OAA Awards 2017

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OAA AWARDS 2017

Ontario Association of Architects 111 Moatfield Drive Toronto, ON M3B 3L6 416.449.6898 www.oaa.on.ca PRODUCTION

Canadian Architect Published in May 2017 / Printed in Canada

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CONTENTS 9 10 72 134 138 144 150 156 160

President’s Message Design Excellence Winners Design Excellence Finalists Best Emerging Practice Concepts Landmark Designations Service Awards Juries Acknowledgements

DESIGN EXCELLENCE WINNERS

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Boulevard Club West Wing Replacement

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Centennial College Ashtonbee Campus Renewal

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Conestoga College Student Recreation Centre

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Eva’s Phoenix

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Mike & Ophelia Lazaridis Quantum-Nano Centre, University of Waterloo

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Queen Richmond Centre West, 134 Peter Street

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Teeple Architects Inc.

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MacLennan Jaunkalns Miller Architects Ltd.

MacLennan Jaunkalns Miller Architects Ltd.

LGA Architectural Partners (formerly Levitt Goodman Architects)

KPMB Architects

Sweeny &Co. Architects Inc. (formerly Sweeny Sterling Finlayson &Co. Architects Inc.)

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River City—Phase 1 & 2

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Rosemary Residence

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Story Pod

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Williams Parkway Operations Centre (Phase 1)

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Saucier + Perrotte Architectes / ZAS Architects Inc., in joint venture

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Kohn Shnier Architects

Atelier Kastelic Buffey Inc.

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Rounthwaite Dick & Hadley Architects Inc.

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DESIGN EXCELLENCE FINALISTS

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2015 Pan Am and ParaPan Am Games— BMX Supercross Legacy Track

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Core Modern Homes

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Kleinfeldt Mychajlowycz Architects Inc.

Batay-Csorba Architects (Design Architect) with Turner Fleischer Architects Inc. (Architect of Record)

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East Point Park Bird Sanctuary Pavilions

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Emerald Hills Leisure Centre

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PLANT Architect Inc.

MacLennan Jaunkalns Miller Architects (Design Architect) with Marshall Tittemore Architects (Architect of Record)

Great Plains Recreation Facility

MacLennan Jaunkalns Miller Architects (Design Architect) with Marshall Tittemore Architects (Architect of Record)

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104

Kawartha Trades and Technology Centre

128

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Meadowvale Community Centre and Library

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Nathan Phillips Square Revitalization

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Perkins+Will Canada Inc.

Perkins+Will Canada Inc.

PLANT Architect Inc. | Perkins+Will Canada Inc., Architects in joint venture, with Hoerr Schaudt Landscape Architecture and Adrian Blackwell Urban Projects

Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum

Teeple Architects Inc. in association with Architecture | Tkalcic Bengert

Ports 1961 Shanghai 128 UUFIE INC.

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BEST EMERGING PRACTICE

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blackLAB architects inc.

Best Emerging Practice Award

CONCEPTS

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Forwards and Backwards—Jennifer Davis and Jon Sasaki

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Shobuj Pata—Multi-Unit Residential Development—Studio JCI Inc.

Concepts Award

Concepts Award

LANDMARK DESIGNATION

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Ontario Science Centre

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The Fielding Memorial Chapel of St. Mark, Thorneloe University

Landmark Designation Award

Landmark Designation Award

SERVICE AWARDS

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J. William Birdsell

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Sheila Penny

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136

G. Randy Roberts Service Award

Order of da Vinci

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OA A AWA R D S 2017

It is my honour to present the 2017 OAA Award winners. The Awards program celebrates excellence in design and service to the profession. I hope that you will delight in viewing the buildings and ideas and meeting the individuals who together represent the best in Ontario architecture.

This year, more than 140 submissions were received. Collectively, they illustrate the diversity of work by members, in Ontario and throughout the world.

ONTARIO ASSOCIATION OF ARCHITECTS All the projects submitted for the Design Excellence Awards have shown how “architecture matters” in a wide range of communities.

The award-winning projects include libraries, places to live, offices, educational facilities, recreational facilities and multi-use complexes. While these examples are broad, they are united by their elegant and innovative response to the specific needs of each. They also clearly show how the best of Ontario architecture exemplifies the OAA’s vision to “create a safe and healthy built environment that performs at the highest levels and elevates the human spirit.”

I also want to draw your attention to the Best Emerging Practice Award that recognizes an architectural practice which is forging ahead with new business ideas that will lead and strengthen the profession into the future.

Architects are also celebrated for their contributions to the profession and to the membership. I invite you to read about the outstanding achievements of this year’s recipients of the G. Randy Roberts Service Award and the Order of Da Vinci.

On behalf of the OAA, congratulations to all this year’s OAA Award recipients, finalists and submitters for their extraordinary success in representing the best work and creativity of architects and architecture across the province.

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

John K. Stephenson OAA, MRAIC President

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The Boulevard Club West Wing Replacement is a two-storey addition to the historic sports and social club on Toronto’s western waterfront. The building circulation system wraps around the outside, bringing light and lake views to the experience of moving through the club, while simultaneously activating the façades.

The project’s dramatic roof is visible as a landmark from the water-side, and creates a folly-in-the-park from the land-side.

The complete building is a sculptural composition of three roofs, each representative of its era: the traditional roof of the early 20th-century centre block, the exuberant mid-century modern roof of the east wing, and the computer-generated curves of the 21st-century addition.

The unusual parti of the building results from limiting the building footprint to a tight boundary set by the existing club.

The expansion could not push past either the southern or northern limits of the club. In order to accomplish this difficult task, five badminton courts and a multipurpose gymnasium are lifted above the change rooms to the second floor, rather than spread out on-grade. The volumetrically large program is organized as a sculptural form on the tight site, while taking full advantage of the views to the lake and respecting the water views from the Parkdale neighbourhood to the north.

The building is clad in a high-albedo white aluminum standing seam cladding that is installed on thermally broken clips to minimize cold-bridging and maximize the effective R-value of the assembly. A daylighting glazing system is used to harvest natural light.

The new West Wing embodies the club’s strategy to attract the next generation of members by responding to the changing priorities of a younger demographic. Social spaces are fully integrated with the sports and fitness facilities. The addition also includes large family change rooms and new summer camp facilities.

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WINNER

BOULEVARD CLUB WEST WING REPLACEMENT TEEPLE ARCHITECTS INC.

JURY’S COMMENT

This new addition holds its own within a complex site of buildings of very different eras. Its strong form responds aptly to the program, while resolving the complex into a more coherent composition.

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PROJECT

Boulevard Club West Wing Replacement LOCATION

Toronto, Ontario COMPLETION

2017 BUDGET

Withheld AREA

29,000 ft2 CLIENT

The Boulevard Club ARCHITECT

Teeple Architects Inc. ARCHITECT TEAM

Stephen Teeple, Martin Baron, William Elsworthy, Wes Wilson, Sean Kennedy, Lang Cheng, Tanya Cazzin, Polly Auyeung STRUCTURAL

CPE Structural Consultants MECHANICAL / ELECTRICAL

Crossey Engineering LANDSCAPE

Scott Torrance Landscape Architect INTERIORS

Teeple Architects Inc. CONTRACTOR

Bird Construction CIVIL

Masongsong Associates Engineering GEOTECHNICAL

Terraprobe PHOTOGRAPHY

Scott Norsworthy

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Centennial College Ashtonbee Campus, the largest transportation technology school in Canada, required an expansion to accommodate its growing student population. A new library and student hub are at the centre of the project, providing fresh identity and vitality to the 1970s site. The renewal also includes campus planning, landscape implementation, a student wellness and recreation centre expansion, and extensive interior renovations of staff and teaching spaces.

The library and student hub forms the new face and arrival gateway of the campus. The program is partially contained in four trusses that bridge over a pedestrian and vehicular court, rendering the campus visible from the Eglinton East commercial strip and expressing the industrial character of its curriculum. The building and a new pedestrian promenade were the first steps in implementing a campus plan developed around a “complete streets” methodology.

From inside, a material palette of stainless steel and fritted glass creates a system of solid and void, allowing for ample daylight and unique views to the community. The building’s arrival and circulation areas spiral around a central suspended courtyard, spanning from ground to second floor. From outside, the kaleidoscopic campus entry engages pedestrian and vehicular traffic in a kinetic experience.

The challenge of designing a highly transparent building while meeting necessary energy-efficiency requirements was met through careful development of the envelope. This included the use of a premium triple-glazed curtain wall system, highly insulated wall and roof assemblies, and T5 and LED lighting fixtures with zoned daylight sensors. The curtain wall system incorporates a ceramic frit layer for summer heat reduction. In-floor radiant heating, advanced mechanical heat recovery, enhanced commissioning, and refrigerant management contributed to achieving energy costs 15 percent better than ASHRAE 90.1.

Since opening, the building has been lauded by students and staff for its high quality of light and space, as well as its diversity of learning spaces. Use of the library has increased by 200 percent. It is expected that this new environment will contribute to the attraction and retention of high-calibre students, staff and industry partners. The project allows for the functional connection of current and future buildings while creating an expressive, open face for the campus.

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WINNER

CENTENNIAL COLLEGE ASHTONBEE CAMPUS RENEWAL MACLENNAN JAUNKALNS MILLER ARCHITECTS

JURY’S COMMENT

This bold and simple scheme shows both toughness and austerity. It conveys a sincere, big building elegance, and addresses the car-dominated surroundings.

The underside of the building is clad in stainless steel—a successful articulation of an unusual condition. The project anticipates the future urbanism of the setting, and suggests a new precedent that may evolve in the future as adjacent shopping plazas, located on an LRT line, are redeveloped. It helps put Centennial on the map.

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PROJECT

Centennial College Ashtonbee Campus Renewal LOCATION

Toronto, Ontario COMPLETION

2014 BUDGET

$38 M AREA

87,000 ft2 CLIENT

Centennial College ARCHITECT

MacLennan Jaunkalns Miller Architects Ltd. (MJMA) ARCHITECT TEAM

Ted Watson, Robert Allen, David Miller, Viktors Jaunkalns, Andrew Filarski, Chris Burbidge, Leland Dadson, Tarisha Dolyniuk, Kyung Sun Hur, Afsaneh Tafazolli, Cathy McMahon, Kia Hotson, Andrew Ng, Nicole Tomasi STRUCTURAL

Blackwell Engineering MECHANICAL / ELECTRICAL

Smith + Andersen LANDSCAPE

PMA Landscape Architects INTERIORS

MacLennan Jaunkalns Miller Architects Ltd. (MJMA) PHOTOGRAPHY

Shai Gil

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The Conestoga College Student Recreation Centre project renovates and expands an aging facility, enhancing student life on campus and promoting healthy, active living.

The College’s existing recreation facility housed a gymnasium and an underused arena. The redesign updates the gym and repurposes the arena as a new triple-gym and track, with a large student commons and classrooms on a second-level concourse.

A new front addition contains a reception area, wellness centre, therapy rooms, and student rooms, with a fitness centre and multi-purpose studios above.

