Archinect - News

Revery Architecture's new Butterfly Tower appears on the Vancouver skyline

2024-12-12T10:56:00-05:00

Revery Architecture has shared renderings of the soon-to-open Butterfly Tower and First Baptist Church in Vancouver.

This more than 600,000-square-foot project encompasses a new 57-story luxury residential component and the rehabilitation of a historic church dating from 1911 on its downtown site.

Image credit: Hayes Davidson

The firm and client Westbank say they have been targeting a LEED Gold certification for their effort. The design’s sculptural facade affects a cloud-like impression against its urban backdrop in order to lend the development a light and ephemeral quality.

Image credit: Hayes Davidson

Perhaps the most exciting component is its all-season indoor lap pool, which is placed between the podium's roof and the tower’s main amenity suite. A galleria serves to visually connect the tower with the church beginning at the street level. The social housing building also evinces the "same spirit of community connectivity, participation, and stewards...

Vancouver Art Gallery cancels Herzog & de Meuron design plans

2024-12-04T14:56:00-05:00

It's the end of the road for the Herzog & de Meuron-designed new Vancouver Art Gallery scheme, Canadian outlet CTV News reports.

After winning the architectural design competition more than ten years ago in April 2014 (beating out rivaling schemes from DS+R, Tod Williams Billie Tsien, KPMB, and SANAA from a star-studded international shortlist), the design concept underwent several iterations over the years while construction costs ballooned to $600 million CAD ($430 million USD).

"It has become clear that we require a new way forward to meet both our artistic mission and vision and our practical needs," said Vancouver Art Gallery CEO and executive director Anthony Kiendl in a statement. "For the past decade, we have had the benefit of collaborating with the esteemed Swiss architectural firm Herzog & de Meuron on plans for a new Gallery. However, in view of our reassessment, the Gallery Association’s Board has made the difficult decision to part ways with Herzog & de Meuron."

Kiend...

A new soccer training center for the Vancouver area designed by Formline Architecture

2024-01-14T14:00:00-05:00

The City of Port Coquitlam in British Columbia, Canada, recently unveiled the final proposed design for one of the province’s largest training and recreational hubs for soccer.

Designed by Indigenous-led, Vancouver-based firm Formline Architecture, the facility will serve as a state-of-the-art soccer and community hub and B.C. Soccer’s new headquarters, with office space for local soccer club Port Coquitlam Euro-Rite FC. The project includes the reconfiguration and improvement of the surrounding Gates Park, which is located just west of downtown Port Coquitlam.

New renderings reveal that there will be a 1,200-seat grandstand covered by a sculpted wooden roof. This space will feature locker rooms, washrooms, a lobby, a meeting space, and other amenities. Additionally, a state-of-the-art synthetic turf field will be constructed to FIFA international competition standards, replacing an existing underutilized grass field. There will also be a multi-use public plaza for community events ...

Omer Arbel balances nature and form in this award-winning Canadian Pacific Northwest house

2023-12-01T18:42:00-05:00

Vancouver-based Omer Arbel Office (OAO) has completed work on their award-winning project 75.9, a new construction of a private home located adjacent to a hayfield in rural British Columbia.

The design scheme won in the 'Future Project House' category at the 2019 World Architecture Festival.

Image courtesy Omer Arbel Office (OAO)

The complex was completed this year at an undisclosed cost and features a monumental column resembling a lily pad, produced via a proprietary concrete pouring method. A demonstration column had to be constructed on the site in order to get the clients' final approval. The result is an aesthetically pleasing four-volume arrangement recovered by the landscape that blends process and material into a singular modern and bucolic harmony.

Image courtesy Omer Arbel Office (OAO)

“For 15 years, we’ve developed a method of working with materials at the scale of an object,” Arbel says of his...

Canada's traditional shopping centers are turning into mall cities

2023-06-07T14:00:00-04:00

“It’s less about e-commerce than it is about how people want to live and what they want to experience [...] People want to connect, they want to be social, so we’re trying to give them more reasons and more opportunities to do that.”

The movement is not without its detractors, however, as planning experts like the University of British Columbia’s Dr. Penelope Gurstein balance the media’s mostly effusive coverage for such projects with criticism that they are marketed towards affluent retirees and wealthy overseas buyers whose apartments are vacant much of the year.

