Executive Officer, Lakisha Ann Woods, will lead a conversation with Julia Gamolina, the founder and editor-in-chief of online magazine Madame Architect.

Addressing the underrepresentation of women in the industry, Gamolina’s platform is dedicated to the extraordinary contributions that woman are making in the field of architecture and beyond.

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Day 2 Keynote: Vishaan Chakrabarti, FAIA, Renée Cheng, FAIA, & Jeanne Gang, FAIA, in conversation with Lee Bey Here’s a panel of guests that for some, may need no introduction. Vishaan Chakrabarti has dedicated his professional career to syn-

NEWS AIA Conference on Architecture June 22-25, 2022

The AIA’s annual conference is returns to Chicago after the in-person event was suspended for two years. The conference includes a choice from over 90 seminars by leading architects, nine workshopstyle practicum sessions, and more than 75 tours. The expo floor includes over 100 sessions by leading product manufacturers. Ancillary events include alumni

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receptions, and meetups hosted by AIAaffiliated organizations including AIA International, Women in Design, and the Small Firm and Public Architects knowledge communities.

An online suite of 15 continuing education sessions will be available to registrants following the conference.

For the full schedule and to register, visit conferenceonarchitecture.com

AIA International Spring Conference AIA International’s Spring Conference, entitled “New Beginnings: Embracing Change,” was held this May. Its sessions, including keynote talks by Kai Uwe-Bergmann of Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) and Raya Ani of RAW-NYC Architects, are available to view on-demand at no charge to all AIA Members.

Visit www.aiainternational.org

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AIA Canada Journal

thesizing architecture and urban environments, with a focus on the human experience. He is founder and creative director of global architecture studio Practice for Architecture and Urbanism (PAU), alongside his work as an author, speaker and lecturer.

Renée Cheng, Dean of the College of Built Environments at the University of Washington, is an advocate for equitable practices in the industry. Jeanne Gang is the founding principal and partner of architecture and urban design firm Studio Gang, based in Chicago with offices in New York, San Francisco, and Paris. She has been honored with the Cooper Hewitt National Design Award in Architecture and was named as one of Time Magazine’s most influential people in the world. A focus on inclusion brings together the three panelists in a conversation led by Lee Bay, architecture critic for the Chicago Sun-Times.

Tour, Tours, Tours!

Design Seminar Series Dora Ng, OAA NSAA SAA AAA AANB NLAA AIA PMP, Vice President, AIA Canada Society

IA Canada Society’s 2022 webinars have launched this year, featuring four presentations by the recently announced AIA Canada Design Award winners. As this issue goes to press, the series has so far included presentations from Diamond Schmitt Architects and MJMA Architecture & Design. As the presentation moderator, I greatly enjoyed the perspectives and stories shared by the architects, and the variety of design considerations and technical expertise put into their accomplished projects. Every project has its unique challenges, and these sharing opportunities allow us to learn from each other’s work.

In late March, Diamond Schmitt principal Matthew Lella presented the Buddy Holly Hall

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of Performing Arts and Sciences project in Lubbock, Texas, completed with Parkhill (Architect of Record) and MWM Architects (Associate Architect). The architecture draws inspiration from the landscape of West Texas and brings together the city’s vibrant performing arts community under one roof. Lella put the spotlight on a wide range of design and technical topics: the multi-floor floating spiral stair that innovates in steel construction; the flexible performance hall seating and stage settings that accommodate a wide range of programming needs; the energyefficient transparent fenestration that addresses extreme temperature fluctuations in the Texas climate; and the use of nearly 9,000 guitar picks to create a huge graphic

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Chicago’s rich and diverse history holds no shortage of places to engage the past and present of the city’s architecture. Two tours on our list are Chicago’s Architectural Icons: Mies, Wright, & More and Frank Lloyd Wright in Oak Park.

Hosted by the Chicago Architecture Centre, Chicago’s Architectural Icons will head out by bus to tour Mies van der Rohe’s IIT campus and Frank Lloyd Wright’s Prairiestyle Robie House. Additional sights include Hyde Park, Gold Coast, the Loop, and other areas of the South Side. Residential neighbourhoods, the lakeshore, post-secondary institutes, and parks will also be included in the excursion.

The Chicago Architecture Centre also hosts Frank Lloyd Wright in Oak Park.

Attendees travel by bus to Oak Park, where they’ll enjoy an interior tour of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Home and Studio, a walking tour of the Wright Historic District, and a visit to Unity Temple—considered by some to be the first Modern building in the world.

Please note that at the time of writing, many of the conference’s 75+ tours have sold out.

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AIA Canada Journal

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donor wall. Lella also drew from his earlier experience in the design of performing arts buildings, pointing to the similarities between this project and the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts in Toronto, which was completed in 2006.

In mid-April, Robert Allen, partner at MJMA, presented the Centennial College Bombardier Centre for Aerospace and Aviation at Downsview Campus project in Toronto, completed with Stantec. Allen described the historical significance of Canadian aviation and the development of this project site from its beginnings in 1929. In its evolution—including in the latest incarnation led by MJMA and Stantec—the building retained much of its essence. The design preserved the existing brick façade, introducing a glass covered walkway and glass-box fenestration to point towards the aviation of the future. Program spaces were carefully curated, and the design integrated down to the choice of colours and shapes in the graphics and wayfinding design.

The name of Centennial College is carved with greenery on the roof of the building: a thoughtful way to combine Toronto’s green roof legislation with the old tradition of creating roof graphics visible from the air.

We look forward to upcoming webinars on the Sherwood Community Centre (MJMA) and on Central Presbyterian Church and Mirvish Village (Henriquez Partners). If you’d like to view the recordings of these webinars, please visit the AIA International website, where and you can find them under CES courses. We will be broadcasting more virtual webinars and also hope to have some in-person events in the near future. Follow AIA Canada Society on LinkedIn to stay informed!

SCOTT NORSWORTHY

Left: The Buddy Holly Hall of Performing Arts and Sciences, by Diamond Schmitt Architects with Parkhill (Architect of Record) and MWM Architects (Associate Architect), is West Texas’s largest dedicated performance venue. The performing arts centre includes the 2,297-seat Helen DeVitt Theater, along with the 415-person Crickets Theater and several intimate studio venues.

Right: MJMA and Stantec’s Centennial College Bombardier Centre for Aerospace and Aviation at Downsview Campus adaptively reuses a historic De Havilland plant. A new teaching hanger—sized to accommodate modern aircraft—was added to the facility, while existing hangers were repurposed as teaching and workshop spaces.

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AIA Canada Journal

AIA Public Architects (PA) Committee Dr. Adam Pantelimon, FRIBA, Intl.Assoc. AIA

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Public Architecture—the first public event at the Washington, DC, facility following the pandemic closures.

Distinguished public architects shared their expertise, vision and solutions to public architecture. They came from agencies and firms including the Office of Federal HighPerformance Green Buildings in the US General Services Administration (GSA), the Naval Expeditionary Combat Command, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the San Francisco Public Works and the Neighborhood Empowerment Network (NEN) for the Department of Emergency Management of the City and County of San Francisco, the AIA Federal Relations office, the AIA UIA (International Union of Architects) Professional Practice Commission, the Administrative Office of the United States Courts (AOUSC), New York City Transit, AIA California, organicARCHITECT, ARUP, The Urban Collaborative LLC, Long Green Specs, Kalin Associates, Dattner

Dr. Adam Pantelimon, FRIBA, Intl.Assoc. AIA is Immediate Past-President of the AIA Canada Society, and 2022 Chair of the AIA Public Architects Know-

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ver heard the phrase “Good Enough for Government Work”? Since the 1960s, it’s become an insider joke, used to reference the poor quality of production and construction that sometimes seems to typify the sector. But this phrase was originally coined in WWII, and referred to the highest quality and performance standards of manufacturing at the time, used to win the war—just the opposite of the implied meaning today. In other words, if a project or product was not built to the highest exacting quality and standard of care, it was in fact NOT “Good Enough for Government Work.”

Our civic buildings sometimes seem like monuments to the governments that built them. However, more importantly, they are buildings for people, often paid for through taxpayer dollars or bonds. For this reason, they should be built to the highest standards, to last for generations to come. In the age of developer-driven construction, where corners are cut to save money or value engineering is implemented to meet unrealistic budgets, this concept is ever more relevant today.

It is imperative that we recognize and talk about the importance of public architects as more than bureaucrats hired by federal, provincial, territorial, or local governments. Public architects predate the foundation of the American Institute of Architects (AIA). Some of them took on important roles in the history of AIA, including serving as AIA Presidents. The AIA’s Architects in Government committee goes back to the 1950s. To be more inclusive, in the early 1990s, the group changed its name to the Public Architects Committee. Now it’s looking to change its name again to the Public Architecture Committee, to broaden its inclusion further and more clearly reflect its vision.

One of the AIA’s 21 Knowledge Communities, the AIA’s Public Architects (PA) Committee promotes excellence in public architecture and supports the role of the public architect as an essential player in civic engagement and in the sustainable, resilient and inclusive development of the public realm and public facilities. The PA Committee engages closely with other AIA organizational structures, such as the Government Advocacy Committee, the AIA Strategic Council, the AIA International Practice Committee, the AIA International Chapters, and the Society of American Military Engineers.

This spring, the committee held a symposium at the AIA headquarters on The Climate of

Architects, Gannett Fleming, and Page Southerland Page.

The symposium resonated with topics including climate change, resiliency, sustainability and “smart” knowhow, focusing on the impact of public architects in influencing the profession’s best practices and the built environment. Over the two days of the event, it was clear that leadership in urban development, socially oriented infrastructure, and technical initiatives often arises from the collaboration of public agency architects and architects within private sector firms.

We were glad that many of the PA symposium attendees expressed interest in continuing the conversation after the event was over. We are currently planning future workshops and webinars to build on the symposium, sharing issues and solutions among the AIA’s public architects.

To learn more about the AIA Public Architects Knowledge Community, visit www.aia. org/pa.

Above: Attendees and presenters at the recent Public Architects (PA) Committee symposium, entitled The Climate of Public Architecture. The gathering was the first public event to be held at the AIA Headquarters in Washington, DC, following the pandemic closures of the past two years.