The original project brief called for demolishing the existing arena and replacing it with a pre-engineered building to house student and fitness spaces. Preliminary research determined that the existing double-parabola roof complex could be repurposed at lower cost, with the former arena space adaptively reused for additional gymnasia.

Because of earlier campus planning, the original recreation centre’s back side faced the campus, and its main entrance was on the opposite side. In the renewed building, the main entry is re-oriented to the campus, fronted by the lantern-like addition, and a new student plaza connects the revitalized building to its campus.

This configuration retains the iconic form of the original complex while the expansion presents a fresh, lighter face to the campus.

The decision to reuse the existing arena not only saves on capital costs, it retains a very beautiful and useful shell that is successfully repurposed. The existing areas are re-roofed and insulated for increased thermal performance. The renovation introduces natural light throughout the new gymnasium and running track to greatly reduce electrical lighting load. All glazing uses frit patterns to manage solar gain. The new plaza is designed with bioswale planting beds to manage hard surface runoff without the need for storm water sewer connections.

The transformation of a 35-year-old athletic facility into a vibrant fitness, wellness, and student activity complex is in harmony with the goals of modern academic institutions to encourage “fitness for life” over the traditional pursuit of pure athletics.

The revitalized Student Recreation Centre is visually open and projects out to the campus, displaying the activities within and inviting participation.

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WINNER

CONESTOGA COLLEGE STUDENT RECREATION CENTRE MACLENNAN JAUNKALNS MILLER ARCHITECTS LTD.

JURY’S COMMENT

This project combines the fine adaptive reuse of a heroic arena structure—retaining the volume and repurposing it—with a precisely detailed and very elegant new structure that adds program space while giving an urban face to the complex.

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PROJECT

Conestoga College Student Recreation Centre LOCATION

Kitchener, Ontario COMPLETION

2016 BUDGET

$17 M AREA

Existing: 27,500 ft2 New: 25,000 ft2 CLIENT

Conestoga College ARCHITECT

MacLennan Jaunkalns Miller Architects Ltd. (MJMA) ARCHITECT TEAM

David Miller, Robert Allen, Andrew Filarski, Viktors Jaunkalns, Tyler Walker, Dan Kronby, Mitchell May, Olga Pushkar, Kristin Ross, Kenyon Jin, Darlene Montgomery, Tarisha Dolyniuk, Woosuk An, Katya Tunon-Marshall, Jason Wah, Timothy Belanger, Razmig Titizian STRUCTURAL

Blackwell Engineering MECHANICAL / ELECTRICAL

SNC-Lavalin CIVIL

C.F. Crozier & Associates LANDSCAPE

MacLennan Jaunkalns Miller Architects Ltd. (MJMA) INTERIORS

MacLennan Jaunkalns Miller Architects Ltd. (MJMA) ARCHITECT OF ORIGINAL BUILDING

Jim Strasman Architects PHOTOGRAPHY

Shai Gil

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A neighbourhood within a building, Eva’s Phoenix is a 50-bed youth transitional housing, education and skills training centre.

Adaptively reusing a heritage-designated warehouse, the design is organized around an expansive atrium awash in daylight. Ten house-like residential units activate this main street, with sheltered entries and ground-level common areas rising to second-level private bedrooms, and support and counselling spaces on terraces above.

The project represents a courageous statement about inclusivity and equality in Toronto’s downtown core. Eva’s is the first element of the entire block’s redevelopment, which will include a food hall, YMCA, and condominium tower on the edge of an enhanced St. Andrew’s Park. An oasis unto itself, the design was sensitive to the residents’ need for a discreet outward appearance, while being considerate of the original building’s qualities and contributions to the neighbourhood.

The project is marked by a first-principles approach to sustainability, focused on resourcefulness and intensification as well as long-term durability and lifecycle costs. For instance, a decision was made to showcase the existing exposed brick and timber—materials otherwise unavailable at this budget. Future-proofing was emphasized through provisions to accommodate a possible addition, as well as planning for ease of alterations as needs change.

Residents arrive from unique circumstances to transition out of homelessness to independent living. Creating a safe, uplifting and boldly non-institutional space was critical to Eva’s success.

Key design aspects include a highly developed section that creates visibility and exposes the building’s vitality, and a carefully layered sequence between public, semi-public and private spaces that builds comfort as youth acclimatize and decide on their individual levels of participation. Staff and program areas are decentralized to encourage an ebb and flow of activity, and colours deployed to set a calming tone and to support wayfinding. The house-based format fosters life skills and interaction amongst roommates.

This is the fourth and most fully realized iteration of a precedent-setting shelter typology that the architects have refined and tested over two decades. Marking a significant departure from conventional shelters, its spatially sophisticated and articulate design is of a quality seldom seen in affordable housing. The project’s legacy lies in creating places that are impactful and socially relevant—regardless of user or circumstance—and in the statement it makes to the youth that they matter.

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WINNER

EVA’S PHOENIX LGA ARCHITECTURAL PARTNERS (FORMERLY LEVITT GOODMAN ARCHITECTS)

JURY’S COMMENT

This is a totally different kind of adaptive reuse project with a great message of positive transformation. Highlights include a protected, internal street allowing occupants to mix—turning a large and potentially difficult found space into a comfortable environment. This is community building at its best and a valuable prototype. More of these types of projects and these types of programs are needed.

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PROJECT

Eva’s Phoenix LOCATION

Toronto, Ontario COMPLETION

2016 BUDGET

$10.6 M STRUCTURAL AREA

Blackwell Structural Engineers

41,200 ft2 MECHANICAL / ELECTRICAL CLIENT

LAM & Associates

Eva’s Initiatives CIVIL ARCHITECT

LGA Architectural Partners (formerly Levitt Goodman Architects)

Fabian Papa and Partners LANDSCAPE

Scott Torrance Landscape Architect ARCHITECT TEAM

Dean Goodman (Partner-in-Charge), Janna Levitt (Partner-in-Charge), Drew Adams, Ian Huff, Jeanne Ng, Christie Pearson, Babak Taghikhani, Alex Tedesco

CONTRACTOR

Somerville Construction Management PROJECT MANAGER

Colliers Project Leaders CODE

David Hine Engineering SPECIFICATIONS

Don Shortreed HERITAGE CONSULTING

E.R.A. Architects Inc. ACOUSTICS

Aercoustics KITCHEN

Stan Payne HARDWARE CONSULTANT

Upper Canada Specialty Hardware PHOTOGRAPHY

Ben Rahn / A-Frame

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The Mike & Ophelia Lazaridis Quantum-Nano Centre is a five-storey, 260,000-square-foot building that houses the Institute for Quantum Computing, the Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology, and the University of Waterloo’s undergraduate program in nanotechnology engineering. The program accommodates 400 academics and features a 1,000-square-foot cleanroom, metrology suite, teaching and research laboratories, multipurpose auditorium, seminar rooms and offices. Fifty percent of the construction cost is in mechanical and electrical systems to achieve environments with low vibration, low electromagnetic interference and low radio frequency interference.

The Quantum-Nano Centre is the first facility in the world to combine the two disciplines of quantum physics and nanotechnology in one facility. Quantum physics deals with atomic and subatomic levels, where things can exist in two places at the same time. Nanotechnology deals with the fabrication and behaviour of materials, devices and systems of 100 nanometres or smaller.

The Institute for Quantum Computing is housed in a bar-volume, and its glass patterned façade plays on concepts of superpositioning. Conceptually inspired by the Newton Institute in Cambridge England, the design organizes lounge, office and meeting room spaces around an atrium.

The plan of the nanotechnology engineering component of the project is based on a traditional laboratory building. Its perimeter is supported by an exterior structural steel honeycomb, which is suspended from concealed steel trusses in the penthouse. The pattern is inspired by the intrinsically stable hexagonal carbon structure of the nanotube, and allows for column-free office space.

Creating a flexible lab environment was key to ensuring the building’s longevity and minimizing researcher-specific renovation.

Overall, the design prioritizes the human experience with access to fresh air, natural light, views, and most importantly, opportunities for social interaction throughout.

The project showcases Canadian innovation and industry in two cutting-edge fields that promise to transform the ways we live, work and play. The entire facility aims to realize the University’s vision to “attract the brightest minds in the world with an inspiring and state-of-the-art environment in which to work, collaborate and catalyze breakthroughs.”

Locally, this project raises the standards of design excellence and quality on the University of Waterloo campus. Globally, it demonstrates the significant role architecture has to play in moving the world in new directions of interdisciplinary research and innovation.

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WINNER

MIKE & OPHELIA LAZARIDIS QUANTUMNANO CENTRE, UNIVERSITY OF WATERLOO KPMB ARCHITECTS

JURY’S COMMENT

Two distinct programs are articulated differently, then combined through public gathering spaces that use light and a beautiful stair to make people linger. Connections between levels and wings become places for the exchange of ideas— an aspiration common to many contemporary buildings, but one that here is achieved through thoughtful design in an extremely well-executed project.

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PROJECT

Mike & Ophelia Lazaridis Quantum-Nano Centre, University of Waterloo LOCATION

STRUCTURAL

Waterloo, Ontario

Halsall Associates Ltd.

COMPLETION

MECHANICAL / ELECTRICAL

2012

H.H. Angus & Associates Ltd.

BUDGET

LANDSCAPE

$160 M

NAK Design Group

AREA

CONTRACTOR

285,000 ft2

Aecon Buildings

CLIENT

LABORATORY CONSULTANTS

University of Waterloo

HDR Architecture Inc.

ARCHITECT

CIVIL

KPMB Architects

Conestoga-Rovers & Associates

ARCHITECT TEAM

GEOTECHNICAL

Marianne McKenna (Partner-in-Charge), Mitchell Hall (Principal-in-Charge/Design Architect), Glenn MacMullin (Project Architect), Lucy Timbers (Project Architect), Nic Green, Sebastian Bartnicki, Jacki Chapel, Krista Clark, Virginia Fernandez, Omar Ghandi, Collin Gardner, Alexandra Gaudreau, Sabine Grimes, Takuma Handa, Fang Hsu, Ramon Janer, Lilly Liaukus, Bryn Marler, Elizabeth Paden, Olga Pushkar, Thom Seto, Roland Ulfig, Deborah Wang, Wendy Wisbrun, Garth Zimmer, Franรงois Brosseau, Alice Bowman

Chung & Vander Doelen Engineering Ltd. LIGHTING

Martin Conboy Lighting Design FIRE AND LIFE SAFETY

Leber Rubes Inc. ACOUSTICS

Aercoustics Engineering Ltd. VIBRATION CONSULTANT

Colin Gordon & Associates MICROCLIMATE

RWDI Inc. EMI / RFI CONSULTANT

Vitatech Electromagnetics A/V

Engineering Harmonics COST / QUANTITY SURVEYOR

Curran McCabe Ravindran Ross Inc. PHOTOGRAPHY

James Brittain (pages 38, 40); Doublespace Photography (pages 37, 39)

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Queen Richmond Centre West is the result of executing one bold idea—to deeply respect the past while embracing a positive urban and sustainable future. Asked to maximize the value of two factory sites at Richmond and Peter Streets in Toronto, the architect suggested retaining the two existing buildings and adding close to 300,000 square feet of net new office above them.

