Nih Dawin’Naa Affordable Apartments

Honoured and grateful! 🏆
We are thrilled to announce that two of our projects were recognized tonight at the Hamilton Municipal Heritage Awards:
🏛️ St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church (Ancaster) – Award for Accessibility in a Heritage Building
In 2018, we completed a new, fully accessible entrance that respects and preserves the historic integrity of this community landmark.
🏭 Steven Street Factory Conversion (Nih dawin’naa) – Award for Adaptive Reuse
Transforming an old industrial factory building into a thriving community hub, now home to 15 tenants thanks to the vision of Sacajawea Non-Profit Housing.

A huge thank you to our key project partners:
Megan Hobson (Heritage Consultant)
Landwise (Planning)
Smoke Architecture (associate architect for Nih dawin’naa)
Schulthuis Construction (builder for both projects)
& everyone else who played a hand in bringing these visions to life!

Most importantly, thank you to our incredible clients—Sacajawea and the congregation at St. Andrew’s—for their steadfast commitment to preserving Hamilton’s architectural heritage. Special thanks as well to the Municipal Heritage Committee for organizing these annual awards and continually advocating for the preservation of our city’s built history.
#HamiltonHeritage #AdaptiveReuse #Accessibility #HeritageArchitecture #HamiltonOnt BuiltHeritage ...

Out of the ground and onto the next phase! 🏗️

Our most site-challenged project to date is rapidly coming together. Addressing poor bearing capacity and steep sloped topography on a tight urban infill footprint required an impressive deep foundation strategy—combining helical piles, controlled modulus columns (CMCs), and complex shoring.

Next up: blindside waterproofing and foundation pours as the building emerges above grade!

A massive shoutout to our incredible project team and partners making this engineering feat happen:
Construction Manager: Schilthuis Construction
Shoring & Ground Improvement: HCM Contractors Structural Engineering: Kalos Engineering Inc.
Planning: @landwise.team & the City of Hamilton Owner / Client: Sacajawea Non-Profit Housing Inc.

We are immensely proud to be the architects behind this 31-room student learners housing community.
Thank you to our neighbours in Kirkendall and along Jackson Street for their patience and support throughout the deep foundation phase. Urban infill brings unique challenges compared to greenfield developments, but maximizing existing municipal infrastructure—including proximity to the future Hamilton LRT—makes it entirely worth it.

📍 Located right across from Jackson Park—stop by and check out the construction progress! ...

Back in the Spring we got to see a significant project on the Hamilton mountain begin to take shape—@vicparkch`s Stonechurch Apartments! Pictured here is the corner of Stone Church East and Redmond, where a new 107-unit, eight-storey residential building will help to address the growing demand for affordable housing in our city. Working alongside Flourish Development Group and @zehrgroup Construction Inc, we are transforming the site of one block of eight existing townhomes into a mix of studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments, tailored for small families and seniors who wish to age in place.

The building is designed with a focus on energy efficiency, meeting Passive House US (PHIUS) standards for both the building envelope and mechanical systems.

📸: Dave Povao ...

We were very pleased to see two of our @indwell.ca projects --The Station Apartments and Balaclava Crossing, featured in another Hamilton Spectator article last week! Teviah Moro`s piece focuses on St. Thomas’s effective strategy to reduce homelessness through supportive housing, and what Hamilton can learn from the city`s efforts to reach “functional zero” homelessness by 2027.

It`s encouraging to know that The Station Apartments has been a key part of this good work. In line with St. Thomas’ Compassionate Community plan, the project created 45 new supportive apartments one block from the downtown core. The new building is four storeys and includes shell space for a future single-bay firehall.

Our Balaclava Crossing project is converting a former elementary school into permanent housing for tenants with support needs. The heritage red brick building will be retrofitted to include 36 units, while a new 4-storey addition will provide 42 additional units along with ground-floor common spaces and offices. ...

Wonderful to spot a rendering by Invizij`s own, Adam Dobson, in this morning`s @hamiltonspectator! We are excited to advance the work of @indwell.ca in creating supportive affordable housing on city-owned properties at 1022-1030 Waterdown Road in Aldershot. See photo 2 for the most recent render of this lovely building design.

In Burlington and beyond, we know that affordable housing will continue to play a critical role in helping communities manage the rising cost of living. It`s good to see articles shed light on the challenging issues that shape so many of the projects we are passionate about! ...

Great news in The Hamilton Spectator today regarding the reopening of Eastwood Arena!

Earlier this year, our firm put together site concepts to explore how affordable housing could be integrated alongside a new arena facility on the property. We see huge potential here for a multi-use community asset that serves the neighbourhood on multiple fronts.

Check out our initial concepts below—we’d love to hear your thoughts! 🤔 ...

We were heartened to participate in the groundbreaking celebration for 107 permanently affordable homes for seniors and others to age in place as part of Victoria Park Community Homes. The building is coming out of the ground at the corner of Stonechurch & Redmond on the Hamilton mountain, part of the Lacoma Court community where an 8 unit building once stood.

The building will have 20% accessible units, a large common room with a roof terrace, and will be 50% more energy efficient than a building built to code. That will make a difference for tenants expenses and the planet.

Bringing complex, deeply affordable housing from the drawing board to construction requires incredible partners—major thanks to the City of Hamilton and CMHC + Build Canada Homes for investing in this vision. Vic Park is a dream to work with, as are our design partners - see below.

Congratulations to the VPCH team, with special thanks to retiring CEO Lori-Anne Gagne for her decades of impact, and a big welcome to incoming CEO Matt Bowen.
Excited to watch this rise! 🧱

Architect: @invizij
Development consultant: Flourish
Planner: @landwise.team
Civil: SLA
Landscape: Adele Pierre
Structural: Kalos
M&E: CK Eng
Solar: Zon

#InvizijArchitects #DesignImpact #CommunityHousing #HamOnt ...