Vancouver won two of eight awards at this year's Canadian Urban Institute Brownie Awards.

The awards were given out at a gala held on October 8 at Toronto's Daniels Spectrum.

The City of Vancouver's Metro Core Jobs and Economy Land Use Plan won the Reprogram award for legislation, policy, and program initiatives.  

The award recognizes excellence in projects or programs that remove barriers or facilitate redevelopment, reinvestment, and regeneration; provide models that can be applied or recreated by municipal, provincial, or regional governments; and stimulates new investment.

Vancouver's plan is a long-term planning initiative that was launched by city council in 2005 and, according to a City of Vancouver policy report, aims "to ensure that there is enough development and transportation capacity to accommodate future job growth and economic activity in the Metro Core".

The Metro Core is defined as the area within the boundaries of 16^th Avenue, the Burrard Inlet, Burrard Street, and Clark Drive. Two-thirds of the region's jobs are located within this urban space.

Other finalists in the award category were Montreal's Technopôle Angus and the City of Edmonton's Brownfield Redevelopment Grant Program.

Meanwhile, 151 West Hastings (Ormidale Block) topped the Rebuild award category for project development (building scale).

The award criteria includes excellence in site-specific responses to public policy initiatives and projects that combine innovative reuse of heritage structures that promote health and well-being.

The 151 West Hastings project, currently underway, is a four-storey Edwardian commercial building on the edge of Gastown.

The Ormidale Block is listed on the city's Heritage Register. The building's Hastings Street terra cotta and brick front façade was designed in Romanesque Revival style and was in need of restoration.

B+H Architects, who worked with a heritage consultant, kept the front façade with its 1900s character while designing a modern commercial space behind it with a new rear façade that would balance cohesion with the heritage front with fitting in with contemporary surroundings. 

For a full list of award nominees and winners, visit the Canadian Urban Institute website.