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LONGVIEW

R.C. HARRIS WATER FILTRATION PLANT In 1932, construction began on Toronto’s Victoria Park Water Filtration Plant and Pumping Station. Designed by architect Thomas Canfield Pomphrey and engineers Gore, Nasmith and Storrie, it held forty filtration beds, making it the city’s largest facility for cleaning and disinfecting water drawn from Lake Ontario, for safe use as drinking water. By the time it was completed, in 1941, it was known as “the palace of purification.” A few years later, it was renamed in honour of Ronald Caldwell Harris, the visionary Commissioner of Works that conceived of the plant.

Over the course of a year, architectural photographer Amanda Large documented the buildings and grounds of the R.C. Harris Water Treatment Plant. “I wanted to spend some time revisiting a place over and over, getting to know how it changes in the light and in the seasons,” says Large, who first became aware of the plant when an architecture professor assigned Michael Ondaatje’s novel In the Skin of a Lion.

Her photographs, taken with film, digital cameras, drones, and polaroids, capture the plant’s enduring architecture, but also its ongoing life as a working facility—and a place integral to the life of the city.

Public access to the R.C. Harris Plant closed down following 9/11, but its lakeside grounds remain open to the public. Its popularity among locals increased during the pandemic lock-downs. Large took this picture on Boxing Day, 2020, when she took her kids tobogganing on the grounds. “It was grey when we left the house,” recalls Large, “and then this magical light materialized out of nowhere.”

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LONGVIEW

The southern structure on the site holds a series of water filtration beds—a technology that has changed little from the plant’s inception almost a hundred years ago. The absence of mechanical systems means that the space is almost eerily quiet. “Other parts of the buildings are quite loud, but these pools are silent,” says Large. “It feels like a meditative, almost sacred place.”

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Large expected the plant’s grounds to be deserted at night, but found that they were busy with groups of people lounging on the grass and socializing in the welcome cool of summer evenings. This photo was taken right after 10 pm—when the site closes for the evening, and security guards usher everyone out.

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PROOFING THE FUTURE A NEW CALGARY PARKADE IS DESIGNED FOR CONVERSION TO OTHER USES, ENVISAGING A FUTURE WHERE INNOVATIONS IN TRANSPORTATION WILL VASTLY REDUCE THE NEED FOR CONVENTIONAL PARKING. 9th Avenue Parkade + Innovation Centre, Calgary, Alberta 5468796 Architecture in collaboration with Kasian Architecture, Interior Design and Planning TEXT Trevor Boddy PHOTOS James Brittain PROJECT

ARCHITECTS

On the long list of architectural virtues, “future proofing” is a particularly tricky one to pull off. Most fundamentally, which future is to be proofed? Is future proofing a mere hedging of bets, or one of the few ways to guarantee success in a constantly changing world? What is to be done when we lack certainty about the future? Because of climate change, the hypotheticals multiplied by hypotheses that are inevitable components of future proofing will become ever more important, particularly in large public constructions.

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Calgary’s near-downtown East Village is home to Canada’s largest and most intriguing investigation of future proofing to date. Designed by the collaborative team of 5468796 Architecture and Kasian Architecture, Interior Design and Planning, this huge above-grade parking garage with room for 509 cars is conceived for a time—thought not-too-distant—when there will be diminished need (or no need at all) for its trays of automobile storage. This is a major public building with its own transformation built into every detail, a bulbous chrysalis containing the DNA of a lyrical butterfly that all hope will one day flutter out over the good green world.

The short-term reasons for the $80-million Parkade and Platform Innovation Centre were real and urgent. The site along 9th Avenue S.E. is close to the major concert hall, theatres and galleries of Arts Commons, Calgary’s equivalent to Montreal’s Quartier des Spectacles.

It is just down the block from Snøhetta and DIALOG’s acclaimed

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Central Library (which has no parking at all), and nearby the museum of music, performance spaces and nightclubs of Allied Works and Kasian’s National Music Centre (also with no parking). The new residents and businesses of the East Village neighbourhood face parking mayhem when multiple events coincide, despite this entire zone and even individual buildings like the library being bisected by a LRT line.

The Parkade complex is the last facility that will ever be constructed by the Calgary Parking Authority. This quasi-civic agency had powers to collect fees from developers of downtown towers to construct more efficient and better located shared garages. When oil prices tanked in 2014, it was quickly evident that the city faced a serious glut of office space, which has only gotten worse since—meaning much reduced revenues to the Parking Authority. As a result, the Authority was wound down in 2021, with much of its remaining funds (which they were contractually bound to use to build parking and mobility facilities) dedicated to the Parkade site. The Calgary Located in the heart of Calgary’s entertainment district, the new 509-car parkade serves immediate needs, but is also designed for conversion to residential and commercial uses as car use lessens in the future. ABOVE The parkade sits across from Calgary’s new Central Library (by Snøhetta with DIALOG) and adjacent the burgeoning East Village district. OPPOSITE An LRT running underneath the site required several stories of clear space above; as a result, the designers hoisted the midsection of the project atop trusses and ramped up through its first two storeys.

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Municipal Land Corporation (CMLC), a successful agency that catalyzes private development with public investments throughout the East Village, was charged with overseeing the project.

A few years back, CMLC had worked with Johanna Hurme and Sasa Radulovic of the leading-edge Winnipeg firm 5468796 on a modest pavilion-like shed for an East Village community garden.

Impressed with the team’s dynamism and creative f lair, demonstrated through their ingenious design on a limited budget, CMLC engaged them again for the Parkade project, adding the ballast of Kasian’s production and construction oversight expertise as architects of record. CMLC President and CEO Kate Thompson states that from the very beginning, “design excellence was one of our key goals—it was never to be a conventional garage, nor to look like one.” This is the largest building ever constructed by 5468796, and the trust these Winnipeggers received from the CMLC hearkens back to another, more generous era for Canadian architects under 50—when Erickson and Massey got to design SFU after solely crafting wooden houses, when Douglas Cardinal designed a university for Grande Prairie after a church, when Granville Island was Hotson Bakker’s first project, and when John Andrews was entrusted with a huge swath of Toronto rail-lands after a string of academic buildings.

Hurme and Radulovic found a way to accommodate the garage that also left valuable sites for the CMLC to sell for development at either end of the parkade when the boom returns, as it surely will. This is future proofing of a financial sort—no surprise given Hurme’s experience as Chair of the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce. However, that ideal placement was crossed by a curving underground LRT alignment,

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one that required several storeys of overhead clear span above it: what Thompson describes as “a complicated piece of land.” This necessitated huge trusses at mid-project, and a ramp up through the first two storeys. Those two floors are allocated to CMLC’s development partner, the Platform Innovation Centre, which is an incubator for start-ups and workshops—an investment in fostering a Calgary economy beyond oil and gas. With a site strategy and program set, the future proofing ambition now needed to pass from good intentions to the crafting of building details that would ensure long-term flexibility.

Polyvalent Details Achieving future proofing meant that 5468796 and Kasian had to consider many key building details according to two different criteria—as an efficient parking structure, as well as for partial or complete conversion to housing, offices or light industrial workshops. Design is difficult enough for large public buildings, but simultaneously achieving both initial and end-goal functionality required the kind of creative thinking that is 5468796’s hallmark.

Most architects recognize the huge concentration of embodied energy in concrete structures, and aim to adaptively reuse them when possible, but parking garages aren’t readily converted to other uses.

The biggest impediment to the reuse of parking garages is their sloping f loors, with spiral ramps being particularly difficult to adapt, and very expensive to demolish. In addition, the large f loorplates of parking structures mean a lot of area far from perimeters and potential windows—making them hard to convert into inhabited spaces, such as offices or housing.

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5468796 and Kasian’s solution for this is to run an open-to-above atrium along almost the whole length of the site. This creates shallow flanking floor plates only 40 feet wide, with the additional benefit of increased penetration of daylighting into parking areas. The bright, open sense of the Parkade makes it an unusually pleasant place to park, whether you’re driving a Pontiac or a Porsche.

Early sketches and diagrams showed that the block-long project would allow for parking floors with two-way traffic winding all the way to the top on slopes of only 1%-2%, without internal ramps. Hurme and Radulovic determined that office and workshop uses to come could readily tolerate slopes of this order. Any future housing would require new woodframed floors, which could be designed for flatness. The only ramp in this huge parkade runs from its entrance at 9th Avenue and 3rd Street S.E., up through the Innovation Centre floors to the first parking level.

From this point on up, there is one continuous, gently sloping spiral circuit, with the heroic open atrium at its centre. This breakthrough idea so pleased Radolovic he nicknamed the project “the Cathedral of Cars,” and designed a logo for the complex based on a stylized “figure 8, the infinity symbol set upright,” derived from its overall floor plan. He then evolved an original font from these shapes, that has now been installed in wayfinding signage of his design.

Adding to future convertibility, floor-to-floor heights are higher than in most garages, allowing for amenity as living or working spaces. Recognizing that the shear walls typical of mid-rise concrete structures can limit flexibility, Radulovic explains that the Parkade instead “distributes lateral forces to wider columns, eliminating cross-bracing or shear

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walls that would impede convertibility.” Structural bearing capacity, elevators, stairwells and stand-pipes were sized to accommodate future light industrial, residential and commercial occupancies, minimizing the scope of work required in future. Bringing polyvalency down to the detail level, the parkade guard rails can be directly reused as future residential or commercial balcony rails, without further adaptation.

“We believe in multi-functional uses that could serve across typologies,” says Radulovic. The design is such that conversion can start on any parking floor, and in any sequence top to bottom.

The continuous circuit is the reason that both ends of the Parkade are rounded, making the overall plan “pill-shaped,” in the words of the designers. The rounded ends have a radius sufficient to accommodate pie-shaped residential units—perhaps akin to the cylindrical disc of apartments on stilts in 5468796’s 62M project in Winnipeg (see CA, Nov 2018). Flexibility and inter-changeability are features of their Bloc 10 housing and many other projects, and the extensive diagrams of conversion options show their intellectual finesse in applying lessons from small projects to this, their largest. The rounded ends and super-scale

Concrete balls on the ground and mirrored spheres overhead help to direct motorists, while also doubling as public art. OPPOSITE A long atrium at the centre of the building helps to break up the floorplate, providing access to natural light for future workplaces and residences that will replace the parking stalls.

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of the project give it the appearance of an ocean liner, gleaming in the sharp Alberta sun.

