The Welland Campus Student Commons continues to turn heads in the international design community.
The innovative space, designed by Toronto architecture and interior design firm, Gow Hastings Architects, recently won two more design awards. They are:
- Gold in the interior design, education, institution and healthcare/university and higher education category of the Grands Prix Du Design Awards;
- Winner of the institutional category in the Ceramics of Italy Tile Competition.
The Student Commons is a 35,000-square-foot, two-storey hub that is the heart of the student community on the Welland Campus. The space was completed in 2018 as part of a $15 million addition and renovation to the Welland Campus Simcoe building.
The space’s playful details, including X- and O-shaped pendant lights; whimsical circular LED lights; defined seating, studying and socializing areas; and clerestory mirrors above the food hall were among the standout features for judges in the Grands Prix Du Design Awards.
So, too, were super-graphics that give the space an instantly recognizable brand, including lettering, chevrons and dots on the glazed expanse of windows.
These awards follow four others for the Welland Campus Student Commons and Gow Hastings. Earlier this year, Gow Hastings was presented the top award for interior design from Loop Design Awards.
The space was also winner of the public space design category in the 2020 Society of British and International Interior Design International Design Awards. In addition, it was shortlisted in the 2020 FX Design Awards public sector category. Previously, it won the Interior Designers of Canada Value of Design Award and Canadian Interiors Magazine 2018 Best of Canada Design Competition.
