Duchess Park students are now attending an award-winning high school.
The Canadian Design Build Institute named the school the nation's top design build project at its national conference, held last week, after a panel of judges found Duchess Park to be a "distinguished building" with "considerable architectural merit."
The $39-million project was delivered by the team of Western Industrial Contractors Ltd. (WIC) and Hughes Condon Marler Architects (HCMA).
"Humbling" was the word WIC chief executive officer Brian Savage used to describe his feelings upon receiving the award when he attended the conference in Edmonton.
"It was great to be recognized that there is expertise in Prince George to build these projects," Savage said, who also noted he graduated from the old Duchess Park school.
It was among the few times WIC has been the lead architect on a design-build project and the first time WIC has won an award for that type of project.
The second-place finisher was the Gerald Schwartz School of Business St. Francis Xavier University as bid and built by Bird Design Build Inc.
"When you look at who you're up against and who the past winners are, it's a little humbling when you see that we were selected as the winning project," Savage said.
Karen Marler, the chief architect on the project, said it was a great honour and while her firm has won other awards, the CDBI's award is different in that it's about the process as much as it is about the design.
"It honours not only the architect, but the construction industry and the people involved and we had a lot of local players that were really passionate about the Duchess school," Marler said.
The school's design makes plenty of use of natural lighting to give an airy open feel. Other features include a a ground-source heating system, storm water management, automatic controls for heating, cooling and ventilation, and use of wood from sustainable forest practices, all meant to achieve leadership in environmental and energy design (LEED) gold standard.
Of particular note to Marler, the school's entrance and main windows look out over Seventh Avenue.
"I know the city is planning a higher density use along Seventh Avenue, so Duchess Park being the terminus hopefully will contribute to that successfully," Marler said.
