Kenora Airport Terminal

Famous for Lake of the Woods and numerous smaller lakes, Kenora attracts visitors from around the world. And for more than 80 years, the Kenora Airport has served those visitors, the Kenora community and the surrounding region.
The new air terminal replaces aging and undersized facilities. It efficiently combines passenger terminal functions, flight service operations and customs under one roof, providing passengers with modern amenities. Its larger size (10,915 sq.ft.) also allows for additional air carriers to serve the airport in the future.
The check-in and baggage claim concourse, the functional focus of the terminal building, is a warm and inviting public area, with ample natural light filtering through the curtain wall and clerestory windows. In a nod to the region’s forestry heritage, it features an expressive raised roof glulam structural frame (with concealed connections) spanning the entire space. The concourse provides a visual link between landside and airside areas. The passenger lounge provides a panoramic view of the airport apron and beyond towards the airport runway.
In addition to the regular air carrier operations, Kenora Airport provides services to general aviation. The simple, functional waiting lounge and the associated program areas are designed to accommodate general aviation passengers, pilots and supporting staff. Back-of-house areas including mechanical, electrical, IT facilities and storage areas are located in the partial basement level.
The new terminal introduces the use of local wood products as a primary structural element. The client required the new facility to reflect Kenora’s natural resources down to its bones, and the design team complied by designing a hybrid structural frame maximizing local materials and labor.
The structural frame includes timber posts and beams, glulam columns and beams and LSL wood joists. The glulam product was sourced in Ontario, while LSL product used for the floor above the partial basement and roof joists was manufactured locally in a Kenora mill. It was very important to the client to maximize the use of local wood products, both as structural components and as interior finishes, thereby reducing delivery impacts and contributing to local employment, as well as providing a sense of place representing Kenora’s long logging history.
Thanks to Kenora’s challenging winter climate, base building systems such as mechanical equipment are designed for ease of maintenance and located within the interior partial basement rather than at the exterior. The building was sized to reduce the requirement for sprinklers and standpipe to reduce client costs.
State-of-the-art integrated security, surveillance and IT systems were designed to meet the stringent requirements of the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority and deployed to blend in unobtrusively with the unique wood architecture. The system preserves the integrity of the primary security line and ensures security and safety throughout the facility. Finally, the exterior canopies, featuring glulam framing and supported by columns cladded with locally sourced granite, provide passenger protection against the elements.
Flexibility of the functional building layout was one of the key design requirements. The design team made provisions that allow for relocating most of the interior partitions to accommodate a terminal building expansion, as spatial needs may change in the future.