Photo Credit (Above): Doublespace Photography
Location: Ottawa, Ontario
Architecture Practice: Janet Rosenberg & Studio Inc. (Prime Consultant and Landscape Architect) and Patkau Architects Inc. (Architect)
Chosen by a jury of respected design experts, the 20 projects comprising the OAA’s 2026 Design Excellence Finalists represent a diverse range of building types, including sustainably designed community centres, innovative housing solutions, revitalized academic and cultural facilities, and transformative public spaces. These finalists serve as the shortlist for the OAA’s 10 Design Excellence Winners, which will be announced next month and honoured at the OAA Conference in the Waterloo Region in May. The biennial OAA Design Excellence Awards program offers Ontario practices the opportunity to display the transformative influence of architecture, promoting broader public recognition and appreciation for the field. The following media statement has been supplied by the submitting project team:
Kìwekì Point is a transformative collaboration between architecture and landscape, reimagining a spectacular limestone bluff in Canada’s capital. The design restores connections to the city through the Pìdàban pedestrian bridge and embraces the Ottawa River with a continuous perimeter walkway and biodiverse planting. Anchoring the site is Whispering Point, an iconic architectural outlook. Here, a dramatic cantilever projects outward to capture sweeping panoramas, while a robust liner of laminated yellow cedar fins below creates a warm, human-scaled shelter.
By recontextualizing historic monuments and integrating Algonquin storytelling with this new topography, the project establishes a resilient, inclusive beacon of reconciliation.
Photo Credit: Doublespace Photography
Photo Credit: Doublespace Photography
Photo Credit: Patkau Architects
This blOAAg post is part of a series exploring the OAA’s 20 Design Excellence Finalists for 2026, as selected by our jury.