WINNER OF A 2013 CANADIAN ARCHITECT AWARD OF EXCELLENCE

ARCHITECT office of mcfarlane biggar architects + designers inc (project commenced by predecessor firm McFarlane Green Biggar Architecture + Design)
LOCATION Fort McMurray, Alberta

The new Fort McMurray Airport Terminal Building (FMAA) creates a relevant and meaningful portal for visitors and residents of the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo in Northern Alberta. Geographically, the area is characterized by an impressive natural beauty that embraces the density of boreal forest, the expanse of the prairie horizon, and the limitless sky with its northern lights. It is the gateway to the North, with seasonal temperatures ranging from -40°C in the winter to +30°C during the summer months. Economically, it is host to a burgeoning oil industry that has thrust the small community onto the global stage and contributed to unprecedented growth, with the population expected to double by 2030.

Forecasted growth has inspired the FMAA to undertake an ambitious plan to create a new greenfield airport, complete with a new terminal building, aircraft apron, taxiways, approach road, and parking areas. The 8,040-square-metre building responds to the unique challenges of the context while seeking to define a meaningful place for a growing community whose identity is continually evolving. It includes all of the typical airport terminal functions: check-in, security screening, domestic and international arrival and departure areas, retail baggage screening, and administrative offices for airlines and the airport authority.

The building form uses simple means to generate an iconic and memorable presence in the landscape, exemplifying modesty and directness that resonates with the community it serves. A collection of robust volumes are deployed to express their programmatic functions, further layered and stratified to facilitate easy expansion through simple extrusion and with minimal disruption to airport operations. The quiet interplay of solid and void, expansion and compression, and framed and filtered views add spatial richness and variety within the simple formal framework.

The material expression is derived from the incumbent palette of the industrial landscape: weathering steel, bitumen-coloured metal cladding and unfinished concrete. These tough materials are complemented with more sophisticated yet durable materials to further refine the interior spaces: unitized triple glazing, terrazzo flooring, acoustic wood panels and exposed mass timber structure.

The issue of building technique is paramount in the Wood Buffalo region, as much of the skilled labour force is utilized by the local resource industry. In response, the terminal building is designed to employ off-site fabrication to the greatest degree possible. This approach improves quality, minimizes the construction duration, and imparts an honesty of expression that reverberates with the spirit of place. Two distinct modular systems are incorporated: mass timber and precast hollow-core concrete.

Designed with a full complement of innovative features, the FMAA will establish itself as an exemplar of green building practice. The unique demands of an extreme climate coupled with the complexity of an airport typology challenged many of the limitations of popular green building rating systems. In response, the design team pursued a “first principles” approach to sustainability, blending good practice with the monitoring approaches of several diverse rating systems in lieu of pursuing one individual system such as LEED.

The building orientation was predetermined by the relationship to the runway; however, special consideration was given to the deployment of the programmatic elements in order to optimize the relationship to the energy of the sun. A large south-facing courtyard is complemented by expansive western-oriented glazing to passively harness the energy of the sun and reduce energy consumption.

The concept of reduction informed the building throughout the design process. Wherever possible, measures were taken to reduce the extent of materials necessary; to build with less and minimize the resources necessary to create a robust, durable and efficient building that is responsive to its use and setting. The design centres on the most meaningful building practices applicable to an airport typology, including the following highlights: passive solar orientation, energy optimization, super-insulated building envelope assemblies, in-floor radiant heating, displacement ventilation, and sophisticated heat-recovery systems. Low-emitting materials are used throughout to promote healthy interior environments for passengers and employees. Mass timber assemblies provide both structure and finish, while imbuing the building interior with the warmth of this renewable resource.

The project addresses several programmatic elements in unique and innovative ways to more clearly address the client’s requirements and to expand the architectural potential of mid-sized airport terminal buildings. Acknowledging that the future of the Fort Mac airport will be continually adapting to change was a critical driver for the design.

Jury Comments

Karen Marler: A striking architectural response to a harsh environment. This project factors in the remote, rapidly expanding community it is being built for by using a robust material palette and a high-performance building envelope. The architects have creatively addressed the local shortage of labour and seasonal constraints and have achieved design excellence through prefabrication as the means of construction.

Marianne McKenna: The solution feels appropriate to the context as the elongated form hunkers down in a northern climate to offer a unique point of entry and exit from this active northern community. The design presents a strong image and I imagine people will feel very comfortable in this airport in both winter and summer–with its exterior court space.

Marc Simmons: The designers took the pragmatism of the problem to heart, and then made a few key moves that resulted in a rather elegant building. The interior spaces are really beautiful. The long-span spaces, clear structure, and simple shifting of the levels are legible and enjoyable.

Client Fort McMurray Airport Authority
Architect Team Steve McFarlane, Michelle Biggar, Rob Grant, Beth Denny, Nicholas Standeven, Jennell Hagardt, Adam Jennings, Heather Maxwell, Hozumi Nakai, Lydia Robinson, Jing Xu, Jordan VanDijk, Mingyuk Chen, Justin Bennet, Seng Tsoi, Simon Clewes, Kevin Kong, Adrienne Gibbs, Nick Foster, Mike Townshend
Structural Equilibrium Consulting Inc.
Mechanical/Electrical Integral Group
Landscape PWL Partnership
Interiors office of mcfarlane biggar architects + designers inc.
Contractor Ledcor Construction Ltd.
IT + Security Faith Group LLC
Wayfinding + Signage The Design Office
Code GHL Consultants Ltd.
Vertical Transportation JW Gunn Consultants Inc.
Lighting Total Lighting Solutions
Acoustics BKL Consultants
Specifications Morris Specifications
Area 8,040 m²
Budget Withheld
Completion Summer 2014

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WINNER OF A 2013 CANADIAN ARCHITECT AWARD OF EXCELLENCE

ARCHITECT RDH Architects
LOCATION Waterdown, Ontario

The Waterdown Library and Civic Centre is a new 23,500-square-foot facility housing the Waterdown Library, the Waterdown Public Archive, two multipurpose rooms for community recreation use, a satellite municipal services outlet, a community information services office, and police services. The new design provides for a single-storey, split-level building with the library as principal tenant occupying the largest portion of area. The library is located to the west at the highest elevation and accommodates for a new computer commons, reference, adult, and popular materials sections, an elevated reading atrium, and a pre-school, children and teens area.

