Congratulations Georgie Winners & Finalists

Our clients always do well in the Georgie Awards, and this year was no exception. In the small pantheon of housing award programs, the deadline for the Georgie Awards is usually first (as the deadlines for the CHBA National Awards, the Ovation Awards, and now the CHBA Fraser Valley awards, among others, happen in subsequent months), so we usually recommend people enter the Georgies first, and then use your Georgie entry to enter everything else, because it means you've already done about 90% of the work to a successful award entry up front.

First-time entrant Mulberry Property Group's Eyremount took home the gold in Custom Home Over $3 Million, and Best Master Suite. This is one of the few cases where good real estate photography will serve you well--almost. While we didn't photograph this project, Susan Boyce and I project-managed the entry, and we provided fill-in photography to cover their excellent kitchen, which their real estate photos didn't do justice (and we subsequently entered in the Ovations). 

Infinity's Heritage took home the gold for Multi-Family Townhouse Development and Grand Georgie for Marketing Campaign of the Year. Besides featuring what has to be the cutest little repurposed heritage home sales centre I've seen in ages (now being repurposed for their nearby Belmont phase), if you've been following press coverage of the Georgies, you've probably seen this photo already:

Just add a bottle of wine and some cheese, a few of your favourite neighbours, and...perfect place to spend a summer evening! (We'd have staged that up, but the Georgie photo requirements don't let you show people). When it gets too cold, just retreat to the exquisitely appointed clubhouse to party the night away.

We're especially proud when companies who have never entered before enter and make it to the finals--because for most people outside the building industry, finalist is just as good as winner--you don't get the nifty gold statue for your wall, but you do get the bragging rights and the ability to market yourself as a Georgie finalist, which could well lead to your next project that does bring home a gold statue.

We had a plethora of finalists this year. Project Mint's East Pender gets finalist honours in Best Multi-Family Townhouse - Infill and Best Multi-Family Kitchen. This was Project Mint's inaugural project, and judging from what we've seen from them so far, they're definitely One To Watch.

South Ridge Developments' Life Above, which took home a Custom Home $450K+ a month ago at the CHBA Fraser Valley awards, took home finalist in Best Single Family Kitchen Under $100,000.

There's just something about Fraser Valley kitchens! Linhan Design's Family and Formal placed in the Best Single Family Kitchen Under $100,000 category:

Another first-time entrant Saint Construction landed two projects in the finals. Ross Street Modern placed in Best Residential Reno $300-$499K with one of those projects where you see the "before" images, and you say to yourself: Wow--way to create something awesome out of a 1940's teardown!

Another saintly Saint project, East Van Heritage, landed in Best Residential Reno $500-$799K, with a sensitive addition and refit to a heritage project off Commercial Drive (no, that's not a trick of the lens: the fridge really is that big. We're told they entertain a large family, frequently):

A Best Condominium Renovation Over $250,000 final went to NWI Contracting, another first-time entrant, for this lovely downtown condo:

Finalist honours for Best Master Suite went to the stunningly modern and very cozy Pacific Spirit by Reid Developments:

Hayer's Exchange, a multi-category winner in the CHBA Fraser Valley awards, placed as a finalist for Best Landscape Design--packing a number of lovely features such as rain barrel irrigation, community garden plots and a lot of green onto a dense space, as well as a Grand Georgie - Best Residential Community finalist:

Congratulations, everyone! We're looking forward to seeing many of you at the Ovation Awards in a month, and as this endless winter finally comes to a close and your projects get complete, just remember: starting early for next year is always a good idea! The scheduling is easier, it's cheaper, and we can put you first in line for finishing your writing and awards prep as well as photography the earlier you start.

And if you're one of those who always says "why bother entering, because the usual suspects always win?", we say bollocks! With the large number of first-time entrants doing well, the only way to become an award-winning builder is to go enter and win something, and: you can't win if you don't enter!

Get That Georgie!

Summertime, and the living is easy, right? It's Georgie Awards time again, and we think putting together an entry should be equally easy. You can even learn how, from the comfort of your outdoor chaise longue with a drink in hand--but more on that later.

