Design for Troubled Waters

Cities need to grapple with complex ideas to prepare for the next superstorm.
By Jerry Adler, Architectural Record
December 17, 2012

Two large buildings stand about a quarter mile apart in Red Hook, on the Brooklyn waterfront. One is a 19th-century brick warehouse handsomely renovated to house apartments and Fairway Market, a much-beloved gourmet grocery; the other is the local outpost of IKEA in a sprawling yellow-and-blue shed whose ground floor is mostly parking. The storm surge from Superstorm Sandy wrecked Fairway, which will take months to rebuild. IKEA, by contrast, with its merchandise mostly off the ground floor, was scarcely damaged and reopened a few days later; FEMA even housed a temporary office there. More … http://archrecord.construction.com/news/2012/12/121217-Design-for-Troubled-Waters.asp.

Canadian Architect Awards of Excellence

Canadian Architect magazine has revealed the list of winners for its 2012 Awards of Excellence, including three AIBC firms among the nine awards given:

• BattersbyHowat Architects Inc. (Vancouver) for the UBC Geological Field School in Oliver, BC;
• Kobayashi + Zedda Architects (Whitehorse, YT) for the Children’s First Centre in Inuvik, Northwest Territories; and
• Zeidler Partnership Architects (Vancouver) for the GO Roof, Union Station in Toronto.

Additional winners include:

• Atelier Big City, Fichten Soiferman et Associés, L’OEUF for the Centre Culturel de Notre-Dame-de-Grâce in Montreal, Quebec;
• Dundee Kilmer Integrated Design Team: Joint Venture of architectsAlliance and Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects in association with Daoust Lestage Inc. and MacLennan Jaunkalns Miller Architects for the 2015 Pan Am/Parapan American Games Athletes’ Village | Canary District in Toronto, Ontario;
• L’OEUF for the House in Four Fields in La Conception, Quebec;
• The Marc Boutin Architectural Collaborative Inc. + el dorado inc (associated architectural firm) for the 1^st Street SW Underpass Enhancement in Calgary, Alberta;
• Paul Laurendeau | Francois R Beauchesne | Architectes en Consortium for the Ampthithéâtre Trois-Rivières sur Saint-Laurent in Trois-Rivières, Quebec; and
• T B A | Thomas Balaban Architecte for the Spa Le St-Jude in Montreal, Quebec.

Two Awards of Merit were also given out:

• Lemay (LemayLab) for the Mount Stephen Club in Montreal, Quebec; and
• gh3 for the Real Time Control Building #3 in Edmonton, Alberta.

In addition, two post-secondary architecture students received an Award of Excellence for their graduating thesis projects:

• Danielle Berwick, University of Toronto, for Theatrics of Psychiatry; and
• Andrew Neuman, University of British Columbia, for Human Space: Density for Community and the Socio-Ecological Neighbourhood.

These annual awards, established in 1968, are given to architects and architectural graduates for building projects in the design stage. The awards recognize architectural design excellence with consideration given to response to program, site, geographical and social context, as well as evaluated physical organization, structure, materials and environmental features. This year’s awards jury included Donald Chong (Williamson Chong Architects, Toronto), Marie-Chantal Croft (Coarchitecture, Quebec City) and Bruce Haden Architect AIBC (DIALOG, Vancouver). Full coverage of the winning projects can be found in the December 2012 issue of Canadian Architect. For more information about the Canadian Architect Awards of Excellence and to view the winning projects, go to http://awards.canadianarchitect.com/.

Call for Nominations: 2013 Wood Design Awards

Wood Works! BC is now accepting nominations for its 2013 Wood Design Awards. This annual program is intended to honour excellence in wood-based projects and recognize the people and organizations that are pioneering and achieving this objective. It celebrates innovative structural and architectural uses of wood and provides an opportunity for architects, engineers, building designers, builders and project owners to showcase their projects. Nomination categories include wood construction projects (civic, private and public), institutional projects (large and small) and the Premier’s Award. For full details and to access the online nomination process, please visithttp://www.wood-works.ca/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=10&Itemid=124. Any questions may be directed to Linda Shauer at 1 (877) 929-9663, ext.6. The nomination deadline is January 25, 2013.