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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. — Fast Company
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... View full entry
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. — Geek Wire
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... View full entry
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... View full entry
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.” — CityLab
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... View full entry
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. — Urbanized Vancouver
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... View full entry
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. — The Art Newspaper
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. West Georgia Street entrance © Herzog & de MeuronHerzog &... View full entry
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.
— usa.streetsblog.org
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... View full entry
“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.” — Revery Architecture
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... View full entry
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. — cbc.ca
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... View full entry
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... View full entry
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 Guardian
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... View full entry
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... View full entry
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... View full entry
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... View full entry
Today, the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada announced D'Arcy Jones Architecture (DJA), a nine-person studio from Vancouver, as the 2017 Emerging Architecture Practice Award winner. The yearly award recognizes the principals of an emerging architectural practice that has consistently... View full entry
