By: Anne Marie Males

Ninety-eight was one heck of a year for the Daniels Corp.

In addition to selling and building several successful communities throughout Toronto, the company walked away with the Greater Toronto Home Builder's Association's highest honour - home builder of the year. The award is based, in part, on an independent survey of homebuyers. Homebuilder of the year is a new award for the association, presented each year to the builder excelling in quality, service, customer commitment and contributions to the community.

For Daniels president, Mitchell Cohen, the award fits perfectly with his company's philosophy.

"For years we've been running the knock-on-any door program where we encourage potential buyers to go back to any of our completed communities, knock on any door and ask about their experiences with Daniels," says Cohen.

"How our past buyers feel about our company and our product is one of the most important considerations."

How Daniels' past buyers feel doesn't just translate into awards, it translates into sales, too. Today, Daniels enjoys a high referral rate in which more than 30 per cent of their new homes are purchased by previous Daniels home owners or friends and relatives of current Daniels owners.

To many industry observers, Daniels doesn't fit the mould of a typical homebuilder.

First, there's Cohen, with his background in social development and non-profit housing. Under his leadership, the company has become involved in several projects that have helped feed, clothe and house some of Toronto's neediest.

In 1984, Daniels demonstrated that a community of 202 homes could be built to the newly created R2000 energy performance standard, a Canadian first.

In 1989, the company demonstrated that 80 per cent of building materials from the former Goodyear Tire Plant in Etobicoke could be crushed on site and recycled as bedding for sewers and roads.

In the '90s, Daniels was one of the leaders the new urbanism design movement.

It tackled several ambitious conservation/development projects, developed new standards for building basements, and, in conjunction with Peel regional police, advocated changes to the building code that would make new homes safer. (Changes that Cohen built into Daniels homes under a program known as security plus.)

And he has been the subject of criticism from some members of the homebuilding industry when it comes to his public views on the building code and the new home warranty program.

In Ontario, the residential building code and the new home warranty program are amongst the most stringent in the world. And Cohen likes it that way.

"We should be doing everything possible to increase the building code and build better quality homes every year," he says.

He sees the award as a validation of many of the programs and projects undertaken by Daniels over the years.

It has to do with our efforts to build communities rather than just homes, and I think it has a lot to do with our efforts to improve construction quality, he says.

So how does the builder of the year top 1998?

With more of the same. Daniels is opening several sites this year, including a development in the Beach and is making improvements to their homes, including using a fairly new product for the residential market, steel framing.

The steel framing Daniels is using at several sites, including Britannia Terrace in Erin Mills, is known as Genesis, the brand name for the technology and building methods developed by KML Engineered Homes, based in Cambridge, Ont.

Steel framing has been used in commercial buildings and high-end residential buildings for years because if its reliability, design flexibility and resistance to fire. Yet up to now, it hasn't been used in mass production residential building because in the past, steel framing has traditionally been an expensive option.

Builders using steel framing had the individual pieces shipped to the site and these were cut and assembled in a fashion similar to conventional framing. Then, each home had to be inspected and certified by a professional engineer.

The Genesis framing I pre-engineered and pre-assembled, eliminating many of the prohibitive costs associated with this option.

"Genesis offers many advantages over conventional framing and building methods," says David Fogolin of KML.

"It's lighter and stronger, allowing greater design flexibility and it's not subject to splitting, warping or nail pops.

"We think steel framing will give us a better product," says Cohen. "It has fewer service requirements and represents another step in our continuous improvement."

Daniels has used the Genesis steel framing for the sales office at Swan Lake, a large resort-style residential retirement development that the company was contracted to build.