Construction has begun on Saskatoon’s Remai Art Gallery of Saskatchewan, which will act as a cultural gathering place as well as attribute to the community’s revitalization plans.

Designed by Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects (KPMB), and prime architect Smith Carter, the new $71-million, 11,519-m²The Remai Art Gallery in Saskatoon will provide the community with a much larger gallery space that will include 7000 pieces of artwork. (124,000-sf) facility will be approximately three times the size of the previous Mendal gallery.

Last month, the City of Toronto introduced a new set of guidelines for the evaluation of all tall building developments.

Tall Buildings Design Guidelines replaces 2006’s Design Criteria for the Review of Tall Building Proposals and consolidates the information from the more recent Downtown Tall Buildings Vision and Performance Standards Design Guidelines, released in 2012.

At the CSC National Conference in Calgary last month, the association reaffirmed its relationship with Construction Specifications Institute (CSI), ratifying the alliance with its U.S. counterpart.

On May 25, CSC’s then-president Claude Giguère and CSI president Gregory J. Markling—along with respective executive directors Nick Franjic and Walt Marlowe—signed a five-year agreement.

For Canadian housing starts, seasonally adjusted annual rates (SAAR) continued their upward trend.

Overall, the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHA) reported SAAR totalled 200,178 starts in May, which is up from 175,922 in April.

The University of Toronto (UofT) has unveiled plans to revitalize the city’s One Spadina Crescent into the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design’s new home.

Designed by NADAAA, the project is being largely sponsored by a fundraising campaign and personal donations from the faculty’s namesake, John Daniels and his wife, Myrna.

A new accreditation program has been released by Interlocking Concrete Pavement Institute (ICPI) for paver installer companies.

The Accredited Paver Installation Company (APIC) program promotes companies using best construction and business practices. APIC also provides these companies with third-party certification for their skills and conformance to quality practices.

The Canadian chapter of buildingSMART International has launched its new website. The global network promoting software information exchange in the construction industry now offers easily accessible information regarding the organization’s actions nationally and globally.

buildingSMART Canada’s (bSC’s) website will provide a hub for the development of building information modelling (BIM) standards in the country.

A standard regarding safety and performance of rainwater collection systems is being developed in a joint effort by Canadian Standards Association (CSA) and International Code Council (ICC).

CSA/ICC 805, Rainwater Collection System Design and Installation will be developed with Standards Council of Canada (SCC) and American National Standards Installation (ANSI) requirements, enabling its use across North America.

The head office of Coca-Cola Canada has relocated to a newly constructed office space in Toronto’s east end.

Constructed atop the Toronto Sun’s existing office, a three-storey, 9290-m² (100,000-sf) glass building now houses the company’s operations, while bottling and distribution takes place in a Brampton facility.

Two North American product testing firms are combining their resources, and working together for onsite building envelope inspections.

Intertek, a global tester, evaluator, and certifier of building products and materials has teamed up with third-party quality-control (QC) consulting firm, Artruval Testing.