2008 Governor General’s Medals
in Architecture

Canada’s National Ballet School Project Grand Jeté

Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects & Goldsmith Borgal & Company Ltd. Architects, Architects in Joint Venture (Toronto, ON) Lead Design Architects Bruce Kuwabara, FRAIC and Phil Goldsmith, MRAIC

The new training centre for Canada’s National Ballet School creates a vertical campus of three transparent elements composed around a historic residence. The concept fuses architecture, dance, and movement within a series of stacked, horizontal platforms (stages) to bring the spectacle of dance to the city. The thoughtful refinement of all elements, from the grand volumes of the studios to the customized ballet barres, reflects the School’s vision to cultivate innovation. As a model for the harmonious co-existence of heritage and contemporary architecture, the design offers a metaphorical resolution of the dilemma of contemporary ballet to both preserve and challenge its art form.

	Jury Comment: This project was complemented for its strong yet varied relationship to the street, particularly in presenting the ballet studios as a vitrine of stacked spaces. The dynamic multi-level spatial interplay of circulation spaces linking diverse elements of the programme, also facilitates the skillful integration of an existing Victorian house, within the composition of the complex.
		John McMinn

Click on a photo to enlarge photos: Tom Arban

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