On the exterior, the Parkade is ringed by aluminum pipes, hung vertically. At ground level, the pipes angle upwards around the car entrance at 3rd Street S.E., and form a shallower sine wave around the pedestrian entrance to the Innovation Centre. A surprisingly dynamic streetscape for passing cars and pedestrians results, the verticality and variation of the suspended tubes providing scale and continuity. True to their future proofing ethos, these sets of aluminum pipes (which the designers poetically name “the guard shroud”) can be readily recycled when uses of the building begin to change.

Even more mysterious shiny objects are found inside. Mirrored half spheres, attached to the soffits of parking ceilings in their curving sections, qualified as public art, but also have the practical function of serving as warning mirrors for cars approaching round the corner (yet more polyvalency in details). Even more eccentric are knee-high precast concrete spheres anchored to the ground floor, which serve as traffic bollards. When I visited the site on a summer weekend, the landscape of spheres were welcome playscape elements for the skate-boarders and pick-up basketball players gathered there. Lively, diverse and light-filled, the Parkade feels like no other garage I have seen; 5468796 are Canada’s reigning champions of whimsy driven by practicality.

Similarly shiny is the 5468796-designed interior fit-up for the Innovation Centre, with its ingenious use of standard scaffold elements to form pitch theatres, stairs, meeting areas, amphitheatres and so on.

The new technology firms, consultancies and fabricators who will use

LEGEND: 1. CAFE 2. PITCH AREA 3. MULT-FLEX ZONE 4. BLEACHERS 5. LOUNGE 6. OFFICES 7. RESTROOMS 8. MECHANICAL 9. STORAGE 10. BIKE STORAGE

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these spaces will have enormous flexibility to adapt them to their needs using this simple kit of parts. Radulovic compares the underlying ethos to the adaptable factory model of Carmen Corneil and Jeffrey Stinson’s Azrieli School of Architecture and Urbanism at Carleton University, rather than the over-determined elegance of NADAAA and Adamson Associates’ John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design at One Spadina.

The Price of Convertability The designers opine that the Parkade needs to “last fifty years as a parkade, and another fifty after conversion.” Creating this flexibility with shallow floor plates, the inclusion of an atrium, high floor-to-floor heights, avoidance of perimeter beams and so on required a premium on building structure of about 25 percent, Radulovic says. As is the case for much new architectural thinking, there was pushback when it was revealed the Parkade would have some of the most expensive price-per-stall costs of any Calgary parking garage. That popular press critique is not really fair, as the Parkade has the programmatic complication of the Innovation Centre, the structural implications of the cross-site underground LRT line, and the commitment to easy conversion to multiple new uses.

Vertical pipes are splayed to create a shroud-like canopy wrapping the building that lifts at the entrance areas. ABOVE The interior of the Innovation Centre is furnished with meeting areas and amphitheatres made from scaffolding, allowing for reconfiguration as needed by the start-ups using the space.

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Future proofing requires architects to be smart, flexible and unburdened by convention and ‘lookism.’ The Parkade demonstrates that it takes double the design energy and a bit more initial investment, but this should pay off with many times the flexibility to emerging needs.

Few doubt that because buildings endure for decades or even centuries, architects have special duties to serve both current masters and longterm needs. As the era of sustainability fades into a more pro-active period of resilience, the ideas, diagrams and built experiments of the Parkade will be tested over the years to come. “We choose not to wear Green on our sleeves,” says Radulovic of this long-term approach, “but instead look for something new and practical.” It will take a long time to evaluate the practicality and value of the Parkade, but the richness of its ideas will make the wait worthwhile—and one day, we’ll have proof.

University of Calgary graduate Trevor Boddy FRAIC has just published the lead essay “Enclaves of Invention: Inside the Architecture of D’Arcy Jones” in a new book from Dalhousie Architectural Press.

CLIENT CALGARY MUNICIPAL LAND CORPORATION + CALGARY PARKING AUTHORITY

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ARCHITECT TEAM 5468796—EMEIL ALVAREZ, PABLO BATISTA, KEN BORTON, JORDY CRADDOCK,

ERIC DECUMUTAN, DONNA EVANS, BEN GREENWOOD, JOHANNA HURME, JEFF KACHKAN, STAS KLAZ, LINDSEY KOEPKE, KELSEY MCMAHON, COLIN NEUFELD, SASA RADULOVIC, AMANDA REIS, MATTHEW TRENDOTA, SHANNON WIEBE. KASIAN—KATHERINE ROBINSON, JOANNE SPARKES, TESFA MULAT, FREDRICK VOO, BART OTWINOWSKI, MELODY ZALESCHUK | STRUCTURAL ENTUITIVE | MECHANICAL/ELECTRICAL SMITH + ANDERSEN | LANDSCAPE SCATLIFF MILLER MURRAY | CIVIL APLIN MARTIN | SHROUD HEAVY INDUSTRIES | ACCESSIBILITY LEVEL PLAYING FIELD | AREA 26,500 M2 PARKADE + 4,650 M2 INNOVATION CENTRE | BUDGET $80 M | COMPLETION WINTER 2022

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WATER WAYS

THREE PROJECTS ACROSS CANADA CELEBRATE THE INFRASTRUCTURE NEEDED TO PROVIDE COMMUNITIES WITH CLEAN DRINKING WATER, AND TO PROCESS URBAN STORMWATER.

ADRIAN OZIMEK

The infrastructure required to process water—both as it enters our cities and homes, and returns to our lakes and streams—is vital to our everyday lives, and often taken for granted. Buildings that elevate this infrastructure underscore the importance of water, and the right to clean water for all. Through architecture, these often invisible systems enter the public eye, and begin to solidify the place of waterworks in our collective consciousness.

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STORMWATER FACILITY

A STRIKING BUILDING IS PART OF THE SYSTEM FOR PROCESSING URBAN RUNOFF EAST OF DOWNTOWN TORONTO.

Toronto, Ontario gh3* TEXT Elsa Lam PHOTOS Adrian Ozimek LOCATION

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The most recent project by Toronto-based architecture and landscape firm gh3* is actually one of its first. Architect Pat Hanson and her team were awarded the contract to design a stormwater facility on Toronto’s waterfront in 2009—just three years after their firm was established. The initial design, for a stone-clad building half the size of the present facility, came in over the budget at the time, and was subsequently put on hold.

Since that time, the development of the east waterfront area has progressed by leaps and bounds. A larger facility was required, to not only handle stormwater runoff from the Canary District as per the original remit, but also from the developing East Bayfront and part of the Portlands.

After an initial filtration that removes debris, urban runoff from these areas travels to a 20-metre-diameter, 90-metre-deep shaft at the west end of the site, marked at ground level by a supersized radial grate.

From here, it’s siphoned into the main treatment plant—a path visualized by surface paving patterns—then cleansed for a return trip into a separate outer ring in the shaft. The purified water is deposited into the nearby Keating Channel.

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The treatment plant itself houses two f loors of equipment—f locculation tanks, fine sand filters, UV purification—all wrapped in a sculptural form. “It’s conceived as a series of manipulations of a simple volume, to show the shedding of the water,” says architect Pat Hanson. She adds that the involvement of Waterfront’s Design Review Panel pushed the design to become even more “expressive in showing the passage of the water.” This resulted in an integrated gutter that traces the path of rainwater from the roof, down the walls, and into a drain along the building’s perimeter. The canted roof is further accentuated by a triangular skylight and an array of chevron snow guards.

Because the industrial nature of the facility created latitude for experimentation, the construction is the inverse of a typical wall section: the exterior is a 400-mm-thick cast-in-place concrete wall, with insulation and a rainscreen concrete block wall on the inside. In the past year since its opening, the exposed concrete has taken on some hairline cracks, which Hanson says are to be expected, and don’t affect the concrete’s strength. Over time, she expects that it will continue to acquire patina, with the once-pristine surface picking up urban pollution and the gutters darkened by water stains. “Once it gets dirtied up, it’s fine,” says Hanson. “It falls into line with the Gardiner [Expressway] and railway tracks, it fits in.”

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The facility is currently surrounded with chain-link fences and hemmed in by adjacent construction sites. But in a few years, it will develop a public presence. The urban plans for the area include re-routing Lakeshore Boulevard to run directly in front of the site, bringing cyclists, pedestrians, and car traffic alongside a large window that invites views of the machinery inside. A new plinth, planned for the south side of the building, will create a public plaza centered on the sculptural landmark, looking over the road towards Lake Ontario.

The cast-concrete stormwater facility is located in a rapidly developing section of Toronto, at the junction between the Canary District, East Bayfront, and Portlands neighbourhoods. ABOVE LEFT A skylight illuminates the interior of the building, which houses equipment that filters urban runoff for safe release into Lake Ontario. ABOVE RIGHT An integrated gutter collects water from the roof and traces its path down the sides of the sculptural form.

OPPOSITE

CLIENT WATERFRONT TORONTO AND TORONTO WATER | ARCHITECT TEAM PAT HANSON, RAY-

MOND CHOW, ELISE SHELLEY, RICHARD FREEMAN | PRIME CONSULTANT RV ANDERSON | STRUCTURAL / MECHANICAL / ELECTRICAL RV ANDERSON | LANDSCAPE GH3* | INTERIORS GH3* | CONTRACTOR GRAHAM CONSTRUCTION | WASTE WATER WSP | SOILS & ENVIRONMENTAL GHD | AREA 600 M2 (BUILDING); 6460 M2 (SITE) | BUDGET WITHHELD | COMPLETION MAY 2021

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GALT WATER INTAKE

A POETIC STRUCTURE HOUSES THE EQUIPMENT THAT SCREENS OUT DEBRIS FROM MONTREAL’S DRINKING WATER. Montreal, Quebec Smith Vigeant Architectes TEXT Odile Hénault PHOTOS David Boyer LOCATION

ARCHITECT

A recently unveiled building, which punctuates Montreal’s eight-kilometrelong Promenade de l’Aqueduc, is intriguing. It stands out as an unusual object in a park, particularly striking on foggy days and at night, when it turns into a giant lantern. Officially a water intake station, this project is a far cry from the industrial, corrugated metal-clad buildings that usually house municipal infrastructures. Its striking presence was celebrated by the Ordre des architectes du Québec in its 2022 Awards of Excellence.

