NEC hands out award for local home
The location, origins and colours of materials are three elements that help a house find a home on the Niagara Escarpment, according to John Gordon of Creemore-based J.W. Gordon Custom Builders Inc. His belief in this trinity has earned Gordon, homeowners Derek and Diana Ham and architect Jamie Douglas of Young and Wright/IBI Group Architects a Niagara Escarpment Achievement Award for the outstanding design and build of the Hams’ Clearview Township home.
At the October 18 award presentation in Mono, Niagara Escarpment Commission (NEC) Chair Don Scott acknowledged the parties involved in this project for their adherence to the Niagara Escarpment Plan’s policies, noting that their efforts surpassed the Plan’s environmental objectives.
“The Niagara Escarpment Plan speaks to maintaining and enhancing the open landscape character of the Niagara Escarpment,” said Scott. “Your efforts support these goals, and you have set a wonderful example by incorporating architectural and natural elements to minimize visual impact on the Escarpment’s landscape.”
The Hams’ home is sheltered behind a hilltop, which creates privacy while breaking the prevailing winds, and the grey and brown colour scheme is common in the neighbouring landscape in the form of stone and tree bark. The way it blends into the natural landscape and keeps with local rural architectural heritage led to the recognition from the NEC.
NEC chair Don Scott, builder John Gordon, architect Jamie Douglas and NEC Clearview representative Shawn Davidson.
Gordon and Douglas have partnered on four homes to date within Clearview and Mulmur Townships, and each new home has posed unique challenges when it comes to designing and building within an area renowned as a World Biosphere Reserve. Solutions require innovation, says Gordon, and these are found only through collaboration and imagination.
“I consider myself fortunate to live and work on the Escarpment,” he said. “Building quality homes that fit into the natural landscape is really important to me. I try to encourage people to really think about the best place on their land to build, to place laneways and outbuildings. A large house on a cusp of land can break the skyline and interrupt everyone’s experience of a valley.”
The NEC’s Achievement Awards recognize individuals and groups for outstanding accomplishments, including exceptional building design and site landscaping, environmental restorations, and lifetime achievement for outstanding contributions to the conservation and stewardship values embodied in the Niagara Escarpment Plan.
“I really enjoy the process of putting together a house in the country,” said Gordon, who tries to use local trades and materials. “I love to be part of discussions from the beginning. Walking a property with landowners and architects before the plans have been completed always leads to a better end result. It takes a partnership to build a home.”
