Canadian projects win half of 2026 Wood Design & Building jury awards

Canadian buildings took seven of the 14 jury awards at the 2026 Wood Design & Building Awards, a program open to architects from around the world, according to the winners list released Wednesday by the Canadian Wood Council.

The winners were announced in Calgary at the opening of the Calgary Wood Solutions Conference. The council said the jury chose from 149 submissions in the program’s 42nd year.

Two of five top awards stayed in Canada

Two of the five Honor awards, the first category on the list, went to Canadian projects: the Muscowpetung Powwow Arbour on Muscowpetung Saulteaux Nation in Treaty 4 territory in Saskatchewan, by Oxbow Architecture and Richard Kroeker Design, and Limberlost Place in Toronto, by Moriyama Teshima Architects with Acton Ostry Architects. The other three went to projects in Montana, New Mexico and Paris.

Canadian projects won four of the six Merit awards: the Chief Leonard George Building in Vancouver, the Koffler Scientific Reserve in King City, Ont., the FortWhyte Alive Buffalo Crossing Paul Albrechtsen Visitor Centre in Winnipeg and Kìwekì Point in Ottawa. The Kalesnikoff Modular Facility in Castlegar, B.C., took the Industry Leadership award. Neither of the two Citation awards went to a Canadian project; those went to projects in Shanghai and New York.

Derek Nighbor, the council’s president and CEO, said in the release that the winners show how wood design can create places “better suited to the needs of people and communities.”

Counting all 27 awards

The council describes the 27 recognitions as 14 jury picks, four sponsored awards and nine WoodWorks regional awards. By our count of the list, Canadian projects hold 19 of them. That total is lifted by the WoodWorks awards, which are regional Canadian prizes covering B.C., Alberta and the Prairies, and Ontario.

Four projects appear twice on the list, so the 27 awards went to 23 different projects, 15 of them in Canada. The Muscowpetung arbour also won the Wood Preservation Canada sponsored award. Limberlost Place, the Chief Leonard George Building and the FortWhyte visitor centre each also won a WoodWorks award.

The jury was Steven Paynter of Gensler, Susan Jones of atelierjones and Sasa Radulovic of 5468796 Architecture. The council said projects were judged on creativity, design excellence and the use of wood in meeting a project’s goals.

The full list of winners is in the Canadian Wood Council’s release.