Boom Town at the Bentway welcomes people of Toronto’s Lake Shore Boulevard and York Street intersection to the waterfront with a cast of characters that animate the site with personality and delight. A blue “stage” and a trio of “Bent Buddies” bring life to the gateway underneath the Gardiner Expressway, transforming the passage from an aging infrastructural giant into a playful experience for commuters and visitors.

The design responded to a call for temporary urban installations that would elevate the thoroughfare experience for both improved safety and enjoyment. Boom Town re-imagines the use of boom lifts and highway supports known as ‘bents’ characteristic of this often residual urban space.

The project is a winning competition proposal by 5468796 Architecture and Office in Search Of (OISO) for Waterfront ReConnect, a collaboration between the Bentway, the City of Toronto, the Waterfront Business Improvement Area, and the Toronto Downtown West Business Improvement Area (BIA). Boom Town will remain in place until 2025, when the section of the Gardiner Expressway overhead undergoes repairs.

Photography: Office In Search Of, Remi Carreiro, and Samuel Engelking © The Bentway.

IW09, also known as RNDSQR Block, is an iconic mixed use project, woven carefully into the existing neighbourhood of Inglewood, Calgary. Prominently placed, it enhances urban life through a series of new exterior amenities while achieving density of use through 24/7/365 commercial, office, and residential programs. The existing 2-3 storey street fabric is being replaced by mid-rise structures. In correspondence, three floors of commercial retail build up from the sidewalk, referencing the scale and height of the Historic Building. Residential floors are stepped up and back from street level, achieved by twisting the entire form away from the Historic Building on the site’s Southwest corner, and the Lawn Bowling court to the Northeast. This cuts away overall mass, creates visual relief, and effectively ’thins’ out the tall portion of the building for residential use. The building form is shaped by site responses and to reduce its impact on adjacent properties. Maintained as a point of interest along the sidewalk, the renovated Heritage Building injects new life through universal access, roof activation, and via a new forecourt at its side. The remaining spaces extend public sidewalks through a diagrid arcade, with select elements removed to reveal building entrances on both streets, every corner, and the Public Lane. The 360 degree building design makes this possible by eliminating facade hierarchy and responding to each corner and public throughway.

Awards: 2020 AR Future Project Award | Highly Commended, Commercial Mixed Use; 2019 Canadian Architect Award of Merit

17th Avenue Clinic is a health-oriented commercial building that centres around a purpose-designed skin clinic. The building features three clinics [medical dermatology, aesthetic, and rheumatology] at the second storey level, retail units at grade, on top of underground parking.

Light modulation is important for procedures in the clinic. The design evolves around different ways of bringing natural light into the spaces while reducing direct exposure to sun and glare: a tall clerestory perimeter that washes light against the roof’s light wooden undercroft; cut-away balconies at corners that softly light corridor spaces; strategically placed skylights; and a central lightwell that extends down through the two upper floors and pierces the parkade with light.

The lightwell, enhanced with boreal landscape features, radiates into adjacent spaces and embodies the natural and healthy ethos that the centre represents. Open to the sky, tall vegetation is envisioned to liven the interior life of the building.

On the top floor, a sequence of light-filled spaces is defined by a wood beam system, creating ceiling coffers and providing sound separation between rooms. Hundreds of micro-layers of laminated wood are stacked to form the monumental beams that reach down from the ceiling and form a datum grid. This grid supports the convex arc of the roof undercroft, which bows upward to meet the roofline at its perimeter and draws in a wash of natural light.

Photography: James Brittain

Awards: 2022 World Architecture Festival | Completed Project, Health | Winner; 2021 Prairie Wood Design Awards | Commercial

62M is a 41-unit residential development located at the edge of downtown Winnipeg and the Red River. Compressed between a freeway and the backs of neighbouring properties, the site was considered undesirable due to restricted views and a lack of street frontage. Lifted up on 35’ high stilts, the project overcomes the limitations of its surroundings with an iconic form and unprecedented sightlines.

