March 22, 2022
Francis Green - Google Earth
Our staff occasionally assemble on Friday afternoons for an office exercise we call Things We Like. Centred around a theme determined earlier in the week, staff are invited to share examples of relevant things they enjoy. Since our first Things We Like in 2016, our staff have participated in 75 of these exercises. Some themes are intended to generate ideas for projects we're working on, while others are simply intended to encourage creativity and generate discussion about things we'd like to see in our community.
Preliminary Sketch of Downtown Kitchener, 1965 - Toronto Star
In May 2018, we met to reenvision Francis Green, the public space located at King and Francis in downtown Kitchener. This prominent corner wh…
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July 11, 2022
Eastside Branch Design Team
We're pleased to share that the Waterloo Public Library's new Eastside Branch Library has been awarded the 2022 New Library Building Award by the Ontario Library Association (OLA). According to John MacDonald: “These are the awards we cherish, where clients and their community confirm that the performing facility meets their needs, inspires their use, and validates the trust they have placed in us.”
Commitment to community development, architectural & technological innovation, and creative advancements that emphasize local connections are important aspects that are embodied by the recipients of the New Library Building Award. The award aims to encourage and showcase excellence in the design of n…
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June 28, 2021
Architects are often asked “What is it that you do?” Where other professions may generate straightforward reputations, the nature and value of this thing called “design” is less easy to pin down, and the role of the architect in that design more obscure still.
Architects of course can be grouped in a variety of ways, but the tendency is for division by the “use” to which our offerings are put: the Product of the project, be it hospital, hotel, or office. This creates confusion more than understanding, since architects aren’t retailers of buildings.
We are trained in a Process, a “how do you do”, and offer that process to a variety of projects so that excellent and meaningful solutio…
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April 19, 2021
Natural daylighting is a strategy we attempt to use in every design we undertake. It is a no-brainer in our eyes to light a space with the sun. Daylighting has many benefits including;
sunlight
views to the exterior
electricity savings
The sun has a path that it travels each day throughout the season. The path has two angles that affect how a space can be daylit. There is an angle relative to the building usually indicated by North, South, East, and West. Then there is the angle above the earth. Each direction that the light comes through has a different characteristic.
North light is consistent. The sun never gets close to north in this region, so the light entering a north window is never direct rays but incident light reflected off of …
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February 08, 2021
What's with all the black and dark grey building exteriors lately? New construction; building renos; paint jobs to existing brick buildings; it seems to be the flavour (or colour) of the month. The Oxlea Tower on Frederick St., for example, now hulks even more on Kitchener's skyline, courtesy of its Darth Vader colour scheme. Black and grey come in all sorts of materials: as siding, baked coatings, panels, back-painted glass, and even masonry. Black is showing up in homes, office & residential towers, commercial buildings and public institutional facilities.
Are these a symptom of our times, something dour and lifeless that we're living through? Or perhaps emblematic? Will we look back at them and say, “Oh yeah, second decade!”?
Why such …
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January 26, 2021
Numerous studies over the past two decades have touted the popular phrase “Good Design is Good Business”. But with such an intangible product, how can you know that good design will be “good” for your business?
With all the great things we know design can do for your business (such as increase productivity, reduce turnover, increase sales, reduce building maintenance costs and many more) it can be difficult for designers and firms to understand the reluctance to invest in design. Perhaps you never knew what design can do? Ask Apple. They will tell you.
While the most notable studies on the topic have come out of the U.K, there is increasing recognition throughout the Globe about the connection between design and business success. With …
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December 11, 2019
“Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.” – Jane Jacobs
Every year citizens in cities across the globe gather to participate in organized walking tours in honour of Jane Jacobs. Jane was an activist and writer who introduced the world to ground-breaking ideas about community-based approaches to city building. She believed that it is important for local residents to become familiar with their neighbourhoods and have input on how their neighbourhood develops. Jane’s Walks are hosted each year on the first weekend of May and focus on a variety of themes relevant to the local planning, history, people and culture of the city in which the walks take place.
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