City of Vancouver CityLab
Vancouver, BC
511 West Broadway – CityLab – was the City of Vancouver’s primary public engagement touchpoint and is a reimagining of how public engagement happens. Part coworking 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, a fully custom-designed feature.
Photography: Andrew Latreille
Centennial Pool
Port Coquitlam, BC
We are pretty sure that this is BC’s first fully gender neutral pool changing facility. Privacy cubicles and separated toilet compartments allow the design to maintain a level of decorum and user comfort while offering open access to the pool deck from a universal change space. The project is an example of how the renovation of public buildings reveals shifting social trends.
Photography: Eric Scott
Translink Bike Parkades
All Over The Lower Mainland, BC
After we completed Translink’s flagship bike parkade in Surrey, we were asked to design and oversee the construction of Translink’s modular prototype bike shelters. Suitable for any circumstance, durable AF, transparent, and expandable, Translink’s Bike Parkades are a statement about the future: hopeful and ambitious.
Photography: Andrew Latreille
South Surrey Operations Centre
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 and easy on the eyes. But the cleverest thing about the building is the siting strategy, which deftly conjures a public park from a gravel parking lot.
Photography: Ema Peter
Prairie Winds Park
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 renovated and expanded change rooms, the pool is a critical asset for the community during Calgary’s occasionally blistering, if comparatively brief, summers. (With space2place)
Photography: Brett Gilmour
SFU McTaggart Cowan Student Residence
Burnaby, BC
SFU’s McTaggart Cowan Hall long suffered the undignified, if typical, abuse of university dorms. The renovations are more a reimagining than a refresh: Communal kitchens that could be on Top Chef, washrooms for this century, and – hold on a second… is that a make-out couch? Priortizing common areas for ths project reinforces the importance of the social aspect of university life.
Norgate Park Fieldhouse
North Vancouver, BC
Replacing the existing fieldhouse with two pavilions that house public washrooms, a concession, and changerooms; the Norgate Park Field House is sited 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.
Photography: Krista Jahnke