The factory buildings were adaptively reused as office space—one was totally restored and the other rebuilt within the original exterior walls. The architectural and structural engineering team created an aesthetically strong design solution that would then “lift” a new building above the existing factories.

Nicknamed “delta frames,” these seven-storey tall structures are the quintessential fusion of art-meets-science. The unique sculptural design of the delta frames is structurally efficient: each supports 80,000 kilograms of vertical load, and together, the frames also resolve the lateral loads.

The grand space between the historic buildings is designed as an urban atrium that extends the public realm in and through the building. The delta frames, supporting the new building above, lend a unique character to this space.

The project intensifies existing underutilized land within downtown Toronto on a site served by extensive infrastructure.

The entire development is targeting LEED Gold CS certification.

Sustainable features include exterior sunshades, daylight harvesting with computer-controlled motorized interior light shelves, a cistern for the collection and reuse of rainwater, heat recovery systems, and a reconfigurable raised floor system with under-floor HVAC and in-floor modular cabling.

The project was 97 percent leased before completion of construction. The architecture is about business success as much as it is about providing a measurably better new workplace. The design supports higher levels of productivity and foregrounds people as a company’s most important asset, rather than the cost of rent. The design leads rather than follows by creating a high-performance workplace of the future.

Queen Richmond Centre West is an example of how a creative, sensitive adaptive reuse approach and bold urban intensification can exist in harmony.

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WINNER

QUEEN RICHMOND CENTRE WEST, 134 PETER STREET SWEENY &CO. ARCHITECTS INC. (FORMERLY SWEENY STERLING FINLAYSON &CO. ARCHITECTS INC.)

JURY’S COMMENT

This project demonstrates a very positive and refined approach to heritage buildings, setting up a conversation between past and present. It is not typical of the recent Toronto heritage-retention formula, since the full depth of the warehouse at the corner is expressed and utilized. The new building’s bold structural strategy allows for an increased level of density while retaining much of what makes the corner interesting.

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PROJECT

Queen Richmond Centre West, 134 Peter Street LOCATION

Toronto, Ontario COMPLETION

2015 BUDGET

$85 M AREA

320,000 ft2 CLIENT

Allied Properties REIT ARCHITECT

Sweeny &Co. Architects Inc. (formerly Sweeny Sterling Finlayson &Co. Architects Inc.) ARCHITECT TEAM

Dermot Sweeny, John Gillanders, Noah Slater, Peter Kurkjian, BJ Smith, Rozalia Rajewski STRUCTURAL

Stephenson Engineering MECHANICAL

The Mitchell Partnership ELECTRICAL

Mulvey & Banani International LANDSCAPE

NAK Design INTERIORS

Sweeny &Co. Architects Inc. STRUCTURAL STEEL ENGINEER & FABRICATOR

Walters Group, Cast Connex CONTRACTOR

Eastern Construction PHOTOGRAPHY

Doublespace Photography

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The first residential neighbourhood within Toronto’s West Don Lands, River City is a striking marriage of sleek aesthetics and sustainable design. Comprised of four city blocks, this new neighbourhood will ultimately create 1000 residential units in what is becoming a green and sustainable community. Pedestrian-friendly streets, exceptional parks and public spaces are linked with an architecture inspired by flow, movement and continuity.

The development brings a bold response to its brownfield, post-industrial site stretching along the Don River, in an area framed by expressways. Its new residential units include townhouses, lofts, and condominium units in buildings five-storeyshigh and taller. Phase 1 is a darkly beautiful structure with a modern sensibility, and a nod to the industrial nature of the area’s past.

As a dramatic contrast to its edgy, dark exteriors, the sleek white design of Phase 2 stands as a luminescent jewel against the industrial feel of the buildings surrounding it.

The development opens onto waterfront pathways and one of the city’s most spectacular urban parks, Corktown Common, while simultaneously being steps from some of Toronto’s most vibrant and eclectic neighbourhoods. Its design presents a unique language and style combining dark and light, hard and soft, angular and curved.

River City is one of Toronto’s first LEED Gold, carbon-neutral residential developments. Significant steps have been taken to reduce the project’s carbon footprint from its inception, and to offset any remaining impacts.

Unlike many condominium developments in the city, River City is not investor-driven, but rather was developed to appeal to owners and families who would occupy their purchased units.

This was accomplished by creating wholly individual residences; virtually no two units in the development are exactly the same.

The result was a consistent sales pattern throughout the pre-construction launch and greater financial certainty for the developer.

River City’s buildings are expressions of architectural variety within a framework of sober-minded city planning. The midsized profile of the structures strikes the right scale in a district of warehouses and factories. The expanses of smoke-tinted glass in dark aluminum frames, the balanced opacity and transparency of the façades, the hard geometry of the buildings—all help ease River City into its neighbourhood, and give it aesthetic unity.

The project spurs other developers to raise the level of residential design in the local neighbourhood and the city as a whole.

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WINNER

RIVER CITY— PHASE 1 & 2

SAUCIER + PERROTTE ARCHITECTES / ZAS ARCHITECTS INC.,

IN JOINT VENTURE

JURY’S COMMENT

This is large-scale city building at its best. The project has transformed a raw and difficult site in a very positive way, addressing the adjacent (but often forgotten) Don River. Highly resolved in its architecture and urban design, River City shows how profit and innovation can go hand-in-hand. In a city where the bulk of new construction is condominiums, it speaks to the role of developers as the builders of cities, and emphasizes the importance of architects in the development and design process.

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PROJECT

River City ‐ Phase 1 & 2 LOCATION

Toronto, Ontario COMPLETION

2015 BUDGET

$140 M AREA

50,455 m2 CLIENT

Urban Capital ARCHITECTS

Saucier + Perrotte Architectes / ZAS Architects Inc., in joint venture ARCHITECT TEAM

Andre Perrotte, Paul Stevens, Gilles Saucier, Peter Duckworth-Pilkington, Guy D’Alesio, Olivier Krieger, Marie-Eve Primeau, Greg Neudorf, Patrick Bisson, Dominique Dumais, Lia Ruccolo, Yutaro Minagawa, David Moreaux, Guillaume Sasseville, Yves de Fontenay STRUCTURAL

Adjeleian Allen Rubeli Limited MECHANICAL / ELECTRICAL

Smith + Andersen LANDSCAPE

The Planning Partnership INTERIORS

Saucier + Perrotte Architectes SUSTAINABILITY

WSP / MMM Group Limited CONTRACTOR

Bluescape Construction Management Inc. PHOTOGRAPHY

Jose Uribe

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Rosemary Residence is a new home for a young family with two working parents and three children. The new house replaces an existing house on a conventional midtown residential lot in Toronto. Similar in area to the original home, the new design emphasizes fluid relationships between shared family spaces, both indoor and outdoor.

The design encourages modern family living that is interactive, open to choices, and accommodating of growth. This is achieved by planning for living, working and playing in spaces that are zoned, yet not necessarily enclosed. Circulation includes continuous loops and visual overlook, providing endless running space for children and continuous contact between family members.

A unique pleated ceiling element creates dynamic movement throughout the volume. This contrasts with the simple nature of the spaces in plan. Simultaneously, the ceiling performs acoustically, and incorporates ambient and task lighting for the family’s large art collection.

The compact stacked footprint of the house permits the use of robust, high-quality materials and products within the budget. The modest two-storey mass of the house also sits unobtrusively within the neighbourhood. While it is distinct from its pseudo-Tudor neighbours, it is neither overshadowed nor dominant in that distinction. It is set back slightly further than the original house, to better align with its neighbours.

On the exterior, the innovative use of custom solid limestone masonry is tonally sympathetic with other homes, yet demonstrates how contemporary design can contribute difference.

The exaggerated horizontal coursing and subtle pleating of the limestone masonry ensures that the house is distinct without being ostentatious or trendy.

The existing trees on the property have been preserved.

The healthy ash tree in the back yard, around which the east elevation unfolds, has been carefully pre-treated to protect against the emerald ash borer.

As a counterpoint to much larger homes being built in the neighbourhood, this modern home encourages ample living in smaller, flexible spaces. The design seeks to find the “sweet spot” between formal innovations that break with the conventional boundaries of its neighbours, while respecting the essential qualities of its context. It is innovative and assertive, yet modest and familiar.

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WINNER

ROSEMARY RESIDENCE KOHN SHNIER ARCHITECTS

JURY’S COMMENT

A highly sophisticated urban residence. Interest is created in the way the plan and vertical spaces are interwoven: the architecture achieves an interior that feels serene and comfortable, but is imbued with spatial complexity that will continue to reveal itself over time. The interior detailing—including a variety of complementary materials and the playful use of mirrors—is immaculate.

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PROJECT

Rosemary Residence LOCATION

Toronto, Ontario COMPLETION

2016 BUDGET

Withheld AREA

287 m2 CLIENT

Private ARCHITECT

Kohn Shnier Architects ARCHITECT TEAM

John Shnier, Amin Ibrahim, Stephanie Vermeulen STRUCTURAL

Blackwell Engineering LANDSCAPE

Artistic Gardens INTERIORS

Kohn Shnier Architects CONTRACTOR

MDK Construction PHOTOGRAPHY

Doublespace Photography

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The Story Pod is a seasonal, community-supported book sharing library. Conceived through a partnership between the Town of Newmarket, the architects, and local business HollisWealth, it fosters and promotes inclusiveness, education and social exchange within the community.

Compactness, transportability, energy efficiency and ease of construction informed the design of a pure, simple form with maximum capacity and impact. During the day, two walls pivot open to reveal levels of built-in seating and bookshelves. The pod extends itself outwards beyond its compact footprint to engage the public and draw curiosity and interest inward. As users move around it, the rhythm and density of its vertical exterior battens changes, allowing light and views to filter through. When closed in the evenings, the abstract black volume acts as a distinct urban marker.

The pod is located at the southern edge of Riverwalk Commons, a prominent civic square close to Main Street, Fairy Lake Park and a series of walking trails. With abundant pedestrian activity along the trails and at seasonal farmers markets and festivals in the square, the pod feeds off the existing context. It simultaneously provides a complementary layer of interaction, acting as a social condenser for communal gathering and as a platform for independent reading.

Considered a net-zero structure, the pod is lit by interior LED lights, powered by a rooftop solar panel. These provide illumination during active use and an ambient glow from within when the pod is closed at night. Made from locally sourced, standard dimensional lumber, the project was prefabricated offsite in the Newmarket Public Works facility, minimizing waste. The compact size and simplified form of the pod allows for ease of transportation to the site for the summer, and into indoor storage for the winter.

The project’s ethos of community stems from the roots of its development process and the collaboration of everyone involved. It was made possible through a generous donation from local business HollisWealth, pro-bono design services from the architects, and the volunteers from Newmarket Public Works staff who fabricated it.

The Story Pod has been an unprecedented success for the Town of Newmarket in its effect on the community—evident through shared stories of gratitude and inspiration, and a clear sense of pride in ownership. It has been shared extensively on social media and has prompted the development of a Story Pod Version 2.0. Small in scale and modest in its means and materiality, the pod demonstrates the value of public-private partnerships and the tremendous impact that a small structure can have on an urban scale.