The three storey, circular building is both spatially efficient and cost-effective. As a whole, the 360 degree plan provides the widest possible perimeter for glass with the smallest amount of exterior envelope to construct. In addition, all units have identical, pie-shaped layouts that simplify assembly. Each 610 s.f. suite is arranged so that the entry and utility spaces occupy the narrow end, closest to the circulation core. This configuration frees the remaining square footage for a flexible, open living area that culminates in an expansive wall of floor to ceiling glass.

At ground level, a forest of columns fills the site; some of these stilts support the building while others function as light standards to illuminate the parking area. Their thinness becomes a clear counterpoint to the thicker ring of housing, emphasizing the weight and mass of the building floating above.

Photography: James Brittain and James Florio

Awards: Prairie Design Award of Merit 2022, AZ Awards Award of Merit Multi-Family Residential 2019, World Architecture Festival Shortlist 2014

Visit the Penthouse today at padwinnipeg.com.

The Crossroads Garden Shed demonstrates the value and capacity of architecture to transform communities with even the smallest of briefs. Intended to supply a growing neighbourhood with a simple storage structure for gardening tools and outdoor furniture, the original vision shifted drastically when re-approached as a unique opportunity to enhance the pedestrian realm. This discovery led to a rigorous design process, developing the project into much more than initially imagined, and activating the area for residents and visitors.

Inherently stable and waterproof structures, three 8 foot x 10 foot shipping containers establish the base structure. Selected for their utilitarian nature and in response to the brief and budget, these were placed to create intimate spaces in-between, while the overall structure acts as a threshold between the street, gardens, and play area. One container is a tool shed, the initial programme requirement, while the remaining two provide additional storage and programmable space, critical to evolving the structure into a civic amenity.

The containers are composed of weathering steel, making it a natural choice for the whole structure. Their corrugated geometry is ’multiplied’ and ’stretched’ through layering weathered steel plates and expanded metal mesh, consequently softening the structure’s appearance. An oblong grid of hexagonal weathered steel shapes create a domed surface to gather within; steel honeycombs open skyward in vertical flues and, connected by an overhead trellis, dapple the ground below with light.

The final design is the product of a formulaic analysis which optimizes both budget and design for the largest civic impact possible. The project focus is not only its merits as an object but the ability of the spaces between to foster community. The re-imagined SHED is a civic attraction that lends itself to further programming as the area grows and includes areas for work, shelter and relaxation.

Photography: Images 1 and 11 courtesy of CMLC.

Awards: 2018 Architizer A+ | +Urban Transformation; 2017 Calgary Mayor’s Urban Design Award; 2016 Platinum American Architecture Prize

In Mexico City’s metropolitan area, with a population of more than 23 million people, 4.5 million daily commuters navigate complex road networks, frequent traffic jams, public protests and parking shortages. The street—the prime public space—is the setting for all such friction. There, “viene viene” —entrepreneurs who function outside of government oversight —bribe the local police, use common painter’s buckets to claim a piece of the street, and charge hopeful drivers looking for a parking spot with an additional fee in exchange for access to their illegal stall.

One Bucket at a Time was inspired by this hijacking of public (parking) space and uses common painter’s buckets as the building blocks for an interactive pavilion. Connecting the buckets via a grid of ropes, the installation is a malleable surface that the public is encouraged to freely explore. The surface can be rolled, pulled together or up to a point or along a line taking on different forms. People can sit, run, play, stand, lounge, and participate in the act of taking over the public realm. In situ for a three day period, the installation will come down gradually, released from the ropes and absorbed by the city. By using buckets —a symbol of holding the public space hostage, we are highlighting and questioning this pervasive condition, and also empowering people of Mexico City to reclaim ownership of their public space, one bucket at a time.

Photography: Jaime Navarro and Mortiz Bernoully Photography

Awards: 2018 ArchDaily Building of the Year nominee; 2017 IDA Design Awards | Arch Pavilions; 2017 Glocal Premio Noldi Schreck finalist; 2017 Interior Design Installation BoY Award

Situated on a typical suburban street in a bedroom community just north of Winnipeg, the Parallelogram House stands in quiet and refined contrast to its stucco-clad neighbours. While the clients desired a one-storey layout for their young family, they also wanted to ensure that all of the bedrooms had views of the front or backyard. By skewing the floor plan into a parallelogram, the window area was greatly increased without increasing the footprint, opening the home up to a panoramic view of the trees and preserving the site’s southern exposure within the required setbacks.

