British Columbia architectural woodwork celebrated

British Columbia’s architectural woodwork industry honoured its best and brightest.

The B.C. chapter of the Architectural Woodwork Manufacturers of Canada (AWMAC) were held on Sept. 18 in downtown Vancouver to celebrate innovative architectural woodwork projects and companies across the province.

"We’re celebrating excellence in architectural woodwork, as well as design, and the apprentices coming up in our apprenticeship program at the British Columbia Institute of Technology and other facilities," said AWMAC-BC vice president Martin Berryman.

In addition to acting as emcee for the evening, Berryman also won the Above and Beyond Award, given to those in the architectural woodwork industry deemed to have made an extraordinary contribution to the field in the past year.

The winner of the Ed Fielder award for overall quality and service on a large commercial project was Walton’s Wood Working for their efforts on the Aritzia store at Guildford Town Centre in Guildford, B.C.

The firm also won a gold award in the service category for excellence in a commercial project over $250,000 for the same project. The Aritzia also secured a gold award in the service category.

"Architectural woodwork is the section of woodwork that goes above and beyond the kitchen manufacturing industry," Berryman said.

"We’re really involved in projects that would require a designer or an architect. Our members typically don’t do design themselves, that comes from an outside source, and then we’re and instrument to execute their design and make their projects a reality."

There were three winners in the excellence in quality in a commercial project over $250,000 category.

Feature Millwork won the gold award for their work on Surrey Civic Centre as well as silver for work on a private firm in Vancouver.

"This was a job that was not typical of our company. It was basically supplying a lot of tongue and groove ceiling material as well as glulam beams," Feature Millwork vice president John Greco said about the civic centre.

"The most important part of this job was the difficulty of installing it. It had to be installed over 100 feet high, we had to bring stuff up over scaffolding and cranes, and we had to swing from stages. It wasn’t a typical millwork project with a lot of work on paneling and doors and frames," he added.

Wanes Custom Woodworks won silver in the quality and service categories for large commercial projects over $250,000 for their work on the Guildford Town Centre.

In the small commercial (under $250,000 category), Seagull Enterprises won the Ed Russell award for overall excellence and quality and service on a small commercial project for their work on a private office in Vancouver.

The same project won the firm silver awards in the quality and service categories.

The other winners in the small commercial category were CHF Contracting with a gold award for quality for the Hudson’s on First project in Duncan, B.C. and Beckville Woodcrafts won a gold award for excellence in service for the Black Sheep Liquor Store in Maple Ridge, B.C.

The excellence in service gold winner in the export category was Nikolai Manufacturing for their work on the Microsoft Executive Briefing Center in Redmond, Wash.

The winner for sales representative of the year was Gary Bishop of E Roko Distributors, and the supplier of the year was Richelieu Hardware.

The winner of the Jack Sigurdson Award for excellence in design of architectural woodwork was False Creek Design Group.

The Guarantee and Inspection Service Award went to Towne Millwork Ltd.

The overall winner for service and quality in the residential category was Seagull Enterprises for a private residence in Whistler, B.C, and the gold winner in the service category was Cranbrook Interior Woodwork for a private Cranbrook residence. Gold in quality went to Feature Millwork for a Vancouver residence.

The Kwantlen Polytechnic University Award went to Kathie-Lee Pugsley, and the apprenticeship contest award went to Cody Craven of Seagull Enterprises.

The joinery student award went to Daniel Schaftlein (third year) and to Lief Eriksen (fourth year).