LGA Architectural Partners

LGA Architectural Partners
Company typeArchitectural firm
IndustryArchitecture, Interiors, Building Science
PredecessorFormerly known as Levitt Goodman Architects
Founded1989
Headquarters
Toronto
,
Canada
Key people
Janna Levitt, Dean Goodman
Number of employees
40
Websitehttps://lga-ap.com/

LGA Architectural Partners (LGA) is an architectural firm founded in 1989 and based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The firm designs residential, institutional, and community projects with a focus on sustainability and social housing.

LGA's portfolio includes housing projects and community centres, with several projects designed for vulnerable populations including women and youths.[1] The firm is known for its work in affordable housing and socially-oriented architecture.[2][3][4][5]

Projects

Euclid Avenue House

Designed in 2005, the Euclid Avenue House in Toronto was commissioned by Janna Levitt and Dean Goodman[6] as a "living laboratory" intended to explore alternative methodologies to the prevailing trends in Toronto custom homes at the time.[7] The narrow infill site meant the house was designed with flexible living spaces and an unusual plan, with the aim of encouraging its inhabitants to engage more with the surrounding city.[8] The house included several sustainable features, including passive ventilation and Toronto's first purpose-built residential green roof.[7][9] The outdoor spaces accommodate various forms of urban agriculture, and the house's lower level was purpose-designed to transition over time from a children's suite to a rental unit.[8]

Eva's Phoenix Brant Street

Eva's Phoenix is a transitional housing and employment training facility in dedication to Eva Smith, an advocate for homeless youth.[10] LGA designed the original Eva's Phoenix in 2000.[10] When plans of converting the building into condominiums emerged, LGA was tasked with designing a new space within a portion of the 1932 Art Deco warehouse building. LGA designed the project to allow newcomers to transition from observing the shelter community's social activity to taking part in it, and giving the residents privacy while also addressing safety and security considerations. The plan consists of 10 internal 'houses' along a 'main street' within a 3-storey atrium lit by natural daylight from a new roof composed of skylights.[10] Each "townhouse" consists of a communal kitchen and small living area on the ground floor, and five personal bedrooms above.[10] In addition to the residential spaces, a third level above one side of the townhouses offers open meeting spaces for staff and passive rooftop surveillance. Ancillary spaces for employment skills, such as classrooms, workshops, demonstration kitchens, and counseling offices, were positioned among the three floors.[10]

Toronto Public Library - Scarborough Civic Centre

The Scarborough Civic Centre branch was designed by LGA with Philip H. Carter as the planning consultant.[2] It is the Toronto Public Library's 100th branch.[11] Opened in 2015, the facility features a low-slung volume and a series of tilted, large-scale glulam columns and beams.[6][12] The interior incorporates layered wood and a central atrium that allows natural light to reach the library's stacks and reading rooms.[13] Additional features include floor-to-ceiling windows, an outdoor reading garden, and a green roof which connects the branch to the surrounding neighbourhood and adjacent parkland.[13] The use of wood was selected to contrast with the concrete structure of the nearby Scarborough Civic Centre.[12]

McEwen School of Architecture - Laurentian University

The McEwen School of Architecture at Laurentian University is located in downtown Sudbury.[14] Two existing structures on the site were re-purposed to engender a campus-like atmosphere and support efficient phasing of the project. The site was home to a former Canadian Pacific Railway ticket and telegraph building and a rail shed.[14] The second of two new additions is made of cross-laminated timber (CLT), chosen for its sustainability attributes and connection to the region's forestry industry and Indigenous heritage.[15] Made of 550 cubic meters of wood, at the time of construction, it was the first major CLT building in Ontario.[16] Doubling as a teaching opportunity, a conscious choice of exposing structural, mechanical, and electrical systems was made to reference the instructional role of the school.[14] The school was completed in 2016 and opened in January 2017.

