This is a building that’s surprisingly nuanced for its type – an athletic centre on a suburban campus. It works, aesthetically, on two scales: up close and as a drive-by. For the students who use the building, it provides a bright and crisply detailed interior with occasional hits of bright colour. Materials are put together with an eye to sustainability and hardiness: The gym features wall panels made of wood from the floor of the old gym that stood on this spot. Outside, the building does another sort of work. It is seen each day by thousands of drivers on Highway 401, which passes right by. To address them, Toronto’s Kongats Architects created a façade of glass columns – classical in its rhythm, contemporary in its use of patterned glass and friendly in the way it showcases the human presence within the building. –[Alex Bozikovic](http://www.theglobeandmail.com/authors/alex-bozikovic) [Via.](http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/winners-of-the-governor-generals-medals-in-architecture-unveiled/article18109933/)