The project is located at 163 Dundas Street West in the former Township of Waterdown, now part of the greater municipality of Hamilton, Ontario. Dundas Street is the main commercial high street of the old town of Waterdown. The site is located immediately west of the existing town centre, adjacent to an existing mid-century residential neighbourhood.

Waterdown and the site are located at a significant elevation on the Niagara Escarpment. The site drops approximately three metres from its high point towards Dundas Street to the south. Across Dundas Street, the topography continues to fall in elevation until it reaches Lake Ontario.

The design process began with an acknowledgement of this dramatic site. The new design takes advantage of the topography, using the change in elevation to provide expression and access to the different programmatic elements contained within the building. The scheme engages and responds to the site in an attempt to harness south-facing views toward Dundas Street, the escarpment, and Lake Ontario beyond.

The architecture as a whole is conceived as a topography, like the geological landform it sits upon. Movement between programs is seen as fluid, allowing users to flow from one terrain to another along gentle slopes. To achieve this, the building has been organized as a single-storey, split-level facility which exists on six levels. Each of the six levels is arrived at by way of barrier-free 1:20 sloping walkways. The split-level organization allows for two entry points, one at the lower street-level elevation and one at a mid-level elevation adjacent to parking.

The topography is extended into the library which is organized as a series of four terraces. The highest level of the library sits exactly one storey above the recreation centre at its lowest point. A large reading atrium is situated at this high elevation, providing striking views of the escarpment, tree canopies, and Lake Ontario in the distance.

Jury Comments

Karen Marler: A success with this project is the legibility and clarity of the program elements. It is easy to navigate and to understand wayfinding through the building. I appreciated the simple manner in which the presentation reveals the challenges and opportunities in the design concept as it relates to its program and site.

Marianne McKenna: This project has an understated quality–it isn’t fighting its complexity of spaces with an overwrought level of detail. It is simple, restrained and materially balanced, and offers a legible revitalized community facility to Waterdown. The ramps move through the building and connect six levels in what seems to be a low-rise building. It’s an elegant, choreographed resolution to the site’s topography.

Marc Simmons: Universal accessibility is exploited very well. The horizontality of the building affords ramping space that becomes programmatically useable. The ramps give the building a little bit of height, a little bit of stacking, and yield a façade presence to the street that becomes the signifier of the project.

Client City of Hamilton and the Hamilton Public Library
Architect Team Tyler Sharp, Bob Goyeche, Andrew Cranford, Sanjoy Pal, Soo-Jin Rim
Structural Halsall Associates Ltd.
Mechanical/Electrical Jain Associates
Landscape NAK Design Group
Interiors RDH Architects
Contractor Bondfield Construction
Area 23,500 ft²
Budget $6.8 M
Completion January 2015

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WINNER OF A 2013 CANADIAN ARCHITECT AWARD OF EXCELLENCE

ARCHITECTS Hariri Pontarini Architects (Design Architect), B+H Architects (Executive Architect)
LOCATION Toronto, Ontario

The competition-winning design for the renovation and expansion of the historic Faculty of Law at the University of Toronto responds directly to the client’s ambition to create a law school among the finest in the world. The redevelopment called for significant upgrades to the buildings that house the Faculty including Flavelle House–with its 1902 heritage building as well as its 1960s extension–and the addition of significant program elements to ensure the University of Toronto remains Canada’s pre-eminent law school.

The design responds with three simple gestures: a crescent-shaped classroom and office wing overlooking Queen’s Park, the renovation of an outmoded library as a luminous pavilion connecting to Philosopher’s Walk, and the creation of a unifying gathering space, the Law Forum, which will bring a new heart to the Faculty.

Following the movement of Hoskin Avenue, the new crescent-shaped three-storey building converses with the convex form of the Finance Building at the southeast edge of Queen’s Park to create a strong urban identity and edge along this fast-moving throroughfare. On the opposite side of the facility, viewed from Philosopher’s Walk, the Bora Laskin Library takes on the countenance of a transparent pavilion in a park—its interior reconfigured, its exterior reclad, and its base carved away to open up to the landscape.

Between these two elements appears the Law Forum—the dynamic central gathering place and the heart of the Faculty of Law. Working from the insight that the quality of the social network and unified sense of community are the most important advantages a law school can confer upon its students, the Law Forum answers the need for a galvanizing social space to bring students and faculty together in a central space, permitting the previously fragmented faculty to function as a unified, coherent community. In addition, the new design carefully weaves the history of the existing buildings with a contemporary vision of community while providing the Faculty with much needed additional space.

In a contemporary expression of the language of building columns so eloquently expressed in the Flavelle House portico, the crescent-shaped pavilion introduces an elemental palette of oversized glass panes punctuated by vertical nickel fins which sit upon a stone base of dry-laid Wiarton limestone—a material whose softly figured, dove-grey patina works beautifully with the gold-tinted silver hues of the nickel. The glass panels of the reskinned library pavilion sandwich a layer of brass mesh, giving it its own warm expression.

Sustainability has played a key role in the building’s design and construction. Targeting a LEED Gold rating, the Faculty’s sustainability strategies centre around energy (high-performance building skin, thermal mass, heating and ventilation strategies), environmental quality and comfort, materials and landscape.

The Faculty’s prominent location required a sensitive design response that connects the site to the surrounding public realm. The design of the new building takes advantage of the site by introducing new physical and visual connections with both Queen’s Park and Philosopher’s Walk, embedding the Faculty into the cohesive campus system and rendering it an integral part of the cityscape.

The scheme creates an institutional landmark that will accommodate and augment the Faculty’s historic buildings, engage and inspire members of our community, and reflect a commitment to leading-edge environmental sustainability and physical accessibility–all while playing an important part in the architecture of the city.

Jury Comments

Karen Marler: The design successfully strengthens connections between Philosopher’s Walk, the subway, the main university campus and Victoria College. There is a rigour and finesse in its contextual fit that will reinforce this as a landmark building on campus. The extensive façade studies have been fruitful. The crescent façade is quite elegant with its vertical stone and nickel fins. It is a contemporary response but achieves a classically formal expression.