We're trying something new this year. As those of you who've done a Georgie Awards entry know, there are three major parts to an entry: your written copy, the photos, and your plans/budget. The latter part we can't help you with, but for the last few years running, we've often worked on projects where we've closely coordinated our photography with the work of local writers. This year, we're working even more closely with the written side, and are offering packages that include BOTH the photography and the writing in one coordinated package. You'll benefit from the combined expertise of Susan M. Boyce, one of our fine local writers with over 65 winning projects in the last 5 years (and she's been writing Georgie entries since nearly the start of the Georgie Awards, over two decades ago), and our similarly well-known expertise photographing your projects.

This is a great thing if you're entering the Georgies--or any other soon-to-be-opening building award like the Ovations, SAM, or VIBE awards. It makes your administrivia easier--there's one price and one invoice that covers it all. It also gives you better results, because your photos and your written copy will tell one story in perfect sync.

We also understand that entering the awards for the first time is often difficult, and so to make it easier and cheaper, we're offering a first-timer discount for a limited time. We're also putting on a webinar to help you out. That's on August 11, and you can experience it from your own computer (or tablet, or...).

Check it all out!

An awards season ends...and another begins!

 

It's always great when our clients win awards, and this past award season has been a banner year, with at least 17...yes, seventeen...finalists or winners from our client base. We've had clients place in just about every major local building industry awards, as well as a number of local and national wins. There's been lots of celebration, thanks, and bragging rights bestowed all over for some truly excellent projects.

We always recommend that if you go to the effort of having a place photographed and doing your awards writeup, you should try to make that work go as far as possible by entering as many awards and as many categories as your project could reasonably win. For instance, a condo renovation could place as a condo renovation (of course), but also bathroom, kitchen, heritage, sustainable, etc. if it also has these qualities. And since many awards programs have similar requirements, if you've done the work for one, you've also pretty much done the work for another, and the entry fees are inexpensive once you have everything all rolled together and ready to enter. (Just read the requirements carefully as there are always a few little 'gotchas' to check and pay attention to).

Our clients took this to heart this year: almost all the projects placed in either multiple categories, multiple awards, or both. Bravo, everyone!

To paraphrase Iron Chef, "Who got it? Who won? Whose projects reigned supreme!?"

Teragon - Mayfair

The crew at Teragon called us just a few days before the Georgie deadline needing exterior, outdoor room, bathroom, and a few other fill-in photos for a finely renovated Shaughnessy mansion. A goodly chunk of the house had been previously photographed earlier in the project by another photographer, but several areas weren't complete at that time. Luckily, we were able to fit them in, and even luckier still: as often happens in the fall, the rain stopped and the clouds parted for the two hours we needed to get solid images of the outdoor areas.

This project was a finalist for Best Residential Renovation >$800K and Best Outdoor Living in the Georgie Awards, finalist for Best Bathroom and Best Exterior Reno in the Ovation Awards, and the winner in Best Outdoor Living Space in the Ovation Awards, among others.

Reid Development - Eton St.

We originally photographed this sweet heritage renovation for the GVHBA Parade of Renovated Homes--the Reid folks needed exterior and a few choice interior images for the parade brochure and PR--and then came back to rephotograph it later in the season when a few things that weren't quite done by the parade were finished off.

This project was notable for combining aging in place features with a sensitive treatment of a heritage structure, and for this, the project was a finalist in Best Heritage Renovation, Best Renovation $500-800K, Best Exterior Renovation, and a winner for Best Accessible Reno in the Ovation Awards, and a finalist for Best Residential Reno $500-800K in the Georgie Awards.

TQ Construction - Lynndale Retreat

Lynndale Retreat, a renovation of an early-1970's house on a cul-de-sac in central Burnaby, was one of the coolest projects we photographed last award season. As with Eton St., we first visited the project before the Parade of Renovated Homes and shot preliminary photos for parade PR, as well as videos of what has to be one of the best laundry features I've seen in a long time: using a roll-up garage door on the interior to conceal a full laundry station with shelving, work space, ironing, and so forth.

Lynndale was a finalist in the Best Residential Reno $300-$400K in the Georgie Awards, and a finalist in the Best Kitchen >$100K category in the Ovations. We got a wonderful surprise on this one: it's the second CHBA National SAM Award winner we've photographed. We've found that more unusual design and architecturally oriented projects tend to place well in the SAMs, even when they don't necessarily place well in local awards; this was a perfect case of this. Different judging, different criteria.

