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A Winnipeg-based construction firm with Winkler roots has received a prestigious award for its work on a project in Canada’s north.
Verne Reimer Architecture (VRA) was recently awarded the Canadian Award of Merit for Architecture. The award was given in recognition of the company’s work at the Inuusirvik Wellness Hub in Iqaluit.
“He was a pioneer architect, one of the first architects to come out of Winkler, and he’s still practicing,” said Jeff Penner, senior associate, sports + community architect at the practice . Penner is referring to architect Verne Reimer, who heads the VRA.
Like Reimer, Penner grew up in Winkler. He said he is passionate about working in rural communities.
“I started working at Northern when I joined the clinic about five years ago,” Penner said. “I’ve been working there for a while, but some public infrastructure projects have gone awry. The first project that gave us access to the North again was the Kivalliq LTC facility in Rankin Inlet, Northwest Territories. This was the first of its kind in the Arctic. .”
Penner said the program has created new relationships for them in the North.
Penner explained that receiving the Canadian Award of Architectural Merit is very difficult, noting that only a small number of projects (four to six) receive this prestigious honor each year. He said they were surprised and excited when they were announced as winners. They are especially happy for their customers.
“I think for us it was more of a reminder to look at the importance of the story of this project and the client’s vision, the architecture and the design team’s ability to listen to that vision and then execute on it,” Penner said. “That’s a really good thing. It doesn’t happen every time.”
Penner said the client’s vision was to create a community center in the heart of the city of Iqaluit, providing space for daycare, education and social programs.
“We are working with a company out of Toronto called Lateral Office, who are our partners on this project along with WSP Canada, which is a large engineering firm in Canada.” The design was created with the client.
Penner said it’s not a big project, but it’s a very interesting vision.
“One of the neat things about it is that it has the only green roof in the Arctic, which is kind of ironic. It has terraces where they can learn to use a musket, and there’s this deck where they can even learn to harvest berries and so on. So it’s a really fun community project.”
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