Q4 Architects Inc.

Today we celebrate 20 years! July 19th is a significant date for our firm: it is a day of celebration and reflection. It is a tribute to our team of exceptional professionals and the clients who have trusted us for over two decades! This is also the day for us to recognize and celebrate all that we have accomplished together since 2004. Since we opened our doors, our vision has been steadfast: to design beautiful, meaningful, and thoughtful places for people to happily live, work and connect.   From our original office on Avenue Road in Toronto, to our current state-of-the art studio on Yonge St., we have grown from 11 to 70 people, all driven by their passion to work on what they love. We expanded with the opening of our Calgary office in 2013 and added Ottawa, in 2019. Together we have broadened the scale and typologies of our projects and expanded the reach of our voices as advocates and design thinkers.   Today we remain the largest solely woman-led architectural firm in Canada, with women leading every one of our studios. We are diverse, driven and humbled to be a special place for our team to grow and foster their careers. We are proud of who we are and realize there is a lot to be thankful for. Looking back on 20 years, above all else, we are incredibly grateful to have made it this far, surrounded by talent, compassion and care for our communities. We are also so optimistic about everything we will do in the future! Thank you and cheers to our first 20 years.

Construction update! We are thrilled to see our design for the Citadel Affordable Housing in #Edmonton, Alberta becoming a reality. The first buildings are on track for occupancy in August.   Designed for our client, Yellow Door Developments, the new community provides much needed rental housing solutions. The development was approved under a municipal strategy that aims to create 2,500 new or renovated affordable housing units across the city.   The comfort of the residents was the main focus of the design strategy for the 119 units. The suites maximize their use and sense of space, with most featuring large windows on both sides, two-storey layouts, and individual private entrances. Additionally, the mechanical room has a separate, independent ground-level access for greater tenant privacy.   Our Calgary studio led this project and leveraged their extensive experience as multi-unit home designers to vision the site, including placement of the buildings, 128 parking stalls and 60 bicycle spots. Our ultimate goal was a project that gives a sense of community and pride, with the affordability goal not apparent in the exterior design, avoiding any stigmatization.   The Citadel Affordable Housing project demonstrates our driving philosophy that beyond where people live, our work becomes communities where people thrive.   The photos below are from our latest site visit.   Congrats to Yellow Doors Developments, Katie McMillan and Hopewell Residential and thank you to our Calgary team for all your work bringing this to a reality where people will soon be living!

Every week we use our Thursday huddles to bring our Ottawa, Toronto and Calgary offices together. We discuss architecture, design, and cultural issues related to our industry and practice. In honour of Pride Month, last week Rania Matta and Peter Frost volunteered and graciously led the discussion for our studios. Together they presented the history, context and inherent value of inclusive and intentional #2SLGBTQIA+ spaces within Toronto's urban fabric.   Their presentation continued to the role that we all have as design thinkers in promoting and creating spaces that foster care, understating and openness for the unique conditions for members of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community. They presented the significance of queer villages/environments and the circumstances that gave birth to their architectural style, adaption and cultural meaning. This extended to a discussion on the connection between security and safety with physical and psychosocial wellbeing through design and placemaking.   They concluded the presentation by sharing, on a personal level, the meaning of #Pride. They explained how it’s much more than a festival, parade or celebration. Pride is intrinsic to being seen, valued and integrated and seeing others like you being praised and celebrated for who they are. Thank you to our presenters and thank you to all our staff who make our studio a place that is truly #Q4ALL.

Last month, Q4A was invited to join the ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the grand opening of one of our latest projects: The Ashbrooke. Situated in the heart of Whitby, it offers upscale rental housing, catering to those 55+ looking to downsize. The building consists of 114 units spread across six storeys, with underground parking. These livable-scale apartments boast premium finishes, spacious rooms, and large terraces, making them intentionally viable alternatives to the traditional family homes typical of the area. The Ashbrooke aims to foster a connected community, offering socially oriented amenities such as a gym, communal spaces, and an outdoor courtyard. Additionally, its proximity to the shops and restaurants along Brock St. and Dundas West enables residents to enjoy a vibrant and active lifestyle, and easy transit and highway connections. Congratulations and thank you to City Homes for their successful project. And of course, a big thank you to everyone on the team who brought their talent, expertise and came together to make the milestone a reality. We respectfully inherited this project from FGME (Fliess Gates McGowan Easton Architects), and it was the design work of Terry McGowan (1942-2022) and Blandford Gates . We are thankful to have brought their visions to fruition.

Come over and experience our brand new studio-in-the-sky this weekend! Our Toronto office is incredibly proud to have been selected as part of this year’s Doors Open #Toronto festival. A reminder to visit us May 25-26 from 10am-4:30pm. https://lnkd.in/gmp8yt7E Our state-of-the art environment was designed to maximize stunning views, with an emphasis on daylight, well-being, collaboration and technology. In addition to #DOT24 , we are grateful to collaborate with the Toronto Society of Architects and their amazing Open Studio program, showcasing architectural offices across our city. Welcome, and we can't wait to see you and show you around where we design, dream, create and collaborate every day.

