Leaf’s old home and Winnipeg Museum win steel awards

The Canadian Institute of Steel Construction’s Ontario Region gave out its awards at a gala dinner held in the Ritz Carleton Hotel in Toronto on June 6.

Two awards of excellence were given. One was in the Engineering category and went to the Loblaws & Ryerson University’s Redevelopment of Maple Leaf Gardens. The engineers were exp Services. The architects were Turner Fleischer and BBB, and the contractor was Buttcon.

The redevelopment of the 1931 iconic ice hockey arena in downtown Toronto at Carlton and Church Streets has seen it transformed into a multi-use complex that combines a retail store for Loblaws and a new Athletic Centre for Ryerson University. Many of the design challenges related to it being a heritage building where significant elements had to be preserved.

The second award of excellence was in the category Projects Constructed Outside of Ontario and went to the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg. Yolles/CH2M HILL was the engineer on the building, whose structural complexity includes highly stressed connection points between steel forms and concrete walls and large column-free spaces. Architects were Smith Carter and Antoine Predock. Contractor was PCL.

Two awards of merit were given in the Engineering category. One went to the Redevelopment of the Toronto Sun Media Site at 333 King Street East. The engineers were again exp Services. They had to reinforce the existing steel columns through existing floors, carrying the new forces down to new foundations. The architect was pellow + associates, and the owner and contractor was First Gulf Corporation.

Another award of merit in the Engineering category went to the Re-Decking and Widening of Hogg’s Hollow Bridge at Highway 401, Toronto. This project for the Ontario Ministry of Transportation is one of the largest bridge engineering projects using primarily structural steel in recent years. A total of over 1,200 tons of high-grade 350WT steel used, with installation amidst the busiest traffic conditions in the country. Engineer was Morrison Hershfield and the contractor was the Miller Group.

In the Architecture category an award of merit was given for The Abilities Centre, a 130,000 sq.ft. therapeutic, recreation and community complex in Whitby. Halcrow Yolles is the engineer of a structure that has various angular, orthogonal and curvaceous geometries. B+H is the architect. Contractor is Bondfield Construction.

Another award of merit in Architecture went to the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario. The 270,000 sq.ft. quadrangle structure has complex geometric forms in three storeys. Yolles, a CH2M HILL company is the engineer, and Hariri Pontarini are the architects.

In the Green Buildings category, the Environment 3 EV3 building at the University of Waterloo won an award of merit. Engineer is WalterFedy, and architect is Pearce McCluskey. For the construction of this LEED Platinum building, a “staggering” 800 tons of steel was delivered and erected in four days.

The Algonquin Centre for Construction Excellence at Algonquin College won an award of merit in a category “Projects Converted into Steel.” The structure was originally conceived as cast-in-place concrete but was changed to structural steel because it saved time in constructing the classroom tower. Architect was Diamond and Schmitt; contractor was EllisDon. No engineer was named.