Marianne McKenna: This reinvestment into the existing U of T Law School exemplifies the very present challenges that universities are facing as they struggle with ageing infrastructure and the need to keep pace in a competitive academic environment. The challenges are to retain historical fabric, juxtapose a new building, and create a learning environment that is focused on interaction and collaboration, as well as the stated program for teaching and study. This scheme is ambitious and implies a level of risk for the University that is mitigated by design excellence. All the right decisions have been made in establishing the two elegant shapes that frame a central “forum” to create the “space in between” for community, and in engaging the existing heritage house as integral to the plan. The texturing of the façade evidences deeply held beliefs in an architectural investigation that will create a strong new image for this faculty along one of the city’s major arteries.

Marc Simmons: This is an incredibly resolved, well-executed design. It has a material richness, and I really enjoyed the formal language of the façade. It’s an ordered, rich and textured composition of glass interlaced with solid concrete elements, sub-articulated with nickel fins. It’s iconic and beautiful, while also being very intelligent and performance-oriented.

Client University of Toronto
Architect Team Hariri Pontarini Architects–Siamak Hariri, Michael Boxer, Howard Wong, Dominique Chen, Rico Law, Jimmy Cho, Lindsay Hochman, Eric Tse, Paul Kozak. B+H Architects–Douglas Birkenshaw, Paul Gogan, Kevin Stelzer, Guy Painchaud, Elmutaz Elrabaa, Judith Martin, Kate Slotek, Emily Lin, Melissa Liu, Philip Pham.
Structural Read Jones Christoffersen Consulting Engineers
Mechanical/Electrical Smith + Andersen Consulting Engineers
Civil MMM Group
Landscape Hariri Pontarini Architects with B+H Architects
Interiors Hariri Pontarini Architects
Construction Manager Eastern Construction
Area 14,860 m²
Budget $37.5 M
Completion 2015

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WINNER OF A 2013 CANADIAN ARCHITECT AWARD OF EXCELLENCE

ARCHITECT MacLennan Jaunkalns Miller Architects
LOCATION Toronto, Ontario

The Branksome Hall Independent Girls’ School is situated in the residential South Rosedale Heritage Conservation District in the city of Toronto. The new Athletic and Wellness Centre project redevelops a site previously occupied by a dining hall, constructed in 1964 on the west campus. Proposed is a two-storey building with a mezzanine and green roof, whose program includes teaching and training pools, gymnasium, fitness, yoga and dance studios, dining room, servery, kitchen, meeting rooms and office space. The building is sited on a ravine edge, surrounded by heritage buildings and connected to the east campus by a pedestrian bridge, and strives to become the hub and new “social heart” of the campus.

The site is bounded by Mount Pleasant Road to the east and the Toronto Ravine Conservation Authority to the west, set back to help re-establish a healthy ravine edge. The existing non-permeable asphalt will be replaced with a soft permeable landscape. Renaturalization of the top of the ravine’s bank will promote a visible amenity to the ravine experience.

The proposed building respects the height of adjacent heritage buildings, and the existing pedestrian overpass structure will be reclad with new glazing and will link directly to the new building at the second-floor athletics level. The double-height aquatics centre is located at the lower level providing privacy, but will achieve a maximum amount of natural daylight with large ground-level ceramic-fritted windows.

This new building will act as a connector, bringing together Junior, Middle and Senior School staff and students from both the east and west campuses. It will be a place that allows students to combine athletics, health, nourishment and study, facilitating a reconnection with themselves and each other. The seamless interior, exterior and elevated courts become the social heart of the new centre and will serve as a holistic meeting and gathering space, providing places to watch sport and to engage in informal study. A series of internal walkways encourage students passing by to see aquatics, athletics and dance–inspiring involvement in these activities. The kitchen will be open, allowing diners to engage the source of the food and its preparation.

Masonry and glass will be used in both the interior and exterior, relating to the existing century-old heritage brick buildings on the east and west campuses. The larger gymnasium/fitness and dance/yoga volumes sit on a glowing glass base elevated in a similar way as the existing pedestrian bridge. The bridge is anchored on the east campus at its existing masonry stair tower. In response, the new building’s masonry mass touches down and anchors the west ravine side with an exterior stair from the roof garden down to the heritage court.

The dance/yoga and gymnasium/fitness spaces are containers of light, which are elevated and visible from the street. Exterior glazing allows views of the activity within and simultaneously allows Branksome Hall to be present in the city and connected to its community, creating a public identity that is open and inviting.

Jury Comments

Karen Marler: The Centre provides a dynamic and modern counterpoint to the rest of the campus and neighbourhood and is a sensitive response to its context. While the project can be commended for its environmental sustainability goals, I also appreciated how the architects creatively resolved the great diversity in program to collectively reinforce the school’s social sustainability agenda of health equity, wellness and liveability for the students.

Marianne McKenna: This is a bold solution for Branksome Hall as it places the large-scale elements of pool and gymnasium against the high-traffic environment of Mount Pleasant to the east, and buffers the lighter more scalable elements of the program against–and into–the sloping Rosedale Ravine to the west. The layering is successful and the new composition creates a new identity and dramatically improved facilities for the school, speaking to the importance of educating mind and body. The challenges of slipping the large volumes into the more delicate fabric of Rosedale appear to be addressed at the project level but require skillful resolution in material, palette and detail.

Marc Simmons: This project needs to be applauded as a tight, interlocked, nuanced program that’s woven into the existing complex of buildings. It’s great to see that a smaller-scale private institution can achieve comparable results in terms of architectural quality to larger institutions.

