{"id":3238,"date":"2008-06-07T10:00:50","date_gmt":"2008-06-07T14:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingtoronto.ca\/2008\/06\/07\/and-the-winner-is-2\/"},"modified":"2008-06-08T15:21:32","modified_gmt":"2008-06-08T19:21:32","slug":"and-the-winner-is-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/06\/07\/and-the-winner-is-2\/","title":{"rendered":"PUG AWARDS: And the winner is?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3121\/2556411858_0e32d1e927.jpg\" height=\"428\" width=\"500\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em>Photo of the Argyle Authentic Lofts, one of the winners at Wednesday night&#8217;s Pug Awards<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Wednesday night I went to the fourth annual <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pugawards.com\/\">Pug Awards<\/a>.  Started in 2004 by Gary Berman, of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.triconcapital.com\/flash\/main.swf\">Tricon Capital Group<\/a>, and Anna Simone, of the design firm <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cecconisimone.com\/\">Cecconi Simone<\/a>, the Pug Awards are a chance for people to vote for the best and worst developments over 50, 000 square feet built within the previous year in the former City of Toronto.  There are two categories &#8211; residential, which had 18 nominated buildings, and commercial\/institutional, which had 3 nominated buildings.<\/p>\n<p>The ceremony was held in last year&#8217;s institutional winner, the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gardinermuseum.on.ca\/default_noflash.aspx\">Gardiner Museum<\/a>, in the third floor gastro-spot operated by Toronto restaurateur <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jamiekennedy.ca\/v3\/welcome.html\">Jamie Kennedy<\/a>.  The ceremony itself was very interesting: there was a packed house, great hors d&#8217;oeuvres, and an lively panel discussion with notables Bruce Kuwabara of <a href=\"www.kpmb.com\">KPMB Architects<\/a>, City Councilor <a href=\"http:\/\/www.toronto.ca\/councillors\/rae1.htm\">Kyle Rae<\/a>, Gary Switzer of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.greatgulfhomes.com\/index.php\">Great Gulf Homes<\/a>, and Julie Di Lorenzo of <a href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-admin\/www.diamantedevelopment.com\">Diamante Development Corporation<\/a> that dealt with the state of design in the city of Toronto. But I left feeling that the awards program itself still has some room to grow.  Although I support the premise of the Pug Awards (namely, to help inform the public about design excellence and contribute to a more livable city by improving the built environment through recognition of (or condemnation) of stand-out buildings), I think that the process of screening and selecting the winners (and losers) of the awards should be changed to better achieve those results.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Starting with the screening process, I am not entirely sure why only developments over 50, 000 square feet are entered into the vote.  As we have seen in previous years, this is not necessarily a hard rule. The Gardiner Museum, for example, does not meet the square footage requirements but was entered because the Pug Awards Advisory Board reserves the right to enter any building that it deems noteworthy. Officially revising the rule to include different size-based categories would create a more interesting field of competitors.  Architecture happens at many different scales, and does not need to be incredibly large in order to have a significant impact on the urban environment (think of a great community centre or park pavilion).  By expanding the size limits, the Pugs might also avoid a list of nominees as homogeneous as the ones they had this year: a series of box-like towers that looked identical, contrasted by one or two strong, but still not truly remarkable, buildings.<\/p>\n<p>The voting process also needs to be resolved.  When I went on the Pug Awards website to check out the nominated buildings I was disappointed because all of the nominees only had three pictures to entice my vote, all of which were exterior shots.  Judging a building from the outside only is a bit like judging a book by its cover, as buildings can offer far more on the inside than is evident from a front or side elevations.  There were also no written descriptions to accompany any of the nominees (except for the name of the architect and the developer), and although there was a separate page outlining suggested criteria for voting to discourage superficial voting, including a short description of each building might help highlight some of the key features of the project that aren&#8217;t necessarily obvious by looking at the picture.<\/p>\n<p>The last thing that I really think the Pug Awards need to do is expand to include the rest of the amalgamated city region, and even go beyond to the GTA.  