Olympic medal Altius, Fortius" features on four Winter Games medals but does not appear on any Summer Games medal. For three events in a row, hosts of the Winter Games included different materials in the medals: glass (1992), sparagmite (1994), and lacquer (1998). It was not until the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China that a Summer Olympic host chose to use something different, in this case jade. While every Summer Olympic medal except for the 1900 Games has been circular, the shapes of the Winter Games have been considerably more varied. The Winter Games medals are also generally larger, thicker, and
Altius Architects and Graham Smith, and David Flynn, who met as students at the University of Waterloo, School of Architecture in the 1990s. Altius Design Studio was founded in 1998, and became Altius Architecture, Inc. in 2002. In 2005, David Flynn left the firm. The Ontario Association of Architects selected Altius for the 2007 Best Emerging Practice Award in recognition for their effective strategies and entrepreneural creativity in a firm that has been in practice for 5 years or less. Also in 2007, the three partners of Altius Architecture Inc purchased 49% of Sustain Design Studio, and their flagship miniHome, a line