Client Branksome Hall
Architect Team David Miller, Viktors Jaunkalns, Robert Allen, Olga Pushkar, Jeremy Campbell, Siri Ursin, Jason Wah, Kai Hotson, Luis Arredondo, Tarisha Dolyniuk, Aida Vatany, Jedidiah Gordon-Moran, Andrew Ng, Timothy Belanger, Chi Nguyen, Tamira Sawatzky, Chen Cohen
Heritage E.R.A. Architects
Structural Blackwell Engineering
Mechanical/Electrical Smith + Andersen
Civil MGM Consulting
Landscape PMA Landscape Consultants
Planning Consultant &Co.
Interiors MacLennan Jaunkalns Miller Architects
Construction Manager Gillam Group
Area 64,000 ft²
Budget Withheld
Completion Fall 2014

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WINNER OF A 2013 CANADIAN ARCHITECT AWARD OF EXCELLENCE

ARCHITECT Hariri Pontarini Architects
LOCATION Toronto, Ontario

The expansion and renovation of Casey House, a specialized health-care facility for patients suffering from HIV/AIDS, has initiated a re-examination of the changing nature of this socially stigmatized disease. This project’s design embodies the contemporary needs of patients and health-care providers while providing a home-like user experience for all.

The project will establish a strong presence for Casey House along the Jarvis streetscape, retaining the heritage character of the street while providing much needed additional space for clients and staff in a welcoming environment.

Rather than assume the form of a standard hospital/hospice, the design team worked closely with the client to first understand the contemporary needs of the patients and health-care providers. With a firm grasp of those needs came the desire to also create a comfortable user experience. Through extensive consultation and research, the metaphor of embrace emerged as a unifying theme–one of warmth, intimacy, comfort, privacy, connectivity and solidity.Referring to the goals of Casey House, it also describes the design of the architectural form, the user experience and the atmosphere in the building itself.

The project is a physical manifestation of an embrace in both the vertical and horizontal planes; the new four-storey, 58,000-square-foot extension reaching over and around the existing three-storey heritage-designated Victorian mansion, and the new addition surrounding a fully glazed garden courtyard at the centre of the building, visible from every corridor.

As one of the original mansions to be built along Jarvis Street, the retention of the existing 1875 building (known colloquially as the “Grey Lady”) will maintain the original character of the street, while the addition introduces a dignified juxtaposition of the old and new. Emphasizing the relationship between the two, the heritage building’s brick will remain exposed in the Living Room–the new central gathering space, while a bridge will connect them on the second floor. The mass of the third and fourth floors of the addition hover around and above the Grey Lady to allow direct sunlight into the Living Room, providing warmth to this important shared space. The careful restoration will also provide Casey House with key administrative and outpatient facilities.

Fundamental to the design of the project is the inner courtyard from which all other spaces emanate. This outdoor space allows direct sunlight into the core of the building on all floors. Given the private nature of the facility, it provides protected outdoor space for users, as well as transparency and clear sightlines across the project. The courtyard is also visible from each of the 14 private bedrooms (12 regular care and two respite beds) on the third floor.

Medical advances made over the years have drastically changed the treatment and life expectancy of patients with HIV/AIDS. As a result, the spectrum of services offered by Casey House has broadened beyond palliative care and counselling; their Day Health program has become a significant part of their remit. In order to streamline the traffic brought on by this diversification, private, semi-private and public floors were established and program elements organized accordingly. This ensures the privacy of the inpatients located on the top floor from the daily traffic of the outpatient facilities on the second floor (which services a roster of 200 registered clients), while the ground floor remains a shared open space for all.

The quilt is inextricably linked to AIDS as a symbol of the disease. As if to wrap the building, this relationship was taken up to resolve the façade. Reclaimed brick, tinted mirrored glass and crust-faced limestone will line the exterior of the new addition and have been chosen to mimic the texture and variety of the quilt. Their syncopated rhythm along the façade belies the purposeful placement of the slit windows of the inpatient rooms which align with the sightlines of clients lying in their beds.

Several sustainable features were inherently related to clients’ health care and overall comfort. Thus, they were seamlessly integrated into the design. For instance, primarily private green spaces, such as the courtyard and roof garden, can be enjoyed by patients, and high-efficiency tinted glass ensures privacy from the street, protecting users from UV rays and infrared while minimizing heat gain. The courtyard and operable windows allow for cross ventilation for fresh air and temperature control. Bike racks, rainwater collection cisterns and locally sourced and reclaimed materials also add to the sustainability profile of the project.

By focusing on the user experience, the design for Casey House has transformed their operations, enabling them to provide and deliver the best care possible to all Casey House clients. The new building integrates seamlessly with the neighbourhood while offering a warm, safe and welcoming environment with privacy, mobility, flexibility, accessibility and control.

Jury Comments

Karen Marler: The new addition is a simple but sophisticated backdrop that reinforces the heritage character of the existing house. The imaginative way in which the architects have organized the spaces facing into the interior courtyard is very contemplative, peaceful and respectful of the residents.

Marianne McKenna: This is a pragmatic use of the long urban site. Maximizing the footprint by going edge to edge and including a courtyard is a thoughtful move that reinforces both edges and maximizes the spaces within. The commitment to the respite and visual release of a single-loaded corridor is very responsive to the program. There is a meditative, spiritual quality to this building. It’s compassionate architecture that responds to the heritage context with an addition that is decidedly modern.

Marc Simmons: I think this is a phenomenal project. The lantern element is massed three-dimensionally to engage the heritage house. Compositionally, it’s a tripartite building where the addition is a shifted Cartesian addition to the existing building. There’s also a complete clarity of intention in the materiality and composition of the façade that is no longer about commodity baseline systems.

Client Casey House
Architect Team Siamak Hariri, Michael Boxer, Edward Joseph, Doron Meinhard, Howard Wong, Jeff Strauss, Patrick Cox, Rico Law, Eric Tse, John Cook, Faisal Bashir, Cara Kedzior, Norberto Rodriguez, Jimmy Cho, Christopher Laycock, Jimmy Farrington, Abdollah Tabrizi
Structural CH2MHILL
Mechanical/electrical MMM Group
Landscape Hariri Pontarini Architects, Mark Hartley Landscape Architects
Interiors Hariri Pontarini Architects
Planning and Urban Design Urban Strategies
HERITAGE E.R.A. Architects
Sustainable Design Enermodal Engineering
Health-Care Programming KG Healthcare Consultants
Audio-Visual Engineering Harmonics
Acoustics Swallow Acoustics Consultants Ltd.
Food Service Kaizen Food Service Planning and Design Inc.
Code David Hine Engineering Inc.
Building Envelope R. Kendall Consulting Inc.
Costing Hanscomb Consultants Ltd.
Elevators KJA Consultants Inc.
Traffic and Parking BA Consulting Group Ltd.
Area 6,090 m²
Budget $36 M
Completion 2016