The 35-metre-long, 12.5-metre-wide, 9-metre-high box is set on a park-like promenade much appreciated by the neighbourhood’s residents, who kept a close watch over the project from the moment the City of Montreal’s Drinking Water Division made its intentions public. Smith Vigeant architectes, who were selected from a shortlist of three firms, fully understood what was at stake in terms of public acceptance. And they started dreaming. “We wanted to create a significant gesture that would go beyond the building’s function,” says architect Daniel Smith.

“We were looking for a visual signature that would enliven the public space, while reminding passersby what a precious resource water is.”

The building plays an essential role in Montréal’s drinking water system, acting as a first clean-up station for raw water drawn from the St. Lawrence River. Four screening devices operate 24 hours a day, catching algae, branches, and other debris carried by the river. The only manual

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operation performed in the fully automated water intake facility is cleaning the screens on a regular basis. Once the water has gone through this primary process, it is channelled towards an underground conduit that leads to the Atwater Water Treatment Plant, 900 metres away. Ultimately, water treated in this plant will reach 40% of Montreal homes.

The program stressed the need for a highly secure and energy efficient facility, which resulted in heavily insulated walls and a green roof.

The planted roof not only addressed energy issues, but also was seen as one way of compensating for the loss of park space on the ground, a concern strongly voiced by the Borough of Verdun’s residents. Another major factor that impacted the shape and height of the building was the close proximity of high voltage power lines on the site.

The concept chosen by the architects appeared in their very first sketches, where they played with stripes of colour meant to represent the ever-changing nature of water. The green roof was present from the start, as was a dark mineral base, today made of concrete bricks in three tones of anthracite grey. The initial poetic intention remained paramount for both the client and the architect. “The building’s appearance and its impact on its immediate surroundings were top priorities,” says Daniel Smith.

The four façades in the windowless structure were clad with 30-centimetre-wide horizontal aluminium bands, painted in seven distinct shades, from almost white, to turquoise, to dark blue. Roughly 60 centimetres in front of this first layer is a second skin, made of vertical translucent glass panels. The superimposition creates a subtle shimmering effect and, rather unexpectedly, gives the façades a pixelated appearance.

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Painted aluminum bands and translucent glass panels form a double-layered skin that gives the building a shimmering effect.

RIGHT The building houses debris-removing screening devices, used to pre-treat drinking water drawn from the St. Lawrence River.

OPPOSITE AND ABOVE

One of the most evocative spaces of this intake station is the narrow corridor running between the façades’ glass and metal skins. Inaccessible to the public—as is the rest of the building—this service corridor will somehow remain as a fleeting presence, only to be seen by technical staff.

In its own modest way, this small intake station is linked to a remarkable tradition of architecturally significant infrastructural works. It may not be as eloquent as the grand Italianate Atwater Water Treatment Plant (1918) or as Toronto’s Art Deco R.C. Harris Water Treatment Plant (1941), which inspired Michael Ondaatje’s novel In the Skin of a Lion.

But Montreal’s new water intake facility does emphasize the importance of investing in public architecture, however humble its function.

Quebeckers, who seem to live under a collective delusion that water is an unlimited resource, are among Canada’s highest users—and wasters—of domestic water. Hopefully, this rather unique project will help raise awareness of the essential role water plays in our lives and of the importance of using it wisely. Let us also hope the leadership shown here by the City of Montreal will have an impact on future infrastructure projects across Quebec and the rest of the country.

Architectural writer Odile Hénault is a regular contributor to Canadian Architect.

CLIENT CITY OF MONTREAL DRINKING WATER DIVISION IN COLLABORATION WITH THE BOROUGH

OF VERDUN | ARCHITECT TEAM DANIEL SMITH (MRAIC), ANIK MALDERIS, MARIANA SEGUI, JENNIFER DYKES, STÉPHAN VIGEANT, SABRINA CHARBONNEAU | STRUCTURAL / MECHANICAL / ELECTRICAL HATCH | CONTRACTORS PROCOVA AND CRT | AREA 381 M2 | BUDGET $3 M | COMPLETION JUNE 2021

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CLAYTON WATER RESERVOIR

UNDULATING CONCRETE PANELS OFFER SUBTLE VISUAL CUES TO THE IMPORTANT WORK GOING ON BEHIND THE FAÇADE OF A PARKSIDE PAVILION. Hazelgrove Park, Surrey, BC Local Practice TEXT Courtney Healey PHOTOS Andrew Latreille LOCATION

ARCHITECT

Water is life. Throughout human history, people have built systems that capture and convey this life-sustaining force allowing communities to grow and flourish. Today, while inter-jurisdictional uncertainties continue to complicate the provision of safe drinking water on First Nations reserve lands across Canada, bringing clean water to new municipal settlements like East Clayton in Surrey, BC, is a complex but achievable endeavour. Turning that infrastructure into poetry is next level.

The need for the Clayton reservoir dates back to 1996, when Surrey City Council identified East Clayton as a suitable area for new development. But it was only over the past decade that dense new subdivisions started rolling out across this former agricultural area and the shared unceded traditional territory of the Katzie, Semi-

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ahmoo, and Kwantlen Nations, who have been its stewards since time immemorial.

Designed by Local Practice, a Vancouver-based firm co-founded

by Michel Labrie and Matthew Woodruff, the Clayton Reservoir earned a 2019 Canadian Architect award. Since its completion in 2020, it has largely fulfilled the design team’s goal: “to create an object of integrity without attention seeking,” in Woodruff ’s words. He says that infrastructure like this is “foundational for a stable society‚“ and “should make visible the necessary work of living with dynamic natural systems.” Indeed, the water that feeds the reservoir is in constant motion, flowing from mountaintops through a vast downstream system of dams, water mains, and pump stations managed by Metro Vancouver, the body responsible for regional water service. Clayton is one of over 20 storage reservoirs near the end-point of the system, which fill up overnight to meet peak early morning demand. The increased storage capacity at Clayton will help the community weather increasingly warm and dry summers.

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Two patterns of concrete panels are used to create a vibrant surface on a water reservoir outside of Vancouver. ABOVE On the upper part of the structure, soft grey panels billow outwards, lightening the visual volume of the building and evoking the ripples of water moving across a wind-swept lake.

OPPOSITE

Woodruff ’s involvement with the Clayton reservoir started in 2010, with a feasibility study that located the structure at the north end of a new park. This early decision was key to the project’s success, creating a strong edge to the green space, and making room for sport fields and other outdoor amenities. The reservoir will eventually double in size to meet demand as the neighbourhood is fully built-out, and Local Practice’s design accommodates this expansion through a mirroring of the plan to the north.

Design decisions are few, but effective at bringing down the perceived scale and mass of the reservoir. Rounded corners ease the eye around the edges, while a strong horizontal datum humanizes the height. Two patterns of undulating precast cladding modulate the surface, with a light gray billowing convex surface above, and a dark gray concave scalloped surface below.

Beyond its essential work, the Clayton Reservoir serves as a quiet backdrop to Hazelgrove Park. On sunny days, it acts like a movie screen, its surface alive with shifting sunlight, clouds and the shadows of waving

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trees. It’s a calming architectural presence, with a materiality that offers subtle visual cues to the important work going on behind the facade.

Investing in infrastructure and making it visible is a noble goal. It would be wonderful to celebrate the delivery of clean water through beautiful infrastructure like this to all communities across Canada.

Courtney Healey is an architect and writer living and working on the unceded traditional territories of the xw məθkw ə’yəm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwəta?l (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.

CLIENT METRO VANCOUVER | ARCHITECT TEAM EVELYNE BOUCHARD, GEOFF COX, HEIDI NESBITT,

JUSTIN POWER, MADDI SLANEY, MALLORY STUCKEL, MATTHEW WOODRUFF (MRAIC), MELANIE WILSON | ENGINEERING LEAD AND PRIME CONSULTANT ASSOCIATED ENGINEERING (B.C.) LTD. | CONTRACTOR WESTPRO / POMERLEAU | LANDSCAPE SPACE2PLACE | GEOTECHNICAL GOLDER & ASSOCIATES | AREA 3,500 M2 | BUDGET WITHHELD | COMPLETION FALL 2020

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INSITES

WILLIAM DEKUR, FROM PERSONAL FILES OF ANDREW GRUFT

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GENERATING IDEAS THE HYDROELECTRIC PLANT AT THE W.A.C. BENNETT DAM, DESIGNED BY ANDREW GRUFT WHILE WORKING WITH RHONE & IREDALE IN THE LATE 1960S, REMAINS TIMELESS HALF A CENTURY LATER.

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GLEN CIVIDEN

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OPPOSITE Designed by Andrew Gruft when he was working at Rhone & Iredale, the G.M. Shrum Generating Station at the W.A.C. Bennett Dam drew from a variety of influences and endures as an architectural celebration of hydroelectric power. ABOVE A sketch by Gruft shows the generating station and its surrounding infrastructure.

G.M. Shrum Generating Station at W.A.C. Bennett Dam, 1965 -1968 LOCATION Hudson’s Hope, BC ARCHITECT Rhone & Iredale Architects TEXT D’Arcy Jones PROJECT

In 1965, Vancouver was a frontier town in ways that seem far-fetched today. That year, BC Hydro hired Rhone & Iredale Architects to work on one of the largest dams in the world—all because chairman Dr. Gordon Shrum liked a wooden sundeck they designed for his son. The task for the design fell to 27-year-old Andrew Gruft, who later became an architecture professor and photograph collector, before passing away last year.

From their office in an ex–bawdy house overlooking then-polluted False Creek, Rhone & Iredale had some 80 projects on the go. Thirtyseven-year-old Rand Iredale was more of a mentor and systems nerd than an artist, preoccupied with the science of building, Gantt charts, and adopting computer drafting before anyone even knew what it was.

He and Bill Rhone led an office that took pride in delivering, despite youth and inexperience. The duo shared a dogged faith in delegating design, encouraging their project architects to run everything.

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Prodded by the office’s notorious Friday pin-ups, Gruft detailed an iconic industrial newel cap that controls ten massive water-fueled generators that still produce about 30% of BC Hydro’s electrical output.

Located on the Peace River, the dam and accompanying structures marked the end of an era where British Columbia’s smaller communities were often powered by diesel generators.

Unlike many tired modernist buildings of the late 1960s, the generating station’s design was boldly forward-looking. That clairvoyance was in tune with British Columbia’s twenty-year Bennett government, which was investing in an electrified future that still won’t peak until natural gas is lumped together with coal as one more outdated fuel.