The government has attempted to mitigate this via a new ban on foreign property ownership. Still, most feel the industry is well-positioned to adapt, as evidenced by the 420 units of below-market-rate units that were included in the 28-acre Henriquez Partners master-planned Oakridge Park development in Vancouver.

“Ten years ago, I was expanding malls, 20 years ago I was building malls, five years ago we were talking about demolishing malls,” one developer tells the Globe and Mail. “You can’t predict the future.”

Team of UBC students builds one of Canada's first near-zero embodied carbon campus spaces

2023-04-21T12:33:00-04:00

A team of students from the University of British Columbia (UBC) has built a near-zero embodied carbon building on campus using hempcrete, wood, and steel as primary materials.

Called the Third Space Commons, the project was led by Third Quadrant Design, UBC’s first green building design team. The group is comprised of 60 students from the Faculty of Applied Science and the Sauder School of Business. The building is a wooden structure spanning 2,400 square feet, made from the adaptive reuse of an existing single-family home on the campus. Every aspect of the project, from the materials to the building methods, were chosen to decrease and capture carbon emissions.

The building’s thermal insulation is made of hempcrete, a concrete substitute made of lime and hemp fibers that is effective in carbon sequestration. Its foundation was constructed with reusable steel piles, and, for most of the project, the team used light wood framing instead of engineered wood, which contains fossil fuel-derived adhesives. The team also reused many materials from other construction sites in Vancouver, including the building’s windows, solar panels, appliances, and lumber, whic...

MVRDV produces a catalogue for cities facing sea level rise as part of Vancouver competition

2023-01-30T10:51:00-05:00

MVRDV has released a series of proposals to respond to rising sea levels in Vancouver. Working as part of a North Creek Collective team, the Dutch firm produced a catalogue of options for adaptive buildings aimed to inspire other coastal cities to “undertake immediate action to adapt to climate change.”

Concept for Coopers' Park, Vancouver for 2040. Image credit: MVRDV

The catalogue was originally produced as part of North Creek Collective’s entry to Vancouver’s Sea2City Design Challenge, a contest that invited teams to investigate the urban future of a body of water at the heart of Vancouver named False Creek. In contrast to typical responses to sea level rise that concentrate on defensive measures such as flood barriers and dikes, the catalogue asks the question: “what if cities learned to work with water, rather than against it?”

Concept for In Between Bridges, Vancouver for 2040. Image credit: MVRDV

The catalogue responds with a variety of possible solutions for adapting waterfron...

Perkins&Will begins construction on mass timber gateway to University of British Columbia campus

2023-01-04T11:15:00-05:00

Construction is underway on the $180 million Gateway Building at the University of British Columbia, designed by Perkins&Will and Schmidt Hammer Lassen. Intended as a “principal point of entry” to the UBC campus, the design of the six-story, 267,000-square-foot mass timber building seeks to balance sustainability, personal well-being, and Indigenous collaboration.

Image credit: Perkins&Will

The scheme comprises two five-story wings connected by a central naturally-lit six-story atrium, which includes a large interconnecting staircase and lounging spaces. The building’s mass timber structure is fully expressed in the interior; a decision driven by the importance of timber for the Indigenous Musqueam people on whose territory the UBC campus sits.

Image credit: Perkins&Will

“This was the first capital project where we did what we call ‘deep engagement’ with the Musqueam,” UBC’s director of planning and design Gerry McGeough told Canada’s Journal of Commerce. “We went through a whole seri...

A Canadian homebuilder's $100 million gift brought HdM's Vancouver Art Gallery expansion project back from the dead

2022-01-31T13:58:00-05:00

After years of stops and starts, triumphant announcements and long silences – there is finally momentum, once again. Gallery officials are meeting regularly with the city, city hall is re-examining the term of the lease agreement, a public open house is scheduled for March, and shovels could be in the ground next year. All it took was a single private donation – of $100-million.

The firm’s repeatedly revised design was originally set to be its first commission in the country for an expansion effort that has been mulled since first being announced in 2014. Vancouver Art Gallery has been balking at the effort since the early 2000s without naming a winner. Herzog & de Meuron's latest version includes a new woven copper facade and was developed with input from four Indigenous artist design consultants representing the native communities of Vancouver.

