The new Canada Education Park campus at the University of the Fraser Valley (UFV) has risen above the international competition to be named Best in Class: University Building by the World Architecture News (WAN) Education Awards. In fact, the Stantec-designed project was the only award winner from the Americas in 2013.
“It’s a tremendous honour for our team to be recognized on the international stage,” says Mark Travis, Stantec’s lead design architect for the UFV project. “This was a unique undertaking with intricate challenges, and to be recognized along with well-known architects from around the world really speaks to the quality of design that our team achieved, in addition to the strong relationship we were able to establish with UFV.”
Architects at Stantec amalgamated four existing and two new buildings in their design, completely gutting the existing structures to create a renewed connective space. Anchoring the project is a new central atrium, which brings the buildings together as a single construct. The renovations and additions have bred new life and purpose into what was previously an abandoned site.
“The new building is quite a transformation from the old military engineering building, converting what once was an outdoor courtyard into a vibrant public space. Its energy efficient technologies, including a geo-exchange system, solar thermal hot water and light harvesting, contribute to a forecasted 60 per cent reduction in energy consumption and undergird our LEED gold certification,” says Craig Toews, UFV’s executive director of facilities and campus development. “Most importantly, the new building was designed around a ‘town square’ concept, and has developed a stronger sense of community for students by bringing together academic programs and services into one cohesive space with study pockets and social nodes interspersed amongst the learning spaces.”
Based in London, the annual WAN Education Awards are a major international competition judged by a panel of renowned architects and designers from around the globe.