TQ Construction - Spruce Avenue Kitchen

It's always fun when you've photographed projects that compete against each other--you get to cheer loudly twice at the awards gala! This was the case with this fine kitchen+greatroom renovation, brought to you once again by the folks at TQ Construction:

Spruce Avenue was a finalist (along with Lynndale) in the Best Kitchen category at the Ovation Awards. It was also a finalist in the Best Kitchen >$100K category at the Georgie Awards.

Porte Development - Lift at UniverCity

I'm an SFU grad, and opportunities to photograph back at the alma mater are always welcome. We've made three visits to Origin, Porte's nearly-neighbouring project on the hill (twice for their successful Ovation and Georgie submissions a couple of years back, and then once again when one of our realtor clients Robert Crowe had us shoot a unit he was selling in the building), so it was great to see what Porte has been up to with their innovative mixed stacked townhouse/apartment project:

Lift brought home the Best Townhouse Development award at the Ovation Awards. Since we photographed this project in frigid January, we wish the Porte team all the best in the upcoming Georgie Awards and whatever else they enter.

Tien Sher Group of Companies - Jade

The Best Townhouse Development category in the Ovations was another where had two projects competing against themselves: Porte's Lift won, and Tien Sher's Jade, on Alberta Road in Richmond, was a finalist. Bravo to both of them! It was great to work with Tien Sher again after a couple of years hiatus for us as they busily built out several projects.

Prior to this, we  photographed their Quattro3 project in Surrey, and when we were recently photographing their new Balance micro-loft project, Caroline Jecklin, Director of Marketing, referred to our still-often-reproduced image of their Quattro3 project as "one of the prettiest shots we have of any of our projects!":

...and another award season begins!

Summer's almost officially here, and the weather's been amazing. We've been shooting some great projects already, and we have it on good authority that the Georgie Awards call for entries will be coming up in July. It's time to start scheduling your awards photos while we have great weather...and the earlier you have us photograph your project, the cheaper it will be and the easier it will be to schedule. We'll have awards packages up soon, but early birds get even better deals, so get in touch!

How To Win a GVHBA Ovation Award

Are you looking to submit a project for the Ovation Awards? We've been there since...well, the Ovation Awards were called the RenOvation awards, and every year we have a number of projects in the finalists' and winners' circles. If it's your first time entering, we know it can be a bit of a bewildering process if you've never put a project in for an award before. If it's your second, third, fourth...you're probably looking for some tips! Check this out:

Video: Winning an Ovation Award

We were recently asked to do a 15-minute guest talk to the GVHBA Renovation Council on photography for the upcoming GVHBA Ovation Awards. Having been photographing projects for the Ovation Awards since they were introduced a few years back as the renOVATION Awards, I took the opportunity to share some of our road wisdom with the group. There was also considerable interest in having a video version of the talk, so we put one together:

Congrats to our Georgie finalists and AIBC winner!

It's a great week when we get to congratulate our clients for making a strong showing in not just one but two awards programs over the course of seven days.

Congratulations Allen + Maurer Architects for their win of the  2013 AIBC Special Jury Award for Atypical Approach to a Typical Building Type! (a Serious Mouthful Of An Award Category Even By Architectural Awards Program Standards. One of the coolest things about the President's Awards Gala, the culminating event of the AIBC Annual Conference last Friday, was the recorded voiceovers reeling off the awards categories and project descriptions with a classically dramatic movie trailer voice. Archi-speak + big announcer voice is always a win in our books).

We photographed their project, Askew's Store, up in Salmon Arm early last summer, and the results looked great. It also was a great use of our medium format technical camera gear, as we got to use every last drop of the gorgeously large dynamic range you get when shooting on a technical camera. Grocery stores can be a pretty banal sort of building type, but the curved design, architectural detail, and copious use of BC wood elevates this project. As one juror said, "Someone loved this project." The architects and client weren't the only ones who loved it--we loved photographing it and are very happy it got recognition. This is one of our featured projects, so you can go explore the photos.

We also just got the welcome news that two of our other projects are 2013 Georgie Awards finalists. Congratulations to the crews at Vision Built and Jenny Martin Design for placing in two categories for West Side Renovation, which is a 2013 Finalist for Best Residential Renovation Over $800,000, and a 2013 Finalist for Best Kitchen Renovation Over $100,000. We always recommend entering in as many categories as your project could reasonably place in, and besides giving your project a wider "footprint", sometimes it also means that you place in multiple categories as well. Who doesn't love more chances to win?