The gift from philanthropist home building magnate Michael Audain was announced on November 4th and came with quite a few of his own design “suggestions” that reportedly touched on the vertical orientation of the floor plan and the original martial of the now-remade facade. The museum is still looking for about $160 million (CAD) in funding to complete the $400 million capital project, but supporters are optimistic that Audain’s gift has steered the project back on track for a 2023 groundbreaking and realization s...

Heatherwick Studio unveils updated designs for 1700 Alberni development in Vancouver

2022-01-13T17:00:00-05:00

An update to one of the most significant projects in a spate of recent high-profile Canadian luxury residential developments as Heatherwick Studio has unveiled its upgraded designs for the 1700 Alberni towers complex. The revised proposal follows community feedback taken from Vancouver’s Shape Your City public web forum.

Marked by its intricate latticework and gentle lines, the towers make up a distinctive silhouette contrasted against the city’s rezoned West End skyline. The new plans call for a repositioning and resizing of the towers to create less restricted views of that skyline, in addition to expanding the biophilic outdoor living and pedestrian spaces which give the overall development its green character.

The new street-level view of the tower. Rendering via @wearenarrativ.

“We saw an opportunity to reflect on the past two years and show a more dynamic and contemporary way to live in the city of Vancouver,” Partner Stuart Wood said in a statement. “Our design offers a profo...

Looking for an architecture job in Canada? Here are 9 exciting openings to get started.

2021-10-29T08:44:00-04:00

Hardly a week goes by without major architectural developments in Canada grabbing the headlines on Archinect. From an ambitious Safdie-designed urban scheme in Toronto, a cantilevering tower concept in Vancouver, a new center for Inuit art in Winnipeg, a museum transformation in Calgary, to a robotic housing factory in British Columbia: architectural design is in high demand in Canada — and firms are hiring!

If a career opportunity in the Great White North is the focus of your job search, don't miss our curated job picks this week. From Archinect's industry-leading job board, we have selected seven firms currently hiring architects and designers in Ontario, British Columbia, and Nova Scotia.

To look up specific job titles from the architectural profession, consult Archinect's Guide to Job Titles series. Also, follow our Archinect Tips series to improve your portfolio, resume, interviewing skills, and increase your overall chances of getting that next job.

Revery Architecture Inc. se...

Ole Scheeren designs luxury condominium tower in Vancouver featuring cantilevered volumes

2021-10-25T16:10:00-04:00

An Ole Scheeren-designed luxury condominium development is taking shape in Vancouver, the architect’s first North American residential building and the only one worldwide where he has designed both the interiors and exteriors.

Developed by Bosa Properties, in partnership with Kingswood Properties, the project was first unveiled in 2015 before being approved by the city council in 2018. Construction is set to commence in 2022.

The tower, named Fifteen Fifteen, will be slotted in Vancouver’s Coal Harbour neighborhood. It will stand 42 stories tall and take a distinctive form, featuring numerous stacked horizontal volumes. The design is based on the idea of what Scheeren describes as “three-dimensional living,” a typology that injects horizontality to high-rise living in order to reconnect architecture with the natural and urban environment.

“Its distinctive silhouette flows from the idea of activation,” said Scheeren. “Fifteen Fifteen is about connectivity—connecting people to each...

KPF unveil their first mass timber tower, one of the tallest in North America

2021-09-28T11:31:00-04:00

KPF has released details of the studio’s first mass timber tower, situated in Vancouver, Canada. At 16 stories tall, the Burrard Exchange tower is expected to be one of the tallest hybrid mass timber buildings in North America, providing 450,000 square feet of office and retail space within the Bentall Centre campus. KPF have served as the design architect for the scheme, while the Vancouver office of Adamson Associates Architects are serving as the architect of record.

The project will be built on one of the last large development sites in Vancouver’s urban core, currently occupied by a multistorey car park. The conversion of the site into retail and office space forms part of a reactivation of the 1.5 million-square-foot Bentall Centre, a major office complex in Vancouver’s financial district which also houses an underground shopping mall.

