In March the Ontario Association of Architects announced the winners of their annual awards celebrating excellence in design. The winners were chosen by a panel of experts from the design community applying a series of criteria including Context, Creativity, Legacy, Good Design, and Sustainability. This year's awards opened the door for the first time to buildings outside of Ontario but designed by Ontario Architects, and buildings in Los Angeles and Tel-Aviv were among the International sturctures awarded in 2013. We covered the original 15 selections when they were first announced, and you can find them all in this article.

At the time of announcement, the OAA opened a poll on their website to determine the winner of their annual People's Choice award, chosen from the original selections. The People's Choice Award, along with further awards such as Best of Show were announced this past Friday at the OAA's annual awards gala in Toronto. Here are the winners:

Best of Show:

UBC, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences/CDRD Vancouver, image courtesy of Saucier + Perrotte Architectes

University of British Columbia Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences/CDRD
Vancouver, BC
Saucier + Perrotte Architectes & Hughes Condon Marler Architects

Michael V. and Wanda Plachta Award:

Cedarvale Ravine House, image courtesy of Drew Mandel Architects

Cedarvale Ravine House
Toronto, ON
Drew Mandel Architects

People’s Choice:

House on the Bluffs, image courtesy of Taylor Smyth Architects

House on the Bluffs
Toronto, ON
Taylor Smyth Architects

“Architects are increasingly creating spaces that invite the general public to interact and engage. The 2013 award winners exemplify architecture that goes beyond the expected in both design and function. This year’s winning projects set the stage for what communities around the world are aspiring to achieve: open, bright, relevant and inclusive spaces, where people want to be,” said Bill Birdsell, President of the OAA.

An award of particular note was the honouring of Jack Diamond with OAA Lifetime Design Achievement Award. The announcement of Diamond's name was met with a standing ovation from the OAA members at the gala.

Jack Diamond

Diamond Schmitt Architects is well known here at UrbanToronto, with their many fine buildings profiled regularly on our pages. Diamond, who emigrated to Canada in 1964, became the founding director of the Master of Architecture program at the University of Toronto. He has practiced architecture in Ontario since 1968, and founded Diamond Schmitt Architects with Donald Schmitt in 1975. The firm now has a staff of 130 including 17 principals. Of his colleauges, Diamond humbly says:

"In this office we have the most amazing bench strength. People are just amazingly good. I have always believed that all of us together are better than each of us alone."