Child care facility earns honours
The list of green accolades continues to grow for the Little Learners Child Care Centre at Okanagan College’s Penticton campus – it was recently recognized as one of Canada’s most sustainable new buildings.
The child care facility, which opened its doors last September, picked up the Institutional (Small) Award at the 2018 Canadian Green Building Awards, presented by Sustainable Architecture & Building Magazine announced in Toronto on June 5.
Okanagan College’s project was one of nine lauded as examples of the most advanced sustainably designed buildings in Canada for 2018. The jury, made up of architects and sustainable design experts, had this to say about the child care facility:
“As a structure designed to the rigorous Passive House standard, this building is notable for the beauty and simplicity of its environmental systems. The building relies mostly on local materials and very economical passive design strategies.”
The facility is built to meet Passive House principles, a performance-based, voluntary, international construction standard for energy-efficient buildings that developed in Germany in the 1990s.
Designed by Penticton’s Landform Architecture Ltd. and built by Ritchie Custom Homes, the facility has already garnered two other awards since it opened last fall.
Last December, it became the first Passive House certified child care centre in the country. It was also named a Silver Finalist at the 2018 Tommie Awards in the category of Best Environmental Initiative in Construction (Residential or Commercial).
“Okanagan College is committed to being a leader in sustainability and to raising the bar for ourselves with each new facility we build,” says Okanagan College president Jim Hamilton.
“We are very proud to be recognized among the institutions – and the stunning new and renovated facilities – that made the list.”