Burrard Exchange. Image: KPF

The tower’s hybrid, exposed mass timber structure will enclose office floor plates each measuring 30,000 squa...

Indigenous tribes are making a push for commercial real estate investment in the hopes of building a future for their communities

2021-07-08T19:52:00-04:00

Native Americans have been systematically dispossessed of their ancestral lands for more than a century, thanks to federal land management policies. But a spate of new real estate projects highlights efforts to reclaim that territory, as tribes invest in land development in an effort to diversify their revenue base and support their members.

Only a handful of tribes have pursued ventures involving commercial property outside of gambling and many still reside in poverty-stricken reservations in the U.S. and Canada. A group from the Squamish Nation is behind Canada's largest development in Vancouver while others have made serious investments in tribal-controlled areas with the backing of some major corporate teammates.

The tribes have themselves been the frequent victim of commercial development schemes historically even occasionally leading to violence and mass protests in both countries. Now, recent developments are causing many to herald a tide change in Indigenous relations that may favor those "long-term leaders" investing in real-estate development now.

The Seattle Times has more on the effort here.

Heatherwick Studio shares the latest visual for their new residential tower proposal for Vancouver

2021-01-25T15:12:00-05:00

Heatherwick Studio continues to expand its residential project portfolio as they share their latest high-rise residential project in Vancouver, Canada. In partnership with Kingswood Properties and commissioned by Bosa Properties, the design aims to "bring a new level of global design excellence to Vancouver, featuring two curvaceous, light-filled towers and a publicly-accessible ground level plaza for community engagement" shares the studio.

While more details of the project have yet to unfold, previous Heatherwick residential projects offer glimpses of what can be expected for the studio's latest Vancouver venture.

Lantern House in New York

Image © Heatherwick Studio

EDEN in Singapore

Image © Swire Properties

Revisit Archinect Sessions #29 to listen to Archinect's conversation with Heatherwick: Problem-solving with Thomas Heatherwick.

Archinect · Session 29: Problem-solving with Thomas Heatherwick

Perkins and Will designs mass timber Passive House proposal for West Vancouver

2020-06-04T14:08:00-04:00

An innovative multi-family residential development has been proposed for West Vancouver’s Ambleside area, just steps from the waterfront. A preliminary development application submitted by Delta Land Development and designed by Perkins + Will Architects calls for the redevelopment of 2204 Bellevue Avenue [...].

The proposed eight-story mass timber tower was designed by Perkins and Will for Delta Land Development and aims for Passive House sustainability standards, reports Urbanized Vancouver.

One year ago, P+W made headlines with another wooden tower design proposal: Canada Earth Tower could rise up to 40 stories and, if realized, bring the coveted title of "World’s Tallest Timber Building" from Norway back home to Vancouver.

How Vancouver leads North America in slashing building-related carbon emissions

2019-11-04T05:00:00-05:00

With support from the Carbon Neutral Cities Alliance’s Innovation Fund, [Vancouer] collaborated closely with the building industry and its partners, and, in 2016, Vancouver’s City Council approved a Zero Emissions Building (ZEB) plan. That plan launched a bold commitment to make near-zero emissions homes and buildings the new normal in Vancouver by 2030. Few cities had yet gone that far.

Writing in Fast Company, Sean Pander, green building manager for the city of Vancouver, lays out the multi-faceted approach the Terminal City has taken to chart a new course with regards to carbon emissions generated by the city’s buildings.

The effort, according to Pander, involved working with building industry experts to examine and rewrite regulatory obstacles standing in the way of the widespread adoption of Passive House standards, among many others.

Pacific Northwest High-Speed Rail study advances with help from Microsoft

2019-10-13T09:00:00-04:00

Microsoft is giving another $223,667 to study the possibility of building a high-speed rail line connecting Vancouver, B.C., Seattle, and Portland, adding to a previous donation. The company is providing a total of $573,667 to the project. Other funders include the Province of British Columbia; the Oregon Department of Transportation; and Washington Department of Transportation.

According to Geek Wire, The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) estimates that the proposed Cascadia Rail high-speed rail system connecting the three cities could spark $355 billion in economic growth in the region, while bringing in around $160 million to $250 million in annual revenue for the rail authority.