As the population in these areas is growing at much a faster rate than the former City of Toronto, there might be more going on in places like <a href=\"http:\/\/www.city.brampton.on.ca\/home.taf\">Brampton<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-admin\/www.mississauga.ca\">Mississauga<\/a> that needs a critical eye.  I understand that this might already be in the works, I just hope it is up and ready for next year<\/p>\n<p>The strongest part of the Pug Awards, and my favourite part of the night, was the announcement of the winners for the second annual Pug Ed student competition &#8212; giving Lisa Clemo of Jesse Ketchum Public School a $4000 educational bursary, and Mayuran Saravanapavanantham of Queen Alexandra Senior Public School a bursary of $2000.  The students competed for the prize in a design competition\/educational workshop held within those two schools, which was aimed at teaching young people about the built environment.  This part gave me the strongest hope for the future of design excellence in the city, as it encourages young people to get involved early, and it would be particularly nice to see this part of the Pug Awards greatly expanded to other schools in the future.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3124\/2555582627_f8e652146b.jpg\" height=\"375\" width=\"500\" \/><\/p>\n<p>In the main Pug Awards categories, the residential winner was the Argyle Authentic Lofts by <a href=\"www.corearchitects.com\/noFlash.htm\">Core Architects<\/a>, and the commercial\/institutional winner was the <a href=\"www.thehazeltonhotel.com\">Hazelton Hotel<\/a> (picture above) by Sol Wassermuhl, and <a href=\"www.pagesteele.com\">Page + Steele Architects<\/a>.  For a break down of this years votes, or to learn more about this year&#8217;s awards, visit the Pug Awards on-line.<\/p>\n<p><em>Photos by Joy von Tiedemann<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Photo of the Argyle Authentic Lofts, one of the winners at Wednesday night&#8217;s Pug Awards Wednesday night I went to the fourth annual Pug Awards. Started in 2004 by Gary Berman, of Tricon Capital Group, and Anna Simone, of the design firm Cecconi Simone, the Pug Awards are a chance for people to vote for<a href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/06\/07\/and-the-winner-is-2\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"sr-only\">&#8220;PUG AWARDS: And the winner is?&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4050,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[22,3,14],"tags":[9417,368,143,3759,9423,9424,4298,9420,9421,9422,9418,2131,2133,9414,9415,1277,9419,79,9412,9413,9426,9416,19,9425,391],"class_list":["post-3238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-architecture","category-events","category-spacing","tag-anna-simone","tag-architect","tag-brampton","tag-bruce-kuwabara","tag-cecconi-simone","tag-diamante-development-corporation","tag-gardiner-museum","tag-gary-berman","tag-gary-switzer","tag-hazelton-hotel","tag-jamie-kennedy","tag-jesse-ketchum","tag-jesse-ketchum-public-school","tag-joy-von-tiedemann","tag-julie-di-lorenzo","tag-kyle-rae","tag-lisa-clemo","tag-mississauga","tag-pug-awards-advisory-board","tag-queen-alexandra-senior-public-school","tag-restaurateur","tag-sol-wassermuhl","tag-toronto","tag-tricon-capital-group","tag-usd"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>PUG AWARDS: And the winner is? - Spacing Toronto<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/06\/07\/and-the-winner-is-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"PUG AWARDS: And the winner is? - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Photo of the Argyle Authentic Lofts, one of the winners at Wednesday night&#8217;s Pug Awards Wednesday night I went to the fourth annual Pug Awards. Started in 2004 by Gary Berman, of Tricon Capital Group, and Anna Simone, of the design firm Cecconi Simone, the Pug Awards are a chance for people to vote forContinue reading &quot;PUG AWARDS: And the winner is?&quot;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/06\/07\/and-the-winner-is-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-06-07T14:00:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2008-06-08T19:21:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3121\/2556411858_0e32d1e927.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Matthew Hague\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Spacing\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Spacing\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Matthew Hague\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/06\/07\/and-the-winner-is-2\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/06\/07\/and-the-winner-is-2\/\",\"name\":\"PUG AWARDS: And the winner is? - Spacing Toronto\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/06\/07\/and-the-winner-is-2\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/06\/07\/and-the-winner-is-2\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3121\/2556411858_0e32d1e927.