Wood culture celebrated: Awards Gala recognizes champions in wood use.

The City of Thunder Bay played host to the second annual Wood Works Awards Gala held on Nov. 20, and among the 11 award winners was one of the host city's own architects.

Ahsanul Habib of Peterson and Habib Consultants Inc. was honoured with the Building the Future Architect Award for his work with wood.

"It is quite something to receive an award for something you love doing," Habib says. "Wood comes out of the natural resources available to us in Canada and to produce wood, there is very low impact on the environment and any waste is disposable."

"We have tremendous potential," he adds. "We, as carpenters, architects and woodworkers, have the skills, but we are not using them to our full potential.. .but people are realizing more and more that wood can be a very modern material."

The Architect Award was presented to him for overcoming the objections to the use of wood in a project, contributing to the selection of wood in a project and leading the way for wood use in future projects.

Ten other awards were also given out by Wood Works, a Canadian Wood Council initiative, as a way to pay tribute to excellence in wood design, engineering, production, advocacy and renewal.

David Smith and Deb Robinson received the Heritage Award for their work on the St. Paul's Anglican Church in Manitowaning. The award is presented to an individual or group who has created a structure that generates pride in wood projects, while also encouraging future construction with wood products.

The Value Added Award, which acknowledges contributions made to the improvement and expansion of Ontario's forest industry and its value-added sector, was bestowed upon the Weyerhaeuser TrusJoist Plant in Kenora, and the Westwind Forest Stewardship in Parry Sound was handed the Forests for the Future Award for their contribution to the future health and productivity of Ontario's forests.

Also honoured with the Green by Design Award was the Cree Village Eco Lodge on Moose Factory Island. The award is given to someone who demonstrates how wood can make a large contribution to improving the environmental performance of any building by reducing resource use, energy use, minimizing pollution and reducing environmental impacts.

The Wood Design Award aims to recognize the creators of new projects that push the boundaries of wood design in structures that demonstrate excellence in wood use. Qualities such as strength, durability, beauty, versatility, and cost-effectiveness must also be shown in winning projects.

In the residential category, which includes single-family, multi-family, and mixed-use residential buildings, Julian Jacobs was honoured for his work on the Pamensky House in Toronto.

In the commercial category, which includes industrial building, offices, stores, malls, and other public places, WZMH Architects from Toronto was honoured for work on the Casino Rama Resort Hotel and Entertainment Centre in Orillia.

Finally in the institutional category, which includes schools, churches, hospitals, long-term care facilities, libraries, recreational facilities and municipal buildings, Joe Lobko Architect Inc. of Toronto received the award for L'Arche Daybreak Chapel in Richmond Hill.

The mayor of Kenora, David Canfield, was also an award winner taking home the Building the Future Community Leader Award for supporting the future of the forest products industry and advocating wood in his community.

In the engineering category of the Building the Future Award, Walter Blackwell and David Bowick of Blackwell Engineering Ltd. in Toronto won for creating innovative structures that use new technologies, or existing technologies in a new way.

The winner of the Building the Future Wood Champion Award was Gary Williams of Timber Systems Ltd. in Markham.

"It is really important to acknowledge wood champions who are helping to promote the wood cause," WoodWorks Ontario director Marianne Berube. "These community, design and engineering leaders realize the economic impact the forest product industries have on their communities and the province and they help us promote future development, which is good for everyone. We are working towards recreating a wood culture. Our heritage shows us that we were once a strong wood culture and it is still a driving force of the economy."