In total, the high-speed rail project could cost anywhere from $24 billion to $42 billion to build, reports Geek Wire. WSDOT also expects the high-speed rail to contribute to significant reductions in carbon emissions over time.

60-story passive house tower unveiled for Vancouver

2019-08-26T13:30:00-04:00

Henson Developments, WKK, and IBI Group have unveiled designs for a 60-story Passive House tower slated for downtown Vancouver. If completed as designed, the wavy tower could become the tallest Passive House building in the world.

The tower, according to renderings published by Narcity, is defined by billowing, double-curved geometries that frame a series of inset loggia spaces. Wrapped in repeating horizontal bands that alternate between solid cladding and glass, the tower is designed to produce no operating emissions and is proposed as part of the city's Zero Emissions Building Plan, a 2016 agreement that aims to eliminate operating emissions for all new buildings by 2030.

View of the tower's lower areas. Image courtesy of Henson Developments.

According to previously submitted documentation for the building, the tower's exterior facades are divided equally in terms of surface area between glazed and unglazed surfaces, with unglazed wall components made up of "super-insulated walls...

Overtourism: Are cities suffocating?

2019-07-19T15:01:00-04:00

The global tourism boom that’s inundated legacy destinations like Venice, Amsterdam, and Barcelona has birthed a term—overtourism—to describe the harried state of a city besieged by too many visitors. A recent report by the World Travel and Tourism Council, Destination 2030, looked at cities’ readiness for tourism growth and concluded that Vancouver, [...] had “visitor volumes and activities with potential to cause strain on the city.”

Tourism is one proven way cities can boost their economy in addition to promoting cultural awareness. However, how much strain is tourism putting on these cities? According to recent CityLab coverage by Molly McCluskey, "overtourism" is a term city development and tourism councils are using more frequently. Take Vancouver for example. McCluskey shares that the city will reach its 95% tourism capacity by the end of the summer. What does this mean exactly, and what steps can be taken to manage overcrowding?

According to Gwendal Castellan, manager of Sustainable Destination Development at Tourism Vancouver, he and his colleagues think, perhaps they should "just stop promoting the city?" Castellan continues, "We've been watching this happen all over the world. We haven't hit those edges [of oversaturation] yet, but we're not far off." Cities strained from "overtourism" must not only react to visitor demand but respond to residents and local officials. From overcrowded parking lots, busy...

World's tallest wooden skyscraper may grow in Vancouver

2019-05-06T13:56:00-04:00

If this mass timber tower is built as originally envisioned, the tallest of its kind in the world, it could set an extraordinary precedent and benchmark for not only green building construction but also the future of development along Vancouver’s Central Broadway corridor.

Daily Hive editor Kenneth Chan gives a detailed introduction of the Perkins+Will-designed Canada Earth Tower, a proposed timber tower that could rise up to 40 stories and accommodate around 200 residential units.

"The structure would be predominantly made out of fire-resistant wood, specifically cross-laminated timber (CLT)," Chan writes. "Floor plates, structural columns, and exteriors will use wood materials, while a concrete core containing the elevators and emergency staircase will be incorporated for seismic and fire safety reasons."

Image: Perkins+Will/Delta Land Development

Vancouver was once home to the planet's tallest wood building, when the 18-story, 178-foot UBC Brock Commons tower opened in 2017, but it lost the title in the following year to another nation with a noted economic and ecological interest in pushing timber as preferred building material—Norway's Mjøstårnet (Mjøsa Tower) topped out at 85.4 meters (280 feet) in 2018.

Perkins+Will made headlines in 2016 when ...

Herzog & de Meuron's new Vancouver Art Gallery inches $40m closer to realization and unveils final designs

2019-01-25T14:53:00-05:00

Plans for a new Vancouver Art Gallery—in the works for more than a decade, and feared by many to have stalled indefinitely—received a major boost this week with the announcement of a $40m lead gift from the local philanthropic Chan family. In recognition of what the institution’s director Kathleen Bartels called an act of “extraordinary generosity”, the Vancouver Art Gallery’s new building will be named the Chan Centre for the Visual Arts.

