Cream of the crop to be honoured at BILD Awards
Finalists in 47 categories are building industry’s best
This coming week, I will have the privilege of recognizing the best of the best in the home-building and land-development industry during the 35th-annual BILD Awards.
This year, we have 47 award categories, so I thought I would share some of the finalists and communities the industry builds, and the reasons they have been selected as examples of excellence in the GTA.
In this column, I have tried to explain some complex concepts — one of them is the provincial growth plan and the policies that guide how and where we will grow in the GTA. With that in mind, we have two awards that recognize communities that best represent the principles in the growth plan.
In the Best Places to Grow Community of the Year, Lowrise category, the finalists are Icon Homes for Royal York, Sean Homes for Sean in Barrie, TACC Development, Arista Homes and Fieldgate Homes, Paradise Developments and Starlane Homes for Upper Unionville and Times Group Corporation for Village Park Executive Townhomes.
In the Best Places to Grow Community of the Year, Highrise category, the finalists are Minto Communities for Minto Westside, Minto Communities and North Drive for Yorkville Park, Times Group Corporation for Uptown Markham and Tridel Corporation for Aquavista at Bayside.
As an association, one of the ways we encourage innovation and excellence in the planning and building of sustainable communities is through our Green Builder of the Year Award. The highrise finalists are Stanton Renaissance, TAS, Times Group Corporation and Tridel and the lowrise finalists include Empire Communities, Mason Homes, Midhaven Homes Ltd. and Sean Homes.
In the competitive GTA new-home market, an excellent public relations campaign is the best way for our members to connect with consumers. In the Best Public Relations Campaign category, our finalists are Brandon Communications for their strategy related to 1733 Bathurst, Canderel Residential Inc. for the campaign around YC Condos, Curated Properties for the multi-media strategies used for Lanehouse on Bartlett and the Geranium Corporation and Pemberton Group’s targeted advertising and public relations programs for Friday Harbour.
The total package of sales and marketing is recognized through our Project of the Year awards. The finalists in the lowrise category are Arista Homes, Fieldgate Homes, Opus Homes and Paradise Devel- opments for Aurora Trails, Curated Properties for Lanehouse on Bartlett, Mattamy Homes for the Preserve and Sean for Sean in Barrie.
Our highrise finalists include Canderel Residential Inc for YC Condos — Yonge at College, LeMine Investment Group and Devron for The Academy, Minto Communities for Minto Westside and TAS for Kingston & Co Condominiums.
All finalists for Project of the Year were presented to the public for the People’s Choice Award this year. We have had more than 85,500 votes and the winner will be revealed next week. If you were at the National Home Show and spotted our interactive exhibit, you may have voted. We also had online voting open for a month, so thank you to everyone who clicked and cast.
I’m looking forward to next week, when all of our finalists and winners will be celebrated. I’ll share the winners in my next column. Bryan Tuckey is president and CEO of the Building Industry and Land Development Association and a land-use planner who has worked for municipal, regional and provincial governments. Follow him at twitter.com/bildgta, facebook.com/bildgta and bildblogs.ca.