Architect builds reputation
While some architects I know aspire to design the biggest and most recognizable structures that will be applauded in winning awards, there are many others like Steven Ho who are content to be their own boss and be rewarded by the satisfaction of smaller clients.
Ho’s clients have been so pleased with his work that the majority of his projects are repeat customers or referrals.
Ho arrived in Edmonton from Hong Kong and completed his Grade 12 there. He then moved to Calgary to study architectural technology at SAIT Polytechnic.
Ho went on to earn his BA as a geography major, but after learning his time at SAIT would not be accepted toward a degree in Canada, he completed a 2 1/2-year accelerated program at University of Kansas.
Ho says the school’s location, in the small community of Lawrence, meant there were few distractions, which allowed students to focus on their studies.
Following graduation in 1992, Ho relocated to the Vancouver area for his internship with Vern Delgatty Architects in Burnaby, a company that specialized in seniors’ housing, Christian schools and churches.
By 1996 he was a registered architect and in 2000 came to Calgary and launched Steven Ho Architecture that same year.
While studying at SAIT, Ho had built up working relationships with residential builders and his first jobs as an independent were thanks to those connections, particularly Tricor Design with whom he still has business ties.
Ho was soon designing townhouses and four-plexes for a growing number of his own clients including a 33-unit, fourstorey wood frame development in Mission and Oscar, an 11-storey condo development in Eau Claire.
Then he met David Lam, a designer and the owner of a number of restaurants who now owns Meiga Developments.
Lam is a creative designer responsible for the conceptual design of several restaurants in town, including the Dalhousie and Millrise Kinjo Restaurants and Sho on Macleod Trail.
Designers need architects and the two hooked up and now share the same office space. The relationship has blossomed and the team, with a small staff of four, has been responsible for several Asian restaurants in Calgary and Airdrie, including the recent extension to Sho that added another 40 seats to the popular Sushi bar and kitchen, and the renovation and facelift of Crescent Plaza on Centre Street North.
Also, in association with Meiga and another partner, Certus Developments, renovations are being made to self-standing buildings on the corner of 15th Avenue and 14th Street S.W. that will become a takeout and Ke Isakaya Japanese Restaurant.
Under his own banner, Ho was responsible for the splendid new 350-seat Serbian Orthodox Church in De Winton; he is architect of record for the new Cactus Club in The Core Shopping Centre; renovation to Russell Food Equipment; is architect of record for Hugo Boss stores in Alberta and B.C.; designed a mixed-use 15-storey development in Langley, B.C., and two U.S. churches in Yuma, Ariz., and Seattle, Wash.
Ho has built up a fine reputation that keeps him and his staff very busy but allows him to act as judge for the past 15 years of the Calgary Home Builders Association design competitions for SAIT Polytechnic and high school students.
Jason Cottle and his RBC Capital Markets Real Estate Group acted on behalf of Niagara Acquisition in the sale of a portfolio of six Calgary light industrial buildings.
The small-bay, multi-tenant buildings were sold to York Realty at a price of $42.5 million.
Canada’s CFO of the Year Award event is being held in Calgary for the first time on May 8, at the Hyatt Regency.
This year’s recipient is Janice Fukakusa, chief administrative officer and CFO at RBC.
The prestigious award is presented annually by Financial Executives of Canada, PwC and Robert Half to recognize the quality, insight, direction and leadership of Canada’s senior financial executives.