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WINNER OF A 2013 CANADIAN ARCHITECT AWARD OF EXCELLENCE

ARCHITECTS Manon Asselin + Jodoin Lamarre Pratte Architectes In Consortium
LOCATION Montreal, Quebec

The cultural campus of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) is comprised of four existing pavilions: the Michal and Renata Hornstein Pavilion (1910), the Liliane and David M. Stewart Pavilion (1976), the Jean-Noël Desmarais Pavilion (1991) and the recent Claire and Marc Bourgie Pavilion (2011). This new addition is the fifth pavilion of the campus, and will be built on Bishop Street. Whereas Sherbrooke Street has grown over the years to include larger-scale towers, Bishop Street has retained (as has most of this commercial area of Montreal) its 19th-century scale of Victorian houses. The project was conceived to address both of these scales simultaneously.

The cultural campus of the MMFA consists of an assemblage of distinct pavilions, each of which functions somewhat autonomously, as much from an architectural perspective as from a programmatic one. The museum’s pavilions evoke their own specific eras and provide commentary on the particular roles that the institution has played in society over time. This is expressed through the diversity of architectural styles and anchored in the unique circulation concepts of each respective addition.

In the fifth pavilion, intergallery spaces are integrated to promote a shared cultural experience between visitors. The proposed spatial concept shapes one’s encounter with the works of art and their environment by offering an experience that is at once more intimate and participatory. In addition to functioning as a jewel box for collections, the space of the museum participates in the mediation of art, rendering it more accessible to the public.

The socio-spatial apparatus of an event stair unfolds into an informal architectural promenade, suspended in the city, animating the Bishop Street façade and offering visitors a momentary interlude from the contemplative experience of the galleries. This pause allows them to re-establish a connection to the city and the community beyond the walls of the MMFA. As an interior urban promenade, fluid and filled with light, the stair offers spectacular views of the mountain and the river, which become important reference points that help to orient museum visitors. The event stair is also a place for meeting and socializing intended to instigate a sense of belonging; it facilitates active public participation by enabling a shared cultural experience and encouraging impromptu conversations on art.

In order to unify the two distinct volumes comprising the project, the Fifth Pavilion is dressed in a delicate lacework of limestone. The pivot point joining the two building masses is expressed on both interior and exterior surfaces by a vertical ruled surface that delineates the porte-cochère from the alleyway. Beyond the porous textured surface of the stone, the Fifth Pavilion appears as a cohesive whole that is animated by changing light throughout the day. In the evening, the museum’s illuminated gallery spaces emit a soft backlight that dematerializes the delicate stone lacework and brings to life the activity on the event stair. This warm space, clad in wood, is revealed to the city. Through the filigree veil of stone, visitors are able to perceive all the different functions of the lobby and of the vertical space that bridges between the life of the city and the life of the museum.

The history of the MMFA is tied to the use of white Vermont marble. However, it is interesting to note that the material’s association with the museum is an almost mythical one, in particular because the Maxwell brothers originally proposed the use of locally sourced limestone for their design in 1910. This grey sedimentary stone contributes greatly to the city’s urban identity, and the new addition’s realization in limestone will allow for a more coherent integration with its immediate built context. The limestone will be detailed and realized by using prefabricated construction processes. The stone lacework, porous and ethereal, dematerializes the stone’s veining, creating a pattern of void and mass.

Jury Comments

Karen Marler: I particularly like the “lacework” of the limestone façade and its verticality. Behind this screen, the architects have created a playful route up to the various galleries with controlled vistas down Bishop Street and into the courtyard gardens at different levels. The transparency, the upper levels projecting over the sidewalk, and the animation from the people moving about inside will signify the building’s importance.

Marianne McKenna: One hopes the architects can achieve the level of transparency that’s shown here. They have pushed the main stair to Bishop Street allowing a clear reading of the activity within, whereas the galleries are pushed to the east out of the light. The cantilever is a bold move within the context of Montreal’s earlier fabric of these north-south streets.

Marc Simmons: The strength of this project is in the way it addresses the street as an infill mid-block building. It’s contextually sensitive, and at the same time incredibly bold. From a façade standpoint, the selection of stone as a material for a filigree screen overlaid onto the all-glass façades is a great move in terms of the specific urban condition.

Client Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
Architect Team Manon Asselin Architecte (Atelier TAG)–Manon Asselin, Katsuhiro Yamazaki, Pawel Karwowski, Mathieu Lemieux-Blanchard, Éole Sylvain, Cédric Langevin. Jodoin Lamarre Pratte–Nicolas Ranger, Sergio de la Cuadra.
Structural Nicolet Chartrand Knoll (Jacques Chartrand, Guillaume Leroux)
Mechanical/Electrical SMI Enerpro (Pierre Levesque, Fabien Choisez)
Landscape/Interiors Manon Asselin + Jodoin Lamarre Pratte Architectes en Consortium
Contractor Pomerleau Inc.
Rendering Doug & Wolf
Acoustician Jean-Pierre Legault
Building Code GLT+ (Serge Arsenault)
Elevator Exim (Pierre Grenier)
Area 3,870 m²
Budget $17.5 M
Completion July 2015

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WINNER OF A 2013 CANADIAN ARCHITECT AWARD OF MERIT

ARCHITECTS Calnitsky Associates Architects & Peter Sampson Architecture Studio Inc.
LOCATION Gillam, Manitoba

Gillam Town Centre is a multi-phase, multi-year, multi-programmed project designed to strengthen the liveability and physical core of Gillam, a small urban settlement south of Churchill, Manitoba. Seen as a potential anchor tethering the emerging demographic and economic growth of the region, the design of Gillam Town Centre evolves from locally specific qualities of life, history, people and place. It accepts haphazardness with a touch of dirt, cold, snow and black fly, and out of these, looks for an architecture that captures past and present into a picture of the future for the residents of this small northern town.