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WINNER

STORY POD ATELIER KASTELIC BUFFEY INC.

JURY’S COMMENT

Realized on a shoestring budget with open-ended parameters, this became a very challenging project. It is nevertheless successful in design terms, and amply demonstrates how architecture can reach a broader population with the use of limited resources. It suggests how small offices can make an impact on society, and shows how little things can make a city better.

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PROJECT

Story Pod LOCATION

Newmarket, Ontario COMPLETION

2015 BUDGET

Withheld AREA

64 ft2 CLIENT

Town of Newmarket ARCHITECT

Atelier Kastelic Buffey Inc. ARCHITECT TEAM

Kelly Buffey (Principal Architect), Robert Kastelic (Principal Architect), Aaron Finbow (Project Architect) FINANCIAL DONOR

Holliswealth PHOTOGRAPHY

Shai Gil (pages 61, 64; page 62 top photo); Bob Gundu (page 62 bottom photo; page 63)

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Surrounded by low-rise industrial suburban development, the Williams Parkway Operations Centre aims to set a new benchmark for architectural refinement in its setting, and to raise the bar for the operations centre typology.

The project replaces an aging complex on an adjacent overlapping site. Phasing allows for the gradual changeover and decommissioning of the existing facility with no break in operations. Phase 1, completed in 2015, comprises the public side of the project, and includes a two-storey, 3,700-square-metre office building, staff and public parking, a garden and event terrace, and significant green space. A second phase, encompassing the works yard, is currently under construction.

In contrast with the typical front-office-versus-back-warehouse arrangement, the composition seamlessly integrates the building’s administrative and workshop components. A two-storey glazed linear atrium forms a spine running the length of the building. This double-height connector fosters improved communication between office staff, outdoor workers, tradespeople and visitors, while eliminating the implied hierarchy of office and workshop spaces that is often seen in municipal operations facilities. The atrium will be extended in Phase 2, giving formal cohesiveness to the entire complex.

To engage the street—a busy thoroughfare near a suburban residential development—the main building features plentiful glazing and a cantilevered second-storey board room. The site’s security fence only partially obscures the activity in the works yard beyond, promoting public engagement. This secure but transparent approach is practical, while demonstrating sensitivity to the community.

Leading by example, the project demonstrates how public facilities can commit to sustainable stewardship. Contributing features to the project’s projected LEED Gold certification include geothermal heating and cooling, a storm water retention pond, an extensive green roof, external solar shading, solar-powered site lighting, and provisions for electric vehicles.

The design of the Williams Parkway Operations Centre focuses on transparency and material warmth—qualities not often associated with municipal operations centres. The result is a high-quality, stimulating environment for the City’s workers, and a facility that engages the public by making its inner workings visible to the street.

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WINNER

WILLIAMS PARKWAY OPERATIONS CENTRE (PHASE 1) ROUNTHWAITE DICK & HADLEY ARCHITECTS INC.

JURY’S COMMENT

This could have easily been a very anonymous building, but the architect has turned it into something very positive. The project had a very strong exterior expression—so strong in fact, that when one of the jury members drove by, he pulled over, stopped and checked out the building.

It is simple and bold.

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PROJECT

Williams Parkway Operations Centre (Phase 1) LOCATION

Brampton, Ontario COMPLETION

2015 BUDGET

$11.9 M AREA

3,700 m2 CLIENT

City of Brampton ARCHITECT

Rounthwaite Dick & Hadley Architects Inc. ARCHITECT TEAM

Bob Goyeche (Managing Partner), Geoff Miller (Design Partner), Dan Herljevic (Project Manager), Tony Lopes, Sanjoy Pal, Shelley Vanderwal, Soo-Jin Rim, Tyler Walker STRUCTURAL / MECHANICAL / ELECTRICAL

exp LANDSCAPE

NAK Design Group INTERIORS

RDHA CONTRACTOR

Elite Construction CIVIL

exp LEED

Opresnik Engineering Consultants PHOTOGRAPHY

Tom Arban

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The BMX Supercross Legacy Project is difficult to categorize. It is a park structure that accommodates storage needs. It includes two permanent start ramps for BMX supercross events—10 metres and 5 metres high respectively. It pairs a permanent, concrete and steel-screened structure with a 517-metre, ephemeral dirt track.

It also includes a board-formed retaining wall over 27 metres in length and ranging in height from 0.5 to 6 metres. It is an object in a landscape and a landscape on its own.

The project is located in Centennial Park, a large and active recreational area on a public transit route in Toronto, and is visible from Eglinton Avenue. Originally constructed for the Toronto Pan Am and ParaPan Am Games in 2015, it is designed to the exacting standards of the Union Cycliste Internationale certification board. Tracks built to this benchmark are relatively recent: BMX first became a medal sport at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. There are few BMX tracks that have a permanent start ramp structure, and of these, most are of steel construction.

For this legacy structure, the use of both concrete and steel ensured a robust building that would withstand heavy public use. The facility gives a permanent training home to the Canadian BMX community, as well as inviting use from locals. Because it has two start gates, the track can be used by children as young as five years old and Olympian bikers alike.

The site, which was determined in advance of the design, was found to be a low elevation point with an enormous drainage catchment area. Architectural, structural and civil engineering interventions mitigated the drawbacks to building a dirt track on these swampy grounds. Flows were managed to allow the track to be dry within 30 minutes of rain. The outflowing water quality had to satisfy the requirements of the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority because a designated wetland area lies immediately to the south.

The aesthetics of concrete allowed the programmatic components of storage, start ramps and retaining walls to be each expressed as distinct architectural elements within a single form.

Board-formed concrete, prefinished concrete block and smoothfaced framing members were employed to add to the project’s material language. The durable steel pipe armature gives transparency and patterning to the object. The full complement of elements elevates the sport of BMX, while creating an architectural sculpture in the landscape.

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FINALIST

2015 PAN AM AND PARAPAN AM GAMES—BMX SUPERCROSS LEGACY TRACK KLEINFELDT MYCHAJLOWYCZ ARCHITECTS INC.

JURY’S COMMENT

This structure is well integrated with the landscape. Its play with lightness and heaviness is appreciated, as expressed by the contrast between its weighty base and the lightness of the trellis.

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PROJECT

2015 Pan Am and ParaPan Am Games— BMX Supercross Legacy Track LOCATION

Centennial Park, Toronto, Ontario COMPLETION

2015 BUDGET

$4 M AREA

575 m2 built form; 2.55 hectare site area CLIENT

City of Toronto ARCHITECT

Kleinfeldt Mychajlowycz Architects Inc. ARCHITECT TEAM

Carol Kleinfeldt, Roman Mychajlowycz, Gerald Lambers, Chris Torres STRUCTURAL

Halsall Associates (WSP) ELECTRICAL

Smith & Andersen LANDSCAPE

Arium Design Group CONTRACTOR

Gateman Milloy Inc. TRACK DESIGN CONSULTANT

Elite Trax Inc. CIVIL

EMC Group PHOTOGRAPHY

Scott Norsworthy

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Located on Eglinton Avenue in Toronto, Core Modern Homes is a corner-lot development that combines environmental performance with a constantly evolving visual experience. The street façades are animated with large perspectival windows that maximize natural light and ventilation throughout each floor, while extending the visual limits of the dwellings to embrace the primary view corridors of the site.

The project uses both surface and volume to respond to the neighbourhood. The diagonally shifted and cantilevered planes of the façades provide visual movement, changing the building’s reading dramatically as people pass by from different directions. The development also sensitively engages its siting on a street corner, breaking up as it rounds the bend to transition in scale. On the busy public street, it forms a more massive volume, while on the quieter residential street, it takes on a smaller and more intimate volume.

Because of the low ratio of floor-space-to-height in each unit, natural ventilation and daylighting were critical to the design. Each floor was designed to be as open as possible from one end to the other, with large operable windows at the extremities to allow plenty of light and airflow. Bespoke interior features include a front-to-back, built-in storage wall that incorporates cabinetry, counter space, and a steel fireplace.

The client expressed the desire to create a bold building that stood out from other townhouse developments in the city, while still forming an appropriate relationship to its context. The façade’s sculpted windows of brick and wood panelling draw on the material palette of neighbouring buildings, while distinguishing the project from typical boxy townhouse developments.

Core Modern Homes offers an example of how a large townhouse development can sensitively straddle busy thoroughfares and quiet residential streets, and how thoughtful design can project a daring image while maintaining a level of contextual responsiveness. In many cities, managing difference of scale in tight quarters is of critical importance. This project uses simple but pointed volumetric gestures to reduce the building’s mass, lending it a transitional scale that does not overwhelm the neighbouring single-family homes. The resulting design is powerful, but still fits in.

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FINALIST

CORE MODERN HOMES BATAY-CSORBA ARCHITECTS (DESIGN ARCHITECT) WITH TURNER FLEISCHER ARCHITECTS INC. (ARCHITECT OF RECORD)

JURY’S COMMENT

It would be much better if Toronto had more of these sixto eight-unit developments on lots of this size, instead of the typical two houses. The project has nice, simple brick details. For a “commodity” type of product, it exhibits an impressive level of detailing.

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PROJECT

Core Modern Homes LOCATION

Toronto, Ontario COMPLETION

2016 BUDGET

Withheld STRUCTURAL AREA

Stephenson Engineering Ltd.

1,452 m2 MECHANICAL CLIENT

SNC Lavalin

Mazenga Building Group ELECTRICAL DESIGN ARCHITECT FOR INTERIOR AND EXTERIOR DESIGN

Hammerschlag + Joffe Inc.

Batay-Csorba Architects LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT OF RECORD

M&M Landscape Design Consultants

Turner Fleischer Architects Inc. INTERIORS ARCHITECT TEAM

Batay-Csorba Architects

Batay-Csorba Architects—Andrew Batay-Csorba, Jodi Batay-Csorba Turner Fleischer Architects Inc.—John Chow, Kojo La-Anyane

Mazenga Building Group Ltd.— Erik Bornstein, Project Manager

CONTRACTOR

DEVELOPER

Core Developments JOINT VENTURE PARTNER

Symbiotic Living SITE SERVICE

Politis Engineering Ltd. GEOTECHNICAL

Toronto Inspection Ltd. ENERGY CONSULTANT

Buchan, Lawton, Parent Ltd. CODE CONSULTANT

David Hine Engineering Inc. PHOTOGRAPHY

Doublespace Photography

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Two new pavilions at East Point Park Bird Sanctuary use architecture as a means of framing one of Toronto’s most beautiful parks, while enhancing the pleasures of birding for visitors of all ages and levels of experience.

Folded into angular shapes evocative of flight, sheets of weathering steel form the pavilions for this wooded park. Waterjet-cut through the Viewing Pavilion’s walls are clouds of birds in flight above the names of the species that frequent this migratory stopover site. The Bird Blind’s waterjet-cut graphics mimic the sunlight and shadow patterns of the adjacent poplar grove.

