HERITAGE OTTAWA

Carleton University and Historic Ottawa Development Inc. (HODI) have announced the inaugural winners of a new student award program.

The HODI Award for Built Heritage Conservation was established in 2015 to help support the emerging generation of conservation professionals. The award will be presented annually to outstanding students at Carleton University who are enrolled in the Azrieli School of Architecture and Urbanism, the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, or the School of Canadian Studies. Award recipients will engage in projects aimed at safeguarding and rehabilitating historic buildings in Ottawa.

This year’s winning projects expressed a clear conservation approach, addressed the practical considerations of construction and conservation treatments, and demonstrated feasibility of implementation.

The first winning project is a proposal for adaptive resuse of The Strutt House as a public conference and retreat centre. The Strutt House, designed in 1955-56 by noted modernist architect James Strutt as his own family home, is noted for its innovative geodesic design and was the subject of a prestigious restoration grant last year from The Getty Foundation. The proposal project presented a minimum intervention approach to address architectural conservation and structural engineering issues facing the deteriorating building, with a focus on practical, environmental and social considerations. The project receives an award of $2,500 and was created by Kristen Balogh, Rachel Gullage, Neil Kenkel, Krista MacWilliam and Corinne Wallisch, all students from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

The second winning project is Sealed Environment – Climate Control of Historic House Museums, by Golnaz Karimi from the Azrieli School of Architecture. Sealed Environment is a thorough, thoughtful and technologically sophisticated response to the problem of environmental conditions in Horaceville, a 19th-century stone masonry structure in Kanata. It employs laser scanning to document the existing structure in three dimensions, thermal imaging to map the moisture content of the building envelope, and sensors to monitor indoor humidity. An elegant and reversible design response to the problem of creating suitable artifact storage is included in the study, which balances the need to provide proper environmental conditions for the collection while preserving the character of the historic place. The project receives an award of $4,500.

The awards jury was comprised of:

• Mark Thompson Brandt, MTBA Associates Inc., Ottawa.
• Allan Teramura, Watson MacEwen Teramura Architects, Ottawa.
• Carolyn Quinn, member of the Ottawa Built Heritage Advisory Committee.
• Mario Santana, assistant professor in Heritage Conservation and Sustainability, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Carleton University.
• Mariana Esponda, associate professor and co-ordinator, Heritage Conservation and Sustainability Program, Azrieli School of Architecture, Carleton University.

The formal awards ceremony will take place at the Azrieli School of Architecture graduation ceremony on June 9, 2016.

Congratulations to this year's winners for their outstanding projects.