And last, but by no means least, is the amazing showing by Porte's Origin project up at UniverCity at SFU. We photographed this for the Ovation Awards in the frozen dead of early December (in fact, we had exactly 10 minutes when the sun poked through the overcast gloom and lit up the south elevation…which we got to use by having a Genie lift at the ready and watching the sky carefully) last year. After it won two Ovation awards, the Porte team wisely decided that it could go further and would benefit from another visit to photograph the now-properly-furnished amenity spaces and now-properly-grown-in landscaping. It's a rare pleasure getting to do this: you get to see how a project changes, and it's always fun to see how things turned out and fill in a few gaps without having to be consistently blowing sheetrock dust off your camera lenses. The trip was worth it: Origin is a 2013 Georgie Awards finalist in three categories: Best Multi-Family Low Rise, Best Environmental Initiative, and the coveted Residential Community of the Year. Given that they are one of the few loft-style developments to do the Right Thing and orient the loft to actually get as much light as possible and not feel like a bunker, I'd happily move in to one of their units if only they were downtown and not on the hill (as an SFU grad, I've spent enough years looking down at the city, as pretty as that view is!)

5 Tips for Better Georgie Awards Entries

It's Georgie Awards time again! The call for entries went out last week, which means that many of you are probably figuring out what you're going to enter, when, and all that. Since we've been providing Georgie Awards photography for over half a decade, it's time to share a few bits of road knowledge we've picked up along the way.

1. What category are you entering in...and what other categories?

That's obvious, right? You look at your project budget, whether you're a reno or a new build, and find out which "slot" it fits into. But if your project is a whole-house renovation or a new build, you can take it one step further: with a little bit of planning (and a bit of work in Excel to divvy up your project budget) you can enter parts of the same project in other categories that might have different or less competition. Do you have an onsite sales centre as well? Does your renovation have a stunning outdoor room? Is this a new build with a fit-for-an-Iron Chef kitchen? Once you've assembled everything for one category, you've already done a good chunk of the work to enter an additional one. 

The trick is to make sure you fulfil both the technical and the photo requirements for the additional category. If you're having us do your photos, our Georgie Awards photo packages have enough images to cover two categories, assuming that a number of photos can be reused (often with a bit of cropping) in both categories. We also make it easy to license the two or three additional images you might need if necessary. If you're going to enter multiple categories or are strongly considering it, let your writer and photographer know in advance so we can make sure things are covered and avoid extra visits.

2. Your project is special: let everyone know why.

Some parts of your project are obviously visually stunning: maybe it's the odd-angled custom countertop or the perfectly framed view of Stanley Park. Other parts of your project may be less obvious: the under-stair lighting, the ability to control the whole place from your iPad, or the off-grid heating setup. Some things will photograph well, and some things will come up only in the written part of your entry. Tell your writer and photographer where and what the less-obvious things are so that they get covered somewhere in your entry so that the judges will know as well.

3. Get organized.

We're talking about your entry requirements, of course, but you also want to make sure that your project looks as good as possible when it's photographed. If there's a bit of construction still to be done, it's a good excuse to get the finishing trades through to take care of deficiencies, and if there are any major things that would appear in photos, hide/fix them or point them out so they don't get featured inadvertently. If the place is occupied, make sure the owners clean up the kids' toys out of the living room and wipe up the crumbs out of the stove. If the place isn't occupied, think about getting some furniture staged in. Empty spaces don't show as well as ones with a bit of "fluff" to show how the space could be used.

If your project is still under construction, there's a fine balance here between having photographs done too early and having the place look unfinished, and risking missing the deadline. If you're in this situation, let your photographer know so we can (hopefully) reserve some time for you at the last minute.

4. Write tight. Or find a good writer.

You have a grand total of 350 words for the written part of your entry--that's half the length of this post. That's not much, so use it well. Use your word processor's Word Count feature to help you edit. Terrified by a blank page? There are several good writers in town that specialize in doing this sort of work. We're happy to recommend them.

