SHARP Design Principles

Berry Architecture launched a new program for our seniors’ living design principles called “SHARP” at the ASCHA (Alberta Seniors & Community Housing Association) conference and tradeshow March 31 - April 1. The SHARP acronym stands for Safety, Honour, Accessibility, Respect, and Pride. The origin of these design principles is our belief that senior care should be more than merely functional. We’re not just creating buildings—we’re creating homes. We seek to improve quality of life for seniors through our designs, and that’s why the Berry Architecture team created and works by our SHARP principles.

Check out the video we used at the conference to see the full explanation of each of these elements on our website.

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New Project: Calm Waters Travel Centre

Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation is planning to develop a commercial site, the Calm Waters Travel Centre, on the NW corner of the Pacific Rim Highway and Nuu-put-Tah-Chilth Road in Tofino, BC. The proposed location is on a portion of the Opitsaht Reserve #3, across the highway from the Tofino-Long Beach Airport.

The planned development consists of a West Coast-style convenience store building, with four associated gas pumps, and one bay for a future Commercial Retail Unit. The site development will consist of EV chargers, a designated market space and picnic area, underground fuel tanks, gas bar canopy, sidewalks, landscaping, and highway/road access to the site. Tender documents have been completed, and we are now going forward with the next phase of tendering, then on to construction.

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Project Completion - Olds College Metals Building

On April 2, Tracy Wells attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony for a recently completed project at Olds College—the renovation of their Metals Building. In 2017, we completed a major renovation of the building’s interior, with the exception of the laboratory spaces, which included front entry, two classrooms, staff offices, creation of a locker room/change area, washrooms, and common gathering corridor. The 2025 renovation was the next step in completing the overall interior upgrade. This included a storage building addition, modifications to one of the older welding shop spaces, and addition of a fourth welding shop bay. The result is four functional welding labs which provide more stations for increased college enrollment and spaces for high school learners with funding from the Central Alberta Collegiate Institute, a program supporting high school students seeking careers in the skilled trades.

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Here are some things we’ve been up to:

George and Susanne were at our new booth at the ASCHA Conference and Tradeshow on March 31—April 1 in Edmonton, AB. It was great to reconnect with members of the ASCHA community.

Isaac attended the Association for Learning Environments (Alberta Chapter) Spring Conference in Canmore, Alberta on April 3 - 4. This is a conference that we attend annually to keep abreast of the latest thinking and trends in the field of educational facility design.

We hosted a three-hour Design Charrette with a local group at the Red Deer office on April 10. This is a great way to get input from stakeholders—defining needs and wants and clarifying the project vision and goals.

On April 11, Raymond attended the President’s Reception for “Inclusion Alberta” in Edmonton. Inclusion Alberta provides work opportunities for adults with intellectual disabilities. Ray is on the steering committee for the Rotary Employment Partnership (Central Alberta). He also attended a breakfast meeting with the Olds Rotary Club on April 17 and took part in a presentation to the club highlighting the program.

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Did you know?

There is a type of architecture known as “Duck Architecture”?

It refers to buildings that represent what happens within them and the name was inspired by a building that looks like a duck. In 1931, Martin Maurer commissioned a 10-ton building in the shape of a duck to sell eggs from his duck farm in New York. The Big Duck can still be found on Long Island; however, it no longer sells eggs.

Source: en.wikipedia.org>wiki>BigDuck