VANCOUVER, March 4, 2013 /CNW/ - Coastal BC swept the 2013 Wood WORKS! BC Wood Design Awards, with projects
of the winning architects and structural engineers located in and around Vancouver and the Gulf Islands, including three
projects on the UBC campus.
More
than 350 distinguished design and building professionals, including architects,
engineers, project teams, industry sponsors and guests gathered this evening to
honour the nominees and winners of the 2013 Wood WORKS!BC Wood Design Awards.
The 9th annual awards
evening at the Vancouver Convention
Centre (West) recognized leadership and innovation in wood use while being an
opportunity to publicly salute and celebrate continued excellence in the
building and design community.
There
were 98 nominations in 12 categories for the 2013 awards from all over the
province, as well as some national and international submissions, including one
by a BC architect for a project located in Tajikistan and
another in the Yukon. "We are truly amazed by both the structural and
architectural uses of wood; we are seeing innovation beyond anything we could
have imagined a decade ago," explained Wood WORKS! BC executive director Mary
Tracey. "Builders and designers have always embraced wood for its
beauty and sustainability, and now with technological advances in wood
products, they are recognizing it as a building material that offers them
opportunities to create distinctive and expressive projects because of its
remarkable versatility, flexibility and cost-effectiveness. The project teams
are exploring wood's potential and advancing the science and art of wood design
and building which are the goals of our awards program."
The
panel of five judges included Henry Hawthorn, Architect (retired); Tom Guenther,
P.Eng. Chair - Civil Engineering Department, Okanagan College; Douglas
MacLeod, Ph.D., MRAIC, Chair - RAIC Centre for Architecture, Athabasca
University; Thomas Tannert, Ph.D. Associate Chair - Wood Building Design and
Construction, UBC; and Dwight Yochim, RPF, Executive Director -Truck Loggers
Association.
The Wood Champion Award was presented to Vancouver-based and
internationally renowned structural consulting engineering firm, Equilibrium
Consulting. Its principals, Eric Karsh and
Robert Malczyk were chosen for their work on such projects as City of North Vancouver Civic Centre Renovation and Prince George
Airport. Founded in 1998, this firm has been successfully involved in
over 800 projects world-wide, including many award-winning designs. The BC
architect who nominated this firm for the 2013 Wood Champion Award had this to
say about Equilibrium Consulting: "As architects that are fascinated by
structure, we ask a lot of them in pushing the limits of wood technology. They
always deliver for us and have helped us create some very unique technical
solutions. Their ability to resource solutions from Europe and adapt them to Canada has been exemplary for improving the
wood design industry as a whole". Elegant solutions with brilliant
engineering are the hallmarks of this esteemed firm.
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