Salmon Arm’s Askew’s Uptown supermarket won a major award at the Re/MAX Thompson Okanagan Commercial Building Awards Thursday night in Kelowna.
There were 33 finalists for the awards from Kamloops, Chase, Salmon Arm, Revelstoke, Vernon, Kelowna, Peachland, Summerland, Penticton and Oliver, with more than 70 nominations. To be eligible, buildings had to be completed between Jan. 1, 2011 and June 30, 2012.
Askew’s took the retail award.
“Commercial buildings are very important in the life of each community, and events like this bring the players and ideas behind these projects out into the spotlight,” said event organizer Mark MacDonald. “There has been a lot of good thinking behind these projects, and it was fascinating to hear the building owners, designers and architects tell their unique stories about what they’ve done.”
The design of Askew’s Uptown store solved the problem of a severely sloping site by placing the store’s service space underground, extending the buildable area to the property line, creating access from a lower level and avoiding costly and unattractive retaining walls.