The building draws on so many sources and bundles so many aspirations that it would have been slightly out-of-step with other modern architecture even on its opening day, when 3,000 well-dressed guests went 600 feet underground to watch the ribbon get cut.

Mother Earth’s hydrological cycle is a perpetual motion machine.

Before tapping a river’s f low, a dam needs enough vertical drop to create strong and constant water pressure for its turbines, so most are built on ancient waterfalls or rapids. As massive as the W.A.C. Bennett Dam is, its siting and function are fitted to a plateaued and channelized waterway that was always there. Nestled into the leeward side of the two-kilometre-long earth-filled dam, the generating sta-

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The generating station welcomed visitors through concrete legs, while a circular elevator shaft allowed them to travel to view the machinery on the underground generating floor.

OPPOSITE

ANDREW GRUFT

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tion appears Palladian and toy-like. From the approach, only its pagoda-shaped top is visible. The decision to treat the BC-Hydro-blue roof as a fifth elevation is the first clue that the whole project was considered as a single cohesive entity, with repeated proportions and materials that defer to the grandeur of the dam and the Williston Lake reservoir.

Industrial architecture is hardly ever public, so it rarely offers more than the facts. But BC Hydro wanted this project to be different, by simultaneously showing the public how electricity was produced, and by ennobling the technicians who ran the show. To visit this building is to experience optimism writ large. When new, there was much mention of how the generating station was supposed to look like a transformer. That comparison is fine, if incomplete, and twee.

The design’s robust vocabulary references historical Asia, water’s movement, the sky, modernism in South America, and engineer-centric infrastructure. These precedents were massaged into an edited whole, to communicate a fully formed vision.

The Shrum Generating Station has four glassy fronts at ground level.

The back face looks out over a humming high-voltage stockyard, where electricity is corralled before being wired south. Its two side faces have flowing arrays of scalloped skylights above subterranean workshop and storage areas, creating a nuanced quality of light that is almost too good for service spaces. The project’s biggest miss can be blamed on conventional operating hours: the public cannot approach the building at night, when the electric glow that comes up and out from the building is warmly evocative of the power being created underground.

The entry is through a stoically symmetrical front façade, between sturdy tapered concrete legs. From there, visitors are welcomed into a relaxed and lively little lobby, with possibly the wildest cross-section in all of Canadian architecture. These contrasting qualities reflected the times, however unconsciously. The building was created smack dab in the middle of an epoch when adults stopped wearing neckties and heels, and threw out hats that weren’t hard or billed. Its design hinted at the next decade’s showy brutalism, but kept it at bay by throwing in enough humility and scale to prevent visitors or staff from fixating on any one element at the expense of others.

Beyond the lobby, the building’s interior has been modified over time to accommodate the advent of computers and tighter post-9/11 security.

Pride in human achievement has always been a meaningful cultural glue, so the visitor experience was carefully choreographed for maximum effect. I first saw the generating station in 1980, when the visitor’s centre was still on the highest level. A round hole in the f loor let tour-goers observe engineers one level below, watching gauges and flicking switches at a semi-circular desk straight out of Star Trek. From that top floor, an elevator in a free-standing round concrete shaft took visitors underground to the generating f loor, where they could see electrical production in action. Cheeky touches of vivid blue and red detailing at the lighting, handrails, and microphone stands are reminders that this warehouse-like volume was only partly conceived by the expressive architects, who had to negotiate with the dam’s main engineers to have at least a small voice.

A W.A.C. Bennett-sized dam will never happen again. Every viable site for substantial hydroelectric power generation in British Columbia will be used up once Fort St. John’s Site C dam opens in 2024. Hydroelectric power may go boutique, with waterwheels and small tributary turbines. Or hydroelectric generation might go underground, like at the Nant de Drance and Linthal pumped-storage facilities in Switzerland, where a large reservoir f lows through turbines to a smaller one, using 20% of the generated power to pump the water back up to the top, re-using it over and over. This kind of closedloop power production may be more practical once electricity rates increase, or after the more visible hydroelectric options are exhausted throughout spacious Canada.

Meanwhile, the Shrum Generating Station is, to this author’s eyes, the most soulful and humane of Rhone & Iredale’s major works. The building had eclectic influences because Gruft brought so many to the table. The resulting design is hard to categorize as it bobs between affecting your head or your gut. Fifty-four years later, this project on the Peace River continues to dignify the invisible, expressing the circumstances of its creation while timelessly doing its own thing.

D’Arcy Jones is the director of Vancouver-based firm D’Arcy Jones Architects.

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CanadianArch_CnvrtFullPg_Belden_June22.indd 1 CA jun 22.indd 39

5/6/2022 6:07:44 PM 2022-05-19 2:23 PM

Training to Clad it Right the First Time Carpenters and Allied Workers Local 27, United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, in conjunction with our contractor partners and field leaders, and with the assistance of the College of Carpenters, has developed a premier Exterior Cladding training program to provide real-world hands-on training to installers and industry professionals. This course was developed to address an increasing demand in the industry for skilled workers to install these products.

This course will provide training to our broader membership on how to properly install various architectural panels/exterior cladding, including Insulated Metal Panels (IMPs) and Aluminum Composite Materials (ACMs), using the most up-to-date technologies and techniques.

The six-day course will include a two-day certification course for Elevated Work Platforms and swing stages and a four-day course teaching the best practices for the installation of exterior cladding.

For our inaugural session in March of 2021, four journeymen instructors were provided training on how to install exterior cladding, including IMPs and ACMs. The materials were generously donated by Riverside Group Ltd. These instructors will now travel to the Carpenters’ Union Training Centres across the province to ensure that each training centre will be teaching this course to UBCJA members.

If you have any questions about this exciting course, please contact Paul Daly (Local 27 Coordinator) or Rick Baric (UBCJA Cladding Coordinator) at 905-652-4140.

222 Rowntree Dairy Rd Woodbridge, ON L4L 9T2 | T: 905-652-4140 | www.ubc27.ca

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@ carpenters27 2022-06-07 10:04 AM

MASS TIMBER THROUGH A LIFE CYCLE LENS TEXT

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CANADIAN ARCHITECT 06/22

3:03 PM

TECHNICAL

Kelly Alvarez Doran

In 2020, I led a studio at the University of Toronto’s John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design that asked: How can we halve the carbon emissions of buildings over the next decade?

Our collective research focused on strategies for benchmarking and reducing embodied carbon, using a series of real-life Toronto multiunit residential buildings as case studies.

Towards Lower-Carbon Materials The Ha/f Research Studio has since worked to build on this initial research. Working with the City of Toronto’s Green Standards Team and Mantle Development with the support of The Atmospheric Fund (TAF), we are currently developing embodied carbon benchmarks for Part 3 buildings across Ontario. The ongoing study involves stakeholders representing the full spectrum of our industry and included nearly 50 voluntarily submitted project life cycle assessments (LCA s).

This intake reveals that LCA s are being conducted across Ontario, READY MIX

and are being performed throughout the design and construction process. The number of respondents familiar with the tools suggests that the market can support this type of analysis.

As part of the study, the City’s team requested an assessment of two active, City-owned projects to understand their embodied carbon and find potential reductions, and to understand how future policies should align with design phases and existing planning submission milestones. Both projects—the Western North York Community Centre and the Toronto Paramedic Services Multifunctional Paramedic Station—are 2021 Canadian Architect Award recipients, and have had embodied carbon and operational performance as key drivers of their designs from the outset. Working directly with the City’s project managers and the architectural teams, Ha/f produced detailed LCA s and reduction recommendations that targeted material specification changes, given that each project is nearing design completion.

METALS

WOOD

GALVANIZED STEEL

STRUCTURAL STEEL

CLT & GLULAM READY MIX, WALLS & FLOORS ALUMINIUM

REBAR

DOORS & WINDOWS

OTHER METALS

COATINGS & PASTES

PLASTICS, MEMBRANES & ROOFING

INSULATION ACOUSTIC PANELS

PVC WINDOWS

METAL DOORS

PAINTS & COATINGS PLASTIC MEMBRANES

XPS

ROCK WOOL

FLOORING GLASS DOORS

GLASS WOOL

GYPSUM & PLASTER

CARPET FLOORS

PRECAST CMU

MORTAR BRICKS & CERAMICS

Figure 1: Overview of Proportionate Material Embodied Carbon Emissions, Paramedic Services Multifunctional Paramedic Station

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TECHNICAL

The Paramedic Services Multifunctional Paramedic Station’s LCA revealed six main sources of upfront emissions that could be improved upon, without requiring significant redesign or additional construction cost (see Figure 1). Given their relative impact, the floor slab insulation, concrete mix, and floor sealant were obvious places to focus. Of note is the project’s CLT roof structure—the use of mass timber has served to reduce the project’s total embodied carbon, resulting in a value of 380 kgCO2e per m2—a figure on the low end of our benchmarking spectrum.

ORIGINAL EMBODIED EMISSIONS

3145

-246

3000

PROPOSED EMISSIONS REDUCTION

-2

Given the surge in attention that mass timber has received, this year’s students took on case studies to better understand the promise—and limitations—of this family of materials. How does the embodied carbon footprint of mass timber buildings compare to the largely concrete structures of the previous year’s studio, which averaged 505 kg CO2e/ m2? To expand this question across geographies, we assessed the structure, envelope and finishes of mass timber projects from Sweden, the UK , Ontario, Washington, and Oregon, engaging many of the world’s leading mass timber architects in the process.

Initially, the carbon advantages of mass timber were not as evident as expected. This year’s research study set averaged 443 kg CO2e/m2 for new construction, or roughly 90% of last year’s study set. A caveat for this comparison is that the mass timber projects from this year’s study are largely commercial uses, and as a result have far less internal walling, which serves to reduce their totals in comparison to last year’s multi-unit residential buildings. Ultimately, the embodied emissions associated with the extraction, manufacturing, erection, occupation, and ultimately disposal of either building stock are near equal.

