Marianne McKenna Invested as an Officer of the Order of Canada
The Governor General of Canada, David Johnston, has bestowed Officer of the Order of Canada – one of Canada’s highest honors – to Toronto architect Marianne McKenna of Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects. Similar to the Order of the British Empire in Britain and the Kennedy Center Honors for artists in the United States, the award recognizes Canadians for a lifetime of outstanding achievement, dedication to the community and service to the nation.
Office of the Secretary to the Governor General stated:
Le Quartier Concordia – John Molson School of Business / KPMB Architects with Fichten Soiferman et Associés Architectes
The John Molson School of Business (JMSB) was designed to accommodate faculty, administrators, and undergraduate and graduate students under one roof to foster a community of scholars and the exchange of ideas. It is also the outcome of a winning design competition scheme. The JMSB represents the third building to complete the bold vision to create Le Quartier Concordia – a new vertical campus bringing together Visual Arts, Engineering/Computer Science and Business on two blocks in downtown Montreal to raise the profile of Concordia’s brand.
Architect: Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg (KPMB) Architects with Fichten Soiferman et Associés Architectes (FSA)
Location: Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Project Area: 375,000 sqf
Project Year: 2009
Photographs: Eduard Hueber, Marc Cramer, Tom Arban
Block 24E / KPMB Architects
Block 24E combines residential building forms of different heights with street-related retail bases to activate the southern portion of Spadina Avenue, one of Toronto’s most important north-south arterials. It anchors the CityPlace development as it transitions from east to west and forms a gateway on Spadina to create a more inviting pedestrian experience. Beyond activating the precinct, its formal silhouette will make a significant statement in support of the Mayor’s and the City of Toronto’s agenda to create a City Beautiful.
Architect: Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg (KPMB) Architects
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Project Area: 662,734 sqf
Project Year: 2009
Photographs: Tom Arban
Maple Leaf Square / KPMB Architects
Maple Leaf Square will create a bold and energetic 24 hour sports, entertainment and residential precinct in downtown Toronto. Situated between the Toronto Financial District to the north and Harbourfront to the south, and anchored by the adjacent Air Canada Centre, the new complex will consolidate this precinct into a vital sports and entertainment district in the city.
Architect: Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg (KPMB) Architects
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Project Area: 1,135,431 sqf
Project Year: 2011
Photographs: Tom Arban
2011 CAE Educational Facility Design Awards
AIA recently made us aware of this year’s CAE Educational Facility Design Awards. The purpose of the design awards program is to identify trends and emerging ideas, honor excellence in planning and design, and disseminate knowledge about best practices in educational and community facilities. Check out the list of 13 after the break, including several of the firms we have previously featured.
Young Centre for the Performing Arts / KPMB Architects
The Young Centre for the Performing Arts (YCPA) is the result of a unique partnership between George Brown College and Soulpepper Theatre Company. Since opening in January 2006, the Young Centre has significantly anchored the Distillery District as a cultural destination. The project introduces a new paradigm that combines teaching and live performance in one facility.
Architect: Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg (KPMB) Architects
Location: The Distillery District, Tank Houses 9 and 10, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Project Area: 44,000 sqf
Project Year: 2006
Photographs: Tom Arban
TIFF Bell Lightbox / KPMB Architects
The winning competition design for the Bell Lightbox and Festival Tower was conceived on an epic scale to create a city of cinema within the city that hosts one of the most important annual film festivals. It was also designed to reflect the heterogeneity and openness that characterizes Toronto. Located in the heart of the city’s media and entertainment district, the architecture of the Bell Lightbox at the corner of King and John Streets injects energy into the precinct.
Architect: Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg (KPMB) Architects
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Project Team: Bruce Kuwabara, Design partner; Shirley Blumberg, Partner-in-Charge; Luigi LaRocca, Senior Associate; Matthew Wilson, Project Architect; Matt Krivosudsky, Bruno Weber, Brent Wagler, Glenn MacMullin, Andrea Macaroun, Rita Kiriakis, Lilly Liakus, Carolyn Lee, David Poloway ,Tyler Sharp, Debra Fabricus, Claudio Venier, Thom Seto, Walter Gaudet, Krista Clark, Clementine Chang, Winston Chong, Carla Munoz, Elizabeth Paden, Bill Colaco, Nicko Elliot, Norm Li.
