The Architectural Institute of British Columbia’s 2016 Recognition Ceremony, at VanDusen Botanical Garden also introduces two new categories of volunteer award.
Lifetime Achievement Award winner Joe Y. Wai Architect AIBC (left) with CEO Award for Exceptional Volunteer Service winner Sean Francis Rodrigues Architect AIBC. Photo: Jay Shaw.
The Architectural Institute of British Columbia (AIBC) is pleased to announce the names of those being honoured at its 2016 Recognition Ceremony, which began this evening at 7 p.m. at the VanDusen Botanical Garden. Trailblazer Joe Y. Wai Architect AIBC will receive the prestigious AIBC Lifetime Achievement Award. In addition, volunteers Sean Rodrigues Architect AIBC and Brian Sim Architect AIBC are being recognized for their significant volunteer service, in addition to four AIBC Council Members whose terms have ended.
Joe Wai Architect AIBC
Joe Y. Wai, who is this year’s AIBC Lifetime Achievement Award winner, returned to Vancouver after a period of working abroad in 1968, joining mentor Bud Wood on a restoration report. It was a critical time for the city as a freeway system had been proposed with an eight-lane nine-metre elevated “alignment” through Chinatown. Strathcona faced demolition. So, Joe joined protests as an architect and citizen to protect these communities—these efforts were successful.
In 1980, Joe and landscape architect Don Vaughan designed a Chinese garden in Chinatown. This was the first full Chinese garden built outside of China. In 1986 the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden opened to welcome Expo 86. Joe’s architecture appears throughout Chinatown: the Chinese Cultural Centre Museum-Archives (1998), Heritage Alley-Han Dynasty Bell (2001), Chinatown Plaza Parkade (2002), Chinatown Millennium Gate (2002), and the Chinese Freemasons Building restoration (2006). This received AIBC Special Jury, Heritage BC and Vancouver Heritage Awards.
The 2016 AIBC Lifetime Achievement Award recipient taught at the UBC School of Architecture from 1976 – 1980. He was on the AIBC Council from 1985-87 and received the Barbara Dalrymple Memorial Award in 2001. Over the past 40 years Joe Y. Wai has served on civic design panels, and volunteered with community organizations. In recognition of his community service, Joe received the Vancouver Civic Merit Award (2013) the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal (2013), a Doctor of Letters, Emily Carr Institute of Design and Art (2001) and the Canada 125 Commemorative Medal (1993).
Brian Sim Architect AIBC
Award for Lifetime Volunteer Achievement recipient Brian Sim Architect AIBC is the principal of Brian Sim Architect. Previously, he co-founded ECO-design.ca Architecture + Building Ecology Ltd. and was a partner at Tielker Sim & Associates from 1981-2001. He is a Fellow, Past President and former Chancellor of the College of Fellows of the RAIC, and an Honorary Fellow of the American Institute of Architects.
Brian is committed to the self-regulation of the profession of architecture and has devoted a large portion of his volunteer time to the Architectural Institute of British Columbia (AIBC), serving on AIBC Council (1984-86) and over 20 AIBC Committees and Boards. As chair of the Bylaw Review Committee, his contributions to the bylaw review modernization initiative have been substantial.
Brian is a long-standing course presenter for the AIBC’s Ethics, Act and Bylaws course and is a frequent presenter of Ontario Association of Architects courses on professional responsibility. He has lent expertise to numerous task forces within and external to the institute, and has served as a mentor to intern architects. Currently a member of the Canadian Commission on Building and Fire Codes, Brian has been a member of the Executive Committee as well as Chair to a number of special task groups.
Sean Rodrigues Architect AIBC
CEO Award for Exceptional Volunteer Service Sean Rodrigues Architect AIBC has an established reputation spanning over 27 years in the fields of Civil, Institutional, Commercial & Residential project management and design. Sean is arguably more well-known for his passionate dedication to promoting and improving the professional development and reputation of the architectural profession. For the past decade these efforts have especially focused on successfully developing the next generation of practitioners.
Since graduating from BCIT in 1989 and TUNS in 1997, Sean has taken a hands on approach to contributing to the success of our profession. Sean has been an active member of the Registration Board for the past eight years and an Oral Reviewer for the past ten. Sean is happy to have the opportunity to work with and improve the intern architect experience by being a mentor to interns, contributing to the retooling of the Intern Architect Program (nationally) and the Oral Review process (provincially). Sean has also contributed to the development and refinement of the Institute’s governance documents and policies by providing critical analyses.
Sean is the Immediate Past President and Director of the Canadian Architectural Certification Board where he championed the creation, development and successful delivery of a national conference dedicated to the complete education and registration of Canada’s future architects; the first such conference in almost two decades. Currently, Sean serves as Chair of the international Canberra Accord. Together, these bodies accredit all university programs of architecture in Canada and permit the international portability of architectural graduates from accredited programs.
Gordon Richards Architect AIBC, John Etcher Architect AIBC, David Toole Lieutenant Governor Appointee to AIBC Council and Michael Currie Architectural Technologist AIBC will be honoured with Certificates of Recognition for their contributions as AIBC Council Members.
More information about the Recognition Program can be found at: aibc.ca/news-events/signature-events-programs/recognition-program.