Honouring the Region's History

Located in Chalk River, Ontario, the Minwamon Building at the Canadian Nuclear Laboratories Chalk River Laboratories site is one of a suite of three projects on the campus delivered with integrated project delivery. All three buildings feature a fully mass timber structure and support CNL's transformation towards a more carbon-literate campus.

The first building to reach completion, formerly known as the Logistics Warehouse, the Minwamon Building sits at the outer gate 5 kilometres from the main campus. So named for a word which means ‘clear path’ in the Algonquin language, the Minwamon Building has become the new face of CNL. It offers site security and is the first point of entry, leading visitors along a winding natural path to the main campus overlooking the Ottawa River.

Constructed using a mass timber frame, the Black Spruce beams are on full display, drawing inspiration from the many kilometres of forests beyond the site’s edge and serving as a reminder of the deep logging history along the Ottawa River. The facility serves a key role in campus-wide logistics and warehousing services within a 2,787-metres-squared timber warehouse managing all items entering or exiting the secure site, promoting overall site safety by keeping all trucks off the main campus. While the warehouse is the beating heart of the facility, the building also offers staff and visitor check-in, support offices and a bookable second-floor conference area overlooking the surrounding forest.  

Together with the Support Facility and the Science Collaboration Centre, the Minwamon Building shares a common attention to innovative construction techniques and details, to the natural setting, and to advanced mass timber construction — honouring the region’s deep logging and lumber history, its economic well-being, and its indigenous territorial roots.