Like other Canadian resource towns situated in the mid-latitudes of our country, Gillam is a case study of an emerging urban “North.” As the epicentre of Manitoba’s burgeoning hydroelectric economy, Gillam is expected to grow from its current population of 1,500 to 5,000 in the next 15 to 20 years, primarily as a result of hydro dam construction and the resulting changes to road infrastructure that will shorten the three-hour drive from Thompson by 1.5 hours. Tourism is also expected to grow, as the region around Gillam is not only a hunter’s and fisherman’s paradise, but an internationally known destination for observing the aurora borealis.

Gillam Town Centre is an 80,000-square-foot mixed-use development that seeks to establish an urban core in advance of pending residential sprawl. The architects were invited to propose a replacement of an existing derelict shopping mall. The proposal-winning response was to replace that mall with a new concept for a liveable core that is specific to Gillam, a concept that would also provide shopping opportunities but not be limited by them.

Early studies included numerous community meetings and site visits which resulted in the construction of a large-scale (yet transportable) massing model of Gillam. The development can be assessed immediately in terms of its impact on the fabric of the town. The master plan strengthens the core by extending Radisson Drive to Railway Avenue, creating a new entry into the centre of Gillam. Density is increased along the extended public street by locating a new professional-services building on the east side of Radisson at Mattonnabee. Pedestrian-friendly streets, an indoor sidewalk, and street parking will increase activity at the centre of town. Parking areas are situated so as to be shared by multiple and adjacent programs.

The Town Centre is organized around interior public “routes.” As spines that link various programs and provide passage through the Centre, these walkable routes encourage a porosity and an interior town-like experience that is more than retail-driven. Corridors will be lined with historic artifacts that tell the story of Gillam, its people, its resources, its hard histories with the aboriginal people of the region, the demise and resurgence of the railway’s relevance to the region, and the promising futures of sustainable energy resources for the continent.

Sparse and automobile-dependent, Gillam as it exists today is a fractured town plan with no real core to speak of. The efforts of this scheme zero in on the nature of a northern pedestrian experience and the idea of a liveable urban core. Housing is added along with improved access to commercial, retail, professional and social services. The planning merges around the development of existing footpaths and the introduction of a new street that forms the groundwork for the design of this communal town centre.

Permafrost is not only rampant, but moving throughout Gillam. Sites with bedrock–such as those found at the centre of Gillam–offer inherently stable building areas. The move to minimize parking lots and develop the core thus establishes a sustainable strategy of building where the land is appropriate, and not according to a paper plan. Sustainability at Gillam Town Centre is also about promoting the idea of liveable urban areas in Canada’s North, places to stay and establish roots. If Gillam Town Centre reduces flights and road trips out of Gillam for services previously unavailable in town, it has done its small part to sustain a liveable footprint here.

To accommodate existing micro-businesses that operate out of living rooms and kitchens across Gillam and Fox Lake today, the Town Centre includes a flexible micro-business market that will be evolved in Phase Two. The market will support seasonal and crafts-oriented businesses and personal services in a casually structured schedule to accommodate the proprietors’ other full- or part-time jobs.

A large community gathering space at the head of Mattonnabee Avenue is a space that is communal and social in spirit, a place for theatre, potlucks, day-to-day interaction, music and events.

The inclusion of long-stay townhouses and short-stay dormitory-style residential units in Phase One of the project aims for two outcomes: first, an increase to the density and mixed-use quality in the town core; second, an infrastructure for attracting operators for the Town Centre’s retail and professional services programs.

The building envelope of the Town Centre will exceed conventional commercial-grade “mall” construction. Early in the design process, the architects co-ordinated the drafting of a Charter with Manitoba Hydro’s skilled research and development department. Manitoba Hydro has also adopted the position that it has a kind of social contract with place and the people and employees of Gillam, providing a similar commitment to excellence in sustainable construction and experience as it has achieved at its award-winning headquarters in Winnipeg.

Jury Comments

Karen Marler: The municipality should be applauded in forecasting a strong growth period over the next 15 to 20 years. They’ve focused on building community and in doing so they are creating a town centre and framework that has the potential to serve their residents well into the future. Although the building forms and the planning thus far seem very modest, it will be interesting to see if the town’s vision is realized as the buildings develop and evolve over time.

Marianne McKenna: The master-planning strategy emphasizes an adjustable framework of simple elemental forms and the spaces in between. These exterior spaces which create the interesting tension between the forms demand an equal level of design dedication over phased development. I appreciate the very straightforward method of construction implied in the presentation. It should be noted that the high-performance envelope takes lessons learned from larger green buildings and reproduces them at a smaller scale.

Marc Simmons: I like that this project sees itself as an armature, like a framework or a chassis. This is a very low-density site with a series of industrial buildings around it, and it doesn’t try to artificially create a Main Street. It seems to me very nuanced, realistic, and carefully considered with respect to what kinds of spaces the town can actually sustain.

Client Manitoba Hydro
Architect Team Peter Sampson, Andrew Lewthwaite, Dirk Blouw, Mathew Piller, Monica Hutton, Liane Veness, John Duerksen, Kyle Munro, Ed Calnitsky, Bob Martin
Structural Wolfrom Engineering Ltd.
Mechanical/Electrical Nova 3 Engineering Ltd.
Interiors Calnitsky Associates Architects & Peter Sampson Architecture Studio Inc.
Contractor Gardon Construction Ltd. (Phase One)
Area 80,000 ft²
Budget Withheld
Completion Phase One–2014; All Phases–2018

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WINNER OF A 2013 CANADIAN ARCHITECT AWARD OF MERIT

ARCHITECT RDH Architects
LOCATION Guelph, Ontario

The Guelph Civic Square Pavilion is a small structure designed to accommodate changing and rest areas for a skating rink in the winter season and a splash pad in the summer months. Further to this, the pavilion houses a Zamboni machine, mechanical spaces, a water collection cistern and chillers for the ice rink/splash pad, an accessible washroom/change room, public lockers and donor wall recognition.

The project is a single building component situated within the larger context of a civic square landscape design. The architects were brought into the project by a prominent landscape architect to develop the civic square pavilion. The role of architect as subconsultant has given an interesting perspective to the design process. The focus has been one of experimentation within the boundaries of a small-scale architectural object, concentrating on technical innovation and formal exploration.