Stackt Shipping Container Market

Stackt Market temporarily occupies the site of a former smelting plant[17] at the intersection of Front and Bathurst in Toronto.[18] The all-season public market is constructed from about 120 shipping containers.[18] Inspired by shipping container-housed markets in the United Kingdom, for example, Boxpark, the market occupies a 2.5 acre patch of formerly vacant land owned by the City of Toronto.[18]

Toronto entrepreneur Matt Rubinoff founded Stackt Market in 2014.[18] Following research of retrofitted shipping container precedents in the city, he contacted LGA to design and masterplan the site.[19] After five years of development, Stackt Market opened to the public on 10 April 2019.[18]

The site is organized around a central pedestrian corridor extending from the main entrance, with a network of courtyards, side streets, and laneways branching off from it. Containers at ground level house pop-up businesses, creative incubators, and retail spaces.[17]

Individual retail units were designed using a modular kit-of-parts system to allow for relocation and reuse. Larger tenant spaces are formed by combining multiple container modules.[19] Food and beverage vendors are clustered around a south-facing courtyard and lawn, which provide direct sunlight and views toward an adjacent rail corridor.[19] Additional reclaimed containers were stacked to create second- and third-storey spaces, contributing to varied building heights and providing surfaces for large-scale murals and street art.[19]

Awards

LGA has received several awards for design excellence, including a Governor General's Medal in Architecture and a RAIC Award of Excellence for Innovation.[20] In 2019, the firm received the Architectural Firm Award from the RAIC.[20] Their projects have been recognised by the OAA awards, Toronto Urban Design Awards, Ontario WoodWorks!, and the Canadian Wood Council, among others.[6]

References

  1. ^ "Housing". LGA Architectural Partners. Retrieved 27 January 2026.
  2. ^ a b "An award-winning architect's recipe for a better city: less building with more art". Retrieved 20 April 2020.
  3. ^ "RAIC Architectural Firm Award: LGA Architectural Partners". The Royal Architectural Institute of Canada. 31 May 2019.
  4. ^ Bozikovic, Alex (27 December 2017). "Changing the rules to do the right thing for Toronto's homeless". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
  5. ^ Testado, Justine (7 June 2019). "Winners of the 2019 RAIC Architectural Firm, Emerging Architectural Practice, and Young Architect awards". Archinet. Retrieved 27 January 2026.
  6. ^ a b c "RAIC Architectural Firm Award: LGA Architectural Partners". Canadian Architect. 2 October 2019. Retrieved 17 April 2020.
  7. ^ a b Kapusta, Beth (2007). New Kid on the Block. Azure Magazine. pp. 55–58.
  8. ^ a b Bozikovic, Alex (24 February 2016). "Architecture for the ages". The Globe and Mail.
  9. ^ Tsarouhas, Gina (2014). Green Walls Green Roofs. Images Publishing. p. 149.
  10. ^ a b c d e Minutillo, Josephine (1 February 2017). "Eva's Phoenix by LGA Architectural Partners". Architectural Record.
  11. ^ "Scarborough Civic Centre Branch : Hours & Locations". Toronto Public Library. Retrieved 17 April 2020.
  12. ^ a b "The best of city building in Toronto". Retrieved 17 April 2020.
  13. ^ a b "Then there were 100: Why the Toronto Public Library's newest branch is the perfect modern library". Retrieved 17 April 2020.
  14. ^ a b c Fortin, David (7 November 2017). "Bauhaus of the North: McEwen School of Architecture, Laurentian University, Sudbury, Ontario". Canadian Architect.
  15. ^ "Laurentian University McEwen School of Architecture". WoodWORKS.
  16. ^ "Inside the completed McEwan School of Architecture in Sudbury". TreeHugger. Retrieved 16 April 2020.
  17. ^ a b Healy, Tory (4 November 2019). "Toronto's "Fully Stacked" Shipping Container Market is Now Open". Designlines Magazine.
  18. ^ a b c d e McPherson, David (13 August 2019). "A new market experience evolves from old shipping containers and a new retail vision". The Globe and Mail.
  19. ^ a b c d Lam, Elsa (10 June 2019). "Shipping News: stackt market, Toronto, Ontario". Canadian Architect.
  20. ^ a b "RAIC announces 2019 winners for three architectural awards - constructconnect.com". Daily Commercial News. 10 June 2019. Retrieved 16 April 2020.
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