The City of Kingston’s Coast Guard Search and Rescue Station, located on 93 Yonge Street, has been selected as the Award of Merit winner of the 2023 City of Kingston Livable City Design Awards in recognition of a strong urban design contribution to the built environment.

The winning projects were celebrated at the awards ceremony on Thursday, November 23 at Kingston City Hall—the first occurrence since the pandemic—in the following three categories: Award of Excellence, Award of Merit, and People’s Choice Award. The Award of Merit, received by DIALOG, is selected by an external jury of industry professionals.

From private residence developments to public spaces and heritage conservation, the Livable City Design Awards celebrate projects that demonstrate excellence in urban design and architecture and raise the bar for the community of Kingston.

Winning projects successfully demonstrate contribution to the quality of the environment within a community, the city’s design objectives, creative response to project requirements and constraints, enhancement of the area’s character, quality construction materials, integrated designs that support environmental and sustainable practices, and displays a high standard of Universal Design principles as set out in the City’s guidelines.

Coast Guard Search and Rescue Station

Completed in 2019, the 3,200 sq ft Search and Rescue Base set out to upgrade and replace several Search and Rescue (SAR) stations across the Great Lakes to better support the Canadian Coast Guard (CCG) programming. The new, modern station sits on the northeast corner of Lake Ontario where the lake meets the St. Lawrence River to allow the Coast Guard to stand ready to assist the thousands of recreational boaters and commercial mariners in and around the area.

With DIALOG providing the architectural and engineering services, the building echos the form of a ship, and features the CCG’s iconic red and white colours to offer greater visibility to those approaching the City of Kingston from Lake Ontario. A ready room – a new feature of all reconstructed SAR facilities – houses personalized rescue gear and is strategically located at the exit point of the building to improve response time and preparedness. To enhance operational effectiveness, a communications tower is located on site which is designed to meet current standards for both performance and safety.