The pavilion is situated on a civic square located at 1 Carden Street in the heart of historic downtown Guelph, Ontario. The square sits in front of the newly redesigned City Hall building. The pavilion is located on the north side of the City Hall building and to the east of a centrally located reflecting pool/splash pad and ice rink.

The pavilion location accommodates Zamboni access to the water feature to the west and to a civic centre service street to the east. The north edge of the square is framed by an intact section of historic building fabric which will offer significant commercial amenity for the use of future visitors to the square, such as skate rentals, skate sharpening, cafés and restaurants.

The pavilion uses perspective to its advantage to facilitate a dynamic eastern edge counterpoint to the mass of the City Hall building. The luminosity of the new glazed pavilion will help to further accentuate its position on the site and in the city. Beyond the many associated technical functions it accommodates, the essence of this pavilion is as a space of rest and change for users of the amenities offered in the plaza. The pavilion is both a place of refuge from the elements and an urban marker for the newly designed civic square.

The driving force behind this design process has been to use the pavilion as a testing ground for formal and material constructional systems which had not previously been used by the office. The explorative process included compound curvature, radiused structural glass products, custom ceramic frit patterning, LED lighting possibilities, and custom hardware components. Some of these elements have been touched on in other projects but in a much less extensive manner and without the same level of explorative rigour. New three-dimensional modelling programs have been utilized and ongoing research with fabricators has led to a much greater understanding of how one can study complex forms and how these forms and materials can be constructed during the building process.

The conceptual approach of using a small-scale architectural object as a vehicle to study these techniques has been fruitful to this particular project, and with proper communication, will be put to use and further developed in future projects. The project illustrates that an experimental design process can work in step with the development of a civic building project.

Jury Comments

Karen Marler: This is a simple, elegant solution to a simple program. I appreciate how the pavilion contrasts and complements the stone heritage façades. The luminosity of the glass façade is quite beautiful the way it’s been rendered. Imagine a light dusting of snowfall at twilight–it would be lovely.

Marianne McKenna: I like the distinctive illusory stance of the pavilion relative to the solidity of the nearby heritage building which is more massive and opaque. The pavilion has a real transparency as it plays with the ambition to draw glass into a dialogue with water and ice while it transitions from summer to winter.

Marc Simmons: It’s designed with an appreciation of its adjacency to the ice rink, using the reflectivity of either the water or ice to enhance its presence. It becomes more impactful through illumination and reflectivity in its context.

Client City of Guelph
Architect Team Tyler Sharp, Bob Goyeche, Scott Waugh, Carlos Tavares
Structural Halsall Associates Ltd.
Mechanical/Electrical MMM Group
Landscape Janet Rosenberg and Studio
Interiors RDH Architects
Contractor Goetz Construction
Area 2,800 ft²
Budget $1.3 M
Completion Spring 2014

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WINNER OF A 2013 CANADIAN ARCHITECT AWARD OF MERIT

ARCHITECT Pelletier de Fontenay
LOCATION Dunham, Quebec

Located near Dunham, Quebec, less than an hour outside of Montreal, the project site is a field surrounded by forest in an area where agricultural land abuts the mountains of the Eastern Townships. The lot itself is a derelict field taken over by wildflowers and small shrubs. There is nothing spectacular about the surrounding landscape or view–there is only farmland and the adjacent forest.

Organized on a single floor, the house establishes a dialogue with the horizontality of the rural context. From a distance, the form is barely recognizable, wavering between object and landscape. There is no privileged point of view in this open horizon, creating a non-hierarchical relationship between the house and its setting, where the irregular angular shape changes continuously depending upon the vantage point of the observer. The jagged roofline recalls the adjacent tree lines and the more distant mountains.

The clients simultaneously expressed their desire for an open floor plan and the need for some form of separation between functions, and the proposal addresses this contradiction by exploring the typological idea of the enfilade, a spatial arrangement commonly found in classical architecture. All the rooms are arranged sequentially, eliminating any unnecessary corridors. The sequence is wrapped around itself, transforming the enfilade into a continuous loop, which creates a gradient between the public and private functions of the house without having to enclose them formally.

In plan, the interior is the shape defined by the hexagonal outside perimeter and the rectangular inner courtyard. The exact proportions are determined by the function of the four main areas: kitchen and dining room, living room, bathroom and bedroom. Differentiation between the rooms is expressed by the pinch between the corners of the four inner courtyard walls and the exterior angled walls, and the spaces flow into one another through the subtle thresholds produced by this expansion/contraction of space. The same kind of variation occurs in section due to the irregular sloping roof, where space is compressed towards the connections and expands vertically as one moves away from the inner walls of the house.

The uninterrupted ring becomes one fluid room where different activities occur. This feeling of continuity is amplified by internal visual connections through the inner courtyard. From certain perspectives one can see into the house, through the courtyard, back into the house and to the landscape beyond. The inner courtyard acts as a neutral buffer and is treated as an abstract contained space that offers a contrasting experience to the open-ended aspect of the natural landscape.

Arranged in a pinwheel configuration, the interior walls serve both structural and functional purposes, modulating the four distinct spaces according to their respective programs. The concentration of all the services in the thickened walls around the inner courtyard preserves the purity of the uninterrupted floor plan and the continuous exterior walls.

The house is expressed as one continuous form cast in concrete, existing as the finished surface both outside and inside and creating an overall material continuity. Since there is no basement, the floor is a structural slab on grade, and the radiant heating system is integrated in a finished slab poured over the structural foundation. The roof is a straightforward timber structure resting on the load-bearing concrete walls, and is visible on the interior, adding texture and warmth to the otherwise cold materials. Insulated from the exterior, the exposed roof deck is waterproofed and finished with zinc sheets. The large window openings are furnished with triple-pane glass and white oak mullions. All four inner courtyard openings possess sliding door mechanisms, while the exterior façade openings are a combination of fixed and operable windows.

A ground-source geothermal heat pump helps with heating in the winter and cooling in the summer, and the concrete acts as a thermal mass adding to the efficiency and comfort of the house. The use of limited, mostly local materials, as well as local manufacturers and simple building techniques requiring few trades and limited phasing, was also important in the design. Lastly, the design of the sloping roof facilitates the collection of rainwater for household use.