REVISED EMBODIED EMISSIONS

-369 -7

-22

-191

2308

2000

1000

TOTAL A1-A5

SUBTOTAL

LOWER IMPACT CONCRETE SLAB SEALANT

HIGH RECYCLED CONTENT STRUCTURAL STEEL

HEMPCRETE BLOCK IN LIEU OF CMU

LOWER CARBON CONCRETE (GUL + HIGH SCM%)

RECYCLED GLASS GRAVEL INSULATION

kgCOe/m2 Adidas Headquarters ADIDAS HEADQUARTERS

297

kgCOe/m2 357

CATALYST

357

kgCOe/m2

Catalyst BuildingBUILDING

357

kgCO2e/m2

Total A1-15

TOTAL A1-A5

NET A1-A5

357

0 BASELINE

EMBODIED CARBON (TCO2e) (A1-5, B3-5, C3-4)

4000

LOWER IMPACT XPS INSULATION

CANADIAN ARCHITECT 06/22

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kgCO2e/m2

297

NET A1-A5

Total A1-15

kgCO2e/m2

Net A1-15 Net A1-15

Figure 2: Sequential Carbon Savings Based on Material Substitution

Biogenic Storage

We circled back to the client and architect teams with the suggestions shown in Figure 2. Through straightforward material and specification swaps, the project could avoid upwards of 800 tonnes of CO2e—or roughly 44 years of Canadian per capita emissions. Following a brief review period, the architects responded that 5 of the 6 changes would be implemented, and that initial costing feedback stated the changes were cost negligible. Forty-four years’ worth of emissions avoided through a twoweek study reveals, to me, just how simple the first steps towards the radical reductions required of us are, and that substantial reductions are immediately achievable through existing, readily available options.

Mass Timber and the Impact of Biogenic Carbon Sequestration Building further on last year’s studio, I wanted to broaden Ha/f ’s understanding of embodied carbon in contemporary construction through a focus on the “it” material for carbon reductions: mass timber.

WOOD/M2 = 0.064 M3

60

60

60

60

kgCOe/m2

kgCOe/m2

kgCO2e/m2

60

kgCO2e/m2

297

kgCO2e/m2

kgCOe/m2

Biogenic Storage

WOOD/M2 = 0.303 M3

BIOGENIC STORAGE 297

kgCOe/m2

BIOGENIC STORAGE

Figure 4: Total embodied carbon and biogenic storage for the Adidas Headquarters (Level Architects) and the Catalyst Building (Michael Green Architects).

However, if carbon storage via biogenic sequestration is taken into account, the net average drops dramatically to 192 kgCO2e/m2—roughly 40% of typical construction. There is currently a lot of debate about how best to account (or whether to account at all) for carbon storage in LCA reporting, due in large part to the complexities of forestry practices around the world, and the unknowns of a building’s ultimate service life.

Our studio visited local operations to better understand the seedlingALL VALUES EXPRESSED IN KGCO2 E/M2 OF USEABLE FLOOR AREA

STUDY SCOPE

PROJECT

LOCATION

FLOORS

PRODUCT STAGE A1-A3

FULL BUILDING

MAGASIN X SARA CULTURAL CENTRE TOTAL WARWICK MEDICAL SCHOOL* BLACK & WHITE ONTARIO SECONDARY TEACHERS 80 ATLANTIC TRCA HEADQUARTERS ADIDAS HEADQUARTER TOTAL CATALYST BUILDING

UPPSALA, SE SKELLEFTEA, SE WARWICK, UK LONDON, UK TORONTO, CAN TORONTO, CAN TORONTO, CAN PORTLAND, USA SPOKANE, USA

G+6 G+20 G+4 G+5 G+3 G+4 G+3 G+4 G+4

199 313 580 282 383 346 234 342 312

20 39 31 32 48 57 61 16 45

219 352 611 313 431 403 296 357 357

335 495 660 378 460 460 347 383 472

229 256 65 273 124 138 283 60 297

TOWER COMPONENT

ACADEMIC WOOD TOWER** SARA CULTURAL TOWER

TORONTO, CAN SKELLEFTEA, SE

13 15

405 407

36 47

469 456

529 655

265 316

SUMMARY

AVERAGE FULL BUILDING AVERAGE TOWER COMPONENT

332 406

39 42

371 463

443 592

192 290

*HYBRID STRUCTURE: 1/3 MASS TIMBER, 2/3 PRE-CAST RC

CONSTRUCTION STAGE A4-5

UPFRONT EMBODIED CARBON A1-5

WHOLE LIFE EMBODIED CARBON A-C

BIOGENIC CARBON STORAGE

** TOWER BUILT UPON PRE-EXISTING FOUNDATION

Figure 3: Summary Results of Studio Case Studies

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kgCO²e/m²

1.15

R-VALUE

-235.8

-71.28

-56.1

71.3

129.84

441

NET NEGATIVE

NET NEGATIVE

NET NEGATIVE

NET POSITIVE

NET POSITIVE

NET POSITIVE

kgCO²e/m²

kgCO²e/m²

kgCO²e/m²

kgCO²e/m²

kgCO²e/m²

145.5

kgCO²e/m² R-VALUE

kgCO²e/m²

R-VALUE

R-VALUE

25.6

WOOD FAÇADE

90X225MM TIMBER MULLION BEYOND (DECOR)

GLULAM BEAM HORIZONTAL EASTERN WHITE CEDAR SIDING 76MM GALVANIZED Z-GIRTS @ 400 O.C 2 x 19 x 64MM CONTINUOUS WOOD STRAPPING @ 400mm O.C

260MM MINERAL WOOL

160MM CLT

EXTERIOR RAINSCREEN CLADDING

INSULATED METAL PANEL

EXTERIOR RAINSCREEN CLADDING

ANODIZED ALUMINIUM WALL

8MM CEMENTITIOUS RAINSCREEN CLADDING

PRE-FINISHED METAL FLASHING BEYOND

UNITIZED ALUMINIUM PANEL

ALUMINUM RAINSCREEN BRACKETRY

PRE-FINISHED INSULATED METAL PANEL

50MM RAINSCREEN PANEL, PORCELAIN CERAMIC TILE C/W PANEL CHIPS AND INTERLOCKING CHANNEL SYSTEM WIND BARRIER

150MM STONE WOOL INSULATION

76MM DEEP WOOD STAND-OFFS @ 400MM O.C.

BIOGENIC CARBON

131.3

kgCO²e/m²

13MM FIBRE FACED GYPSUM BOARD SHEATHING 38 x 140MM WOOD STUDS @ 400 O.C.

BIOGENIC CARBON

BIOGENIC CARBON

kgCO²e/m²

kgCO²e/m²

200MM STAINLESS STEEL CLIP 600 O.C. 18GA BENT PLATE

15.66

15.3

MINERAL WOOL INSULATION DOUBLE GLAZED WINDOW BEYOND

50MM NON-COMBUSTIBLE SEMI-RIGID INSULATION [RSI=4.2]

WEATHER RESISTIVE BARRIER 3-PLY CLT PANEL

MODIFIED BITUMEN VAPOUR BARRIER

ALUMINIUM BACKING

50MM NON-COMBUSTIBLE SEMI-RIGID INSULATION [RSI=1.42]

3-1/2” SEMI-RIGID MINERAL WOOL INSULATION

140MM CLT

MULLIONS AND TRANSOMS

102MM ADJUSTABLE GALV Z-GIRTS

THERMALLY ISOLATED CLIP AND RAIL SYSTEM

3MM MEMBRANE

152MM ROCKROOL MINERAL WOOL INSULATION

MEMBRANE LAYER

R-VALUE

27.5

CLT WALL

TIMBER BLOCKING

R-VALUE

30.6

52.9

kgCO²e/m²

20MM EXTERIOR TIMBER CLADDING

-

kgCO²e/m²

60.0

41.5

kgCO²e/m²

kgCO²e/m²

86.6

103.87

CANADIAN ARCHITECT 06/22

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441.0

AB/VB MEMBRANE

BIOGENIC CARBON

NO BIOGENIC CARBON STORAGE

0

kgCO²e/m²

13MM EXTERIOR SHEATHING

109.0

152MM STRUCTURAL STEEL STUDS

kgCO²e/m²

16MM GYPSUM BOARD SHEATHING

22mm FURRING CHANNELS @400MM O.C. 13mm GB TYPE ‘x’ 13mm GB TYPE ‘x’

BIOGENIC CARBON

103.87

kgCO²e/m²

Figure 5: Wall sections of case studies illustrating R-value, embodied carbon, and biogenic sequestration.

to-sawmill process. This experience prompted the students to investigate the sources of timber across the range of projects, an exercise that enabled a greater appreciation for the impacts of forestry at-large, and a keener sense of the challenges related to the lack of reliable data.

Overall, it became clear that responsibly sourced wood, when accounting for bio-sequestration, can be a low-carbon solution for structure, envelope, and interior finishes. Beyond wood, the re-emergence of less processed, organically based materials also offers promising carbon-storing options for structure, envelope, and finishes.

Envelopes: Embodied Carbon Meets Thermal Performance Focusing on envelopes, this year’s case studies stood in stark contrast to the highly emissive, thermally low-performing, aluminium-based unitized glazing systems of the multi-residential buildings that we examined last year. The envelopes of this year’s study reveal substantial upfront and operational emission reductions achieved by (a) reducing window-to-wall ratios, and (b) incorporating mass timber into the façades themselves. These savings are further amplified by a whole-life carbon assessment, given the comparatively short lifespan of the unitized systems. Envelopes that achieve high R-values and also serve as carbon sinks offer our profession a promising direction of travel.

Geography Matters with Mass Timber In comparison to other materials, the provenance of mass timber has significant and disproportionate impacts on the resulting global warm-

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ing potential (GWP). Where mass timber supply and manufacturing was regionally abundant, the footprint of the timber was roughly 10-15% less than in projects where the engineered material was sourced trans-continentally or internationally. Of the four Toronto mass timber projects, only one used wood sourced in the province of Ontario, while all CLT and glulam elements were still imported from either European or western North American sources.

BRITISH COLUMBIA

ALBERTA

Western Archrib

ONTARIO

Structurlam

WASHINGTON

Addidas Headquarters

OREGON

Katerra Catalyst Building Academic Tower

DR Johnson Lumber

Figure 6a: Comparative provenance of mass timber for the Academic Tall Wood Tower, the Catalyst Building, and the Adidas Headquarters.