East Point Park is situated on the Scarborough Bluffs, high above Lake Ontario. Split into inversely symmetrical halves that share a concrete podium, the Viewing Pavilion was designed and oriented to provide optimal, complementary views: intimate, close-up perspectives on a pond, and lofty, expansive views of Lake Ontario that stretch to the shimmering horizon. The Bird Blind partially encloses visitors, and its openings are at heights that allow children and adults to observe birds on the pond unobtrusively, but at close range. The pavilions’ small footprint and their strategic placement within a walking circuit encourage exploration of a large park.

The minimalist materials palette—weathering steel, concrete and galvanized grating—was chosen for durability and minimal environmental impact. The small size of the pavilions ensures that the vast majority of East Point’s mix of natural and naturalized landscape is devoted to wildlife.

The pavilions, along with the new and rehabilitated paths connecting them, are part of a citywide Toronto initiative to enhance and protect bird habitat and increase birding activity through public education and programming. In addition to the completed Viewing Pavilion and Bird Blind, a Soundscape Pavilion will be added in the next phase of construction. Visitors sitting quietly within this enclosure will be able to savour the sounds of a forest alive with birdsong.

Although weathering steel has a wonderful texture when new, it becomes even more beautiful over long-term exposure to the elements. The strength of this project lies in its simplicity, its evocation of flight, and its sensitivity to its context.

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FINALIST

EAST POINT PARK BIRD SANCTUARY PAVILIONS PLANT ARCHITECT INC.

JURY’S COMMENT

The City of Toronto is to be applauded for funding and encouraging this type of project, which uses architecture on a modest scale to create a sense of place. This is really public art— it talks to larger issues and shows how small pieces can create a bigger whole.

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PROJECT

East Point Park Bird Sanctuary Pavilions LOCATION

Toronto, Ontario COMPLETION

2015 BUDGET

$650,000 AREA

915 ft2 CLIENT

City of Toronto ARCHITECT

PLANT Architect Inc. ARCHITECT TEAM

Mary Tremain, Chris Pommer, Lauren Barhydt, Jason van der Burg, Yiu-Bun Chan, Vanessa Eickhoff, Jeremy McGregor STRUCTURAL

Blackwell LANDSCAPE

PLANT Architect Inc. CONTRACTOR

Hawkins Contracting Services Inc. STEEL WORK

Iron Bridge Fabrication PHOTOGRAPHY

Steven Evans Photography

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Emerald Hills Leisure Centre is a new 57,000-square-foot aquatic facility in Strathcona County, Edmonton, that caters to leisure, therapeutic and learn-to-swim programming. It includes a 6-lane, 24-metre lap pool, therapy pool, tot pool, whirlpool and steam room. The facility is conjoined to an existing Catholic high school, with which it holds an operating partnership to provide a shared community centre as well as aquatic programming for students.

Formally, the building is a simple and affordable “big box” volume designed to have a sense of lightness and dynamic movement. Its trapezoidal plan maximizes the buildable footprint to the site setbacks. The monoslope roof drains diagonally to allow for a large natatorium volume, as well as clerestory daylighting to the rear courtyard. From the exterior, triangulated white standing seam panels and windows float above a black precast base. The geometric theme continues inside, with faceted acoustic surfaces above a hexagonally tiled black base. High-performing acoustics allow for simultaneous sessions in adjacent basins with fully audible instructors. The result is a serene, unified space.

The school’s existing gymnasia, auditoria and classrooms are shared with the aquatic centre to create a vibrant social hub that can be used by the greater community after school hours. The building’s placement frames a landscaped internal courtyard that can be viewed from both the school and the aquatic centre.

The facility was designed to meet LEED Silver, ARCA and PERSIST standards. Responding to the northern Alberta climate, the building’s triple-glazed openings are minimized to four strategic locations and shaped to maximize their effect. The glazing is located low adjacent to the pool deck for views to landscaped areas to the west, and high on the front elevation to bounce light off the ceiling structure, resulting in maximum low-glare lighting distribution.

Accessibility and inclusivity were high priorities: all of the pools have ramps, and the teaching pool includes a movable floor.

Highly transparent universal change rooms and advanced accessible change rooms will set the bar for future facilities in the county.

The facility’s saltwater Wapotec filtration system from Germany has a lower-than-normal chlorine requirement.

Emerald Hill Leisure Centre offers a model for partnerships between schools and wellness facilities to promote indoor and outdoor recreation and health. The county maximizes use of both the pool and the school, and sees potential to also use the facilities for rehabilitation and therapy in partnership with a nearby hospital complex.

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FINALIST

EMERALD HILLS LEISURE CENTRE MACLENNAN JAUNKALNS MILLER ARCHITECTS LTD. (DESIGN ARCHITECT) WITH MARSHALL TITTEMORE ARCHITECTS (ARCHITECT OF RECORD)

JURY’S COMMENT

This project is a striking geometric sculpture. It is formally compelling, and an effective response to a greenfield site that provides little context for new architecture.

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PROJECT

Emerald Hills Leisure Centre LOCATION

Sherwood Park, Alberta COMPLETION

2016 BUDGET

$26 M AREA

57,000 ft2 CLIENT

Strathcona County DESIGN ARCHITECT

MacLennan Jaunkalns Miller Architects Ltd. (MJMA) ARCHITECT OF RECORD

MTA (Marshall Tittemore Architects) ARCHITECT TEAM

MJMA—Viktors Jaunkalns, Ted Watson, Andrew Filarski, Robert Allen, David Miller, Cathy McMahon, Tarisha Dolyniuk, Andrew Bramm, Jason Wah, Kenyon Jin, Katya Tunon-Marshall, Timothy Belanger, Amanda Chong MTA—Tom Tittemore, Bill Vance STRUCTURAL

Read Jones Christoffersen MECHANICAL / ELECTRICAL

Smith + Andersen CIVIL / LANDSCAPE

ISL Engineers INTERIORS

MacLennan Jaunkalns Miller Architects Ltd. (MJMA) PHOTOGRAPHY

Shai Gil

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Located on Calgary’s eastern edge, the Great Plains Recreation Facility features two multipurpose rinks along with a provision for a future twin-pad addition. It brings together ice sport enthusiasts for hockey, sledge hockey, ringette and figure skating.

This project inverts the typical planning of the twin-pad rink to create a true civic hub. A standard arena places the team rooms at the center of the facility, with seating above or on the perimeter, and diffuse social spaces. By instead placing the change rooms at the periphery, a central social space is created at the heart of the building. Pierced by skylights, this contiguous warmside-coldside viewing area becomes a light-filled, uplifting place for gathering.

The torqued hexagonal plan responds to the site. The perimeter defines the volume of the lower building, which includes changerooms, mechanical, and administrative areas. The higher arena volumes are connected as a single hexagon, enclosing screened mechanical spaces. The south and north upper façades allow for controlled clerestory light to the rinks, while skylights illuminate the central social space.

A bright orange extrusion marks the entrance, mimicking the colour of a low prairie sunset. Inside, internally illuminated orange HDPE panels are used to frame the two change room entrances.

The Great Plains Recreation Facility elevates the architectural expression within a light industrial area and sets an example for subsequent developments. The building is bermed into its landscape, integrating the built mass with the earth. The façades are layered and dematerialized upward, from black to zinc to white, with glazed panelling blending with the sky.

As mandated by the City of Calgary, the project targets LEED Gold certification. The landscape design includes storm water management strategies and resilient planting that exceeds City standards. Particular attention has been focused on reducing water use and on storm water retention. As this building type is a large user of energy for process loads, the recovery and reuse of heat was a focus for the mechanical systems design.

Strategies include domestic water preheating, underslab hydronic heating, and air preheating.

Anticipating the City’s future recreational needs, the project allows for expansion with a second twin-pad arena within the site. A quad-pad complex would be created by flipping and mirroring the current building, and adding a second arrival forecourt. The internal plan would include a central lobby around an elevated restaurant.

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GREAT PLAINS RECREATION FACILITY MACLENNAN JAUNKALNS MILLER ARCHITECTS LTD. (DESIGN ARCHITECT) WITH MARSHALL TITTEMORE ARCHITECTS (ARCHITECT OF RECORD)

JURY’S COMMENT

The sculptural, striking elevation is gutsy and bold, while also having an origami-like thinness.

The architects used a vast amount of material to enclose the building, but in a strong and simple manner. This is a worthy public building that helps create a sense of community.

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PROJECT

Great Plains Recreation Facility LOCATION

Calgary, Alberta COMPLETION

2016 BUDGET

$24.7 M STRUCTURAL AREA

Read Jones Christoffersen

80,000 ft2 MECHANICAL CLIENT

SNC-Lavalin

City of Calgary ELECTRICAL DESIGN ARCHITECT

SRA

MacLennan Jaunkalns Miller Architects Ltd. (MJMA) LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT OF RECORD

IBI Landplan

MTA (Marshall Tittemore Architects) CIVIL ARCHITECT TEAM

MJMA—Viktors Jaunkalns, Ted Watson, Andrew Filarski, David Miller, Robert Allen, Janice Lee, Tarisha Dolyniuk, Andrew Bramm, Woosuk An, Jason Wah, Luis Arredondo, Phillip Wharton, Siri Ursin, Mitchell May, Timothy Belanger MTA—Tom Tittemore, Coben Christiansen

Urban Systems ICE SPECIALISTS

Thermocard LEED

Mission Green Buildings INTERIORS

MacLennan Jaunkalns Miller Architects Ltd. (MJMA) PHOTOGRAPHY

Shai Gil

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The Kawartha Trades and Technology Centre brings together theoretical teaching and applied learning in a dynamic environment that emphasizes program visibility, technology, collaborative learning and the simulation of real-world conditions.

The building creates an immersive teaching environment by demonstrating best practices in construction and sustainability, and displaying its own building systems and components in exciting new ways. This is exemplified in the exposed systems throughout the workshop areas, including a triple-height “learning factory,” the central focus of the building. A four-storey “teaching cube” simulates the environment of a construction site, allowing various trades to work side-by-side at height within a series of open terraces.

The initial planning of the project was carried out in tandem with the overall campus master plan development. A courtyard, originally dedicated to the campus pub, was reimagined as a flexible event space and outdoor seating area, shared between the new centre and the main student commons. This has dramatically increased the use of the space and helped further meld academic and student life functions of the campus.

The building implements a range of integrated water, energy and resource conservation strategies. These are demonstrated both through the building’s passive approaches to siting, natural daylighting, and storm water management, and through active systems such as its high-efficiency lighting, SMART controls and integrated heat recovery systems. The building is targeting LEED Gold certification.

The project is also driven by the College’s mandate of “finding new pathways to learning” through partnerships with private industry. These partnerships have helped build a collaborative culture of experiential and entrepreneurial learning. This culture has informed new types of flexible project spaces and a corporate classroom for on-site demonstration. It has also resulted in increased focus on technology integration. The Centre’s close affiliation between training and employment has dramatically boosted enrollment, helped identify new revenue streams for the College, and played a role in stimulating job growth in the surrounding Kawartha region.

The didactic nature of the building facilitates new opportunities in the programs and teaching curriculum, providing students an active role in building operation monitoring. This didactic role is further reinforced through the provision of a fully accessible teaching terrace on the roof, which has been designed to be fitted out with a green roof, wind turbines and PV array. This feature, in combination with the College’s strong commitment to sustainable material purchasing and recycling, has helped further engender a culture of environmental awareness and stewardship among the students.