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2008-06-07T14:00:50+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2008-06-08T19:21:32+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/a2786e6efff44f7de85f28794f4d680a\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/06\/07\/and-the-winner-is-2\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/06\/07\/and-the-winner-is-2\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/06\/07\/and-the-winner-is-2\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3121\/2556411858_0e32d1e927.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3121\/2556411858_0e32d1e927.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/06\/07\/and-the-winner-is-2\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"PUG AWARDS: And the winner is?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/\",\"name\":\"Spacing Toronto\",\"description\":\"Canadian Urbanism Uncovered  |  Toronto Architecture, Urban Design, Public Transit, City Hall, Parks, Walking, Bikes, Streetscape, History, Waterfront, Maps, Public Spaces\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/a2786e6efff44f7de85f28794f4d680a\",\"name\":\"Matthew Hague\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a8ff4f93c64275f179cd5cc0e73ee97b?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a8ff4f93c64275f179cd5cc0e73ee97b?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Matthew Hague\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/author\/matthew\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"PUG AWARDS: And the winner is? - Spacing Toronto","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/06\/07\/and-the-winner-is-2\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"PUG AWARDS: And the winner is? - Spacing Toronto","og_description":"Photo of the Argyle Authentic Lofts, one of the winners at Wednesday night&#8217;s Pug Awards Wednesday night I went to the fourth annual Pug Awards. Started in 2004 by Gary Berman, of Tricon Capital Group, and Anna Simone, of the design firm Cecconi Simone, the Pug Awards are a chance for people to vote forContinue reading \"PUG AWARDS: And the winner is?\"","og_url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/06\/07\/and-the-winner-is-2\/","og_site_name":"Spacing Toronto","article_published_time":"2008-06-07T14:00:50+00:00","article_modified_time":"2008-06-08T19:21:32+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3121\/2556411858_0e32d1e927.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Matthew Hague","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Spacing","twitter_site":"@Spacing","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Matthew Hague","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/06\/07\/and-the-winner-is-2\/","url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/06\/07\/and-the-winner-is-2\/","name":"PUG AWARDS: And the winner is? - Spacing Toronto","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/06\/07\/and-the-winner-is-2\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/06\/07\/and-the-winner-is-2\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3121\/2556411858_0e32d1e927.jpg","datePublished":"2008-06-07T14:00:50+00:00","dateModified":"2008-06-08T19:21:32+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/a2786e6efff44f7de85f28794f4d680a"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/06\/07\/and-the-winner-is-2\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/06\/07\/and-the-winner-is-2\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/06\/07\/and-the-winner-is-2\/#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3121\/2556411858_0e32d1e927.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3121\/2556411858_0e32d1e927.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/06\/07\/and-the-winner-is-2\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"PUG AWARDS: And the winner is?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website","url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/","name":"Spacing Toronto","description":"Canadian Urbanism Uncovered  |  Toronto Architecture, Urban Design, Public Transit, City Hall, Parks, Walking, Bikes, Streetscape, History, Waterfront, Maps, Public Spaces","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/a2786e6efff44f7de85f28794f4d680a","name":"Matthew Hague","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a8ff4f93c64275f179cd5cc0e73ee97b?s=96&d=blank&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a8ff4f93c64275f179cd5cc0e73ee97b?s=96&d=blank&r=g","caption":"Matthew Hague"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/"],"url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/author\/matthew\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4050"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3238\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}