On the occasion of the impressive Chan family gift announcement, the Vancouver Art Gallery also presented the anticipated final designs for its new 300,000-square-foot home, which is ever so slowly inching closer to realization.

Herzog & de Meuron had won the international competition back in April 2014, beating out other noteworthy museum designers, such as SANAA, Tod Williams Billie Tsien, and Diller Scofidio + Renfro. The winning entry's initial design concept was unveiled a year later in September 2015. Perkins+Will is the executive architect on the project.

"Herzog & de Meuron have designed the Vancouver Art Gallery’s new museum as a sculptural, symmetrical, upright building combining opaque and transparent surfaces, with larger volumes concentrated at the top and minimal mass at the bottom," explains the project description. "By lifting the bulk of th...

America’s Sorriest Bus Stop: Vancouver 'wins' this year's contest

2018-09-19T14:48:00-04:00

It’s official! The sorriest bus stop in America is in … Canada! The horrendous bus stop on the Lougheed Highway in Pitt Meadows, just outside of Vancouver, has won our annual contest, trouncing Cincinnati in a 58%-42% landslide.

Streetsblog has announced the 'winner' of its annual America’s Sorriest Bus Stop tournament, and it's an impressively desolate and pedestrian-inadequate spot on a highway outside of Vancouver, BC that gets to take home the crown this year.

Congrats on the 2nd place: Daly Road in Springfield Township, near Cincinnati. Image via streetsblog.com.

The competition was fierce, and many other contenders across North America stunned with glaringly unsafe conditions right along busy roads, omission of sidewalks, lack of benches and shelter from the elements, and absence of traffic lights or pedestrian crosswalk to reach these bus spots.

This bus stop at 9907 Sunset Boulevard in Beverly Hills sits in one of the nation's wealthiest ZIP codes, yet the domestic workers taking the bus from here have to run for their lives to reach it. Image via streetsblog.com.

Explore the full list of Sorriest Bus Stop contenders here.

Bing Thom Architects renamed as Revery Architecture

2017-12-26T13:12:00-05:00

“The new name, Revery Architecture, reflects the firm’s enduring vision to strive for exceptional design, whilst paying homage to Bing who instilled in us all the courage to dream big.”

Following the sudden passing of founder Bing Thom last year, the esteemed Canadian architect's namesake firm has been going through some big changes. On December 18, the firm officially rebranded themselves as Revery Architecture.

The firm wrote in a statement:

“The studio has gone through many transformations over its 35-year history. Some changes have been subtle while others more pronounced, but all share the same objective of strengthening our core values and the passion we have for design excellence. With the passing of our firm’s founder Bing Thom in 2016, the past year has been one of necessary evolution and transformation at the firm. The new name, Revery Architecture, reflects the firm’s enduring vision to strive for exceptional design, whilst paying homage to Bing who instilled in us all the courage to dream big...”

Their Vancouver and Hong Kong offices already have a busy 2018 in tow, including the opening of two new educational buildings, the start of construction of Van...

Canada upscales passive house technology with the tallest building worldwide

2017-12-12T11:06:00-05:00

In January, tenants will move into a six-storey Vancouver apartment building designed to be so energy efficient, you could heat each bedroom with a 100-watt light bulb. [...] Others are under construction and many more are at the rezoning stage, including a residence that will house 750 students at the University of Toronto's Scarborough campus and two 40-plus highrise towers in Vancouver that aim be the tallest passive house buildings in the world.

Until now most passive houses have been single-family homes, but Canada is changing that. With several projects underway, architects are tackling the issues of scaling up this sustainable technology for larger buildings. Without using furnaces and air conditioners, these green buildings are constructed to use up to 90% less energy than a conventional building and produce fewer greenhouse emissions.

One example is the University of Toronto Scarborough Campus residence, which will choose a final passive house design this January 2018 and begin construction in February. Students are scheduled to move in the fall of 2020.

A glimpse of Ian Gillespie's “Fight for Beauty” pop-up exhibition in Vancouver

2017-10-30T17:40:00-04:00

The exhibition “Fight for Beauty” is a physical manifestation of the book of the same name by Westbank founder Ian Gillespie, who Archinect previously interviewed here. Currently displayed near Vancouver's Fairmont Pacific Rim, the pop-up exhibition — just like the book — celebrates Westbank's evolution into a culture company.

