A Saskatchewan First Nations community sought to improve housing conditions for its residents – not just by building more homes, but by building better ones.

Creatio Designs was brought in to redesign the homes from the ground up, incorporating a unique panelized wall system by Onewall Systems – a proprietary building material for which we serve as the official design and engineering consultant. We led the full architectural design and coordinated structural and foundation engineering through Creatio Structural Engineering, working directly alongside the general contractor and the First Nations community throughout.

The pilot program of 10 homes is currently underway, one year into delivery. Based on its success, the client has committed to 70 additional homes – a direct reflection of the community’s confidence in the design and the process behind it.

This 18-unit apartment building, spanning over 20,000 sq ft, had been condemned by Alberta Health Services – leaving residents displaced and the owner facing a complex, high-stakes path back to occupancy. There was no margin for error on submissions: delays meant continued vacancy and mounting carrying costs for the owner.

Creatio Designs began with precise as-built measurements of the entire building to establish a reliable record of existing conditions, even through hazardous conditions. We then took on full coordination of the architectural, mechanical, and electrical engineering teams, managing the process through to a complete, coordinated design and permit package.

The development and building permits were approved on the first submission with zero requests for information – a result that reflects both the quality of the coordination and the thoroughness of the package we delivered. Remediation work is now underway.

The Challenge A commercial project involving a mechanic shop conversion and industrial ventilation upgrade was stalled for months. The previous design team had failed to submit permits or maintain communication, leaving stakeholders in the dark and the project at a standstill with escalating contractor delays.

The Creatio Approach: Integrated Management Creatio Designs stepped in to provide integrated engagement, managing the project from rescue to completion with tenant improvement design and permit coordination. By coordinating design, engineering, and project management as one team, we moved the project forward as a single, stamp-ready package.

• Communication Recovery: We eliminated the “back-and-forth that costs time and money” by acting as the single point of accountability for all stakeholders.
• Contractor Strategy: We leveraged our network to source a contractor who performed the work properly at a fraction of the original cost.
• Permit to Occupancy: Our team managed the entire administrative workflow, from the initial missing permit submission through to final occupancy permits.

The Result We transformed a deadlocked site into a fully operational mechanic shop. By focusing on how projects “actually work,” we delivered a code-compliant facility while significantly reducing the client’s overhead and stress

Designing an 8-plex on an interior infill lot in Edmonton presents a specific set of constraints: limited site area, tight setback requirements, and the need to satisfy both building code, municipal bylaw requirements while designing to fit within a mature neighborhood. Maximizing livable density on a constrained site requires careful design decisions from the outset as getting it wrong in early design means costly revisions later.

Creatio Designs managed the full process from initial design concept through to infill design and permit drawings. We conducted a thorough building code and bylaw compliance review as part of the design process and coordinated structural engineering and utility connection requests as an integrated part of the package. The result was a fully compliant, permit-ready set of drawings for an 8-unit building optimized for the site, delivered without the back-and-forth that typically adds weeks to infill approvals.