// COMPANY DOSSIER
Canada Masonry Design Centre (CMDC)
A not-for-profit Canadian association created and funded by its for-profit masonry contractor members and industry partners to bridge the gap between the design community and the masonry construction industry. Its team of structural engineers provides complimentary technical advice, education, design software (MASS), and research to architects, engineers, and contractors across Canada.
📍 Mississauga, Ontario, CanadaEst. 2003✓ 86% first-party verified
// LESSONS FROM Canada Masonry Design Centre (CMDC)
Contractors funded an industry institute because uneducated design teams produce unconstructable drawings, and the resulting extras slow every job — fixing education upstream is cheaper than fighting downstream.
Challenge over-specified materials: hollow block grouted solid hits the same fire, sound and structural ratings as full solid block while being cheaper and easier on labour.
Invest in staging and lift technology (hydro mobiles, heavy-duty swing-stage) — it directly raises productivity, cuts labour cost, and unlocks tight urban sites with no scaffold footprint.
When bidding scope you've never built (Darim's Queen's Marque sandstone ceiling), price in the uncertainty — take 'a strong number' so you can absorb the learning curve and still stand behind the product.
Push trust and problem-solving down to foremen — the people in the work every day are the experts, and they're the glue that holds a labour-intensive trade together.
An association is stronger as an 'industry voice' than a factional one: AMI includes union and non-union members, and the union backs it because a healthier industry lifts everyone.
// SELECTED PROJECTS
Building Structure Cost Comparison Study in Atlantic Canada: Multi-Residential Structures (Atlantic Canada Loadbearing Masonry Cost Study)
CompletedAuthor (written by CMDC on behalf of the Atlantic Masonry Institute; funded by CCMPA)
Models a 4-storey, 55-unit multi-residential building (~15,000 sq ft footprint) in Moncton, NB across three structural systems. Findings: loadbearing masonry carries only a 4-8% premium over wood frame and comes in 11% less than cast-in-place concrete; with underground parking the masonry building can be enclosed in 28 weeks (cited 50% faster than wood frame, 64% faster than concrete). Floor plan by Spitfire Design Co., structural design by Valron Engineers Inc., schedule/cost estimates by Acadian Construction. Full PDF hosted by CCMPA (published Sept 2020).
CMDC Atlantic / AMI office opening (Dartmouth, NS)
CompletedEstablished the CMDC Atlantic office in joint venture with the Atlantic Masonry Institute (AMI); hired a dedicated engineer (Andrew Smith) to serve the Atlantic provinces
Office currently at 238A Brownlow Ave., Modspace Suite 020, Dartmouth, NS B3B 2B4 (per CMDC contact page; earlier 99 Wyse Rd address appears in legacy listings). Engineer Andrew Smith, a Dalhousie graduate, has staffed it since 2018.
// KEY PEOPLE
AS
Andrew Smith
Masonry Design Engineer / Masonry Design Coordinator, CMDC Atlantic Office (Dartmouth, NS)
profile ▸// NOTABLE
CMDC was founded in 2003 by the masonry contractors associations of northern and southern Alberta, Ontario, and Saskatchewan, later growing to include Manitoba, British Columbia, Quebec, and the Atlantic region.
SOURCE ▸CMDC operates regional offices across Canada, including its head office in Mississauga, ON and its Atlantic office in Dartmouth, NS (plus Ottawa, Saskatoon, Calgary, Vancouver, and St-Hubert, QC).
SOURCE ▸The CMDC Atlantic office operates in a joint venture with the Atlantic Masonry Institute (AMI), founded in 2016, which runs an inter-provincial high-school masonry education program that began as a 2019 pilot at Hants East High School in Nova Scotia.
SOURCE ▸