We are happy to announce that the winner of the last month's JMA Architectural Scavenger Hunt is..... Kim Lane, who was the first to identify the January clue: The Blacksmith Shop at Doon Heritage Village, located at 10 Huron Road, Kitchener. A bit about the Doon Blacksmith Shop: Doon Heritage Village showcases what a small town in this area would have been like in 1914. The inspiration for this small building was the Valentine Gies Blacksmith Shop, built around 1894 and originally located in Conestogo, Waterloo County.   The requirements for the Blacksmith Shop made its design particularly fun. It was completed in 2004, but it had to look as if it was a 20 year old building in 1914. In clos… Read more ...
  On December 20, 2024, John MacDonald Architect (JMA) held a three hour design charrette (an intense collaborative design effort to produce and articulate ideas) for the Charles Street Bus Terminal site. The intention of this brief exercise was to imagine the possibilities and broaden the conversation in the community.   Visions were generated by four groups, each with three staff members and one community guest, as follows: Group 1 had Mila Wiggins, Maria Meli and Mitali Dembla from JMA and guest Kevin Curtis, with a background in planning and extensive knowledge of regional planning matters. Group 2 had Ashley Jardin, Esraa Saad and Scott Clark from JMA and guest Sandra Dunn, artist / blacksmith of Two Sm… Read more ...
We are happy to announce that the winner of the last month's JMA Architectural Scavenger Hunt is..... Tobias Gallas! being the first to identify the December clue: the Dickson Public School adaptive reuse, located at 65 St. Andrews Street, Cambridge, ON. A bit about the Dickson Public School adaptive reuse: Dickson Public School is a prominent city landmark as one ascends the St. Andrews Street hill from downtown Galt. This impressive 19th Century stone school building has recentlybeen repurposed into a residential building with 10 large units. The adaptive reuse of the Dickson Public School has not just saved it from falling into disrepair, but has brought into the community much needed residen… Read more ...
We are happy to announce that the winner of the last month's JMA Architectural Scavenger Hunt is..... Spencer Rand! being the first to identify the November clue: Norfolk Family Health Team's Simcoe expansion, located in Simcoe, ON. Spencer, let us know if you want coffee from Matter of Taste, or an ice cream gift card from Four All, and swing by our office to pick up your price! It will be really nice to see you. A bit about the Norfolk Family Health Team expansion: This interior fit-up allowed the Team to expand into a spacious, fully accessible, central location in Simcoe. The ground floor facility (over 12,300 s.f.) now includes exam rooms, … Read more ...
We are happy to announce that the winner of the last month's JMA Architectural Scavenger Hunt is..... Neal Campbell! for being the first to identify the October clue: University of Waterloo Health Services Centre on Strauss Lake, and can be approached from Westmount Ave.   A bit about the University of Waterloo Health Services Centre Expansion: Many of us at JMA graduated from the University of Waterloo, and remember the older health services building, on the edge of the pond – an early project of Moriyama and Teshima Architects in 1968. By 2010, when we (Kearns Mancini Architects and us) started working on this project, the university population had grown from 9,000 to 36,000, and health priorities and service models had changed.  … Read more ...
  2024 is the 100th anniversary of the birth of Canada’s most famous and influential architect, Arthur Erickson. Yesterday a number of JMA staff attended and enjoyed a lecture and documentary film screening at KPL about the 1962 Dyde House, presented by architecture critic/curator Trevor Boddy, in partnership with the GVSA.    Arthur Erickson's Dyde House (2023) tells the story of the recently discovered Dyde House, a stunning early Erickson house that would prove influential for Erickson's work that followed. If you have the opportunity to watch the film, we highly recommend it.    Boddy's opening lecture briefly mentioned the architect's impressive Hilborn House, located in Preston. With the recent focus on Arthur Erickson and his legacy, we … Read more ...

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We are happy to announce that the winner of the last month's JMA Architectural Scavenger Hunt is..... Tim Ingold! for being the first to identify the September clue: Breslau EMS/Fire Station at 51 Beacon Point Ct.      A bit about this Fire/EMS station:  Completed in 2018, this is the only station in the region that Fire and EMS share.  The training room was designed to double up as a community room for public use. The massing of the building articulates a sense of address and identity for each of the occupants. Recognizing the need to safeguard response times, and a concern for safety across the site for all users, designing a successful pattern of circulation was of huge importance. A special water saving fea… Read more ...
October 08, 2024
Conestogo Lake home with gables As we continue our office Word of the Day exercise, we’d like to share another round of definitions. Infrared (thermal) emittance: A value between 0 and 1 (or 0% and 100%) that indicates the ability of a material to shed infrared radiation (heat). A cool roof (one designed to reflect more sunlight than a conventional roof, absorbing less solar energy) should have a high thermal emittance. The wavelength range for radiant energy is roughly 5 to 40 micrometers. Most building materials (including glass) are opaque in this part of the spectrum and have an emittance of roughly 0.9, or 90%. Clean, bare metals, such as untarnished galvanized steel, have a low emittance and are the most important exceptions to the 0.9 rule. In contrast, aluminum roof… Read more ...
September 25, 2024
Our office recently took a Friday off to enjoy a 22 km canoe trip down the Grand River, starting at Kaufman Flats and finishing at the Freeport bridge. It was great to become reacquainted with the river, especially considering our work’s relation to the Grand River Watershed. Just over halfway into the journey, we stopped for a picnic at the Stanley Park Optimist Natural Area, where we enjoyed a potluck of watermelon, charcuterie-style meats, doughnuts, chips and lemonade.    Numerous impressive birds were spotted along the way, including kingfishers, red-tailed hawks, great blue herons and even several great egrets. The paddle wasn’t without challenges though, as the relatively low water levels left several of us beached on the rocks at a f… Read more ...

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September 24, 2024
  We recently brought an engaging and interactive booth to Kitchener’s KidsPark festival, where we were able to expose kids to architecture in a way that is inspiring and fun. Additionally, we also used this opportunity to answer questions, mostly from parents and caregivers, about what architects do. This festival presented us with a great opportunity to engage with audiences we do not normally reach.  Our booth, “Fun with Architecture" was a massive success. We were busy non-stop all day, as kids played an architectural matching game, built with wooden blocks and drew on title block. With this pilot project, we tested activities and our approach.   Recently, we were very pleased to learn that the project has generously be… Read more ...
July 16, 2024
Dickson Public School, ongoing residential conversion - How many keystones can you spot?   As we continue our office Word of the Day exercise, we’d like to share a second round of definitions. Enfilade: In architecture, an enfilade is a series of rooms formally aligned with each other. This was a common feature in grand European architecture from the Baroque period onward, although there are earlier examples, such as the Vatican stanze. The doors entering each room are aligned with the doors of the connecting rooms along a single axis, providing a vista through successive rooms. The enfilade may be used as a processional route and is a common arrangement in museums and art galleries, as it facilitates the movement of large numbers of people through a building. [Wikipe… Read more ...

What people are saying:

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Scott | August 02, 2023
Thanks Nolan. If you can think of anything to add to the list, we'd be interested to hear from you.
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Nolan Bentley | August 01, 2023
I am going measuring tomorrow so this is a timely reflection :-) thx!