Allied Properties REIT’s Queen Richmond Centre West and the first two phases of Urban Capital Property Group’s River City are among 10 projects to receive design excellence awards from the Ontario Association of Architects.

Winners were judged on creativity, context, sustainability, good design/good business and legacy and were selected from more than 140 submissions.

QRC West, designed by Sweeny&Co. Architects, is a model of mixed-use intensification, with a 17-storey glass box vaulting over a heritage warehouse at Richmond and Peter streets, propped up by a 70-foot steel structure that runs through a glass-lined atrium.

River City, designed by Saucier + Perrotte Architectes and ZAS Architects in a joint venture, is the first residential development in Waterfront Toronto's revitalization, populating a post-industrial site with some of the city's finest-looking condos.

Other Toronto projects receiving OAA design excellence awards include the Boulevard Club west wing replacement (Teeple Architects) and the Centennial College Ashtonbee campus library and student hub (MacLennan Jaunkalns Miller Architects).