Lett Architects Inc.
138 Simcoe Street K9H 2H5 Peterborough, ON, Canada

Members of our team had a great time at the official opening of the Jiimaan'ndewemgadnong (The Place Where the Canoe Heart Beats) pocket park and canoe art installation! The project is a partnership between Downtown Peterborough and Green Up and led by the Vibrancy Committee, which our own Michael Gallant chairs. The project brought together many members of our community, with 100m2 of asphalt being depaved with Three Sisters Landscaping, new park benches made and installed b...y Tree House Timberworks, sponsorship by Councillor Kim Zippel and the beautiful art piece by local Anishinaabe artist Tia Cavanagh! The installation site sits at the corner of King and Water street, where an original Peterborough canoe manufacturing site once stood. The canoe is positioned to give homage to the historic 11km portage route from this site at the base of the original rapids in Peterborough to Chemong Lake.

Our team was honoured to be a part of an information session with Kawartha Commons, a group committed to building a sustainable, accessible cohousing community in Peterborough by 2023. Lett team members sat on a virtual panel with members of Kawartha Commons for a question and answer session regarding architectural services and project delivery. Managing Principal Bill Lett made time to explain Integrated Project Delivery (IPD). Like cohousing, it’s premised on a teams-based ...approach. The event was facilitated to align with our 2020 Lett Retreat Goals to engage community groups and organizations in the process and understanding of architecture. If you would like to inquire about meeting up with Lett, please email [email protected], or simply message us on any of our social media pages. We’re interested to learn what you’re doing in the community.

We're proud to sponsor the 2020 Green Building Festival! Together with hundreds of international delegates, we're excited to explore BIO: Ecological Principles in Buildings & Cities with visionary practitioners who are leveraging natural processes in design, materials, construction, and operations to deeply integrate biology in urban developments. Bill Lett will be speaking on a panel Friday, October 16th on Integrated Project Delivery on our Oakville Fire Hall project which... achieved occupancy earlier this year. IPD is relevant to building greener cities as it ensures that eco-friendly design and construction are not value-engineered out of a project by creating a truly collaborative framework where owners, designers, and contractors can establish and meet shared goals and milestones. Join us! A virtual delegate pass is only $50CDN, and you can claim up to 7 Continuing Education hours for GBCI, OAA, OALA, OPPI, PEO and other professional associations. Visit www.GBF20.com to learn more. Register at gbf20.eventbrite.com.

The Lett Architects team continues to grow! This past month we welcomed three new studio members who all bring a diverse background of skills, experience, and outlook to our team in Peterborough! Gregorius joined Lett Architects as a co-op student in 2018 for one year and joins the team full-time as a Junior Project Lead upon finishing his Bachelor of Architectural Studies degree at Carleton University this year. Growing up in the dense and busy Jakarta, Indonesia, his inter...est in architecture began with an interest in urban development and human-focused design. This mindset allows for a systems-thinking approach with emphasis on human comfort whenever he designs and tackles design challenges that arise. Outside of the studio, Gregorius spends most of his downtime reading and enjoys photography, skiing, and badminton (mostly outdoors!). Burak joins Lett architects as a BIM Professional / Project Lead. He has completed his B.Arch and M.Sc. (Building Science) degrees in Middle East Technical University, Turkey. As a professional architect, he has worked in innovative exhibition and museum design, high performance building, residential, and large public and governmental building projects in Turkey. He has participated in various national and international competitions and won a few awards. In 2019, he won the best paper award in SEEDS conference in England with his M.Sc. thesis study on holistic sustainability assessment. Ian joins the Lett team as our junior project lead! Born and raised in Peterborough, Ian has lived in New York, Toronto, studied fine art in Calgary, and earned his M.Arch at the Azrieli School of Architecture and Urbanism at Carleton University before returning to his hometown. Ian’s background allows him to bring creativity and a refined sense of design to the studio. Many of the works from his graduate studies were published in Building 22 Magazine, but he is also a talented sculptor and printmaker. Ian also has hands-on experience in residential design and construction and has worked on several remodeling projects. Ian is passionate about his community and is committed to the continual improvement of the city. Ian spends his free time woodworking and playing guitar.

