Wood works for Canadian buildings

A painter’s studio and a performing arts theatre have been praised for their use of timber in construction at the Ontario Wood WORKS! Awards.

The 530ft² painter’s studio in Dundas, Canada, built from Douglas fir, spruce and eastern white pine, received the Residential Wood Design Award, while the 45,567ft² Young Centre for the Performing Arts in Toronto was awarded the Commercial Wood Design Award for its use of rough-cut Douglas fir timber trusses to convert two existing brick tankhouses.

Other winners at the awards included a four-storey retirement home in Guelph (Multi-Unit Wood Design Award), the Canadian Border Service Agency Building in Fort Eire (Institutional Wood Design Award), the Four Seasons' Centre for the Performing Arts, Toronto (Interior Wood Design Award), the Toronto Region Conservation Authority’s Restoration Services Centre in Vaughan (Green Design Award) and the Centre for International Governance Innovation in Waterloo (Heritage Award).

Toronto-based Montgomery Sisam Architects, the Corporation of the Town of Gravenhurst, engineering firm Blackwell Bowick Partnership Ltd, the TDL Group Corporation and Dr Pierre Quenneville were also named as Wood Advocates by the judges.

“We are impressed each year by the innovative projects that are submitted,” said Marianne Berube, executive director of the awards.

“We see amazing new construction technology alongside equally impressive projects that feature traditional uses.

“The awards winners chose wood for its structural strength, lower cost and higher efficiency, the texture and warmth it adds to interiors, and for its sustainability as a renewable and recyclable material.”

The Wood WORKS! Awards are promoted by the Canadian Wood Council in order to promote the use of timber in commercial, industrial and institutional construction.