Jury Comments

Karen Marler: This house stands out from the other single-family homes that we saw in its approach to landscape and in its simplicity of concept and execution. Scale seems irrelevant. It has a very protective reclusive aspect to the exterior, which is juxtaposed to the interior where there is fluidity between spaces opening onto a courtyard. There is always a connection with the courtyard, giving the house an inward focus.

Marianne McKenna: The relationship to landscape is key to the success of this project. The design ambitiously wraps a sculptural form around an open space engaging two distinctive landscapes; the rural farmland and the contained courtyard. Still conceptual at this stage, there are interesting opportunities for materiality, finish, shaping of views and fenestration, to fully realize the sculptural potential of form in a residential building.

Marc Simmons: If you were to occupy this house, I think you would have a complete awareness of the whole object as a sculpture. It’s almost like taking a James Turrell skyspace and twisting and turning it into a three-dimensional object. You can imagine the colours of the walls changing with sunset and sunrise. The house would be quite dynamic as an index for the passage of the day.

Client Linda Gaboriau
Architect Team Hubert Pelletier, Yves de Fontenay, Étienne Issa
Structural Thibaut Lefort Ing.
Landscape/Interiors Pelletier de Fontenay
Area 190 m²
Budget Withheld
Completion Winter 2015

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WINNER OF A 2013 CANADIAN ARCHITECT STUDENT AWARD OF EXCELLENCE

STUDENT Francis Ng, McGill University

During his visit to Montreal in 1881, Mark Twain observed that “you couldn’t throw a brick without breaking a church window.” The Catholic Church, as both an institution and a building typology, was a defining feature in the formation of Quebec’s cultural landscape. However, as its own identity solidified, Quebec sought to free itself from its patriarchal ties to the Vatican. The resulting schism, known as the Quiet Revolution, would strip away the aura that once surrounded these places of worship. The overabundance of churches across the province and the inability to maintain these buildings resulted in closures. The rejection of the Church generates an uncanny recognition of the remaining monuments; what was once so familiar is now alien. The secure House of God has become vacant and haunted by the absence of the very institution that founded Quebec. In dealing with this malaise, it becomes necessary to define a strategy to challenge the immutable nature of churches. The deconstruction of the church generates a process of defamiliarization from an established meaning of the building and its artifacts, allowing for new and varied interpretations to emerge.

Église Saint-Pierre Apôtre, a 19th-century Gothic-style church in Montreal, was chosen to represent the very fragility of ecclesiastical architecture in Quebec today. The church is cast into a concrete-like monument that consumes the body of the original building. Parts of it are inverted into its negative cast, while others remain intact. The resulting reliefs retain the shape and texture of the original features of the building, containing the ghost of its former self. While much of the exterior façade and openings of the original building are solidly cast, the interior church space is preserved as much as possible. The preservation of most of these existing elements enables the church to continue functioning as a profoundly sacred place of worship.

The closure of Catholic churches also meant that their religious artifacts would need to find a new home. Religious art that is of value only to the collective memory of the people in Quebec often becomes a burden for the diocese, and in response to this difficult situation, the thesis proposes a new addition above the existing church to permanently house and archive these disused religious artifacts. The vaulted nave ceilings are removed to establish a visual connection between the church and this new program, reinforcing the vertical relationship between sky and earth, sacred and profane. As such, the church/archive strives to reconstitute these fragments of art, of history, and of memory that represent Quebec’s identity from a time long gone.

Jury Comments

Karen Marler: This student’s overall presentation exhibits a level of maturity in identifying the essence of the issue. This project is beautifully executed and concise in its concept.

Marianne McKenna: This is a spectacular presentation of an illusion. There is a great representational ambition to reflect on faith and the Catholic Church, and an evocative and skillful use of black and white. I admire the technique.

Marc Simmons: It’s not exactly adaptive reuse–it’s adaptive destruction. The project is very cogent.

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WINNER OF A 2013 CANADIAN ARCHITECT STUDENT AWARD OF EXCELLENCE

STUDENT Faisal Bashir, University of Toronto

This project revisits advances in computation and fabrication in an effort to produce a tectonic design logic that instills “civic memory” within the context of Karachi, Pakistan. Over the past three decades, Karachi has experienced poor economic development, sectarian violence and an increase in crime. This has led to a flight of human capital to Arab and European countries. The shortage of skilled labour and trained design professionals has partly resulted in the stagnation of architectural development. The project suggests utilizing the surplus workforce from the information technology sector in the construction industry, enabling the production of parametric architectural systems that pay homage to Karachi’s architectural heritage as well as encouraging an unskilled workforce to construct complex structures. Thus, this project proposes metro stations at three unique sites while employing a single architectural system to create complex and performative architectural geometries with an ease of construction.

Responsive Geometries is an attempt to learn from Karachi’s heritage and move forward with a distinct architectural style and building system. The project also investigates the issue of traditionalism of conservative cultures and contemporary architecture. Karachi, under pressure to accommodate a massive population influx, political unrest and socio-economic degradation, is suffering a loss of civic identity. The standards of architectural design and construction practices have declined over the past 70 years and in recent decades, Karachi has tried to adopt contemporary western architecture, but has largely failed, as the buildings produced are devoid of originality or culture.

Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) was launched in 1969 but was discontinued in 1999 due to administrative mismanagement and government negligence. As of 2009, a plan to revive KCR was put forward, and this thesis builds upon that plan, using it as a framework for new architectural exploration. As part of public infrastructure, KCR stations are the perfect site to conduct cultural and architectural design experiments. Three different sites (KCR Stations) have been chosen due to their unique track typology that includes an elevated track, a ground-level track and an underground track. This difference in sites will test the flexibility of the proposed building system.

Jury Comments

Karen Marler: It is fascinating to relate this student’s work to the other infrastructure projects submitted. The spatial qualities and materiality are rendered to create intrigue about these terminals while supporting this student’s interest in light and its role within a space.

Marianne McKenna: The approach gives an ephemeral quality to concrete, an inherently weighty construction material. It is ambitious in proposing a flexible yet sophisticated construction system using a constrained vocabulary of parts.

Marc Simmons: I appreciate the combination of materiality plus complexity.

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