Situated next to a bend in the Elbow River in Calgary, the River is designed to accommodate a unique river outlook. The design at lower levels responds to the neighbouring building context of masonry structures, while upper floors are lighter and more open.
Townhomes create an engaging street rhythm and are uniquely serviced by individual elevators connected to the parking below. An internal auto-court and entry welcome visitors to a unique residential enclave.
Designed as an 82-acre mixed-use development, the design focused on a mix of uses including major employment nodes and light industry as well as up to 5 million sq. ft. of mixed residential uses, highlighted by a three-block Main Street leading to a waterfront pier at the Fraser River Edge.
Flood mitigation and river edge rehabilitation is a major part of this design. The project was focused on two kilometres of continuous publicly accessible waterfront, and a two-acre park. Design work was led by Alan Boniface while at HBBH.
Featured locations: Bidwell, Cambie, Dunsmuir, False Creek, Fraser, Lonsdale (North Van), Marine Building, St. Clair (Toronto)
Not pictured: Railway, Adelaide (Toronto)
JJ Bean built its brand on providing great service, great coffee and food, and great spaces. To deliver great spaces, each location is unique and responds to the neighbourhood or the building it finds itself in. Our work on ten locations in Vancouver and Toronto makes the history, character, and found condition the inspiration for the design.
Each location seeks to provide a memorable and highly particular experience. From a contemporary interpretation of Art-Deco ornament at the iconic Marine Building to an abstracted walk along a forest hiking trail at the Lonsdale store, each design finds a way to link the interior to local character.
The Southlands residence began as a renovation and became a complete reimagining of a house on stilts straddling a ravine in South Vancouver. Divisions between inside and outside dissolve through an open plan that expands outwards through slide-away glass walls, extended eaves, bridges, and decks that all hover above and extend into the landscape. From the main living space above, a glass-enclosed steel stair descends to additional living space suspended over the creek and finally touches down to a water-side platform below a soaring concrete buttress that anchors the home to the site.
Housing 390 Employees within an 84,000 sq.ft. state of the art office facility, Seaspan represents an evolution in the design of collaborative work environments. Visually and functionally linked directly to the water-edge operations of Seaspan, the facility allows for operational efficiencies in an ever-changing organization focused on Port-related operations and the National Shipbuilding Strategy.
Sitting on structural piles and cantilevered over the water, the Seaspan fleet passes by appearing to be floating through the building at various vantage points and in particular from the three-storey atrium. Incorporating passive heating and cross-laminated timber, the facility is environmentally focused.
Centred in a small mountainous community, the Revelstoke schools were designed as the community hub for both scholastic endeavours and after-hours community activities. The structures were designed to LEED Gold credentials and included heating derived from the waste heat of a nearby mill. Significant use of local wood including a unique code allowance for a 3-storey interconnected wood structure in an assembly use were incorporated.
The high school and elementary schools were co-located to allow for cross-over of students and local evening and weekend uses. A community theatre available at all times highlights this critical local functionality. As designed, the schools have become the community focus of the town over time.
Located in the Bankers Hill area of San Diego this 14 Storey mixed-use building focuses on creating a high-quality public edge in this growing urban neighbourhood. At the Park in San Diego, we brought lessons learned in Vancouver about public realm and the thresholds between private and public to a site overlooking Balboa Park in the Bankers Hill area.
Townhomes, lobby, and retail spaces present an openness and willingness to engage with the street that is unusual for this growing urban district. Private courtyards, sweeping balconies, generous amenities and stunning views in all directions make the residences stand out, while refined materials, details and approach to the sidewalk help it to fit in. The building set a new standard for urban private and public spaces in the city.
Winner of UDI’s best urban high rise for 2014, the Mark is a ground-breaking mixed-use urban project characterized by green walls, urban agriculture, green roofs, and a high-performance envelope. Movable sunscreens are featured on the East podium while an integrated daycare and unique angled podiums activate the laneway and street edges.
Public art by Sonny Assu was incorporated as a key design element. Alan Boniface led the design team while Adrian Politano was instrumental in the project’s realization. The project was designed to a LEED Gold Standard.
Building on a portfolio of community minded projects, Chilliwack Secondary School seeks to integrate education and community in unique ways. A series of casual meeting areas were combined with a variety of community uses ranging from First Nations educational facilities, a student parent daycare, a hairdressing salon, welding facilities, and incubator ‘shops’ for student-led businesses were incorporated with other more traditional educational facilities.
Together with a sustainable focus on clean air, energy efficiency, and the use of cross laminated timber, the school represents the leading edge of social, physical, and mental health-based learning while also functioning as a community hub.
The Shipyards is a mixed-used project on the North Vancouver waterfront that includes 100,000 sf of mixed retail, restaurant, and hotel space. These spaces wrap around a covered outdoor plaza, which operates as a water park in the summer and an ice rink in the winter. The site itself was the location of the Machine Shop Building of the former shipbuilder that occupied the entire precinct since the early 1900s. This redevelopment imagines the ghost of the Machine Shop being reconstructed to support the next century of activity on the North Vancouver waterfront.
The project is adjacent to the ‘Spirit Trail’ pedestrian and cycling path. The Shipyards is conceived of as a belt buckle of sorts, connecting a series of shoreline public spaces. The project acts quite literally as center ice for the urban public life of the North Vancouver while drawing visitors from far beyond. The project was completed as a collaboration between the City of North Vancouver and Quay Property Management. Shane was the project architect on the project while working at Dialog.