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KAWARTHA TRADES AND TECHNOLOGY CENTRE PERKINS+WILL CANADA INC.

JURY’S COMMENT

This building’s strong gesture and use of materials are to be applauded. Further, the creation of hybrid classroom-factory spaces for learning that foster collaboration, interdisciplinarity, and flexible configurations signal architecture’s possible role in future education and manufacturing facilities.

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PROJECT

Kawartha Trades and Technology Centre LOCATION

Fleming College, Peterborough, Ontario COMPLETION

2012 BUDGET

$35 M (construction cost) STRUCTURAL AREA

Stephenson Engineering Limited

87,000 ft2 MECHANICAL / ELECTRICAL CLIENT

MCW Consultants Ltd.

Fleming College LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT

Fleisher Ridout Partnership Inc.

Perkins+Will Canada Inc. CONTRACTOR ARCHITECT TEAM

D’Arcy Arthurs (Managing Principal), Duff Balmer (Design Principal), Jan-Willem Gritters (Project Architect)

Elite Construction Inc. CIVIL

D.M. Willis Associates Ltd. LIFE SAFETY / CODE CONSULTANT

Jensen Hughes Inc. COST

A.W. Hooker Associates Ltd. LEED

Provident Energy Management RACKING

Johnson Equipment SPECIFICATIONS

DGS Consulting Services PHOTOGRAPHY

Tom Arban (page 107 bottom photo, page 108); Scott Norsworthy (pages 105, 106; page 107 top photo)

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The Meadowvale Community Centre and Library is located at the heart of a transforming neighbourhood in the City of Mississauga. In the mid-1970s, Meadowvale was conceived as a large residential subdivision with homes, schools, and a community centre surrounding a park and manmade lake. Since then, the neighbourhood has grown, with the park and lake evolving into a rich natural and social ecosystem. By 2014, the existing municipal community centre was no longer able to serve the needs of its population or to meet accessibility and sustainability standards. The Centre’s reconstruction was the City’s opportunity to imagine its next generation of community facilities.

The project involved constructing a new community recreation centre and library on the site of the existing facility, maintaining and refurbishing the original pool tank within the context of the new development. The scope included new program spaces: a branch library, youth and seniors’ community rooms, a fitness centre, a gymnasium, a therapy pool to complement the lap pool, and gender-neutral and family change rooms.

A series of boldly articulated terraces cascades down the sloped site, creating a suite of indoor and outdoor spaces that engage the adjacent parkland and lake. These white masonry terraces are animated by three glass lanterns, framing views and bringing light deep into the heart of the building. A coloured brisesoleil shades the building during the summer and animates its interiors during the bleak winter months. The integration of this bold and expressive shading system permits expansive areas of glazing that offer panoramic connections from the Centre to the landscape beyond.

Through green roofs, bioswales and interceptors, building and landscape work in concert to direct and retain storm water as it travels towards Lake Aquitaine, substantially improving the final quality of discharge into the lake.

The plan and section support intuitive wayfinding, with material choices reinforcing the architectural organization and providing strong cues for the visually impaired. The co-location of recreation, community and library programs optimizes staffing as well as site and building infrastructure. Many spaces were designed with dual functions, recognizing the utilization patterns of different groups.

The new community centre is an accessible gateway to wellness, recreation and literacy that reflects the vibrancy and diversity of Meadowvale. Inside, accessibility and inclusivity are primary drivers; outside, the building unlocks the potential of the landscape for the entire neighbourhood.

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MEADOWVALE COMMUNITY CENTRE AND LIBRARY PERKINS+WILL CANADA INC.

JURY’S COMMENT

This building responds to its topography, welcoming visitors from the street down to the park and lake beyond. The bold and highly transparent façades assert its role as a public building.

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PROJECT

Meadowvale Community Centre and Library LOCATION

Mississauga, Ontario COMPLETION

2016 BUDGET

$29.6 M (construction cost) AREA

87,300 ft2 CLIENT

City of Mississauga ARCHITECT

Perkins+Will Canada Inc. ARCHITECT TEAM

D’Arcy Arthurs (Managing Principal), Andrew Frontini (Design Principal), Phil Fenech (Project Architect), Joanne D’Silva (Interiors), Aimee Drmic and Werner Sommer (Job Captains), Tamara Schmidt (Contract Admin) STRUCTURAL

Entuitive MECHANICAL / ELECTRICAL

Smith + Andersen LANDSCAPE

Fleisher Ridout Partnership Inc. INTERIORS

Perkins+Will Canada Inc. CONTRACTOR

Aquicon Construction LIFE SAFETY / CODE CONSULTANT

Jensen Hughes Inc. COST

Turner & Townsend PHOTOGRAPHY

Rodrigo Chavez (page 112 bottom photo); Lisa Logan (pages 111, 113, 114; page 112 top photo)

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The Nathan Phillips Square project revitalizes the 12­-acre site that frames Toronto’s City Hall. The square was originally designed by Finnish architect Viljo Revell as an integrated composition that set the stage for his daring City Hall. It featured an expansive paved plaza ringed on three sides by an elevated walkway, and a sinuous ramp to a podium terrace. Over the decades since 1965, many of the square’s elements had fallen into a state of disrepair, with numerous ad hoc interventions compromising clarity and functionality.

Launched as an international design competition in 2007, the revitalization project called for architectural and landscape elements to address increasingly ambitious programming and a long list of deferred maintenance items. Specific interventions include a permanent stage structure, new washrooms and concessions, new ice rink support and mass underground bicycle storage.

An overlay of landscape elements provides an intensification of the urban forest, green roofs, and improvements to public amenity, security, connectivity and accessibility on the square.

To strengthen the square’s coherence, the winning team executed four tactical moves. First, it opened the square by removing clutter at the centre, allowing the space to accommodate large events. Second, it created programmed, porous “green rooms” around the perimeter to frame the square and provide gathering spaces. Third, it created new connections between the raised walkway and the square, and activated these spaces to feed the plaza’s programming. Finally, it strengthened links between zones by using new architecture to bridge between the two levels of the square.

The design targets LEED Gold and Toronto Green Standard Tier Two with strategies that include the use of reclaimed heat and cooling from Toronto City Hall’s district energy plant, storm water retention for greywater reuse, green roofs and a 60 percent increase to the biomass on site. Energy reuse strategies allow the new structures to achieve net zero energy consumption.

Each year, Nathan Phillips Square hosts 250 events and approximately 1.5 million visitors. The revitalization of the square has enhanced daily use and created possibilities for major events like the 2015 Pan Am Games festivities and Nuit Blanche. The architecture and landscape interventions have proven their ability to work within Revell’s original composition while providing a much­-needed programmatic infrastructure that supports the Square’s complex workings. The revitalization ensures the enduring relevance of Revell’s modern masterwork and Toronto’s premiere public space.

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FINALIST

NATHAN PHILLIPS SQUARE REVITALIZATION PLANT ARCHITECT INC. | PERKINS+WILL CANADA INC., ARCHITECTS IN JOINT VENTURE, WITH HOERR SCHAUDT LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE AND ADRIAN BLACKWELL URBAN PROJECTS

JURY’S COMMENT

This is a strong urban project and the architects are to be applauded for exercising restraint.

The removal of various elements and simplification of the square demonstrate how the architects were able to do more with less. The Peace Garden is particularly well-executed.

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PROJECT

Nathan Phillips Square Revitalization LOCATION

Toronto, Ontario COMPLETION

2015 BUDGET

$42 M (construction cost) STRUCTURAL AREA

Blackwell Bowick Engineering

10 acres (land size); 2,953 m2 (theatre) MECHANICAL / ELECTRICAL CLIENT

Crossey Engineering Ltd.

City of Toronto LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS

Hoerr Schaudt Landscape Architecture Inc.

PLANT Architect Inc. | Perkins+Will Canada Inc., Architects in Joint Venture, with Hoerr Schaudt Landscape Architecture and Adrian Blackwell Urban Projects

Perkins+Will Canada Inc.

INTERIORS

COMPETITION / PROJECT DESIGN TEAM

BUILDERS

Plant Architect Inc.—Chris Pommer (Design Partner, Team Leader), Lisa Rapoport (Design Partner), Mary Tremain (Design Partner), Vanessa Eickhoff (Project Landscape Architect), Lisa Dietrich (Project Captain—Phase 3), Eric Klaver (Project Landscape Architect—Phase 3), Elise Shelley (Project Landscape Architect—Phases 1&2), Lisa Moffitt, Jane Hutton, Heather Asquith, Suzanne Ernst, Jessica Craig, Jeremy McGregor, Matthew Hartney, Cleo Buster, Renée Kuehnle, Olivia Mapué Perkins+Will Canada Inc.—D’Arcy Arthurs (Principal-in-Charge), Andrew Frontini (Design Principal), Vis Sankrithi (Project Architect), Linda Neumayer (Project Architect), Joe Dhanjal (Job Captain), Adrian Worton, Steven van der Meer, Gavin Guthrie, Lia Matson, Elizabeth Tseronakis, Perry Edwards, Aaron Cheng, Aimee Drmic, Emily Maclennan, Talal Rameh, Michelle Sta. Ana (Interiors), Joanne D’Silva (Interiors) Hoerr Schaudt Landscape Architecture Inc.— Peter Lindsay Schaudt (Principal), John Ridenour, Jon Brooke, Shawn Weidner, Justin Libra Adrian Blackwell Urban Projects—Adrian Blackwell, Marcin Kedzior, Geoffrey Turnbull, Alan Kwan

Phase 1A: Flynn Canada / Gardens in the Sky Phase 1 & 2: PCL Constructors Canada Phase 3: Four Seasons Site Development SOILS

Urban Trees + Soil HERITAGE

Blanche Lemko van Ginkel LIGHTING

Crossey Engineering Ltd. QUANTITY SURVEYOR

Vermeulens Inc. FOUNTAIN SPECIALIST

Waterworx ECOLOGICAL CONSULTANT

Enermodal Engineering Ltd. PHOTOGRAPHY

Steven Evans

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The Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum aspires to become an internationally significant centre of paleontology in fossil-rich northern Alberta. The museum’s sequence of spaces and experiences form an architectural narrative that recounts the fascinating story of the nearby Pipestone Creek Bonebed. One of the world’s most significant deposits of horned dinosaur fossils, it is believed to contain the bones of a herd of pachyrhinosaurus that drowned attempting to cross a flooded river.

The form of the museum’s roof is both ambiguously organic and prehistoric. It simultaneously references the rolling prairie landscape and the jagged white horizon formed by the Rocky Mountains to the southwest—as if the land itself were lifted up to reveal the secrets buried in the earth below. The building sits naturally on its site, surrounded by actively farmed land.

The extensive use of wood, the barn-like post-and-beam structure, and the raw aluminium cladding nod to Peace River Country’s history of agriculture and forestry. The design philosophy of the building embodies multiple stories: the tales of the giant creatures that once roamed on the site, the Earth that came before humankind, and the work of Al Lakusta, Philip Currie and all the scientists, educators, and philanthropists who support the mission of the museum.

