Built in 1906, Winnipeg’s historic James Avenue Pumping Station was slated for demolition after 14 failed attempts to revive it. Taking on a role outside of the usual scope of architects, 5468796 Architecture developed an unsolicited conceptual design paired with a financial pro-forma, and presented the business case to an existing client. This combination eventually led to the building’s successful preservation — and new life. 

Two specific interventions made the project viable: in the first phase, the capacity of the original gantry crane was leveraged to suspend a ‘floating floor’ above the pump hall machinery. Second, a zoning amendment was obtained to build a five-storey residential building on a 13-metre-deep sliver of land between the heritage building and the street, arguing for a reinstatement of the original industrial streetscape that abutted the former railway line. Along with a second, wider apartment building on the opposite end, the residential developments made the project financially feasible while also expressing a distinct historical narrative within an area under transformation.

Elevated on columns that extend the grid of the gantry crane structure, the two self-standing, mid-rise residential buildings are offset from the existing building, creating new pedestrian lanes that respect the original pumping station envelope, reference the human scale, and expand the ground floor commercial frontages.

Rethinking the norms of multi-family housing efficiency targets, the design employs open-air egress and a skip-stop configuration. Typical nondescript interior corridors are turned into vibrant exterior passageways for neighbourly interaction, becoming an extension of the suites and creating a sense of shared ownership over communal space. Open-air stairwells provide unobstructed vistas to the city, adjacent river and park.

This multi-faceted, mixed-use development is the first proposal on the site that has gained the support of heritage advocates, municipal stakeholders and the community at large.

Photography: James Brittain unless otherwise indicated

Awards: 2024 Governor General’s Medal in Architecture; 2024 AZ Awards Urban Built Development Winner; 2024 AZ Awards Adaptive Re-Use Award of Merit; 2020 ArchMarathon Finalist| Refurbishment; 2019 World Architecture Festival| Future Project, Residential | Finalist; 2018 Canadian Architect | Award of Merit

Selected press: Architectural Record, Canadian Architect

The Arthur Residence is a two storey home for a finish carpenter and an emergency room doctor situated in the Cathedral neighbourhood of Regina. Originally from South Africa, the owners longed for a private sanctuary that would provide ample space for gardening and infuse inspiring views into a modest forty foot infill site. Where required side yard setbacks typically result in unconsidered or left over space, the residence is designed to encompass the entire width of the lot. Conceived as a secret garden, the ground floor is surrounded by a concrete fence at the property edge. Beyond the wall, four courtyards – an entry court, a sunken patio, a main garden and a carport – define three interior spaces: the foyer, the combined living and dining room, and the linear kitchen / utility wing. The house is then divided vertically into living and sleeping quarters.

While the main floor is a protective shell punctured by internal garden views, the second floor is an airy refuge providing secretive, more discrete lookouts over the neighbourhood and existing tree canopy. White plaster walls curve inward like curtains drawn in by the breeze, resulting in triangular voids that allow daylight to softly wash the interior. These two distinct territories – of solidity and lightness, of activity and repose – intersect in the double-height living and dining room. Smooth, contoured plaster rests on raw, cast-in-place concrete, reinforcing the tactile and sensory qualities of material, space and light that form the essence of the house, one which is simple but not strictly minimal.

Photography: James Brittain

Awards: 2016 World Architecture Festival | Future Projects, House Category Winner; 2014 Canadian Architect Award of Excellence

In 2024, the Canadian government commissioned the development of the National Low-Rise Housing Design Catalogue  in collaboration with Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) and Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada. 

The Housing Design Catalogue provides tools to increase housing options within existing neighbourhoods through gentle density, featuring 50 standardized housing designs for rowhouses, fourplexes, sixplexes, and accessory dwelling units across the country. Michael Green Architecture delivered designs for British Columbia, while LGA Architectural Partners led the project for the rest of the country, working with architects in each geographic region of Canada. In partnership with LGA, 5468796 Architecture contributed seven designs for the Prairies (Manitoba and Saskatchewan.)

To help ensure the Housing Design Catalogue supports the goals of Canada’s housing system, numerous principles were considered during the development phase. These principles include adaptability and accessibility, energy efficiency, financial feasibility, use of regional construction methods and materials, and compliance with local regulations and building codes.

Once the final architectural design packages are ready, the Housing Design Catalogue will help builders streamline the process from concept to construction, cutting costs and speeding up housing delivery. The catalogue simplifies design, ensures compliance with building codes, and helps estimate costs—so homes can be built faster.

The final architectural design packages will be released this spring.

For more information visit https://www.housingcatalogue.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/

Renders: Office In Search Of…

Shared Ground is an applied research initiative dedicated to developing more affordable housing on social purpose infrastructure in Winnipeg.

We provide social purpose organizations with the knowledge and tools they need to determine if their land and building assets can support an affordable housing development. If you’re a mission-driven charity, non-profit, co-operative, or social enterprise with land or a building ready for transformation, we’re here to help!

Please visit https://www.shared-ground.ca to learn more and sign up.

Shared Ground is funded in part by the Government of Canada through the Research and Knowledge Initiative (RKI), a national merit-based contributions funding program from Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada (HICC).

Read the official press release here.

Housing affordability in North America has reached a crisis point. Against the backdrop of rapid urbanization and an accelerating environmental emergency, we need solutions for city building that are more socially and economically sustainable, as well as multi-family housing that is more equitable and livable. 

