Award

Lido – residential tower; Kordyban Lodge – residential accommodation for out-of-town patients; Kwayatsut – detail; Gateway Lodge – care facility. 10 | AuguSt 2015 NSDA Architects and Pacific Community Resource Society (PCRS) that provides supportive housing to low-income individuals that face multiple barriers and are homeless or at risk of homelessness. Then there's the LEED Gold Karis Place adjacent to Vancouver's Granville Bridge off ramp. This project consists of 105 single units for homeless and homeless-at-risk individuals and originally faced mass opposition, until they saw NSDA's design. Or how about Gateway Lodge in Prince George. A complex care facility that has used the decentralized approach to create households comprised of small groupings of 14 to 20 residents, similar to an extended family arrangement. Then there's the Canadian Cancer Society Kordyban Lodge in Prince George – a residential accom- modation for out-of-town patients who are receiving medical treatments at the Cancer Centre. Kordyban Lodge won a North American Wood Design Award for its sustainability focus. In fact all of these project have received recognition either through awards or because of their pioneering approach. Ask the NSDA partners about the countless awards they have received – of which there are over 40 – and Neale laughs, "We only reflect a lot on our awards when someone like you comes here and we talk about them." To which Doll adds, "the projects speak for themselves." But it's NSDA's cross fertilization of ideas as well as the team's ability to listen and interpret the needs of multiple stakeholders that has resulted in such successes on projects across B.C., Canada and the world. Adams for one is certainly no stranger to this. "The work I do is largely with the non-profit sector where you have volunteer boards, staff and various stakeholders as well as community involvement. We just started work on Fair Haven, an afford- able seniors housing project for the United Church." Having this number of players, Adams says, is exciting. "These projects are so important to these people and they are doing such hard work. It's inspiring for us to work on them." The NSDA approach is to assemble a core team to work on each individual proj- ect. "The same team leader or architect is at the table during discussions and they are there at the end. That's part of our philosophy; we don't want details getting lost along the way. An early decision can easily get lost through the process. If you have a core team you won't lose that idea," says Adams. Today, NSDA, which relocated to Gastown in 1983, consists of a full-time staff of 36 who are registered architects and technologists. With Chan joining the firm two years ago NSDA was able to bring even more knowledge to the table with her sustainability acumen. "One of the things that has always stuck with me is that sustainability should be inherent in what we do. LEED is incidental to it. A lot of the work that was done here was prior to LEED becoming so popular. It was already inherently incorporated into a lot of elements in terms of quality of construction, buildable and livable, all of which are now popular by virtue of LEED. LEED formalized it and put it into words." You could say NSDA has raised the bar. With issues such as land scarcity, a greater understanding of the health benefits of integrating health-care and homeless proj- ects into the community and budgetary limitations, the wealth of knowledge that NSDA has compiled from its various mixed-use initiatives will be invaluable in the new world. "Provisions of new housing that incorporates a component of affordable hous- ing is huge and will be the thrust of our work as the population grows," says Neale. "The current situation is forcing private and public client groups to come together in unlikely partnerships on a parcel of land. You have to be able to talk the language of those groups." And there is no question that NSDA speaks that language. A

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