Housing design awards: And the winners are

Housing design awards:
And the winners
are …
By Sheila Brady, The Ottawa Citizen
I
t was a split decision at Saturday night’s Housing
Design Awards, with judges backing a modern lineup
of slick homes and sleek kitchens while the public
went the opposite way, voting for the eye-popping renovation of a stone farmhouse.
More than 1,000 visitors to the fall Home & Design
Show that took over Lansdowne Park last month
checked out submissions from 111 finalists in the 28th
annual awards, with a clear-cut majority voting for
Gord Weima’s romantic farmhouse reincarnation. Their
votes nailed the People’s Choice Award for the master
renovator and custom builder, an award sponsored by
the Citizen.
It’s doubtful any of our farming ancestors would
have lived in such splendour, but it’s neat to dream.
Weima took the rural home back to the stone, saving
original bits and pieces, while adding a huge great
room with exposed beams high in the ceiling and an
impressive wall of windows looking out over fields.
While the stone, the beams and sunlight dancing
over the hardwood floor clearly impressed folks at the
home show, it was sunlight flooding through modern
spaces that repeatedly wowed the panel of five judges
at the design awards, which was hosted by the Greater
Ottawa Home Builders’ Association and sponsored by
the Citizen.
Suspended stairs, kitchens with shots of bright yellow and vibrant red, bathrooms with oversized showers, and chunky glass walls and windows – lots of
windows – were common factors in 37 categories, from
small town houses to sprawling, customized homes
topping 6,000 square feet.
There were honours for combining good design with
environmental smarts, recognizing Corvinelli Homes
for a small green wonder just southeast of Ottawa, giving a nod to Amsted Construction for an ultra-modern
white home on Bristol Avenue in Old Ottawa South and
rewarding Minto Communities for its forward-thinking
LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design)
community, Stonefield Flats in Chapman Mills.
6 2011 GOHBA Awards
The big star of the night was architect Christopher
Simmonds, a modern soul who carted home six trophies – winning in every category in which he was
a finalist – followed closely by designer and custom
builder Chuck Mills, winning five and Amsted president Steve Barkhouse, who earned four trophies.
It was Mills (along with Patterson Homes) who built
a country home designed to evoke thoughts of an old
Ontario farmhouse, wrapping it in limestone and cedar
board ‘n’ batten and giving it much fine finishing. This
4,315-square-foot home now even includes a shower
for the family dog.
Barkhouse, an icon in the local housing industry,
earned honours with a large front porch on a Highland
Avenue home and multiple trophies for the ultra-modern home on Bristol, which is now in the application
stage for LEED platinum certification, the highest level
of LEED green building.
Simmonds won for an appealing 2,000-square-foot,
glass-and-stone home tucked into a forest and a second trophy for a cubist confection of glass, earthtoned brick, stained cedar and dark bronze glazing on
an urban street in the city’s west end.
The interior of the west-end home, on Fraser Avenue, is dramatic and starkly simple, with dark oak
floors providing contrast for the pure white walls
and the owner’s art collection. “There are a lot more
modern designs this year,” Ottawa architect Shawn
Lawrence noted during judging earlier this fall. “This
is a conservative town and it’s taken a long time to get
there, but modern is here now.”
Modern designs have long been a favourite with
high-flying architects and renovators, who often slip
clean cubes of stone and glass onto city streets, but
this year a daring mainstreet builder captured a trio of
honours for modern homes in the suburban heart of
Barrhaven.
Judges applauded Urbandale for a pair of town
houses and a single-family home for their uncluttered
exterior lines.
HOUSING AWARDS
“They are clean and crisp designs,” Lawrence said.
The town houses, named after Franklin and Columbus, are part of the Horizon series, which compares
architecture to the exploits of early explorers and their
grand dreams and discoveries.
In Urbandale’s case, the family-owned company
traded traditional exteriors and pseudo-Victorian finishings and turrets for straight lines, horizontal bands
of windows and large roof overhangs.
It turns out the Franklin, a 1,761-square-foot townhouse with soaring inside spaces and lots of windows,
also happens to be a favourite with young suburban
buyers, racking up 20 per cent of Urbandale’s sales for
Small Builder Attached
Urban Keios Design Inc.
1
2
3
4
1 Large Builder Attached Housing
1800 sq. ft. or less
Urbandale Construction Ltd.
2 Large Builder Attached Housing
1801 sq. ft. or more
Urbandale Construction Ltd.
3 Large Builder Single Detached
5
4 Large Builder Single Detached
2001 to 2599 sq. ft.
Urbandale Construction Ltd.
5 Large Builder Single Detached
3500 sq. ft. or more
Uniform Urban Developments
Barry J. Hobin & Assoc. Architects Inc.
2000 sq. ft. or less
Phoenix Homes
2011 GOHBA Awards 7
the past year and proving modern design is not the
sole preserve of urbanites with deep pockets.
Back in the more usual haunts of modern homes,
Urban Keios, a small Ottawa design firm, earned the
judges’ respect with a slick semi-detached home of
glass on Hilson Avenue. It was designed for separate
owners who came to the firm wanting to build a new
home and share the costs.