“platform.MIDDLE” was originally a symposium that took place at IIT’s College of Architecture on April 12 and 13, 2019, exploring the current state of multi-family housing in North America and the architect’s role in shaping its future, including inputs from design practices and development companies John Ronan Architects, KANVA, LBBA Architects, MA+HG Architects, Rafael Longoria, Brinshore Development LLC, RNDSQR, Shift Development, and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. The symposium offered a platform for engagement and a call to action, motivating the production of three more volumes that expand on practical research working with challenging economic and environmental circumstances, using 546’s built works, urban designs and community projects as the foundations to assemble a ‘toolkit’ of strategies for high-quality attainable, accessible and affordable multi-family housing. The full publication, platform.MIDDLE: Architecture for Housing the 99%, was published with Arquine and released in September 2023.

With this project, we hope to inspire real change in policy and design aimed at creating a more inclusive, environmentally responsible and economically viable housing landscape.  

Read the review in Canadian Architect here.

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90/100 Alexander is positioned between a recent condominium development to the south and the historically protected Eaton’s Warehouse building to the north.

Located within the borders of the parcel, the W.J. Guest Fish Company Warehouse — a four storey brick and stone heritage warehouse built between 1905 and 1910 — defines the approach to the project. Due to the site’s depth, there is an opportunity to provide the heritage building with considerable breathing room, allowing it to stand alone, exposing all four sides to operate as a 360 degree building.

A new 7-storey building winds around the existing brick structure, exposing all sides of the original building as an homage to its original free-standing form [uniquely, the entire building was constructed using face brick and remains in excellent repair after 115 years]. The building’s geometry maximizes the site density while creating a series of high quality public spaces.

The entry level of the site is designed with a porous ground floor, offering views through to the heritage building from Waterfront and Pacific, to the Red River from within the structure, and via paths into two intertwined plaza spaces from all directions.

A true mixed-use development, commercial units are offered at grade along Waterfront and Pacific with approximately 160 residential units above. In service to the neighbourhood and to offer an optimal mix of uses, the entire heritage building will hold commercial and office occupancies as well as tenant amenities including a rooftop patio.

Defined through interplay of old and new these spaces vary in scale, light conditions, and compressed or expansive nature, offering opportunities for commerce and city-building at different scales.

Awards: 2021 World Architecture Festival | Future Project | Finalist; 2020 Canadian Architect | Award of Merit

Great public infrastructural projects provide fundamental services for cities that increase the quality of life for their users. As means of transportation evolve, how can these projects remain essential over time? Parkade of the Future approaches this issue by designing multiple futures for a singular purpose building. CMLC (Calgary Municipal Land Corporation) and the Calgary Parking Authority (CPA) commissioned 5468796 Architecture as Design Architects to design a ‘parkade of the future’ for a 2.25 acre site on 9th Avenue in Calgary’s East Village. The project consists of a 510 stall garage that anticipates converting into office, light industrial or residential typologies based on future needs.

To transform both the vehicular parking circuit and the user experience from one of conventional, utilitarian function to one with rich, unexpected qualities, key typology-questioning approaches are pursued. High floor-to-floor height, 40 foot shallow floor plates, light-washed pedestrian-forward routes, elevated views in all directions, clear and simple wayfinding and straightforward, single-direction circulation come together to create a delightful destination within a parking-heavy programme. Vehicular access, centred on the property and aligned with 3rd Street SE, is flanked by pedestrian entrances and activities, which animate the frontage along 9th Avenue SE and frame the southern edge of the developing East Village.

Photography: James Brittain unless otherwise indicated

Awards: 2023 Fast Company Spaces and Places [Finalist], Circular Design [Honourable Mention]; 2023 AZ Award of Merit, Urban Design Infrastructure; 2022 Architecture Masterprize; 2022 WAN Awards, Transportation, Gold; 2022 The Plan Awards, Transport; 2022 World Architecture Festival | Completed Project | Finalist; 2022 Consulting Engineers of Alberta | Commercial Building Engineering | Award of Merit; 2022 Prairie Design Award of Merit

Selected press: Macleans, AZURE, CBC, The Plan, Canadian Architect

In a prairie-value, conservative-minded early 20th century Winnipeg suburb composed primarily of large-scale, traditional-style dwellings, our clients sought a home in which to age in place and to enjoy a high degree of both airiness and privacy.

Veil House is arranged on a loose nine-square grid organized around a central courtyard. The residence is configured as a series of free-flowing open living spaces, (living, family, dining, kitchen, circulation) framed by solid utility blocks, (washroom, laundry, fireplace, storage, appliances). This interplay eliminates the need for walls and doors.

The house is situated at grade — rare for a city that receives large amounts of snowfall — with an interior ramp that enables universal access across two floors. This floating feature ascends from the main level, allowing natural light into the basement while providing emergency egress. Firmly planting the main floor at grade results in a seamless extension of the interior spaces to the courtyard and surrounding yard.

The blocks and ramp are blanketed by a weathered steel veil. ‘Propped’ up by the utility blocks, the veil follows the ramp, starting at ground level spiralling up and peeling off the wall to enclose the private patio on top of the garage. Strategically perforated over windows and balconies, the veil creates a sense of wonder and curiosity from the street, while elegantly filtering daylight into the interiors and allowing those inside to view the outside world without being seen.

Veil House functions as both architecture and sculpture, drawing connections between architecture and industry, structure and decoration, retreat, and expression.

Photography: James Brittain

Awards: 2023 World Architecture Festival Winner, Completed Buildings Villa; The Plan Award 2023, Villa / Completed Winner; A+ Awards Architecture +Metal Finalist 2024

Selected press: Architectural Record, Financial Times, The Globe and Mail, AZURE, Wallpaper*, ADPro

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