Workun Garrick Partnership

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The Workun Garrick Partnership Celebrates 60 Years of Good Works by Design By: Mark Kandborg

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t’s often said that until a business has been around for five years, it can’t reasonably be described as a success. What about after 10? If you can survive that long, you’re probably on to something. At 20, you’re part of the community. At 40, you’re the one to beat. At 50, you’ve done business with succeeding generations. And at 60, well, you’ve built a legacy. This, in a nutshell, is the story of The Workun Garrick Partnership, one of the most venerable architecture and interior design firms ever to rise from the landscape of this great northern city, and they’re still going strong.

Architects Dave MacGregor and Robert Rabinovitch run the firm today, and they’re of one mind when it comes to what makes the Workun Garrick legacy so enduring. “When you talk about the firm and its history, it’s not just about the passage of

time,” Rabinovitch says. “It’s about how the values and philosophies that were established 60 years ago are still very much with us today. We commit our own time and effort to the projects.

That’s how the firm was established and run before we even got involved.”

“One of our philosophies is that a partner is front and centre right from day one, from the interview to the final inspection,” MacGregor explains. What this means is that when you commission Workun Garrick for a project, you won’t find yourself dealing with someone off the top whom you may never interact with again. “It does put a bit of a burden on us at times, but I think that’s one of the major contributors to our success.”

While Workun Garrick has designed all kinds of structures over the years, they’ve become particularly well known, you could

Dave MacGregor and Robert Rabinovitch.

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et while you or I may marvel at the visual impact of a Workun Garrick designed building or interior as we drive or walk by, MacGregor and Rabinovitch are especially interested in another kind of impact, the kind that these structures have on those who spend the most time in and around them. say, for their school work. “At last count the firm has done over 1,800 school projects in Alberta. That’s anything from a washroom upgrade to a $40 million school project, and over 400 of those, or nearly a quarter, have been done since 2000. We’ve always been known as the school architects.”

“We’ve maintained that as a strong focus,” Rabinovitch says, “but we’ve branched out beyond that, certainly.”

Branched out considerably, in fact, to recreational facilities, seniors’ facilities, and even condominiums. “Right now we do an extensive amount of work with the First Nations [bands], 32 of the 46 in Alberta. We’re currently building a large amphitheatre for the Fort Mackay Band, which will have the world’s northernmost cloth roof, designed by the same company that designed the Denver airport and the roof at B.C. Place in Vancouver.

MacGregor and Rabinovitch speak of their award winning firm with the easy, understated tone of those who don’t feel the need to sell themselves, and for good reason. But their disinterest in blatant self-promotion can make it easy to miss something pretty important: that their work is absolutely exceptional. Just take a look at the stunning recreation area in Sherwood Park’s magnificent Millennium Place. If you already have, you’ll remember it. Or the razor-like glass and steel addition to Archbishop Mac-

Donald Catholic High School, the intriguing Aboriginal Cultural Centre in Canada Place, the University of Alberta’s state-of-theart Arctic Resources Geochemistry Lab, or the City of Edmonton’s award winning Garrick’s Capilano Fire Hall #11, whose clean lines and forward-looking aesthetic would not look out of place on a gleaming Silicon Valley boulevard.

Yet while you or I may marvel at the visual impact of a Workun Garrick designed building or interior as we drive or walk by, MacGregor and Rabinovitch are especially interested in another kind of impact, the kind that these structures have on those who spend the most time in and around them.

“We both have a passion for architecture,” Rabinovitch says, “but the real reward is when you go into a school and you get comments about how kids want to go to school now. It’s a building type where you feel that you’re making a difference. There’s a certain satisfaction, especially in the rural communities where the school is the anchor of the community.”

MacGregor agrees. “There’s a major responsibility on our part to fulfill that. We know how important these buildings are for these areas and to the people associated with them.” This deep commitment and understanding of the importance of structures whose design you or I might take for granted is a major reason

Protostatix Engineering would like to congratulate the Workun Garrick Partnership on the occasion of their 60th Anniversary!

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that Workun Garrick regularly works with roughly 30 school boards all across the province. “They’re more than good colleagues now. They’re good colleagues and good friends.”

