Provincial Wood Awards Recognize Fast + Epp Projects

 

VanDusenCOMPRESSED credit-NicLehoux WoodWORKS   

WoodWORKS! BC recognized three Fast + Epp projects at its annual gala on March 4, which celebrates the best of timber design.

 

Architects at Perkins + Will Canada were recognized with the 2013 Wood Innovation Award for the VanDusen Botanical Gardens Visitor Centre in Vancouver, a building that targets LEED Platinum and was first in Canada to register with Living Building Challenge.

 

The jury applauded VanDusen for its structural expression, calling the orchid-inspired roof "highly-dramatic and very innovative." Featuring 71 unique prefabricated roof panels and a novel column connection created by engineers at Fast + Epp, the facility

has also been called the top international engineering project of 2012 by World Architecture News.

 

Fast + Epp would also like to congratulate Perkins + Will for a successful collaboration on the Centre for Interactive Research on Sustainability at the University of British Columbia. The project was honoured with the 2013 Green Building Award.

 

Designed to be North America's greenest structure, CIRS "is more than a building," according to a WoodWORKS news release.

 

The facility "demonstrates the possibilities in sustainable design and construction, serving as a catalyst for change."

 

A third honour, awarded to Lang Wilson Practice in Architecture Culture for its design of the MONAD building on West 4th Avenue in Vancouver, celebrates excellence in Multi-Unit Residential Wood Design.

 

Structurally-engineered by Fast + Epp, the 10,000 sq. ft. project features modular residences stacked on a narrow lot — redefining the potential for creative home design to increase neighbourhood density.

 

Win for Athabasca University at 2012 Prairie Wood Design Awards

Fast + Epp was honoured with the Engineer Advocate Award at this year's Prairie Wood Design Awards for its structural contribution on the Athabasca University Academic Research Centre project. 

 

The three-storey distance education facility was designed by Manasc Isaac Architects. Targeting LEED® Gold certification, the new building combines energy efficient building technologies with leading-edge networking and communications technologies to facilitate online and distance learning.

 

The widespread use of wood in the facility's design celebrates the region's timber-based economy, encouraging future use of the rapidly-renewable resource in educational buildings. 

 

It was selected from among 60 projects, all of "extremely high" caliber this year, according to the jury panel. Judges chose winners based on considerations for creativity, appropriate use of wood materials, client satisfaction with regards to building and site requirements, and overall aesthetic appeal. 

 

Stephan Pasche, who oversees the firm's recently-opened Edmonton branch office, accepted the Alberta WoodWORKS! award on November 5.  

   Athabasca

East Fraserlands Project Wins Urban Development Award

 

EFL2   

River District Centre has received an Award for Excellence from the Urban Development Institute, for its "Outside the Box" approach to design and real estate marketing.

 

The 6,200 sq. ft. project — designed by architects at Hughes Condon Marler with structural collaboration from Fast + Epp — was built as a sustainable, modular facility to house interactive exhibits, models and communicate the overall vision for community revitalization in the East Fraserlands River District.

 

UDI Awards recognize leaders in urban development and are the most prestigious form of peer-to-peer recognition for completed development projects in the Lower Mainland, Okanagan and Vancouver Island.

Win for VanDusen at 2012 IStructE Awards

Winner Commendation at IStructE

Fast + Epp has won a high-profile industry award from the Institution of Structural Engineers for its ground-breaking work on the VanDusen Botanical Gardens Visitor Centre at a November 2 gala in London, England.

 

The award marks a major milestone for the firm, which has now won all three of the world's most prestigious engineering awards for a single project. This latest award caps off a year that saw Fast + Epp recognized with other awards from the Association of Canadian Consulting Engineering Companies and the US' National Council of Structural Engineers Associations.

Perhaps the most significant distinctions came from this year's Consulting Engineers of British Columbia Awards in March — the firm took home the sought-after 2012 Lieutenant Governor's Award for Engineering Excellence. In addition, Fast + Epp's structural work was recognized as the top engineering project of 2012 by World Architecture News, beating out impressive projects such as the Metropol Parasol in Spain, and the UK Pavilion Shanghai Expo.