New technology was developed to construct the wood structure, and in particular, the nodes where up to eight large beams meet at a single point. The architects, engineers and fabricators collaborated during the design process, working from the same 3D models and bypassing the conventional drawing process.

The building’s most striking sustainable feature is its extensive use of wood—much of it sourced from local mountain pine beetle-killed forests. Energy use is also minimized by various strategies, including displacement ventilation, a highly insulated building envelope system that eliminates cold-bridging, a strategic use of glazing, and LED lighting.

The Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum provides the necessary infrastructure to support an emerging industry of fossil-centred tourism and paleontological research. The museum and its laboratory facilities allow artifacts and scientific research to stay in the region, enriching the economy and culture of northern Alberta.

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PHILIP J. CURRIE DINOSAUR MUSEUM TEEPLE ARCHITECTS INC. IN ASSOCIATION WITH ARCHITECTURE | TKALCIC BENGERT

JURY’S COMMENT

This building’s structural heft and somewhat spiky form respond creatively to its program. The innovative connections and complex geometry of the heavy-timber structural frame are particularly noteworthy.

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PROJECT

Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum LOCATION

Wembley, Alberta COMPLETION

2015 BUDGET

$25.4 M AREA

42,000 ft2 CLIENT

County of Grande Prairie No. 1 ARCHITECT

Teeple Architects Inc. in association with Architecture | Tkalcic Bengert ARCHITECT TEAM

Stephen Teeple, Martin Baron, Eddo Cancian, Kevin Osborne, Mark Baechler, William Elsworthy, Lang Cheng, Carla Pareja, Gloria Perez

MUSEUM CONSULTANT AND EXHIBIT DESIGNER

Reich + Petch Architects Inc. STRUCTURAL

Fast+Epp MECHANICAL

Hemisphere Engineering ELECTRICAL

Aecom LANDSCAPE

Scatliff+Miller+Murray INTERIORS

Teeple Architects Inc. CONTRACTOR

PCL Construction Management Inc. HEAVY TIMBER DESIGN BUILD CONTRACTOR

StructureCraft PHOTOGRAPHY

Tom Arban Photography

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The Ports 1961 flagship store in Shanghai, China has become a destination not only for shopping, but a landmark of unique architecture. The dramatic, three-dimensional form and elaborate ornamentation contribute to expressing the transformative nature of the city of Shanghai and of its people.

This dynamic retrofit of an existing building was realized despite a tight site and restrictive city by-laws. The project was driven by a concise conceptual idea of building the façade from a modular double-skin system of L-shaped glass blocks. Structural ingenuity also contributed to the sculptural result.

The façade is made predominantly from 9,000 units of locally sourced and manufactured glass block. Only two types of block were used, making for a low-cost, high-value result. The façade naturally vents out heat accumulated between the exterior and interior wall. Energy efficient LED lights are embedded in the joints of the masonry, casting light towards the back side of the interior wall. This illumination is indirectly reflected to the exterior, establishing a soft, natural glow. A set of standard details was used to achieve a rigorously refined aesthetic and efficient final construction process, with minimal waste.

The project is located in a high-end commercial district, with heavy pedestrian and car traffic. It creates new spaces for the public to occupy through the careful modulation of its edge conditions. A funnel-shaped cutout leads to the entrance, marking the natural flow of pedestrian traffic, and its bow windows are highly visible from passing cars and from across the street. During daytime, the façade’s stained glass block and shot-blasted stainless steel contrast with the chaotic city, while subtly reflecting the sunlight.

In the evening, the façade is illuminated to appear icy and crisp, transforming the store into a highly visible monolithic landmark.

Ports 1961 Shanghai successfully meets the goals of the client by creating a distinctive piece of architecture that stands out against competing retailers. It establishes Ports 1961 as a high-end international fashion brand, carving out a unique place for this Canadian fashion house in the dynamic bustle of Shanghai.

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PORTS 1961 SHANGHAI UUFIE INC.

JURY’S COMMENT

“Spectacle” is now part of the requirements for retail projects.

Ports 1961 Shanghai is iconic without being kitschy. It is an exercise in designing the exterior façade, but moves into three dimensions, resulting in a very arresting solution.

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LOCATION

Shanghai, China COMPLETION

2015 BUDGET

Withheld AREA

1,145 m2 CLIENT

Ports 1961 ARCHITECT

UUFIE INC. ARCHITECT TEAM

Eiri Ota, Irene Gardpoit INTERIORS

Yabu Pushelberg CONTRACTOR

Permasteelisa Group FAÇADE ENGINEER

T/E/S/S atelier d’ingenierie LIGHTING CONSULTANT

Inverse Lighting PROJECT COORDINATOR

eightsixthree Ltd. PHOTOGRAPHY

Shengliang Su

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Since its inception in 2012, three principles have guided the firm blackLAB architects: creating great architecture, being good people to work with, and succeeding as a professional business.

The studio space is planned around a central 28-footlong walnut table, which provides personal workspaces, incorporates a library, and extends out into a large layout space and meeting table. This set up is a physical expression of the collaborative way in which the team works together, as well as with its clients and consultants.

BlackLAB offers the different perspectives of three architects—each with a unique skill set—on every project, along with a willingness to commit itself as a collective whole. Including a dedicated business manager as an equal founding partner allows the architects to focus on their strengths of creating great design, while the business manager implements a sound financial strategy.

While their work has primarily focused on new-build houses and renovations, being a flexible practice allows blackLAB to participate in other related activities. This includes creating largescale art pieces, exhibit design, furniture fabrication, and video installations. This kind of work broadens their skill set and professional development while engaging the wider design community.

The practice brings sustainable design to all its projects, irrespective of the project type, location or budget. Passive green technologies such as natural daylighting, natural ventilation and thermal mediation are built into their work, at no additional cost to clients. Focusing their energy on good design creates buildings that are adaptable, enjoy efficient use of space and resources, and use durable construction methods and materials.

The practice remains small by design, giving it the flexibility to tailor its services, to adapt to new ideas, and to learn quickly. Their written proposals are uncomplicated and offer clear choices about level of service. A simple fee structure is advantageous to both the clients and practice.

The practice sees itself as competing with a fast-paced, consumer-driven design culture that offers quick, off-the-shelf solutions through design blogs, television shows and other easy-access media. As an alternative, blackLAB focuses on delivering professional and personalized service, while creating unique projects each time. They aim to appeal to design consumers while demonstrating the value that professionals can bring to a project.

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BLACKLAB ARCHITECTS INC. BEST EMERGING PRACTICE

JURY’S COMMENT

This firm has established a practice with a clear vision and goals, and are on their way to achieving them. Their work to-date indicates a thorough approach to architectural practice that is innovative in the use of materials and creative in architectural form and detail. It also has maintained an air of exploration, with an interest in design beyond buildings alone. As they continue to produce, we’ll perhaps see their explorations in other areas inform their architecture.

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One percent of the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC)’s budget for accessibility and safety upgrades at its subway stations is dedicated to the creation and installation of juried public art.

Forwards and Backwards, the new artwork selected for Coxwell station, is a three-dimensional sculpted curtain, cast in polished reflective aluminum and installed at the station’s bustling concourse level. The curtain parts ever so slightly, revealing a wedge of the blue that has always been the station’s accent colour, and suggesting that the aluminum “drapery” could be coaxed wide open.

In addition to evoking the sense of expectancy associated with a theatre production about to begin, the curtain promotes interaction. For commuters passing by, it is like a funhouse mirror, providing ever-shifting variations on how people are reflected— wide, narrow, truncated, slivered. This literal reflection of the community suggests that individuals, like the area itself, are in constant flux. Filling a 16-foot-wide alcove, the reflective curtain also doubles the apparent depth of the concourse’s west end, making this space feel more generous and open.

Polished reflective aluminum is a material widely used in the TTC’s rolling stock and infrastructure, and Forwards and Backwards acknowledges the contributions of the TTC employees who have performed “behind the curtain” services in and around Coxwell station over the decades. Near the station is the TTC’s Danforth Carhouse, which opened in 1915 as a streetcar maintenance yard and now also provides office space for station collectors and drivers.

Subway commuters may have wondered why trains often pause at Coxwell station. It is in fact a driver changeover point: subway operators begin and end shifts in a small room at track level.

Although the curtain appears as a continuous surface, it is a unitized system to facilitate fabrication and installation. Digital modelling tools are employed to design the low-relief surface and optimize the seam locations between panels so they are concealed within the curtain’s recessed folds. Concealed fasteners support the artwork on the existing concrete wall. Made of cast aluminum, the artwork is inherently durable and can be repeatedly polished if graffiti or damage occurs.

By inviting a multitude of interpretations, the artwork adds a bit of poetry to the prosaic reality of the daily commute.

WINNER

FORWARDS AND BACKWARDS JENNIFER DAVIS (INTERN ARCHITECT) AND JON SASAKI CONCEPTS

JURY’S COMMENT

This artwork is intriguingly simple and appropriate for the time we are in. The concept is so strong and compelling, one image explains it. It is interactive, slowing passers-by to engage, and provides a delightful moment of pause in everyday movement— like discovering a talented street musician. It makes a mundane space playful. The concept considers constructability, and it is critical that it be well-executed.

Image by Hamish Rhodes

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Located on the ever-expanding urban periphery of Dhaka, the Shobuj Pata Community Development Masterplan proposes a new architectural typology that effectively balances density and efficiency with ecological sustainability. In a city with a population of 14.5 million and a population density of 23,000 people per square kilometre—figures incomparable to anything in Canada—the challenge is not to limit density, but rather to enrich it. To that end, the project consists of approximately 2,300 dwelling units spread throughout 10-storey buildings on a 32-acre site. It contains a mix of unit sizes to accommodate larger and complex family living arrangements, along with community amenities including a convention centre, mosque, retail spaces, and school.

Shobuj Pata is Bengali for “Green Leaf,” and sustainability strategies are the driving force for the design. Intended as a low-carbon garden city of the future, the development is conceived as an oasis with green trees and vegetation. Bangladesh is a naturally lush country with one of the highest annual average rainfalls in the world. A heat island effect is an outcome of the country’s extremely hot and humid climate, and local ecology and microclimates are strong architectural considerations. Strategies include orienting buildings north-south to capture wind flows, creating narrow floor plates to allow for cross-ventilation, and allowing for ample natural light to limit reliance on electricity.

The entire development sits on a layer of underground parking, creating an artificial ground plane that is engineered to store and distribute rain water via a system of bioswales, incorporated along the street edges throughout the ground plan. The bioswales act as a rainwater filtration system, retaining excess water for irrigation of the development’s gardens and parks, while helping to alleviate pressure on the city’s strained and polluted hydrological infrastructure. Furthermore, green roofs are designed to mitigate the runoff and assist in water and air purification. In the dry season, water retention areas double as recreational space.

The separation of vehicular and pedestrian circulation allows landscaping to flourish throughout the podium level, mitigating urban heat island effect and providing ample amenity and recreation space.

The landscaping further extends up the face of the buildings as both a solar and visual screening device, providing a cooler and healthier microclimatic veil around the residential buildings.