Photo credit: Ema Peter.

Curated by Gillespie, the exhibition pays tribute to Westbank's many creative collaborations. Upon entering the magenta graffiti pavilion, visitors first encounter the poem Fight for Beauty written in neon. The self-guided exhibition features works like an expanded version of Omer Arbel's iconic sculptural glass forest “16.480”, a custom-made “Butterfly Fazioli” piano designed by the late architect Bing Thom, and architectural models like Kengo Kuma's Alberni, the Bjarke Ingels-designed Vancouver house and 2016 Serpentine Pavilion.

Photo credit: Ema Peter

Photo credit: Ema Peter.

Other pieces include vintage couture by Yves Saint Laurent a...

Brutalist Vancouver Landmark to be demolished

2017-09-27T14:25:00-04:00

In a way, heritage preservation is the least of Vancouver’s worries. Without more funding and stronger policy protections from the push-pull of global capital, Vancouver and cities like it will struggle to sustain urban life in all its social and economic diversity – the thing that makes them vibrant – let alone guarantee their architectural heritage.

The Empire Landmark Hotel, a brutalist tower from the 1970s, and landmark for the city of Vancouver, will close on September 30th. The tower will be demolished to construct new luxury condos. Architectural heritage preservation is threatened by the ever rising cost of land and property in downtown Vancouver.

The world's tallest wood building opens to residents at University of British Columbia

2017-09-22T10:06:00-04:00

Completed last year, the wooden skyscraper opened its doors to 400 students at University of British Columbia (UBC) Campus in Vancouver. Designed by Acton Ostry Architects in collaboration with structural engineers Fast + Epp. The building is built of mass timber construction above one level of concrete and two concrete stair cores. The mass timber hybrid structure is 18 stories and 178 feet tall.

Courtesy of naturallywood.com

“The floor structure is comprised of 5-ply CLT panels supported on glue-laminated timber (glulam) columns on a 2.85 X 4.0 meter grid. This results in the CLT panels acting as a two-way slab diaphragm, which eliminates the need for load-carrying beams. To avoid a vertical load transfer through the CLT panels, a steel connector allows for a direct load transfer between the columns and also provides a bearing surface for the CLT panels”

Courtesy of naturallywood.com

Design and construction teams had to work hand in hand from the beginning of the design process...

Diamond Schmitt Architects' Emily Carr University of Art + Design campus elegantly embodies multidisciplinary ethos

2017-09-07T14:19:00-04:00

Art thrives when it collaborates with or takes inspiration from other discliplines, a tenet that is physically expressed in the new campus of the Emily Carr University of Art + Design, located on the east side of downtown Vancouver. Designed by Diamond Schmitt Architects, the campus reflects the spirit of its namesake artist, Emily Carr, by creating a series of both formal and informal spaces that can be glimpsed as one approaches and enters the building. This abundant transparency and visual linkage, combined with the purposeful interconnection between program areas, creates an institution that physically rejects a static approach to learning.

As Donald Schmitt, the Principal at Diamond Schmitt Architects explains, "The building’s design creates a multitude of places both indoors and out for informal gathering, presentation, making and remaking, which is at the heart of Emily Carr’s multidisciplinary arts learning. The needs and collaborative spirit of students and faculty inform ...

Westbank purchases BIG's Serpentine Pavilion, plans to move it to Vancouver

2017-04-03T17:11:00-04:00

The Canadian luxury residential and mixed-use real estate development company Westbank has announced the purchase of the Serpentine Pavilion designed by BIG last year. Part of the annual Serpentine Pavilion commission, BIG’s “unzipped wall” involved modular, glass fiber rectangular forms stacked into an undulating form.

According to an announcement, Westbank plans to display the BIG pavilion for periods of time in both New York and Toronto before finally installing it permanently in Vancouver. Westbank had also sponsored the pavilion when it was sited in Hyde Park.

“Westbank has a well established and growing relationship Bjarke and his team at BIG,” states Ian Gillespie, the founder of Westbank. “Purchasing the Pavilion was a very natural extension of that partnership and we want to give Bjarke’s creation the most interesting afterlife of any of the previous pavilions.”