April 1, 2010

TOM ARBAN

The Delegation of the Ismaili Imamat in Ottawa, a 95,000-square-foot building which encloses a crystal-inspired domed atrium and an open-air interior courtyard.

Industry honours

Ontario Association of Architects awards salute best of design

PATRICIA WILLIAMS

staff writer

The Ontario Association of Architects has recognized the best in Ontario architectural design in its 2010 awards. In all, some 15 new buildings were honoured.

This year’s winners of design excellence awards run the gamut from a winery in Niagara and an ecology centre in Toronto to a building in Ottawa custom designed for the Aga Khan and his agencies.

Winners included:

• Centre for Urban Ecology in Toronto. (Taylor Hazell Architects Ltd. with Architectsalliance and gh3 inc.) The 5,000-square-foot LEED Gold building is a venue for provision of environmental education to students and promotion of advancement of environmental technology. The architectural goal was to create an “assertive and modern” green building.

The Centre for Urban Ecology in Toronto

• Fire & Emergency Services Training Institute in Mississauga. (Kleinfeldt Mychajlowycz Architects Inc.) The first LEED-compliant building at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport, the 2,360-square-foot facility was designed “to express the aspirations” of the varied and dynamic student body. The facility is used by airport firefighters and emergency personnel.

• Gerstein Reading Room, Gerstein Science Information Centre, Toronto. (Diamond + Schmitt Architects Inc.) The heritage reading room at the University of Toronto was renovated and renewed, revealing the room’s “stunning” wooden ceiling and architectural features. Damaged sections of the 46-foot-high ceiling dating to 1892 were repaired and neo-gothic carved woodwork details restored.

• MaRS Centre, Toronto. (Adamson Associates Architects). Phase 1 of the centre “seamlessly” integrates 775,000 square feet of research and development facilities, commercial and business entities and related support services within an interactive campus development in downtown Toronto.

• Project Grand Jeté Stage II, The Maitland Street Residence, Toronto. (Goldsmith Borgal & Company Ltd. Architects). The 50,000-square-foot project involved adaptive reuse of a row of Victorian houses. It included 10,000 square feet of new construction.

The Regent Park revivatalization project in Toronto.

• Regent Park Revitalization Phase One, Dundas /Sackville Apartments - 246 -252 Sackville Street, Toronto. (Architectsalliance). The development consists of two buildings stacked on a low podium, two levels of underground parking and a district heating and cooling facility. Roof gardens and landscaped open spaces are included. LEED Gold is being targeted.

• Royal Conservatory TELUS Centre for Performance and Learning, Toronto (Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects). The project, undertaken for the Royal Conservatory of Music, includes a 1,100-seat concert hall, studios and classrooms, media centre, library and rehearsal hall.

• Southbrook Vineyards, Niagara-on-the-Lake. (Diamond + Schmitt Architects Inc.) Located on a 61-hectare estate, the project includes a production winery and a 743-square-metre pavilion housing retail, hospitality and administrative areas. The facility is one of only three LEED Gold wineries in North America.

• The Delegation of the Ismaili Imamat, Ottawa. (Maki and Associates and Moriyama & Teshima Architects in collaboration). The 95,000-square-foot building encloses two central symbolic spaces, a crystal-inspired domed atrium and an open-air interior courtyard. It houses offices for the Aga Khan Foundation of Canada and Aga Khan Development Network.

• The new Canadian Plaza at the Peace Bridge, Fort Erie. (NORR Ltd. Architects and Engineers). The project includes a Canada Customs and Immigration building, refugee-processing facility and the Peace Bridge Authority administration building. It was designed to “transcend” the complex functional security, inspection and traffic processing requirements of a national border crossing complex.

The award-winning projects were chosen by a five-person jury chaired by University of Toronto architecture professor Larry Richards.

The awards will be presented May 7 during the association’s annual conference in Windsor.

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