 

Attributing much of the project's success to the collaborative design work of local architects at Perkins + Will Canada, lead engineer Paul Fast says the ambitious architectural challenges of VanDusen's geometrically-complex roof structure pushed his firm to pursue creative and efficient solutions.

 

"As a team we relish the challenge of taking an architect's creative vision for a structure and developing an agile engineering solution that allows for the use of unexpected materials such as wood," Fast said.

 

"In the case of VanDusen, the orchid-shaped roof was only possible because we could fabricate the wood panels in advance and install them modularly. I believe that's what has surprised and impressed judges and it's what has set our firm apart from any other in North America."

 

Meanwhile, Fast + Epp's Centre for Interactive Research in Sustainability was the runner-up in its category, receiving a nod of Commendation at the IStructE Awards.

 

Edmonton Office Opens Its Doors

Fast + Epp is excited to announce the opening of our new Edmonton office, a milestone in our commitment to excellence and servicing markets in Alberta.

 

Stephan Pasche, P.Eng., will represent Fast + Epp in Edmonton. Having worked with our firm since 1999, his significant experience includes projects in BC, Alberta and the United States — MacEwan University's Centre for the Arts and Communication, Samuel Brighouse Elementary, Whistler Library and Arena Stage in Washington, DC.

 

The office is located at Suite 500, 10080 Jasper Avenue. To contact our Edmonton branch, please call 780.801.0955 or email Diese E-Mail-Adresse ist gegen Spambots geschützt! JavaScript muss aktiviert werden, damit sie angezeigt werden kann. .

   EdmontonOffice

National Engineering Award for VanDusen Botanical Gardens Visitor Centre

 

 CCE Award VanDusen 2012   

Canada's highest engineering body recognized Fast + Epp's structural contribution on the VanDusen Botanical Gardens Visitor Centre project at a recent awards gala in the nation's capital.

 

The Association of Canadian Consulting Engineering Companies presented the Vancouver-based firm with a 2012 Award of Excellence in the Buildings category at the October 23 event, a black-tie affair attended by 200 industry leaders at the Ottawa Convention Centre. 

 

One of 77 projects submitted for this year's awards competition, the iconic visitors' centre was applauded for its striking architecture and creative structural engineering solutions.

 

"We appreciated that the building's exposed structure was both technically advanced and represented the aesthetic centrepiece for the project," said a representative of the 12-person jury.

"This coupling, together with the building's significant sustainable design features, made this project an obvious choice for the award."

  

Paul Fast and Duane Palibroda, the firm's Managing Partner and Managing Associate, collected the award. Both were significantly involved with the project from its inception to completion exactly one year prior to the 2012 gala evening.

  

Fast said the following about his firm's success on this five-time award-winning project:

  

"It's a huge honour to receive a national award like this. Not only does it encourage our firm — and others — to pursue innovative and sustainable engineering solutions for architecturally-complex structures with wood, but it also speaks to the strength of collaboration between architects at Perkins + Will, our engineers, and the entire fabrication crew. VanDusen was truly a holistic and integrated team effort."

 

Fast + Epp Presentations Fall & Winter 2012 / 2013:

 

Date Speaker Topic Organization Location
Oct 15   Paul Fast 

Lifting the Veil on Exposed Structure: Possibilities & Pitfalls

UBC School of Architecture & Landscape Architecture

 Vancouver, BC
Nov 30 Paul Fast Creating Striking & Sustainable Architecture with Hybrid Structure Green Project 2012: Russian Union of Architects Moscow, Russia
Dec 13 Duane Palibroda

VanDusen Botanical Gardens Visitor Centre

  Calgary Wood Solutions Fair Calgary, AB

Jan 11

 Gerald Epp

VanDusen Botanical Gardens Visitor Centre

 UBC Department of Wood Sciences & Civil Engineering Vancouver, BC

Feb 14

 Duane Palibroda

VanDusen Botanical Gardens Visitor Centre

 Buildex Architectural Day

Vancouver, BC

Feb 27

 Gerald Epp

The Flexibility of Wood: New Tool for the New Architecture

 Seattle Wood Solutions Fair

Seattle, WA 

 

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