At the Union of B.C. Municipalities convention in Victoria last month, the annual WoodWorks! B.C. Community Recognition Awards were presented to local governments employing wood in new projects.
An initiative of the Canada Wood Council (CWC), the program encourages use of the material in various types of structures, explained Mary Tracey, WoodWorks! B.C.’s executive director.
“Not only is there a strong historical context for wood use in British Columbia, but wood and forests are also such a prominent element in much of the province. It is fitting for wood to become embedded in community infrastructure,” she told Construction Canada Online.
This year’s winners are:
- Association of Vancouver Island and Coastal Communities (AVICC)—Macdonald and Lawrence Timber Framing, Jonathan Yardley Architect, and Stantec’s Kinsol Trestle, Trans Canada Trail (Cowichan Valley);
- Association of Kootenay Boundary Local Governments (AKBLG)—Douglas Sollows Architect Inc.’s Elkford Community Conference Centre (Elkford);
- North Central Local Government Association (NCLGA)—Nathan Murdoch’s Community Stage (Telkwa);
- Southern Interior Local Government Association (SILGA)—Fast+Epp Structural Engineers’ Bridge of Dreams (Princeton); and
- Lower Mainland Local Government Association (LMLGA)—Perkins+Will Canada’s VanDusen Botanical Garden Visitor Centre (Vancouver).
Close to 50 local B.C. governments have adopted the Wood First Act, which aims to require provincially funded projects to use wood as the primary building material within the B.C. Building Code (BCBC).