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WINNER

SHOBUJ PATA— MULTI-UNIT RESIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENT STUDIO JCI INC. CONCEPTS

JURY’S COMMENT

This is an ambitious, intriguing speculative project that challenges norms, while addressing significant challenges. Its urban fingers funnel wind and generate shelter, while creating armatures for hanging gardens. The plan reduces the dominance of cars, translating sustainability to a new typology. It is a challenge to create a strong concept at this scale.

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Designed by architect Raymond Moriyama, the Ontario Science Centre at 770 Don Mills Road in Toronto was one of the world’s first interactive museums of science and technology when it opened in 1969. The $30-million project exemplified a museological shift away from static displays towards interactive exhibits and live demonstrations. Inside and outside, the building engages all senses and encourages exploration and visitor participation.

The project was the province’s key contribution to Canada’s centennial celebrations, and would go on to define Toronto’s then-massive expansion. It remains an enduring part of Toronto’s Don River landscape.

Housing its innovative program, the Centre’s interconnected raw Brutalist concrete structures are integrated along the natural contours of the Don River ravine. A long, low entrance pavilion sits at the ravine edge, welcoming visitors with a massive oval reflecting pool and a cave-like entry atop broad front steps.

Directly behind the entrance pavilion is the tower building, its triangular shape inspired by the trillium, Ontario’s official flower.

The tower building’s three cylindrical drums, enclosing theatres and administrative offices, open into the central Great Hall, a vast atrium space filled with natural light. Connecting the entrance pavilion and the tower building is an enclosed pedestrian bridge over the ravine. Floor-to-ceiling glass creates a sensation of being suspended within the surrounding trees.

The exhibit halls are designed to human scale, and intermediate areas provide spaces where visitors can admire the magnificent surrounding landscape, while expanding their educational horizons in arts and science. Throughout, vistas of the natural landscape are constant reminders that, despite the emphasis on science and technology, nature remains the basis of life.

Since officially opening almost 50 years ago, the Ontario Science Centre has welcomed more than 48 million visitors. It was Canada’s most visited cultural attraction in 2006. This major Ontario landmark has not only contributed to the culture of innovation and growth in Canada, but also consolidated the enduring partnership between Raymond Moriyama and Ted Teshima. It led to the creation of Moriyama & Teshima Architects and paved the way for many important projects to come.

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WINNER

ONTARIO SCIENCE CENTRE, TORONTO MORIYAMA & TESHIMA ARCHITECTS

LANDMARK DESIGNATION

JURY’S COMMENT

The Ontario Science Centre, in its unique ravine setting, is an important, creative and enduring architectural landmark. This is a masterfully designed building— one of the best of its time—by one of Canada’s most accomplished architects. It is still much admired and appreciated both for its form and its functionality. The building has become an icon in countless schoolchildren’s memories. It’s a wonderful example of a building becoming part of a city’s narrative.

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The excellence of architect Arthur Townend’s chapel design is unmistakable to those that have experienced it. Since its construction by the Anglican Church in 1968, this small structure has provided a sacred space to students at Thornloe and Laurentian Universities in Sudbury.

On a campus defined by its rocky hilltops, the chapel occupies the highest elevation. Arriving at its entrance at the top of the hill, a surprising thing happens: visitors descend back into the earth, as the thick triangular concrete walls of the structure reach upward as an extension of the hilltop. From this protected recess, visitors pass through the doors into the chapel and encounter an intimate space filled with the presence of transcendent blue light.

Barely large enough to fit 14 chairs and an altar, this intimate sanctuary parallels the intimate knowledge required to read the embedded religious symbolism within the architecture. A series of seven concrete walls, placed in an ascending spiral formation, enclose the one-room building. The entrance is located at the point of greatest contrast between the lowest and highest walls.

The latter points directly to the east, to the rising sun and to the prophesized direction of the returning Messiah. The seven walls recall the seventh day of creation, described in the Book of Genesis as the Sabbath when God rested. In Revelations, the last book of the Christian Bible, salvation for the church takes place following the seventh trumpet call by the seventh angel.

Light enters the sanctuary through stained glass openings between the concrete walls. The movement of the sun from east to west transforms the colour of the light in the sanctuary. In the early morning the light is coloured a deep blue. At midday, it is cyan, and in the early evening, it is yellow. The changing atmosphere in the sanctuary links worshippers to the cyclical movement of the heavens.

The architectural quality and conceptual clarity of The Fielding Memorial Chapel of St. Mark place it among the finest buildings in Ontario. Its use as a case study building by students at the Laurentian University School of Architecture is further evidence of its importance to current and future generations.

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WINNER

THE FIELDING MEMORIAL CHAPEL OF ST. MARK, THORNELOE UNIVERSITY, SUDBURY TOWNEND STEFURA & BALESHTA ARCHITECTS

LANDMARK DESIGNATION

JURY’S COMMENT

This is a simple yet striking gem of a building. The chapel space is poetic and serene; a perfect respite for the students of the University. Enduringly powerful and eloquent in its singularity, this modest yet emotional building exemplifies the landmark award category in its purest form. The Memorial Chapel of St. Mark would be noticed anywhere for its beauty of form and contribution to the public realm. In Sudbury, it is a very special landmark on the Thornloe University Campus.

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Architect Bill Birdsell has made substantial and continuous contributions to the profession and to the architectural community. Over the past decade and half, Birdsell has served the profession in many capacities: as a member of several OAA communities, as OAA councillor, as Vice-President, as Senior Vice President and Treasurer, and as OAA’s representative to the Canadian Architectural Licensing Authorities (CALA). In 2013, he assumed the OAA Presidency—a position that he held for two consecutive terms.

In all of his OAA positions, Birdsell has considered the well-being not only of the association, but also of each individual member. As a demonstration of his leadership, he has promoted the profession to the broader community by serving on the OAA’s Public Awareness and Client Awareness Task Groups, as well as by granting media interviews and making personal appearances wherever in the province he was needed.

As he wrote in OAA Perspectives, Birdsell believes that “the task of advocating for the profession is not just a task for OAA staff and a few members of Council; it should be a common theme of all architects.”

As President, Birdsell spearheaded and managed the creation of the OAA’s 125th anniversary commemorative book from concept to completion.

Serving on Council, Birdsell has been an outspoken advocate for Pro-Demnity insurance, helping to inform OAA members of its benefits. He served as a member of the Pro-Demnity Board and is currently its Chair, helping to establish and maintain strong ties between the Board and the OAA. In his own community, Birdsell has been active as a liaison for the Grand Valley Society of Architects and as the current Chair of the City of Guelph Committee of Adjustment.

Birdsell’s architectural practice, established in 1987, has won several awards, including a 2013 Canadian Wood WORKS! Award and recognition in the London Urban Design Awards.

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WINNER

J. WILLIAM BIRDSELL G. RANDY ROBERTS SERVICE AWARD

JURY’S COMMENT

Bill Birdsell’s career-long dedication to advocating for architecture and architects is exemplary. His behind-the-scenes work culminated in his being elected OAA President. However, it is his many years of service before and since his presidency that make Birdsell an extremely worthy recipient of this award. He is a highly visible advocate for the value that architects bring to society, and has devoted considerable time and energy to enhancing the profession in many capacities.

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Architect Sheila Penny is the epitome of a leader and a mentor to both her fellow colleagues and professionals, as well as to the community at large. She has demonstrated the successful pairing of design leadership with economic and social values for over 35 years, in both the private and public sectors.

Penny is currently the Vice President of Facilities Management at Toronto Community Housing (TCHC). She provides leadership, mentoring, and guidance to a newly formed Facilities Management division of 223 professional and support staff members.

Through her role at TCHC she continues to pursue her passion for the promotion of sustainable and vibrant communities.

Previously, she dedicated 14 years to creating safe, sustainable, and inspiring learning environments for future generations as the Director of Strategic Building and Renewal, Executive Officer of Facility Services, and the General Manager of Technical Services for the Toronto District School Board (TDSB). Throughout her time at the TDSB, she continuously demonstrated leadership by motivating, mentoring, and empowering staff to work towards challenging and rewarding initiatives to rebuild Toronto’s aging school infrastructure.

At the TDSB, Penny proudly led a number of initiatives that would be the first of their kind. Under her direction, the Thomas Wells Public School became the first LEED-certified school in Canada. Thomas Wells PS went on to receive an American Institute of Architects Award of Excellence. She was also involved in the Fraser Mustard Early Learning Academy—the first kindergarten-only school in North America to accommodate 700 junior and senior kindergarten students.

Penny also led the Go Green Climate Change Action Plan, which addresses the TDSB’s future direction to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to exceed the standards called for by the Kyoto protocol.

Penny played a central role in shaping Ryerson University’s architecture program as a member of the Program Advisory Committee for the development of the Master of Architecture program at the Department of Architectural Science.

Prior to her career in the public service, Penny worked with Moriyama & Teshima Architects, including as project architect for the Canadian Embassy in Tokyo.

WINNER

SHEILA PENNY ORDER OF DA VINCI

JURY’S COMMENT

As a fellow architect and industry professional, Sheila Penny is inspiring as a colleague and as a person. Her commitment to being a leader in sustainability and design excellence is a valuable asset to our industry and the betterment of our future communities. Her work with the TDSB broke new ground in terms of school design. Penny has been a consistent champion for architects and architecture, and her contribution to the profession in the role of a client is to be lauded.

Photograph by Rick Chard

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DESIGN EXCELLENCE, MICHAEL V. & WANDA PLACHTA, SUSTAINABLE DESIGN EXCELLENCE & LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR’S AWARD

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Alex Bozikovic

Architecture Critic, The Globe and Mail

Neeraj Bhatia

Architecture and Urban Designer, The Open Workshop

Brigitte Shim

Principal, Shim-Sutcliffe Architects Professor, John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design at the University of Toronto

Siamak Hariri

Partner, Hariri Pontarini Architects

Thérèse Leblanc

Architect, Nycum + Associates & President, Canadian Architectural Certification Board

Photographs by Jalani Morgan

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CONCEPTS

Nathalie Dion President, OAQ

Maria Denegri

Partner, Denegri Bessai Studio

Cheryl Atkinson

Principal, Atkinson Architect Associate Professor, Ryerson University

Norm Li

Principal, Norm Li

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ORDER OF DA VINCI, G. RANDY ROBERTS AWARD, BEST EMERGING PRACTICE & LANDMARK DESIGNATION Graham McNally

Chair of Hamilton/Burlington Society of Architects

William N. Greer

Life Member, Heritage Specialist

John K. Stephenson OAA President

Diana Osborne

Architect, Osborne Architect

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The Ontario Association of Architects wishes to thank all those who contributed to the success of the 2017 OAA Awards. The Awards were presented in Ottawa on May 26, 2017 as part of the RAIC/OAA Festival of Architecture. Additional Awards were announced at that time including the Michael V. and Wanda Plachta Award, People’s Choice Award, and the Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Design Excellence in Architecture, for more information please visit www.oaa.on.ca.

All project information in this publication was provided by the OAA practices and members who submitted to the Awards.

The OAA takes no responsibility for any errors and omissions that may have occurred.

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