North American Holcim awards announced

Canadian engineers and architects figured prominently in the winners of the North American Holcim Awards for Sustainable Construction. In a presentation at the Montreal Hilton Bonaventure hotel on October 17, Holcim gave three of the nine awards to projects from Canada. <br>
The Holcim awards are an international program that recognizes planned but tangible sustainable projects. The competition runs parallel programs in five different world regions, then the gold, silver and bronze winners in each region move on to a global competition. The awards are held on a three-year cycle and come with substantial prize money – $2 million in total. Almost 5,000 projects were entered globally this year.<br>
The bronze award ($25,000) for North America announced at the Montreal Hilton Bonaventure was given to a water quality and environment research and exhibition centre at a reservoir in Sudbury, Ontario. The name of the project is “Living with Lakes Center for Freshwater Restoration and Research.” The project leader named was John Gunn, a scientist at Laurentian University. Others on the team included J.L. Richards & Associates (Jeffrey Laberge) and Peter Busby and Wills Architects of Vancouver (Peter Busby).<br>
The Sudbury centre is to be built at Lake Ramsay and will be used by researchers to monitor the water quality and measure the impacts of different technologies. The results are to be communicated to the public through the internet and also at the nearby Science North. The building itself will be self-sufficient for its heat and energy.<br>
Two other Canadian projects won Holcim Awards Acknowledgement Prizes of $20,000 each. One was the Evergreen Brick Works heritage site revitalization in Toronto. Located in the Don Valley, the project transforms a deteriorating industrial site into a visitor centre. The architectural team was led by Joe Lobko Architect and du Toit Allsopp Hillier, with Diamond and Schmitt, ERA Architects and Claude Cormier landscape architects. Halsall Associates was consultant for both sustainability and structural engineering. Mechanical and electrical engineering was by Stantec Consulting. Other consulting engineers on the team include Totten Sims Hubicki (site servicing and ecology), Leber Rubes (fire and code), MMM Group (water resources), Dougan & Associates (ecology) and BA Group (traffic).<br>
Another Canadian project that won an Acknowledgement Prize was a scheme to revitalize the North Vancouver Outdoor School and site in Squamish, B.C. New buildings on the 420-acre site near the Sea-to-Sky Highway will be elevated to avoid potential damage from flooding and to take advantage of the views. Leader on that team was Larry McFarland Architects of Vancouver. Structural engineer is Equilibrium, and mechanical-electrical engineer is Stantec. The project is currently in design development.<br>
The Gold Award went to the Solar 2 Green Energy Arts and Education Centre in Manhattan, New York. It won $100,000. The Silver award ($50,000) went to a Day Labour Station in San Francisco.<br>
The results for Europe’s Holcim Awards were announced in Madrid recently, and the results for Latin America, Africa/Middle East and Asia Pacific will be announced in the forthcoming weeks. The global competition winners will be announced next May in Switzerland. <br>
For more details, see www.holcimawards.org<br>
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