5. Share the costs.

We hate to admit it, but photography can be one of the biggest expenses in preparing your entry. You might not have to carry the entire cost yourself, however. Did you use an architect or interior designer on the project, or was there a specific trade that played a pivotal part in the project? Let them know you're entering, give them the opportunity to be credited as an affiliated firm on your entry, and see if they're willing to share the costs of your Georgie Awards photography in trade for being able to use the photos in their portfolio as well. Let us know and we can coordinate costs and logistics so everyone gets the photos they need.

BONUS: Hooray, your entry is done! Now what?

Once you've wrapped your entry up, sent it off to the CHBA, and are sitting back and enjoying a glass of your favourite beverage, the last thing you want to think about is...doing another entry. However, most awards programs have relatively similar requirements. Once you've entered a project in the Georgie Awards, you have most of what you need to enter the GVHBA Ovation Awards if you're in Metro Vancouver, or the CARE Awards if you're on the Island. You're also a few bits of formatting away from a SAM Awards entry, or a Department G Award if you're BuiltGreen. Entering multiple awards programs lets you spread the costs around, and gives you even more good PR if you win. It's also worth remembering that now that you've pulled everything together for your entry, it's also a great time to blog about it, update your web site, hand everything over to your graphic artist for new tradeshow display signs, or put out a new print ad. The possibilities are endless!

A Fine Time for Vancouver Heritage

It's been a few years since we've photographed projects for the annual City of Vancouver Heritage Awards, but this year we photographed at least two projects that were submitted, and we're pleased to be able to congratulate a couple of our clients on their Heritage Awards wins.

Congratulations to Robert Lemon Architect, Fast + Epp Structural Engineers, Murray Wystrach Construction, and homeowner Janet Campbell for their work on the McLean House, a.k.a. the Campbell Residence, which earned them an Award of Honour. This house was also featured in the March/April issue of Homes and Living Vancouver, and is a marvellous example of how to restore heritage elements and combine them with a modern addition, creating a set of simultaneously cozy and airy spaces in a large home. We're looking forward to hearing what Janet does with the turret; the home was open this past weekend as part of the Vancouver Heritage Foundation's annual Heritage House Tour, and she had a piece of paper posted in the turret with at least two suggestions. Further demonstration that a good house is never really done!

Also, a most welcome surprise: Bruce Carscadden's Burns Block Micro-Lofts project, which we photographed a good while back, also earned them an Award of Honour. We feature this project on our website--if you haven't seen the media coverage of this sometimes controversial project (or even if you have), go check it out.

Ovation Awards 2013 Photos

We've been proud sponsors of the GVHBA's Ovation Awards program since the beginning (when it was still called the renOVATION Awards). It's a marvelous program that provides local builders and renovators with good exposure, and a Greater Vancouver-centric version of the provincial CHBA Georgie Awards. As with most awards programs, it's also a really good "kick in the pants" if you've been procrastinating on getting your projects photographed, because there's a hard deadline--and once you've had your project photographed, you can use the images on your website, in PR materials, and in other awards programs.

The Ovations isn't just a fine awards program: as many local builders know, the GVHBA can throw an excellent party as well! The awards gala was last Saturday, and since we were the official photographers, we not only got to celebrate with good food and champagne, but we got to celebrate from behind the camera as well. Check out our Ovation 2013 gala photos -- feel free to share your success on social media (please give us a photo credit if you use our images), and if you want high-resolution images for your media releases or "brag wall", drop us a note.

Congratulations to all the winners and finalists that made the night such a great success! And last but certainly not least, a huge thanks to our capable assistants Valerie and André for producing photos of the winners during the ceremony in a wickedly tight timeframe.

By Georgie! Congratulations Symphony Homes

I had a great time at the 2012 Georgie Awards last Saturday seeing some great projects, catching up with friends, colleagues, and clients; and taking a small pile of photos for the next issue of Black Press's bcRenoNation--coming soon to the middle of a News Leader, WestEnder, or other community weekly near you.

But this year's was a little extra sweet: in addition to the projects we photographed that were finalists in this year's competition, we're extra proud of our clients Symphony Homes, whose Mahon Park Kitchen took home the golden statue for Best Multi-Family Kitchen Under $40,000:

Good work, guys! And congratulations again to our finalists, Victoreric Design Group and Tien Sher Development.

Go vote for the Ovation Awards People's Choice Award

Voting has opened for the GVHBA Ovation Awards' newest category this year: People's Choice! Vote here, and/or on Facebook. (Since Black Press is sponsoring it, and they're one of our clients, we can't vote...but we can still help get the vote out!)