This quality of work doesn’t go unrecognized, of course. Each year, the Alberta Chapter of the Council of Educational Facility Planners hands out an award for outstanding achievement in two categories: new school and renovation. Workun Garrick has won one or the other award 14 times - in 14 years.

While some in their position might be tempted to spend an inordinate amount of time looking back to the accomplishments of their Workun Garrick predecessors or their own, you’re more likely to find MacGregor and Rabinovitch and their four talented associates looking forward to new possibilities.

“I started with drawing with pencils,” MacGregor recalls, “and building physical models. I used to keep all the old company business cards because it was perfect material to make models

out of. But when you glue a piece of cardboard it becomes a very hard and fast decision. Nowadays of course, all our projects are designed with 3-D modelling software. You can show your client from day one what they’re going to get. We walk into a finished space and we’ve seen it before.” The first time Workun Garrick used 3-D software was when they designed St. Joseph’s High School in Edmonton. “You’d plug in a view and the guy would go take a two week holiday while the computer would churn out an image. It was that slow.”

“Technology has been huge,” Rabinovitch agrees. “It helps us portray our vision to the client. It’s really changed the way we present our projects, and the way we work too. It’s even changed the amount of space we need for our office.”

“To give you an idea of how far we’ve come, when I started, the head of the drafting pool had the electric eraser,” MacGregor remembers, laughing. “It was a tool that looked like something a

Nakoda Elementary School.

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Congratulations to the Workun Garrick Par tnership o n t h e i r 6 0 th A n n i v e r s a r y !

7301-50 Avenue, B onny ville, Alber ta T9N 2P3 • Phone: 780-826-4450 • Fax: 780-826-2275 • w w w.genmec acl.com

Congratulations to the Workun Garrick Partnership on 60 years of success!

Specializing in: • New Buildings • Building Renovations • Commercial Construction • Industrial Construction 8055 Argyll Road NW Edmonton, AB T6C 4A9 Tel: 780-436-4381 Fax: 780-437-2766 E-mail: edm@krawford.com

Construction Managers General Contractors Design Builders

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Visit us at: krawford.com

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dentist would use.” But despite the changes they’ve seen in their industry, and will continue to see, MacGregor firmly believes that the core of the work will never change. “Building is building.

You still pull out all the materials and put it all together.”

Something else that will never change for David MacGregor and Robert Rabinovitch is their appreciation for the efforts of each member of the Workun Garrick team, past and present. “We owe our success to our staff,” Rab-inovitch says. “They’ve been with us many years and they’re extremely committed.”

“When you have only 20 or 25 people, you need to have people who are highly skilled and knowledgeable, in several aspects of service. In this profession you can’t know everything, but you can really be good at one or two things. So the trick is to try to develop a team that has all of those strengths.”

As if to illustrate the point by example, Rabinovitch adds a final, perfectly apt phrase: “To complement each other.”

We at Business in Edmonton congratulate The Workun Garrick Partnership on more than 1,800 school projects, an untold number of smiling kids and 60 years of building a legacy of excellence.

Suite 1200-10117 Jasper Ave NW Edmonton, AB T5J 1W8 (780) 428-1575 • workungarrick.com

Ta-Otha Community School.

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Congratulations to the Workun Garrick Partnership on 60 years!

Congratulations TWGP on 60 Great Years!

From our first project through John (Scotty) McIntosh in 1957 to our current work with TWGP, we truly appreciate the longevity of our relationship.

Best wishes from all of us here at Hemisphere Engineering!

Ph: 780-421-0333 • Fax: 780-421-0360 www.tri-tecinc.ca

Congratulations on your 60th anniversary!

JO Engineering is proud to play a part in your success.

Congrats on 60 years!! #201, 265 CARLETON DRIVE ST. ALBERT, AB T8N 4J9 Phone: 780-460-0441 Fax: 780-460-0443 www.johnstonbuilders.net

18162 - 102 Avenue Tel: 780 486-4478 Fax: 780 483-0197 www.joeng.ca

Congrat ulat ions to t he Wor k un G ar r ick Par t nership on 60 years of success.

108, 17707 - 105 Avenue NW • (780) 452-2740

Wishing you many more years of continued success!

For k itc h e n s t h a t n o t o n ly c o ok b u t s iz z le !

780. 414. 6116 • w w w. bur nstadconsulting. com T H E

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