Project Tag: Live

Arbutus Centre Redevelopment

The redevelopment of the Arbutus Centre Shopping Plaza resulted in a highly mixed-use urban village. The new buildings incorporate major retail uses including a supermarket, liquor store, and banking at ground level, a neighbourhood house facility, dance studios, and more, paired with a significant number of new rental and social housing units above – all sharing an underground parkade. Shepherding both the first two phases from rezoning to development permit, we reconciled complex programmatic demands into a form that celebrates the street-level experience with active street edges and a new plaza space.

Each residential portion is focused around a highly-landscaped courtyard space and both buildings provide shared rooftop patios for residents. Projects like the Arbutus Centre Redevelopment showcase the interplay with the public realm and careful attention to the public/private transition.

For Arbutus Centre Phase 1 and 2, Adrian Politano was co-designer, working on design development and entitlement documentation.

Related Work

See All

False Creek Towers

Located in beautiful False Creek, beside Vancouver’s seawall, these twin towers fit delicately into a view cone that triangulates the site. The design intent was for the buildings to frame a public park between them, while animating these spaces with active home fronts.

Roofs were shaped to bring rooftop water down the sides of the building, a rarity in tower design. Curving ends were intended to ‘deflect’ traffic on the nearby bridge ramp. Subsequent design changes by others resulted in material, massing, and colour changes.

Alan Boniface was design partner and lead designer for Development Permit.

Related Work

See All

CBC Building

The renovation of the CBC building in Vancouver focused on connecting various CBC functional components, such as the newsroom and the summer concerts, to Hamilton and Georgia streets. Significant underground renovations were made, as well as planning of the private residential and retail lands on Robson Street. The newsroom was designed to engage with this significant public intersection and a public area was created to watch CBC programming at the entry.

The concrete structure was augmented with structural additions and new public and retail spaces.

Alan Boniface was principal in charge and design partner. He led the early design process and the Development Permit process for the residential
and retail lands.

Related Work

See All

1188 Cardero

Situated in the West End, the design of 1188 Cardero draws on three key influences: the site’s ‘gateway’ position on the downward slope of Davie Street to English Bay; the historic Rogers Mansion to the east; and the rich context of mid-century modern apartment blocks that characterize the architectural language of the neighbourhood. This residential tower will provide secured rental housing, 20% of which will be below-market units, and features an amenity courtyard with children’s play area, a rooftop terrace with views to English Bay, and a variety of indoor amenity space for all residents.

The design incorporates precast concrete panels with a geometric motif referencing both the modernist context of the West End and the materiality of the stone on the neighbouring Rogers Mansion. The metal panel cladding adds dimension with slight variations in colour and depth, inspired by cedar bark. The building enhances the public realm through thoughtful landscape design, providing seating along Davie Street that creates a gentle transition to the more open, active entrance at the corner of Davie and Cardero.

Related Work

See All

River District Parcel 30

Located in Vancouver’s River District near the Fraser River, Parcel 30 is composed of two residential towers with a podium extension, joined by a single shared parkade. In response to its geographical context, this project is imagined as a tree sitting along the bank of the Fraser River, with a simple core ‘trunk’ and the slabs as ‘bows’ extending out to a lightened point. Like a misty morning on the riverbank, the building is shrouded in lightweight and lightly coloured screens and corrugated materials that obscure the structure behind with different levels of transparency depending on the perspective.

At grade, both buildings provide residential amenity space fronting the courtyard, while commercial retail spaces in the east building and ground-oriented flats in the west building further activate the streetscape. Masonry in warm, natural colours is used at lower down on the building to offer a more tactile and human-scaled experience, while the towers primarily employ cool-toned metal and glass to reinforce the mist-like effect.

Related Work

See All

The River

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.

Alan Boniface was co-partner in charge, overseeing various aspects of design documentation and construction.

Related Work

See All