Architect of Record: Kirkor Architects & Planners
Project Area: 547,000 sqf
Project Year: 2010
Photographs: Maris Mezulis, Tom Arban, Mehrdad Tavakkolian
The Royal Conservatory, TELUS Centre for Performance and Learning / KPMB Architects
The new TELUS Centre for Performance and Learning is the final phase in the Master Plan to build a new home for Canada’s premier music and arts educator, the Royal Conservatory. KPMB, under the direction of Marianne McKenna, has been working with the RCM to realize the vision set forth in the 1991 award winning Master Plan.
Architect: Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg (KPMB) Architects
Location: 273 Bloor Street West, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Project Area: 190,000 sqf
Project Year: 2009
Photographs: Eduard Hueber, Tom Arban
180 Queen West / KPMB Architects with Stone McQuire Vogt Architects
One Eighty Queen West is a commercial property located on a site at the northwest edge of downtown Toronto’s financial district area and adjacent to the city’s “legal district” to the east (Osgoode Hall, the Ontario Courts Building, Old and New City Halls). The site also stands immediately adjacent to a historic legal monument: Campbell House, originally the home of William Campbell, first chief justice of Ontario and at the threshold to the Queen Street West retail strip and the residential neighbourhoods to the north. The land is part of the Canada Life lands. Along with an environmental agenda, the project design was driven in the first instance by its obligation to address this confluence of distinct urban conditions.
Architect: Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg (KPMB) Architects with Stone McQuire Vogt Architects
Location: 180 Queen Street West, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Project Area: 270,809 sqf
Project Year: 2007
Photographs: Tom Arban, Eduard Hueber
The Gardiner Museum / KPMB Architects
The Gardiner Museum is one of the world’s preeminent institutions devoted to ceramic art, and the only museum of its kind in Canada. It is also designated as one Toronto’s cultural renaissance projects. The renewal project, together with the Royal Ontario Museum across the street and the Royal Conservatory of Music around the corner on Bloor Street West, will form a new cultural precinct for the city. The renewal builds on top of the original structure, designed by Keith Wagland in 1984. The third floor expansion and extension of the original footprint to the street creates a bolder image for the Gardiner, while respecting the intimate scale for which the original building was admired. The former pink granite exterior was replaced with polished buff limestone, setting the Gardiner in dialogue with the historic facades and pediments of the adjacent neo-classical Lillian Massey and Queen-Anne style Margaret Addison buildings. The front of the museum was completely re-landscaped with a series of terraced platforms that bring the Gardiner to the street, and create a series of inviting outdoor spaces for casual and formal gathering.
Architect: Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects (KPMB Architects)
Location: 111 Queen’s Park, Toronto, Canada
Project Team: Bruce Kuwabara (design partner), Shirley Blumberg (partner-in-charge), Paulo Rocha (design/project architect); John Allen, Kevin Bridgman, Steven Casey, Bill Colaco, Ramon Janer, Tom Knezic, Shane O’Neill, Thom Seto, Tyler Sharpe, Javier Uribe
Structural Engineer: Halsall Associates Limited
Mechanical and Electrical Engineer: Crossey Engineering Ltd.
Landscape: NAK Design
Cost: Vermeulens Cost Consultants
Fire & Life Safety: Leber / Rubes Inc.
Lighting: Suzanne Powadiuk Design
Elevators: Soberman Engineering
Branding Consultant: Scott Thornley + Company Inc.
Food Services: Marrack + Associates
Project Area: 46,276 sqf
Project Year: 2006
Photographs: Tom Arban, Eduard Hueber, Shai Gil / Insite Photography
Canadian Embassy Berlin / KPMB Architects with Gagnon, Letellier, Cyr, architectes and Smith Carter Architects + Engineers
Located at the junction of Leipziger Platz and Postdamer Platz where a portion of the Berlin Wall still stands, the new Canadian Embassy is one of several initiatives in the city’s third wave of reconstruction. The design participates in the reconstruction of the original octagonal wall of Leipziger Platz, and conforms to the stringent planning and design guidelines set out by the District Office of Central Berlin which dictated a stone exterior with punched windows, and 22 meter setbacks.