Judges also recognized architect Barry Hobin and
Roca Homes for a modern home overlooking the
Rideau Canal. And Hobin worked closely with Uniform
Developments to take home honours for Development
of the Year, St. George’s Yard, and an infill project of
traditional and modern homes off Richmond Road that
won favour with its neighbours for successfully integrating new designs into an established community.
Uniform and Hobin have always worked with community groups at the design stage, easing fears of
development. The builder and the architect also won
1
honours for a stone Craftsman-styled home, the Voysey, set on a large estate lot outside of Manotick.
Despite the judges’ affinity for modern lines, there
was also room for romance and night lighting.
It was Simmonds who won the “has” and votes of the
judging panel with dreamy evening pictures of a red
cedar boat house in Muskoka, light spilling out onto
the water. The boat house includes a guest suite on the
second floor with fireplace and a deck for relaxing.
And it was Simmonds who won the judges’ admiration for simplicity and elegance in a category honouring housing details with the design of a carport
and entrance into a garden. Massive wooden beams
span the roof of the carport, while sliding translucent screens protect cars and drivers against blowing
snow, yet can be pulled out of the way for open views
when the weather co-operates.
And it was Simmonds’ open-concept living room
in his thoroughly modern forest house that won
2
3
4
1 Custom Homes
2400 sq. ft. or less
Christopher Simmonds
Architect Inc.
2 Custom Homes
2401 to 3999 sq. ft.
Barry J. Hobin & Assoc.
Architects Inc.
Roca Homes
8 2011 GOHBA Awards
3 Custom Homes
4000 to 5999 sq. ft.
RND Construction Ltd.
Patterson Homes
4 Custom Homes
4000 to 5999 sq. ft.
Chuck Mills Residential Design &
Development Inc.
Linda Chapman Architect
5
5 Custom Urban Infill
Christopher Simmonds
Archiect Inc.
Renovator of the Year
LAGOIS
QUALITY BUILDERS
& DESIGNERS
another set of honours for best room of the house
and an interior that combines clean simplicity and
natural materials.
Always the philosopher, Simmonds explained in
his presentation that the living room is “defined
by its relationships rather than its walls.” The
room opens to the south with views across a forest
clearing, while a vaulted ceiling and skylight focus
light on the stone fireplace and simple cabinetry
surrounding a bar. Glance to the east and a glassrailed staircase opens the view to a lower-level
family room.
The design is all about relationships and interior
spaces, a puzzle Simmonds has played with as an
architect for many years, with great success and
design honours in years past.
Now, it seems, Simmonds and the modern movement are gaining speed from inner neighbourhoods,
to the suburbs and houses tucked into the forest.
1
2
1 Housing Development of the Year
Uniform Urban Developments
Barry J. Hobin & Assoc. Architects Inc.
2 Low Rise Condominium
Richcraft Homes Ltd.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
1 Renovations / Additions
4 Renovations / Additions
under $60,000
$200,000 to $349,999
Amsted Construction Ltd.
Chuck Mills Residential
Design & Development
Gordon Weima Design Builder
2 Renovations / Additions
$60,000 to $99,999
OakWood Renovation Experts
3 Renovations / Additions
$100,000 to $199,999
Gordon Weima Design Builder
5 Renovations / Additions
$350,000 to $ 499,999
Chuck Mills Residential Design &
Development Inc.
6 Renovations / Additions
over $500,000
Gordon Weima Design Builder
7 Basement Renovations
Southam Design
2011 GOHBA Awards 9
1
4
6B
2
5
7
3
6A
8
1 Production (Tract)
Kitchens
129 sq. ft. or less
Richcraft Homes Ltd.
2 Production (Tract)
Kitchens
130 sq. ft. or more
Holitzner Homes (1995) Ltd.
Laurysen Kitchens Ltd.
3 Production (Tract)
Bathrooms
Deslaurier Custom Cabinets Inc.
Cardel Homes Inc.
10 2011 GOHBA Awards
4 Custom Kitchens
159 sq. ft. or less
Christopher Simmonds
Architect Inc.
5 Custom Kitchens
6B Custom Kitchens
220 sq. ft. or more
~ $75,000 or more ~
Design First Interiors
7 Custom Bathrooms
160 to 219 sq. ft.
90 sq. ft. or less
Amsted Construction Ltd.
Amsted Construction Ltd.
6A Custom Kitchens
220 sq. ft. or more
~ $74,999 or less ~
Chuck Mills Residential Design
& Development Inc.
8 Custom Bathrooms
91 sq. ft. or more
Chuck Mills Residential Design &
Development Inc.
1
2
1 Green Tract Home
3
2 Green Renovation -
3 Green Development
of the Year
Entire Home
of the Year
Corvinelli Homes
Amsted Construction Ltd.
Minto Communities Inc.
1
2
1 Open Category - Entire Home
2 Open Category - Single Room
Christopher Simmonds Architect Inc.
1
Luxurious Living Studio Inc.
2
1 Housing Details
Christopher Simmonds Architect Inc.
2 Any Room in The House
Christopher Simmonds Architect Inc.
2011 GOHBA Awards 11