The North Shore was well-represented at a leading awards show for home builders and designers in the province.
A total of five firms from North and West Vancouver took home awards at the Homebuilders Association Vancouver Awards for Housing Excellence, held downtown at the JW Marriott Parq Hotel on Saturday. Topping that list is Custom Home Builder of the Year Smithwood Builders, with two wins and eight nominations.
In attendance was Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon and Vincent Tong, acting CEO of BC Housing, patron sponsor of the awards.
Marking 14 years of the event, the association’s CEO Ron Rapp said the awards have become an important program to showcase accomplishments of the industry, as builders, renovators and designers across B.C. adopt the province’s energy step code. Introduced as an optional standard in 2017, the code requires most new construction to be 20-per-cent more energy efficient than the current base building code as of May 1, and 40-per-cent more efficient as of 2027.
“It is significant to note that many of our members have been building above code for years,” Rapp said. “In addition to efficiencies, increased resiliency, consistent comfort, better indoor air quality and improved sound abatement are just some of the added benefits to be realized by the homeowner when looking to build to a higher performance level.”
Apart from winning the custom homes category, Smithwood also won for Best New Small-Scale Home for a project called Modern Flair. In February, the company picked up three wins at the National Awards for Housing Excellence.
Also from North Van, Kingdom Builders Inc. – with Vancouver’s Architrix Design Studio – won Best Energy Labelled Home: Custom for Queen Mary, a passive home in Fort Langley. That project also won the award for Best Custom Home: $3 Million and Over.
Best Renovation: $700,000 – Under $1 Million went to Hasler Homes of North Vancouver for Bringing Back Home (Katsura on the firm’s website).
North Van’s Beyond Beige Interior Designs and Richmond’s DNY Enterprizes won Best Primary Suite: Renovated or Custom Home for In the Clouds with Cardero, an apartment in Coal Harbour.
Best New Custom Kitchen: $200,000 was awarded to West Vancouver’s Artiman Design + Build for its Serenity project. And Best Kitchen Renovation: $150,000 – Under $175,000 went to Stylux Design & Construction of North Vancouver for Lynn Valley Condo.
