January 7, 2009

RDH ARCHITECTS INC.

The First Leaside Securities head office in Uxbridge has been designed to achieve LEED Platinum certification.

Two Ontario firms win Canadian Architect Awards of Excellence

PATRICIA WILLIAMS

staff writer

Ontario firms scored in Canadian Architect magazine’s 2008 Awards of Excellence, which are presented each year for buildings in the design stage.

One of only two national award programs devoted exclusively to architecture, the awards have recognized significant building projects in Canada on an annual basis since 1968.

In the winners’ circle this year were:

• RDH Architects Inc. of Toronto for the First Leaside Securities head office in Uxbridge.

• Stantec Architecture/Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg (KPMB) Architects (architects in joint venture) of Toronto for the Bridgepoint Health redevelopment project in Toronto.

The 40,000-square-foot First Leaside Securities development is intended to achieve LEED Platinum status. As such, several environmental initiatives have been incorporated into the building design.

These include extensive roof-top planting, natural ventilation and thermal “chimney effect” and geothermal heating and cooling. Ecological redevelopment of the site also is planned.

The massing of the new building makes reference to the general form and configuration of pre-existing agricultural buildings found on the site.

The building is broken down into a variety of small, integrated volumes.

“It is intended that this new facility will create a contemporary, public face for the company while helping to reinvigorate an existing high (primary business) street in southern Ontario,” the architects said.

DON COLLINS/SPACECRAFT

A complex chronic care and rehabilitation hospital will be constructed as part of the Bridgepoint Health redevelopment.

The Bridgepoint Health redevelopment includes construction of a state-of-the-art, 10-storey complex chronic care and rehabilitation hospital, a centre for research, education and policy and adaptive re-use of the historic Don Jail.

The redevelopment builds on a 2006 master plan which reorganizes the existing 10.2 acre site in Toronto’s Riverdale district into a nine-square grid of tree-lined drives and pedestrian paths. The iconic 1864 jail occupies the centre.

KPMB said the adaptive re-use of the Don Jail focuses on transforming “the dark history of the neo-classical penal architecture into a light-filled, optimistic hub” for research and communication.

Built forms and green spaces are integrated horizontally and vertically on the site.

“The project is as much about city-building and engagement with the community as it is about creating architecture for wellness.”

This year’s winners were selected by a jury consisting of Christine Macy, professor of architectural design and history at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Siamak Hariri of Hariri Pontarini Architects in Toronto and Bing Thom of Bing Thom Architects Inc. in Vancouver.

Awards are given for architectural design excellence. Jurors considered response to the program, site, geographical and social context, and evaluated physical organization, structure, materials and environmental features.

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