Of course, we've photographed several projects that are up for voting in this category:

1. Tien Sher's English Mews:
   
2. Tien Sher's Quattro3:
   
3. TQ Construction's Princess Park Kitchen:
   
4. TQ Construction's Yale St. Kitchen (also prominently featured in this month's Home Decor and Renovations magazine, available in a yellow box in a street corner near you if you're downtown):
   

So as they used to say about voting in Chicago, vote early and often. We mean it: you can vote daily until the close. Voting closes on February 20, which is just a few days away, so go vote and may the best project(s) win!

A Standing Ovation

We're proud sponsors of the GVHBA Ovation Awards (and have been since, well, before the GVHBA Ovation Awards were called that!), and besides sponsoring the awards, our Ovation Awards photography projects keep us busy during the late-fall and winter months photographing what often turn out to be some of our favourite projects of the entire year. It's even better when our clients make use of our photography to help them win! Last night the GVHBA unveiled the finalists for the Ovation Awards, and we're pleased to report that several of our clients are in the finals.

Porte's Origin project at UniverCity, an interior of which was featured in our calendars as the January/February photo, is a semifinalist in the Best Multifamily Lowrise Development and the FortisBC Award for Excellence in Energy Efficiency for New Construction: Multi-Family Home. Ironically, this project won an award sponsored by FortisBC by...not using FortisBC's product (natural gas, for those of you outside BC) for central heat. The award nominally requires photos of such things as one's mechanical room, window installs, and the central gas meter room. Since Origin uses district heat and a backup ground-source heat pump, I got the distinct pleasure of failing to photograph the central meter room because...there was no such place! Without further green building geeking ado:

 Tien Sher's Quattro3 also placed in the Best Multi-family Lowrise Development category. We originally shot this project for the Georgie Awards (where it's a finalist for Best Landscape Design), and it's great to see it show up  in the Ovation Awards as well. Incidentally, their website is a great example of using construction progress photos to keep people informed about the status of a project; something we don't often see yet despite us (and our friends at Braun/Allison, among others) recommending it as a good practice.

TQ Construction placed in the prestigious RenoMark Renovator of the Year - Large Volume category, and their Yale Kitchen project placed in the always-hotly-contested Best Kitchen Renovation: $100,000 and Over category. This cleverly designed kitchen features a clean, elegant design with a number of uncommon features, including an asymmetrical breakfast bar, tons of built-in storage, and grate-bottomed drawers allowing wet shoes to dry appropriately slowly 'for free' using an extension of the radiant infloor heating system.

Victoreric Design Group's Chen Residence placed in the Georgie Awards and also placed in the Ovation Awards, this time in the Best Custom Home: Over $2 Million category. You've seen this lovely house on our website:

Mark your calendars now: awards night will be on April 20, and it's always a good party. We'll be photographing on the night, so if you see someone holding a flash high above the crowd, say hello! We're looking forward to seeing (to paraphrase Iron Chef) "who gets it? who will win? whose project will reign supreme!?", but in the meantime: congratulations to everyone who entered, and double congratulations for everyone now in the finals!

Congratulations Georgie Awards finalists!

The finalists for the Georgie Awards were just announced today. For those of us in the Vancouver area, the Georgie Awards are one of the most prestigious (along with the SAM and Ovation Awards) awards for excellence in residential development. Our Georgie Award photography has propelled projects into the spotlight for five years, and we're very proud to be carrying on that tradition with several of our clients in the finalist category! It's always great to be photographing good work, and even better when our clients get recognized for the work they do:

Victoreric Design Group's jaw-dropping Chen Residence, finalist in the Best Single Family Home $1.5M-$3M category. This is one of those wonderful projects where the dozen photos you're allowed to submit don't quite do the place full justice, so we're featuring this project as well.

Symphony Homes' smartly appointed Mahon Park Residences in North Vancouver, in the Best Multi-Family Kitchen category.  (Yes, that's a 6-burner Viking gas stove. And yes, I want one!)

And, certainly not least, Tien Sher Group of Companies' deft-handed exterior of Quattro3, finalist in the Best Landscape Design category.

We won't find out who the winners are until late February, but in the meantime: congratulations, everyone!