Firms show their metal at Ontario steel awards

The Canadian Institute of Steel Construction, Ontario Chapter, gave out its awards on May 19.  Four awards of excellence as well as awards of merit were handed out.

Halcrow Yolles was the structural engineer on the team for the project that won an award of excellence in the engineering category. They won for the Ritz-Carlton Hotel which recently opened in the financial district of downtown Toronto. The building’s features include a five storey glass-enclosed podium that has roof framing cantilevering off jumbo W360 building columns. Page &Steel/IBI Group are the architects.

The Bow, a 58-storey mixed-use development in Calgary, won an award of excellence in a category called “projects constructed outside of Ontario.” Halcrow Yolles was the engineer of the project, which is Calgary’s tallest building and first steel skyscraper. It has a triangular diagonal grid (diagrid) system in a curved building design. Foster + Partners/Zeidler Partnership are the architects.

In the green buildings category, the Centre for Green Cities at the Evergreen Brick Works in Toronto, won an award of excellence. Halsall Associates is the structural engineer on the project, which transformed an old industrial site off the Bayview Extension. The project involved renovating a group of heritage industrial buildings and building a five-storey new office building that is rated LEED Platinum. A steel micropile system made it possible to retain the existing brick walls that make up the building’s perimeter. Diamond and Schmitt are the architects.

Halsall Associates was also the structural engineer for the Queenston Plaza Border Crossing Facility, Phase 1 & 2, which won in the architectural category. Moriyama & Teshima was the architect. This central customs building for the Canadian Border Services Agency and Canadian Food Inspection Agency, has a two-storey, entirely steel framed structure with a mechanical penthouse, and is divided into four separate blocks by 100-mm seismic joints.