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TECHNICAL 60% projected reduction in carbon emissions in 30 years

10.9%

% of total timber GWP

4000

% of total timber GWP

3500

2.7%

% of total timber GWP

297

kgCO2e/m2

Biogenic Storage

ADIDAS HEADQUARTERS Local - 326 km

e

mi

ss

to

em

bo

ca

rbo

n

2000 1500 1000

Local - 326 km

500

Beyond the impact of continental transportation, the location of processing is a significant factor in how emissive one product is relative to another. As a result, industry-wide generic Environmental Product Declarations (EPD s) can be significantly different to manufacturer-specific EPD s for the same product class. A close examination of EPD s early in a project’s development can help ensure the eventual sourcing of timber that is sustainable, low-impact, and importantly, available. In the case of the Catalyst Building, we had two LCA s to compare: one conducted by the Carbon Leadership Forum in 2019 and ours in 2022. The delta between generic data and that of the eventual supplier resulted in a 40% increase of the project’s total embodied carbon. Variations between manufacturer emissions relate in large part to the carbon intensity of the power grids that their facilities sit upon. A sawmill in Alberta emits roughly eight times that of one in Washington State; as a result, a tree cut in BC feeding into either mill would carry much higher embodied carbon if cut and dried in Alberta. Geography matters.

EPD Source

Product Description

Quantity

TCO2e

CLT - Generic

475.55 kg/m3

100 m3

30

CLT - Manufacturer A

410.5 kg/m3

100 m3

59

197%

CLT - Manufacturer B

481 kg/m3, 12% moisture content

100 m3

69

230%

% of Generic

GLT - Generic

548 kg/m3, 14% moisture content

GLT - Manufacturer C

489 kg/m3, 12% moisture content 100 m3

17 29

171%

GLT - Manufacturer D

544 kg/m3, 12% moisture content 100 m3

64

376%

Toronto avg. building EUI TRCA EUI

2050

2045

0 2040

Figure 6b: The proportion of embodied carbon that life cycle stage A4 (transportation) has relative to mass timber total embodied carbon.

100 m3

op

ge

2035

Regional - 982 km

ing

in rat

2030

CATALYST BUILDING Regional - 982 km

Adidas Headquarters

d Ad

2025

TALL WOOD -

TOWER- 3906 km Continental Continental - 3906 km

Catalyst Building

2500

2020

Tall Wood Tower

3000

s ion

d die

EUI (kwh/m2)

7.1%

GWP (kgCO2e/m2)

CANADIAN ARCHITECT 06/22

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TRCA annual EUI: 56 kwh/m2 Toronto avg. building annual EUI: 122 kwh/m2

Figure 8: A 30-year comparison of the TRCA’s projected embodied carbon and operational emissions in comparison with an industry average office building. Model simulations predict a 50% reduction in operating emissions, and over 60% reduction in whole life embodied carbon when compared to the typical Toronto commercial building.

“ Any further delay in concerted global action will miss a brief and rapidly closing window to secure a liveable future.” —Hans-Otto Pörtner, co-chair of IPCC working group 2, February 28, 2022.

The time is now. Our entire industry needs to adopt a whole-life approach to the buildings we design. We need to address the magnitude of emissions associated with our daily design and specification decisions. As evident in the examples above, a short investigation into a material class’s provenance could result in the avoidance of several lifetimes’ equivalent of emissions.

Canadian architects, engineers, and planners have a disproportionate responsibility when it comes to addressing climate change, and only by taking a whole life view will we be able to balance reductions in operational emissions with reductions in embodied carbon emissions.

We are here to support your practice, institution, or municipality to take this on. We look forward to discussing this research and its findings with you, at your request.

The Ha/f Research Studio was conducted at the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design. It was led by Adjunct Professor Kelly Alvarez Doran, co-founder of Ha/f Climate Design, and Senior Director of Sustainability and Regener-

Figure 7: Comparative EPDs for mass timber manufacturers across Canada.

A Whole-Life Carbon Perspective Finally, the benefits of mass timber are most significant if we are able to take a whole-life carbon perspective that accounts for upfront material emissions, reduced life-cycle operational emissions, and future disassembly and reuse of structural materials. Marrying the reductions afforded by mass timber’s biogenic storage capacity with high-performing, low-GWP façade systems can result in buildings with significantly reduced footprints upfront, as well as over the life of the project.

Whether or not we build in mass timber, we need to take a whole-life carbon view to ensure decisions made to reduce operational emissions are not resulting in significant, unintended upfront emissions.

CA jun 22.indd 44

ative Design at MASS Design Group.

The project team included graduate students Saqib Mansoor, Bahia Marks, Robert Raynor, Shimin Huang, Jue Wang, Rashmi Sirkar, Ophelia Lau, Huda Alkhatib, Clara Ziada and Natalia Enriquez Goyes.

Project partners from the architectural community included White Arkitekter, Waugh Thistleton, Hawkins/Brown, Lever Architects, Michael Green Architects, Bucholz McEvoy Architects, ZAS, MJMA, Patkau Architects, BDP Quadrangle, and Moriyama & Teshima Architects.

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BOOKS

305 LOST BUILDINGS OF CANADA

By Alex Bozikovic and Raymond Biesinger. Goose Lane Editions, 2022.

REVIEW

Adele Weder

Contemporary cities have evolved from a plethora of buildings that, in most cases, no longer exist. A survey of this phantom architecture might seem like an odd exploration for the here and now. But a newly published compilation of once-beloved and now-demolished landmarks reminds us of the usefulness of paying homage to our vanished past.

Written by Globe and Mail architecture critic Alex Bozikovic and illustrated by Raymond Biesinger, 305 Lost Buildings of Canada is like a stroll through an urban graveyard. Pause to read the terse summary of a building’s name, purpose, and life dates, with the odd anecdote that hints at the prestige or notoriety of each one. Even the book’s black-and-white line drawings look a little like tombstones. Then as now, these edifices were usually victims of profit-seeking and expediency, in some cases despite an outcry from the local community, though others simply died of old age.

Most of these buildings would not be considered architectural masterpieces, not even in their own lifetimes, but all contributed something vital to their neighbourhoods. The Little Mountain housing complex in Vancouver provided affordable accommodation and a sense of community to dozens of families. Its low density made it a target, yet as Bozikovic reports, its large site still lies mostly empty, to the fury of the activists who opposed its demolition.

Other dearly departed edifices deserve to be remembered for their experiential qualities. Saskatoon’s Capitol Theatre, for example, offered movie-goers the enchanting experience of a mythical Spanish town, with plastered walls, arched doorways, and faux backlit windows— a wonderful kind of kitsch that worked for its escapist purpose. Its owner commanded a wrecking crew to pulverize it over a weekend, despite an intense effort by locals to save it.

Thirty-five years later, the same fate befell Vancouver’s Ridge Theatre, demolished in 2013 for a condo development. Like Saskatoon’s Capitol Theatre, it is sorely missed by locals, but not for its architecture or interior design. The Ridge Theatre animated its sleepy residential neighbourhood in a way that the grocery store at the base of the new condo complex simply does not.

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Another irreplaceable attribute of this and certain other lost buildings is their signage, which contributed to the distinctive character of their respective neighbourhoods and cities. Vancouverites had loved the large, bulb-studded Ridge sign that topped its eponymous cinema.

That sign has been “saved” and repositioned atop the new condo complex, but it reads like a framed buck’s head in a hunter’s den: a lifeless trophy devoid of its original context and meaning.

The loss of visually emphatic and unique graphics and signage is sometimes greater than the loss of the building itself, in all sorts of neighbourhoods. As Bozikovic writes, “No one paid attention to the building that housed Sam the Record Man in Toronto. It was the spinning records of neon on the front that were important. They became icons of a street and a city.” That signature signage has received similar trophy-sign treatment, hoisted atop a building around the corner—but it just isn’t the same.

Especially refreshing is the number of vernacular buildings, a huge and woefully underreported subsection of architectural history. The short entries, comprising one paragraph and a line-drawing of each façade, are useful as portals to a longer understanding. It is gratifying to learn the name of the architect of that demolished Capitol Theatre in Saskatoon: Emmanuel Briffa, a Montreal-based Maltese Canadian.

I became intrigued enough to investigate further: he had been one of North America’s most successful and revered theatre designers in the 20th century. (Want to know more? Check out Philip Dombowsky’s 1995 master’s thesis on Briffa.)

The paragraph-long texts do not allow for much explanation, but for many of these buildings, the Wiki-stub-like texts are the only eulogy they will get in the 21st century. The accompanying line drawings are also terse but fun, like avatars for the buildings they illustrate. They work well enough to give a visual sense of the 19th-century and prewar entries, which are largely defined by their facades, but they look strange when accompanying modernist landmarks like Arthur Erickson’s 1963 Graham House. (Orthogonal line drawings can’t give a sense of cascading volumes.) So, like the short texts, you can think of these illustrations as an invitation to look up the real thing.

It makes for wistful reading, these reminders of what we’ve lost, even in those cases when buildings more functional and “important” have taken their place. But it’s a worthwhile journey just the same. As Bozikovic notes, “it’s never practical to hold onto every trace of the past.

But what we ignore today, we may well see as a treasure tomorrow. Buried treasure, perhaps, but still valuable.”

Architectural curator and critic Adele Weder is a contributing editor to Canadian Architect.

ILLUSTRATIONS BY RAYMOND BIESINGER. COURTESY GOOSE LANE EDITIONS

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CA Award

CANADIAN ARCHITECT INVITES ARCHITECTS AND PHOTOGRAPHERS TO ENTER THE 2022 AWARDS OF EXCELLENCE

ENTRIES OPEN AUGUST 1 Deadline: September 12th, 2022

Architecture project entry fee: $195 *

Architectural photo entry fee: $75 *

Since 1967, our annual national awards program recognizes the architectural excellence of projects in the design and construction phases.

Submissions will be accepted in PDF format, up to 12 pages with dimensions no greater than 11” x 17”. Total file size is not to exceed 25MB. There is also the option to submit a video up to two minutes in length.

This year, we are also presenting the fourth edition of the Canadian Architect Photo Awards of Excellence, open to professional and amateur architectural photographers.

Winners of the architectural project and architectural photo competitions will be published in a special issue of Canadian Architect in December 2022.

For more details and to submit your entry, visit:

www.canadianarchitect.com/awards

IMAGE: THE BUTTERFLY AND FBC (FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH COMPLEX) VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA DESIGNED BY REVERY ARCHITECTURE INC. WINNER OF A 2021 CANADIAN ARCHITECT AWARD OF EXCELLENCE

CA of EX 55 CA Award jun 22.indd 47 ad.indd 4

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PRACTICE

BEN RAHN / A-FRAME

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WHEN EXPERIENCE COUNTS TEXT

Jake Nicholson

RFPS COMMONLY ASK ARCHITECTS TO SUBMIT PROFILES OF SIMILAR PROJECTS. IS IT TIME TO RETHINK THE REQUIREMENT?