You’re invited this weekend! Q4A Toronto is incredibly proud to have been selected as a participant in the 2024 Doors Open festival. Visit our architecture studio on May 25-26 from 10am-4:30pm and explore how our working environment was designed for designers. Connected to York Mills station, our midtown practice is perched high above the West Don River, with sweeping views of the neighbouring tree canopy, golf course and Don Valley ravine. We welcome visitors to meet our staff, ask questions and explore where we work. You'll experience our collaboration spaces, technology, models, photography, and projects. We will also have a special kids zone set up, for the young creatives out there! Our new office was designed to maximize views, with an emphasis on daylight and staff well-being. See how the work we create on Yonge Street radiates across the GTA and reaches Canada wide. We are directly connected to York Mills station, at 4110 Yonge St, unit 602, see you there! For more information on Doors Open and all the sites please visit: https://lnkd.in/gAY-dAHZ The Toronto Society of Architects will also be onsite to discuss their programming and contributions to our city's architecture scene. We are thrilled to be a part of their Studio Crawl and Doors Open events #DOT24

Thank you! We were thrilled to learn this weekend that we won the People’s Choice Award for Canstruction 2024 Toronto. What an honour! Thank you to all who voted, and to everyone from our practice that joined forces to plan, design and build our 7000-can Blue Jay. You showed that creative minds and hard work come together to achieve stunning results. We also thank our sponsors, who made this effort possible with their generosity: Marquis Millwork Inc UCS Forest Group Mike's No Frills Mattamy Homes Caivan Communities Argo Development Corporation Cadillac Fairview Yonge Corporate Centre Brampton Brick Limited Durabond Products Ltd. Arriscraft - Canada Brick Madison Group of Companies James Hardie Engage Building Products Permacon Hallett Homes Corporation NAK Design Strategies Maramel Homes Townwood Homes Mark Jabbour The Rose Corporation D.L. Engineering Inc. Q4 Architects Inc.

What an incredible effort! We are thankful to our staff that came together to pull off a mesmerizing sculpture for Canstruction Global HQ 2024. Our “dream team” brought talent from all levels of our organization to brainstorm, design, develop, and execute our submission “Striking out food waste: here’s to filling bases and bellies!” Although the name is playful, the subject is real. It is reported that live events, such as major-league sports games, can generate up to a ton of food waste per game. This ranges from unsold concession offerings, spilled food, to misdirected organic waste going to landfills. We created our bird perched over spilled popcorn with 7056 cans. It is an easily recognizable symbol of the Toronto Blue Jays, and meant to catch the eyes of passers by, so they consider our message to be aware of over consumption at live events. Beyond any particular statement, however, the primary driver of our entry is the goal to incorporate and donate as many cans of nutritious food as possible to the Daily Bread Food Bank. Check out our work at the Toronto Dominion Centre, at 66 Wellington St W, Toronto, until Friday, May 17. Thank you to our sponsors for making this possible, and of course the Q4A team who gave their time and effort to make this real. We are so proud! #CANstructionToronto2024   Marquis Millwork Inc UCS Forest Group Mike's No Frills Mattamy Homes Caivan Communities Argo Development Corporation Cadillac Fairview Yonge Corporate Centre Brampton Brick Limited Durabond Products Ltd. Arriscraft - Canada Brick Madison Group of Companies James Hardie Engage Building Products Permacon Hallett Homes Corporation NAK Design Strategies Maramel Homes Townwood Homes Mark Jabbour The Rose Corporation D.L. Engineering Inc. Q4 Architects Inc.

As our practice continues to advance and foster our digital transformation, we recognize the importance of being out in the industry and connecting with the next generation of talent! Our BIM Manager Sneha Kadam, visited George Brown College to review the students’ final #BIM projects and provide advice and insights after reviewing their work. To use her words: “It was an excellent show of capability and commitment.” The students were registered in Magdalena Ordyniec's BIM Planning class, graduating from the BIM Management Postgraduate program. As we push our clients and consultants to embrace the next wave of design technologies, stepping into the world of academia and seeing firsthand students’ capabilities and passions grounds the importance of our investment in creating a thriving, technologically advanced environment. Thanks all who participated and of course the students! 

We recently shared some of our new residential design work that is coming to fruition in Oakville. An older project, in this same Oakville community, demonstrates our driving philosophy that beyond where people live, our communities thrive and have deeper meaning when they are supported by buildings and services that contribute to the complex needs of daily life. This is particularly important when we face challenges, and when “community” means much more than the neighbourhoods where we live. The Birmingham Gilgan House for the Wellspring Cancer Support Foundation is a non-clinical care and wellness support centre for cancer patients and their families. Wellspring provides a variety of services to people living with cancer, including group and individual counseling, coaching, exercise programs, cooking and nutrition classes, drop-in daycare, relaxation lounges, and seminars. With a wholistic design approach, Q4A devoted great attention to green features, natural products, and long-term sustainability. The final building is highly functional, warm and welcoming. It intentionally feels and looks like “home.” The site provides a comfortable, non-clinical aesthetic that embraces nature and acts as a sheltering oasis for individuals and families living with cancer. Green technologies include a biofilter living wall, strategic daylighting, and active solar systems. Sun-shading devices, skylights and sun tunnels were added to protect the building from the sun in the summer and draw heat and energy from it in the winter. A large array of solar panels produces an energy surplus, eventually generating revenue for the centre. Other sustainable, quality-of-environment measures included enhanced insulation for the building envelope and adopting WELL building standards to increase daylighting and eliminate off-gassing of potentially immune compromising chemicals. We are proud of this project and the work our client is doing for the community.