Carscadden Stokes McDonald Architects is a team of architects, designers, and ingenious pragmatists, based in Vancouver and dedicated to designing and building structures that strike a fine balance between beauty and function. We’ve made our name creating some of Canada’s most respected community, recreation, and public buildings. The way we see it, architecture has the capacity to change communities for the better. We are deeply invested in where we work, the communities in which we build, and the planet we live on. This investment is a powerful driver in the decisions we make: from what and how we build, to how we get around, to how we spend our free time. Many make similar claims; Carscadden lives them.
Various
Equitable washroom, change room, and locker room facilities are an important and widespread initiative across municipalities in BC. A series of simultaneous studies are underway to assess and prioritizes actions needed to improve women’s equity, gender equity and accessibility for a diverse public and workforce.
West Vancouver, BC
Pedalheads Pool is Canada’s first all-stainless steel pool. Installed dedicated youth swim (and bike!) lessons for kids. Conveniently located in Park Royal Mall so parents can duck out for a well-deserved coffee break.
Kelowna, BC
Designed and built to Passive House standards, this “three house” concept childcare centre ensures a healthy environment for Kelowna kids today and tomorrow, and provides 81 critically needed childcare spaces in Kelowna. Plus it’s cute as a button.
New Westminster, BC
Replacing the Arenex, a well loved multi-sport facility that had become unsafe for use, this project located in Queen’s Park became the City’s first CaGBC Net Carbon Zero project. You can still find the memories of the Arenex in the reclaimed timbers used at the entry and reception.
Summer 2020
North Vancouver, BC
A crown jewel in North Vancouver’s new park system, Moodeyville Park has it all and yet maintains all its North Shore gloriousness. Together with PFS Landscape Architects, we stitched together a landscape of pumptrack, play ground, and pavilion-folly that in turn stitch together a larger urban landscape.
Coquitlam, BC
Anchoring an expansion to Town Centre Park, this amenity building provides much needed washroom facilities as well as a location toe get hot chocolate when it’s cold and ice cream when it’s warm – literally everything anyone ever really needs at a park.
July 2019
Vancouver, BC
After 19 years in the Downtown Eastside and 11 years on East Hastings, we moved to new digs just a little further east. We’re still bike-able, we’ve got more light, and we’re now carbon free. Stop by any time!
May 2019
Vancouver, BC
511 West Broadway – CityLab – is the City of Vancouver’s primary public engagement touchpoint and is a reimaginign of how public engagement happens. Part co-working lab, part engagement space, CityLab daylit the mechanics of the City’s work by inviting the public in. Plus there was a pixelated pin-up wall.
Spring 2019
All Over The Lower Mainland, BC
After we comleted Translink’s flagship bike parkade in Surrey, we were asked to design and oversee the construction of Translink’s modular protype bike shelters. Suitable for any circumstance, durable AF, transparent, and expandable, Translink’s Bike Parkades are a statement about the future: hopefull and ambitious.
April 2019
Whistler, BC
The culmination of a 2013 study by Carscadden and catalysed by the generosity of a Whistler resident, the MPSC Fitness Expansion capitalizes on the singular views offered by Whistler and the latent structural capacity of the existing facility.
December 2018
Vancouver, BC
One of only a handful of projects to make it through the City of Vancouver’s Moderate Income Rental Housing Pilot Project (MIRHPP, because that’s a mouthfull) Stainbsury is a cost-effective, Passive House affordable housing project.
July 2018
Surrey, BC
Designed to straddle the demands of dirty boots and business casual sneakers, the SSOC is the kind of place where the messy work of city making really happens. The building is durable in the extreme but refined generous. But the cleverist thing about the building is the siting strategy, which deftly conjures a public park from a gravel parking lot.
July 2018
Calgary, AB
Canada’s largest outdoor wading pool is actually only one actor in a 14 hectare park which animates Calgary’s Northeast. Along with renvoated and expanded change rooms, the pool is a critical asset for the community during Calgary’s occasionally blistering, if comparatively brief, summers.
September 2017
Burnaby, BC
Just in time for school, SFU McTaggart long-suffered the undigified, if typical, abuse of college co-ed dormitories. The renovations are more reimaginaing than refresh: Communal kitchens that could be on Top Chef, washrooms for this century, and – hold on a second… is that a make-out couch?
North Vancouver, BC
Replacing the existing fieldhouse with two pavilions that together house public washrooms, a concession, and changerooms; the Norgate Park Field House is sitied to allow views into the park from Marine Drive for the first time in 50 years. After all, the park is the real star of the show, it’s best to show it off.
Fall 2016
Vancouver, BC
The LEED Gold heritage restoration and commercial addition to 564 Beatty Street in Crosstown is a flagship project for the Owner, Reliance Properties, and also for the city. The first new office space in many years in a formerly distressed part of Vancouver, the new tower serves as a gateway marker for people entering the city via public transit, car, and bike. It is a confident and sophisticated, “You’re downtown now, baby!”
June 2016
East Van, Yo
We have little to say, here, but we sure like what Jim Sutherland said
“Maybe it’s more prose than poetry, but Carscadden’s description of the project as “beautiful decisions that fit within the rules” is as apt a description of a successful urban renovation as is likely to be found. Leave it to the client to supply the poetry. “There’s nothing about it that I’d change,” says Cossever (client). “We got it all.”
Surrey, BC
Some projects remain dreams. The Cloverdale skatepark drew inspiration from the nearby BCHydro ROW – a crumpled structure of industrial steel, wrapped in translucent cladding.
December 2010
Penticton, BC
The project is characterized by an introduction of daylight and bright colours to create a welcoming, fun aquatic centre for Penticton residents. LEED Silver, despite a 50% increase in building area (the leisure aquatic component), highly energy efficient mechanical systems ensured that there was no net increase in energy consumption.
Vancouver, BC
First phase of upgrades included the complete replacement of the 30-year old, 25-metre 6-lane pool tank, along with associated code and structural seismic upgrading. Thoughtful planning and budget control created the opportunity for a 1,000 ft² glazed addition and large leisure-style hot pool which is cantilevered over the ravine. Following a successful 2008 feasibility study, the addition of new men’s, women’s and universal change rooms, as well as a revitalized entry and lobby, was completed in 2010.
Lake Country, BC
The anchor to a reimagined park in Lake Country, the park itself is an early catalyst for civic renewal in the area. It won awards and we remain very proud.
Burnaby, BC
Vanguards of a quiet renaisance in BC public washrooms, Robert Burnaby and Kensington Park redefined the standards of park washrooms for the entire province when then were built. Playfull, durable as all get out, and each crafted to respond to the peculiar nature of their unique sites.