For architects responding to Requests for Proposals (RFPs), one of the most consistent head-scratchers is detailing a firm’s portfolio: not on independent merit, but according to requirements given by an RFP. “Project Experience” is almost always a required section in proposals, with associated page limits, word counts, and necessary details. The need to submit “profiles for three similar projects completed within the past ten years” (or something very close to this) should be relatively commonplace to anybody regularly working with RFPs. In theory, this Project Experience section is useful to both clients and architects, limiting the work of responding, and applying consistent criteria for all. But it’s more complicated than it seems. For instance, how do you evaluate a building’s aesthetic value? When contending with a truly unique project, what constitutes similar past work? How does a firm’s past portfolio measure against what they are proposing to do now? These invite another key question: are there times when it would benefit everybody involved to change how we think about Project Experience, or remove it completely from the RFP process?

Monica Contreras is an architect and project manager with experience creating and evaluating RFPs, as well as teaching Integrated Design and Project Management. For almost 20 years, she led procurement of architectural services at several Ontario universities, also working with architects on the projects that followed. Her career has provided her with insight into both the mechanics of RFPs, and the ways architects tend to respond to them.

When asked about the standard of providing three similar project profiles from the past ten years, Contreras responds: “That criteria is actually more to do with risk than anything else, because when you’re trying to find an architect—for instance, for a capital project, for a new building— you want to know that they have the capacity to do something big.”

CA jun 22.indd 48

“And sometimes […] you’re trying to get something unique, and therefore that category may mean very little, because no one’s ever done the project that you’re doing.”

Contreras says that even then, for institutions like universities, procurement procedures require the inclusion of Project Experience as a section within RFPs when seeking out new architects for a unique or large-scale project. By releasing a publicly posted RFP and stepping outside of an established Vendor of Record list for architects (if a client has such a thing), the client is ultimately saying the project needs special expertise, which should then be illustrated by respondent architects within their proposals, partially via profiles of their past work.

Despite this requirement, Project Experience is not always the most important component of a proposal to Contreras, and she ultimately finds other elements more informative: “To me, it’s more important who is The Schulich School of Business at York University (2003) was awarded to Hariri Pontarini Architects in joint venture with Young + Wright Architects for a submission that interpreted the client’s aspirations in forceful and realistic design concepts. Hariri Pontarini had only completed a single previous project at a university—the McKinsey & Company Headquarters, a project a quarter of the size, on the University of Toronto campus. But the York University procurement process identified the firm as the best fit for having demonstrated their “experience” was a progressive and evolutionary process—one ready for the next step, according to Monica Contreras, who was on the client side. “For me, it is still a successful process, even almost 22 years after the decision,” she says. The learning complex was awarded the 2006 Governor General’s Medal in Architecture, the OAA’s Design Excellence Award and the Toronto Construction Association’s ‘Best of the Best’ Award.

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RILEY SNELLING

going to be on the project. Who are the team members? How long have they worked together? What’s their design strategy? And what do they bring that is a value-add to the project?”

Considered at scale, there can be industry-wide consequences to clients overvaluing the score for Project Experience in RFPs. Requiring even a few directly comparable examples within a relatively short timeframe— say, three new academic buildings within the past decade— creates a bias in favour of larger firms. Firms with multiple offices will likely have a greater portfolio of recent work to draw on for their response. Asked about whether scoring Project Experience too highly creates an unfair bias towards larger-scale firms, Contreras says it “absolutely” does.

“If you only hire the old firms, then you are never giving an opportunity to a young firm,” says Contreras. “So how does a firm get experience on university projects if no one ever hires them, because they don’t have previous experience on university projects?”

Contreras thinks there are improvements that can be made to RFPs overall. For Project Experience, she notes the importance of establishing that projects put forward within proposals were completed by the same team that is being proposed for the current project. For evaluators and architects alike, she stresses the need for careful wording, and to focus above all on the project at hand.

“I always spend some time with the evaluators saying ‘this is the purpose’, because it’s really important for everybody to understand the purpose of the project,” says Contreras. “The firm that we need is a firm that understands what you want, that has listened to everything that we put into the document for the proposal call. And that firm has to demonstrate that they can get us there.”

“The mistakes that architects make is that they read all this, they put it aside, and they don’t actually create a checklist […] looking at how it’s being evaluated and seeing where the weights are.”

Contreras says it’s important to remember an RFP can represent the culmination of years of work within an institution, perhaps the realization of a person’s career. She stresses the importance of responding to specifics and emphasizes the need to not “throw marketing at it” and bombard clients with inapplicable material.

In general, says Contreras, “architectural firms don’t respond very well to RFPs. They just don’t do a good job. And it’s so hard.” She adds: “What you’re trying to find is really an alignment between the firm and your project.”

Clients, for their part, also need to understand how architects establish a record of their own Project Experience. It takes an agonizing amount of money and effort to maintain a portfolio for use in proposals. At a minimum, you need writing (somebody’s time) and pictures (money for a photographer) that can be quickly re-purposed into proposals (once again, somebody’s time). The likelihood of success in any single pursuit is never strong, but RFPs are still a necessity for many firms. It can become incredibly frustrating when something akin to a lack of nuance stands in the way of success, or even qualification.

Take, for example, the question of when Project Experience becomes stale-dated. Say a client is seeking a designer for a renovation and requires similar project examples from the past 10 years, but your team designed two successful projects in other areas of the same building 11 years ago. Then suppose the RFP forbids these older projects, and the client has doubled down in an addendum where you asked that question. Do you still submit your otherwise excellent experience? As a client, how would you score this if it crossed your desk? At what point does age matter less than applicability, and how does this all become a numbered score? There are different cases to be made here. Speaking generally on how Project Experience ages, Contreras points out how significantly the world can change within ten years. But this is still a series of questions where the answers have

CANADIAN ARCHITECT 06/22

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potential to win or lose everybody involved tens of thousands of dollars: and they are the type of questions that come up repeatedly when firms respond to RFPs. It is the ability of this whole process to accommodate and evaluate nuance that really matters. Architects want to avoid unnecessary overhead and to have their Project Experience—as well as other information about their practice—assessed on merit. Clients should think carefully about what this means. Get it right, and it will help to find a stellar candidate at the end of the process.

Jake Nicholson is a writer based in London, Ontario, with extensive experience working on proposals for architectural and engineering firms.

The Centre for Urban Innovation (CUI) at Toronto Metropolitan University, designed by Moriyama Teshima Architects, includes a new building tied into a restored heritage structure, on an urban infill site. It was a fast-tracked project funded by the federal Strategic Innovation Fund. Due to tight funding deadlines, the project could not follow all the regular linear procurement steps. The university was able to identify the architect that best aligned with the project needs by looking at their “experience” in successfully executing projects that had so many constraints, rather than looking for a team that had designed projects “similar” in nature.

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BACKPAGE

CARA CHELLEW

CANADIAN ARCHITECT 06/22

50

DON’T GET DEFENSIVE TEXT

Pamela Young

Recently, a bench I’d barely noticed on countless walks past acquired an eye-catching sticker labelling it a DESIGN CRIME. “This item is a design against humanity,” the small print under the blaring red letters declared. “It has been added to the international database of Hostile Design.” The bench, on an easement alongside a seniors’ residence, was a backless chunk of concrete with a central armrest. British artist Stuart Semple set up the website HostileDesign.org to highlight the global proliferation of benches you can’t lie down on, ledges with anti-sitting spikes or anti-skateboarding protrusions, and other design features sending the message that certain groups—most often the unhoused, or youth—are unwelcome to linger. He sells DESIGN CRIME sticker sheets and also gives them away to those who can only afford the postage.

Cara Chellew, formerly based in Toronto and now pursuing a Ph.D. in Urban Planning, Policy, and Design at McGill University in Montreal, is a public space advocate and researcher in the field of hostile design, which is also called defensive design or defensive urbanism. The map on her defensiveTO.com site documents public realm spaces and privately owned publicly accessible spaces (POPS)

CA jun 22.indd 50

throughout Toronto that manifest defensive urbanism. Sometimes it’s what’s not there is that makes the design defensive: “Maybe there was a spot in a parkette where there used to be benches, but they were later removed.” Chellew calls these subtractions “ghost amenities.”

Permanently out-of-service drinking fountains, locked or non-existent park washrooms, and ‘shade structures’ that filter sunlight but let rain flood through all have an impact on how shared outdoor space can be used—and who uses it.

What is defensive may also be disingenuous. Municipalities and POPS owners frequently justify central armrests as an aid to mobility-challenged individuals (and a means of preventing one person from monopolizing a bench). Ergonomists Chellew has consulted say that only some commonly used armrest styles and placement points actually assist people who have difficulty sitting or rising.

At a time when a burgeoning number of Canadians are unhoused or precariously housed, how can we create public spaces that people from all walks of life can comfortably share? Chellew raises the possibility of constructing service kiosks in urban parks, staffed by people with expertise in harm reduction and de-escalating conf lict, and

Cara Chellew’s defensiveTO website documents urban interventions that restrict behaviour, defending spaces against unwanted occupation by skateboarders and unhoused people. Such architecture “also makes the city more hostile for other vulnerable residents,” writes Chellew.

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providing resources such as needle disposal.

Nadia Galati, a principal at PROCESS, a Toronto-based engagement, communications and planning studio, cites deliberative engagement as a valuable industry tool. Galati leads the consultation process for park space and recreation facility redevelopment at Toronto’s Moss Park, a neighbourhood where lived experience and tax brackets vary considerably. PROCESS has a budget for paying members from typically underrepresented community sectors to participate in meetings, disseminate information within their communities, and obtain feedback. Payment at the highest participation level (project champion) is just under $2,000. Input collected by project champions and local champions is shared at formal public meetings—events that generally attract more affluent residents in disproportionate numbers. “Can you build empathy? Can you get to where people can see each other?” Galati asks. “I think if when you design, you think about the most vulnerable person in your community, you serve everyone, because then everybody’s needs are met.”

Pamela Young is a Toronto-based writer and communications manager.

2022-05-19 2:23 PM

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