Architect: Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects (KPMB Architects) with Gagnon Letellier Cyr architectes and Smith Carter Architects + Engineers
Location: Leipziger Platz 17, Berlin, Germany
KPMB Team: Franciska Cape, Bill Colaco, Deni Di Filippo, Brian Graham, Simon Haus, Robert Kastelic, Carolyn Lee, Dan Nawrocki, Riki Nishimura, Karen Petrachenko, Shadi Rahbaran, Bruno Weber
Gagnon Letellier Cyr Team: Marc Letellier, Michel Gagnon (senior architects); Simon Brochu, Jean-Sebastien Laberge (architects); Pierre Michaud, Réal St.-Pierre, Guylaine Lehoux (technologists), Simon Brochu
Smith Carter Architects Principals: James Yamashita (project management); Takashi Yamashita (A/E integration); Colin Gibbs (structural); Jim McEwan (mechanical), Howard Procychyn (electrical), Sam Cox
Local Executive Architect: Pysall Ruge Von Matt Architekten
Local Consulting Architect: Rave Architekten
Structural Engineer: GSE Ingenieur-Gesellschaft mbH Saar, Enselett und Partner
Mechanical and Electrical Engineer: Happold Ingenieurbüro GmbH
Landscape: Cornelia Hahn Oberlander
Office Interiors: Vogel Architects
Lighting: Suzanne Powadiuk Design
Cost: Vermeulens Cost Consultants
Developer: Hanover Leasing, Tercon Immobilien
Project Area: 180,000 sqf
Project Year: 2005
Photographs: Foto Design, A-Frame
The National Ballet School / KPMB Architects
The National Ballet School (NBS) ranks as one of the finest ballet training institutions in the world, on par with the Royal Ballet School in London, the School of American Ballet in New York, and the Paris Opera Ballet School. NBS is the only institution in North America to offer an integral program of professional dance training, advanced level academic education and residential living all on one site. Its state-of-the-art educational and training programs provide students with the skills to become creative, self-assured individuals for whatever career they pursue upon graduation. Approximately 700 students participate in the NBS programs each week. Project Grand Jeté was conceived to ensure the ongoing evolution of its standards and programs with state-of-the-art facilities. The project weaves together new and heritage buildings. New construction comprises the Celia Franca Training Centre, a vertical campus of three transparent, elevated structures organized into an asymmetrical composition around an existing heritage building, Northfield House, and linked to hertige structures to the north and south via connecting bridges accessed off the piano nobile level.
Architect: Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects (KPMB Architects)
Location: 400 Jarvis Street, Toronto, Canada
Structural Engineer: Yolles Partnership Inc.
Mechanical & Electrical Engineer: Crossey Engineering Ltd.
Landscape Architect: The MBTW Group
Arborist: Shady Lane Expert Tree Care Inc.
Branding Consultant: Scott Thornley + Company Inc.
Signage Consultant: Bhandari & Plater Inc.
Urban Planners: Urban Strategies Inc.
Food Services: Marrack + Associates Inc.
AV Consultant: Engineering Harmonics
Public Art: Catherine Williams Fine Art Consultants Inc.
IT Consultant: Graycom Analysis
Furniture Consultant: MCD Design Group Ltd.
Acoustic Consultant: Aercoustics Engineering Ltd.
Elevator Consultant: Soberman Engineering Ltd.
Traffic Consultant: iTrans Consulting Inc.
Geotechnical Consultant: Shaheen & Peaker Ltd.
Shoring Consultant: RWB Engineering Ltd.
Land Surveyors: Rabideau & Czerwinski
Quality Surveyor (Arch/Struc): A.W. Hooker & Associates Ltd.
Quality Surveyor (Mech/Elec): Clare Randall-Smith & Ass. Ltd.
Building Code Consultant: Larden Muniak Consulting Inc.
Project Area: 180,000 sqf
Project Year: 2005
Photographs: Eduard Hueber, Tom Arban
RAIC 2011 Awards of Excellence
The RAIC Awards of Excellence recognize distinction in the field of architecture. Awarded categories include Green Buildings and Innovation in Architecture as well as the Architectural Firm Award which was given to Montgomery Sisam Architects. Members of the jury included: Peter Busby, Teresa Coady, Stephen Pope for Green Buildings and Enzo Gardin, Dan Hanganu, Gregory Henriquez for Innovation in Architecture.
Recipients and Honorable Mentions for 2011 RAIC Awards of Excellence following the break.