We're hiring an Architectural Technologist (Intermediate/Senior Level)! Please see our job posting on the OAA website below for more details. https://oaa.on.ca//empl/Intermediate---Senior-Technologist As a growing regional design studio, Lett Architects needs the best talent in order to meet the objectives of our core values. We are an established studio and are aggressively pursuing bold goals in design and project approach. We support agile and lean design principals and... are at the forefront of the introduction of Integrated Project Delivery as it takes hold in Ontario. Located in Peterborough, Ontario, Lett has developed best-in-class expertise in serving the public sector (health, education, municipal, recreation, arts) and non-profit organizations (social services, culture, charities) with designs that are built upon deep stakeholder engagement. Ours is a culture that continually pushes for a deeper vision while respecting clients’ constraints. Above all else, we value relationships, knowing that the best works come from trusting collaborations.

The Peterborough Chamber of Commerce has nominated Lett for two finalist categories in Employer of the Year and Professional Business of the Year for the 2020 Business Excellence Awards! This year certainly presented new challenges, it’s been our goal to adapt and pivot to best respond to the needs of our new normal and offer the best possible services. We’re thrilled to be recognized amongst so many other local businesses who have weathered the storm together, and continued to find innovative and creative ways to serve our resilient Peterborough community.

Managing Principal Bill Lett was honoured to be the keynote speaker for this week’s Sustainable Buildings Canada Better Buildings Boot Camp Program 2020. The event is being held for students from OCAD University, Ryerson University, University of Toronto, and York University with a focus on process, design and construction of more robust, sustainable buildings. As a board member of the Integrated Project Delivery Alliance Bill’s keynote focused on an integrated approach to design and construction with a specific focus on Integrated Project Delivery (IPD). Good luck to the students attending this boot camp!

We are very excited to see the Fire Department has moved into the new Fire Station No.8 in Oakville, Ontario. The project team worked closely with members of the Fire Department throughout the design process to ensure we fully understood their requirements and captured any lessons learned from other Fire Stations within their department. During our most recent site visit, we were lucky enough to connect with those members living and working within the station, who shared their appreciation of the building’s functionality and thoughtful design.

Fantastic news for one of our projects!

At Lett, we have modified our workflow process and approach to project delivery in order to better serve our client’s complex project requirements. Agile project delivery has been popular in the software industry for many years but is only now finding its way into design thinking. We use Agile for project management characterized by the division of tasks into short phases of work and frequent reassessment and adaptation/rethinking. Target Value Design (TVD) is where we design... to a budget rather than budget to a design. These two approaches has resulted in project success. This can be seen for two projects we are completing for the City of Peterborough. In both cases, the projects had major hurdles that needed to be overcome resulting from traditional forms of project delivery that can often lead projects astray. They can result in delays, budget misalignment amongst other things. The City brought Lett in as prime consultant for both and using Agile and TVD methodologies the projects are now on-budget and on-schedule. The Brock Mission has been under construction since last fall and the park will start construction next month. We’re pleased to be able to release the renderings of the park and look forward to shovels hitting the ground!

You knew we’d be excited for this one the 2020 Heritage Hunt is on! With so much beautiful architectural history right at our doorsteps, this is a wonderful opportunity to explore our city and learn more about the buildings that surround us. The contest consists of identifying the location of 34 architectural details on various buildings within the area bordered by Water, Aylmer, Brock and Charlotte streets. Good luck everyone!

At Lett, we take our corporate social responsibility seriously and donate 1% of our pre-tax net income back to the communities we live in and work. During this unique time, and to support both our team and all of the businesses in and around our Studio, we’ve given every Lett team member $100 in Downtown Money from our local BIA! This is a great way for the team to do something nice for themselves while also helping to support our local community.

Downtown Brooklin's new two-storey multi-unit commercial buildings with connected second storey walkway continues to take shape! The exterior cladding is nearing completion along with the heavy-timber shade elements that give the project a human scale. Lett Architects is proud to be working alongside Brookvalley Project Management Inc. to bring this fabulous addition to the historic downtown and set the standard for future developments within the Brooklin Heritage Conservation District.

Beavermead Campground and its new comfort station opened for the season recently! Replacing an older facility, the new comfort station provides much greater accessibility. The communal spaces - laundry/dishwashing room, barrier-free washroom and showers have been located at or near the front of the building and in close proximity to each other to minimize walking distance, while the bulk of the washrooms are located along the more private back side of the building. The bu...ilding is afforded additional privacy by the presence of metal screens. The perforations on these panels vary in size, making up a pattern that was generated from a photograph taken of the trees in the campground during the Winter. The interplay of the tree pattern on the panels and the real trees just beyond help to situate this building in its environment and connect it to the site. See more