Celebrating Accessibility

The expanded South Building at the RBC Convention Centre was recently recognized with a Circle of Excellence accessibility award by the City of Winnipeg’s Access Advisory Committee.

Incorporating accessibility and universal design features seamlessly within the expansion project was one of the design goals and a significant challenge for the design team. Thanks to the efforts of designers, LM Architecture and NumberTEN Architectural Group, a walk through the new building demonstrates a design concept that is simple and intuitive for the whole community.

This year, the Access Advisory Committee received 23 nominations of recently completed projects that incorporated universal design principles and addressed accessibility issues as a key component of the project. A jury of industry professionals visited and evaluated all the sites and awarded 14 winners this year.

Projects were measured on how well they addressed accessibility elements in five categories which included physical accessibility (stairs, elevators, ramps, doors, etc); sensory accessibility (lighting, sound and acoustics, texture finishes and colours, etc); universal and accessible washrooms; context specific accessibility (budget, wow factors, meeting public and user needs, etc) and service area accessibility (waiting areas, parking, outdoor access, etc).

The convention centre’s president and CEO, Klaus Lahr was also recognized and presented with the 2017 Community Recognition Award.