Toronto 
The Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC) and the Canada Council for the Arts today announced the recipients of the Governor General’s Medals in Architecture.
The 12 projects represent many types and sizes of buildings – from an international airport and sports complexes to a park pavilion and small hospital. They include a visitor centre at a national historic site, a library in a 170-year-old church, art museums, and houses.
The 2018 Governor General’s Medals in Architecture Winners
Audain Art Museum, Whistler, BC, Patkau Architects
The Audain Art Museum is a $38.9-millon private museum in Whistler, BC. The 5,214-square- metre building houses Michael Audain’s personal art collection, which traces a visual record of British Columbia from the late 18th century to the pr esent. It encompasses one of the world ’ s finest collections of precolonial First Nation masks, a superb collection of Emily Carr paintings, and works by some of Canada ’ s most significant post-war artists. These include Jack Shad bolt, E. J. Hughes, and Gordon Smith, as well as works by inte rnationally known contemporary artists such as Jeff Wall, Rodney Graham, Stan Douglas and others.
Borden Park Pavilion, Edmonton, AB, gh3
The Borden Park Pavilion attempts to recall the history of Borden Park through the reintroduction of the playful qualities of its status as an amusement park in the early 20th century. The scheme makes overtly manifest the iconic geometry of classical parks and pavilions in its pedestrian design, comprised of axial and curving paths that merge into circuses at key points. This notion is further carried out by the circular form of the amenity pavilion itself, which also engages in a formal relationship with the park’s other geometric structures from past and present, such as the carousel, bandshell and Ferris wheel. Adjacent to the pavilion, a series of entry courts and seating patios emerge as soft and hardscaped rings – a trajectory of the building form into the landscape, as well as an expansion of its visual and useable footprint.
Casey House, Toronto, ON, Hariri Pontarini Architects
Ten years in the making, the renovation and extensionof Casey House, a specializedhealthcare facility for individuals with HIV/AIDS, develops a new prototype for hospitals. Thefacility meets the needs of patients and healthcare providers in a setting designed to evoke theexperience and comforts of home. With 14 new inpatient rooms andnew Day Health Programservicing a roster of 200 registered clients, the 5,481-square-metre addition brings much-needed space and modernized amenities to augment and renovate the heritage-designatedVictorian mansion. The new structure embraces the existing building, preserving its qualitiesand organizing theday-to-day user experience around a landscaped courtyard.
Complexe Sportif Saint-Laurent, Montreal, QC, Saucier+Perrotte Architectes and HCMA
The Saint-Laurent Sports Complex is located between the existing Émile Legault School and Raymond Bourque Arena, both of which are horizontal in form and neutral in character. As a result, for this project, it became vital to create a strong visual and physical link between the Marcel-Laurin Park to the north and the projected green band that will run along Thimens Boulevard. The sculptural nature of the project creates a strong link between these two natural elements in the urban fabric.
Fort McMurray International Airport, Fort McMurray, AB, Office of Mcfarlane Biggar Architects + Designers (OMB).
The new Fort McMurray International Airport Terminal cre ates a meaningful portal for the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo in the northern reaches of Alberta; a region characterized by its spectacular geography and the natural beauty of t he boreal forest, the prairies, and the northern lights. Host to the national oil sands industr y, the small community of Fort McMurray has been thrust onto the global stage, stimulating unp recedented growth and cultural diversification.
Fort York Visitor Centre, Toronto, ON, a joint venture between Patkau Architects and Kearns Mancini Architects
A national competition in 2009 resulted in the design and construction of a new visitor centre at the Fort York National Historic Site in downtown Toronto. The joint venture team considered the site as the birthplace of Toronto; the fort is home to one of the oldest collections of fortifications in Canada, dating back to the War of 1812. Today, the Fort York Visitor Centre, completed in 2015, commemorates the historic significance of the site, providing a contemplative opportunity for visitors to reflect as they ascend to the Fort Commons to a final prospect overlooking the fort and the city beyond.
Maison de la littérature, Quebec City, QC, Chevalier Morales Architectes
The partly transparent and strangely familiar shape of this new annex gives an open, contemporary feel to the Institut Canadien de Québec, the main entrance of which is now accessed naturally from the bottom of the sloping Chaussée des Écossais where it intersects with Rue St-Stanislas. The institution’s interior layout provides greater access via the main door of the temple as well as the parking lot that also leads into the annex. These various access options all converge on the large opening in the floor and the hanging light fixture at the heart of the building, connecting the café, two exhibition areas, and the library collections.
Michal and Renata Hornstein Pavilion for Peace, Montreal, QC, Atelier TAG and Jodoin Lamarre Pratte Architectes in consortium
The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) is composed of five pavilions: the Hornstein Pavilion (1910); the Stewart Pavilion (1976); the Desmarais Pavilion (1991); the Bourgie Pavilion (2011), and the new Pavilion for Peace (2016). The new building is located on Bishop Street to the south of the Desmarais Pavilion, designed by Moshe Safdie.
Parallelogram House, East St. Paul, MB, 5468796 Architecture
Rabbit Snare Gorge, Inverness, NS, Omar Gandhi Architect and Design Base 8 (NYC)
The cabin at Rabbit Snare Gorge is the first of three small creature-like structures hidden in the mysterious landscape. The cabin is the primary dwelling on a 46-acre parcel of land found on the rugged wooded coastline of rural Cape Breton. It is designed as a gently adapted gabled tower. This allows it to reach above the forest canopy with two major viewing platforms; one oriented directly toward the ocean, and the other along the length of the convergent brook valley. The landscape of Rabbit Snare Gorge is defined by the steep slopes of the Cape Breton Highlands, dense woodland with patches of Acadian hardwood, deep gorges cut by a babbling brook, and the rocky cliffs of the Northumberland Strait.
Two Hulls House, Port Mouton, NS, MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects
Two Hulls House is situated in a glaciated, coastal landscape with a cool maritime climate. The site’s geological make-up consists of granite bedrock and boulder till, creating pristine white-sand beaches and turquoise waters. Two pavilions float above the shoreline like two ship’s hulls resting on cradles for the winter, forming protected outdoor spaces between and underneath them. Like a pair of binoculars, Two Hulls House acts as a landscape-viewing instrument, effortlessly framing the environment. A concrete seawall on the foreshore protects the house from rogue waves. Two Hulls House touches the land lightly, resting on concrete fins, to have a minimal impact on the fragile land and flora.
Stade de Soccer de Montréal, Montreal, QC, Saucier+Perrotte Architectes and HCMA
The new soccer stadium emerges from the park’s artificial topography as a layer of mineral stratum recalling the geological nature of the site. The mineral stratum is articulated by acontinuous roof which cantilevers over the entry plaza,folds down over the interior soccer field,and extends to the ground to accommodate spectator seating for the outdoor field.Simultaneously reacting to the site and the requirements of the program, the dramatic roof structure gives a distinctive and unified presence to the complex.