The house is clad in vertical wood siding that wraps onto the underside of an extensive roof overhang, which is supported by a family of Cor-Ten columns that acts as both structure and screen, evoking the rich texture and shadows of the tree line. Together, wood and steel render the house as part of the surrounding landscape.

Inside, the main living space is defined by an 11-foot high ceiling horizon and an open plan that flows around a freestanding utility box. The bedroom and garage wings are separated from the living space by white metal screens that extend the geometry of the exterior columns through the house. A simple and muted palette emphasizes the interior volumes, highlighted by a sequence of light wells and skylights.

Photography: James Brittain

Awards: 2018 Governor General’s Medal in Architecture ; 2017 Architectural Review House Awards shortlist

OZ is a 25 unit, high-end condominium development located in the heart of Osborne Village. Located on an L-shaped site, the project is conceived as two towers linked by a minimal glass entry and a shared elevator core. Each tower is wrapped in a cohesive skin of black metal cladding that is carved into and punctured through to introduce outdoor space, provide shelter for ground floor entrances and respect setback restrictions. The deeply fluted corrugated metal skin consists of a gradient of solid and perforated panels that create a subtle play of light across the facade. Every component that is recessed behind or cut through the skin is rendered in white, reflecting daylight into the building’s void spaces.

Although zoning regulations initially limited the structure to five storeys, by introducing mezzanines on two levels the saleable square footage was increased substantially while still conforming to the maximum allowable building height. In addition, the precise interlocking of a variety of unit types served to reduce corridor areas. Compared to a conventionally planned development, the OZ configuration significantly increases density efficiency and thus profit potential for the developer. The square footage gained from compact planning allowed for the creation of horizontal courtyards off the mezzanines that punch through the building and provide large exterior decks with expansive vistas for loft units.

Photography: James Brittain

Awards: 2015 MCHAP.emerge Finalist

The iconic Guggenheim brand and the quiet confidence of the Finnish identity inspire an art gallery defined by an ethereal quality of light, space and material drawn directly from an understanding of place. The visible program is reduced into a highly charged timber form that claims the site for the city, but also distills its energy into a powerful point of gravity – iconic yet restrained, playful yet subtle, warm yet stoic. Set against the city or the harbour, the lush green of Tahtitorninmaki park in the summer or the bitter whiteout of winter, the wood structure becomes a beacon for visitors and locals alike.

The galleries rest under a civic blanket whose subtly undulated surface creates controlled ponding during and after rain, resulting in natural reflection pools. Below the plaza, the single level exhibition space provides a highly flexible and functional environment for art. A choreography of curated courtyards allows for precise filtering of light into the galleries, rendering each with a unique atmosphere and immersing visitors in a composition of dappled light and shadow. Inside the wood form, the gallery soars into an unexpected vertical volume where a movable floor takes on different programmatic identities – from performance hall to classroom to observation deck – depending on the level to which it is docked. Small apertures left between the stacked timbers modulate the delicate light that surrounds or emanates from within.

548 Stradbrook is an eight unit infill development in Winnipeg’s Osborne Village neighbourhood. Located on a mature residential street lined with turn-of-the-century homes, the building is wrapped in a reflective glass shroud that allows it to be camouflaged with its character-filled surroundings. The project responds to existing zoning setbacks and density constraints with a three-storey, compact form that contains six two-bedroom flats and two three-bedroom loft units.

The project’s cladding treatment draws direct inspiration from its historic context, reinterpreting traditional lap siding with a custom, shingled glass facade of reflective panels that are overlaid like fish scales both vertically and horizontally across the entire building. The mirror-like finish and subtle angling of the glass creates an ephemeral interplay of reflections and light during the day, and transforms the building into a glowing apparition at night. At the second floor level, a metal canopy wraps the building’s perimeter, supported by a colonnade of thin black columns that lightly touch the sidewalk below. Functionally, the canopy defines a front yard patio space and sheltered walking path for tenants. Aesthetically, the canopy provides a stable counterpoint and grounding element to balance the ever-changing nature of the glass facade above.

Photography: James Brittain

Award: 2015 Architizer A+ finalist