Don Smith awards: Check out the top new buildings in London, St. Thomas

Article content

In the midst of a building boom in the region, the London and St. Thomas Association of Realtors has announced the winners of the 2021 Don Smith commercial building awards. The biannual honours, named after the late co-founder of EllisDon, Don Smith, recognize the top commercial, industrial, multi-family and community buildings across the London area based on their design, innovation and impact addressing a specific need in the community, among other elements. Here are the winners of the latest edition of the awards, announced Wednesday and which recognize buildings completed between Aug. 1, 2019, and July 31, 2021.

Category: Commercial, new

Building 9 took the award in the category for its “excellence in urban design.” Judges said the building “utilizes solid and opaque materials to break down the overall massing of the facades creating an interlacing effect.” The canopies used in the design of the building also provide texture and visual interest to the development.

Category: Institutional renovation

Built in 1968 as the Port Stanley elementary school, Kettle Creek elementary had a complete overhaul, including a 353-square-meter addition. As part of the interior and exterior renovation project, the school now features a new canopy and barrier-free ramps and a chair lift, as well as new concrete sidewalks and asphalt bus lay-by and parking that improve accessibility to the school, among other improvements.

Category: Multi-family community

An affordable-housing project for seniors, including veterans, Residenza Ortona won the honours  for respecting “the domestic architecture of its neighbours while architecturally taking advantage of its sloped ravine site,” judges said, adding the new building offers “generous interior and exterior communal spaces while framing the public space along Hamilton Street.”

Category: Multi-family

Judges described this building as boasting “London’s most sophisticated level of urban design in a downtown high-rise residential tower.” Part of the 24-storey, 240-unit building’s appeal is its modern façade and the stunning views it offers to residents of the fork of the Thames. “This project enhances development diversity and contributes positively to the established area and the overall vibrancy and improvement of our downtown,” judges said.

Category: Legacy award for public institution

This marks the second award in recent years for St. Peter’s Seminary, after winning a London heritage award in 2022. Founded in 1912 by the Diocese of London, the building has undergone a massive renovation that kicked off in 2017. The $30 million project has included the installation of a new roof, waterproofing of the foundation and masonry repointing of the property. The last phase of the work included the addition of extra classroom spaces for King’s College, which in 2018 bought some of the seminary lands.

Category: Institutional community use

Led by the Southwest Ontario Aboriginal Health Access Centre (SOAHAC), the Nshwaasnangong Child Care and Family Centre is London’s first Indigenous-led family centre and one of the first Indigenous-led child care centres in the region. The nearly $6-million facility, designed in the shape of a turtle, mirroring what many Indigenous people call Turtle Island, meaning North America, will provide early childhood services and cultural and language programming, such as land-based learning, ceremonies, and community support, to children and families in London and across Southwestern Ontario.

Category: Institutional education

Huron’s new academic building, named after alumnus Frank Holmes, is a 3,716-square-meter structure housing classrooms, meeting spaces and a 450-seat auditorium. The $18.5 million structure won the category for being a “dynamic addition to the Huron campus that blends contemporary architecture in a manner that is respectful of the existing traditional buildings,” judges said. “Bridging the sloping topography, the building artfully creates a pedestrian-friendly cover to the pathway linking Huron to Western University.”

Category: Industrial

A warehouse and fulfillment centre for e-commerce giant Amazon, the building stood out for its “urban features such as painted precast . . . roof reinforced for (4,645 sq.-m.) of solar panels and three times more landscaping than required by the city,” judges said. The building also features 370 electric vehicle charging stations.

Category: Industrial purpose-built

A fast-tracked project, it took builders with Michael and Clark Construction only  4 1/2 months, about half the average construction time, to complete the build. The structure features a four-storey production plant and a two-storey office space covering approximately 429 sq. m.

Category: Commercial renovation

As part of its move to the former Kellogg plant at 100 Kellogg Lane, Carfax, a London company that provides automobile history reports, helped bring new life to the building that now houses several other businesses. The renovation work took the prize in the commercial category for being “an exceptional example of adaptive reuse within an existing heritage building . . . incorporating modern design elements while showcasing the original industrial experience,” judges said.