Vancouver, Canada
“A philosophical alignment with the client provided us with the freedom to express our belief that sometimes quiet and humble architecture can be even more elegant and relevant,” says Maxime-Alexis Frappier, partner and co-founder of ACDF.
“Our role was not to create noise, but rather to provide our building with a quiet, but recognizable identity.”
“Grosvenor is very respectful and refined in its embrace of quality, but also in its deep consideration of the impacts that its developments have on surrounding streets and neighborhoods,” explains Maxime-Alexis Frappier.
“We wanted to propose a different approach in the form of an urban gesture that contributes something much more than just a building.”
ACDF Architecture, in collaboration with IBI Group, has completed The Pacific, a residential tower into Vancouver’s skyline, reflecting ACDF’s evolving approach to developing high-rise buildings entrenched in the public realm.
The Grosvenor Pacific Tower represents a progression of the firm’s innovative rethinking of the human-scale role of skyscraper development and its contribution to neighbors and pedestrians.
Located at the corner of Hornby and Pacific streets, in a cityscape framed by the Granville Street and Burrard Street bridges, The Pacific features 224 condominiums across 39 floors.
The building was developed for Grosvenor, a private real estate group with holdings in many urban centers throughout the world.
“Grosvenor is very respectful and refined in its embrace of quality, but also in its deep consideration of the impacts that its developments have on surrounding streets and neighborhoods,” explains Maxime-Alexis Frappier, partner and co-founder of ACDF.
“We wanted to propose a different approach in the form of an urban gesture that contributes something much more than just a building.”
As one of several new additions to the Vancouver skyline, The Pacific has earned its place alongside cutting-edge buildings designed by some of the world’s most renowned architects.
Rather than competing within Vancouver’s already dense and varied landscape of tall buildings, ACDF adopted a more complementary approach, prioritizing clean, subtle, and human-scale elements to provide a wealth of urban experiences among the more dramatic architectural gestures of neighboring buildings.
“A philosophical alignment with the client provided us with the freedom to express our belief that sometimes quiet and humble architecture can be even more elegant and relevant,” says Frappier.
“Our role was not to create noise, but rather to provide our building with a quiet, but recognizable identity.”
That approach began with numerous elemental considerations, including a strong focus on creating dialogue at street level with the neighborhood and its pedestrians.
They focused the development of shape and form on simple massing that would capture attention through its textures, the quality of its assembly, and the transposition of its details.
The firm envisioned a structure whose materiality would emit its own unique character while blending into the built, environmental, and social fabric of its surroundings.
ACDF’s powerful integration of contrasts paints and frames The Pacific as a visual landmark devoid of sculptural drama.
Vertically, the structure’s slick north and south facades, layered with glass and black granite, contrast with its more pictural east and west facades, with the latter featuring protruding triangular balconies in a woven pattern.
Vertical views are enriched by balcony textures, including three tones of grey on their undersides, inspired by cloud formations and creating a sense of movement within their patterns.
The triangular balconies above also provide plays on reflection of the streets below.
During sunset, the building begins to glow, reflecting light downward from the white, marble-like porcelain finish of the balconies, as well as a pinkish hue that emanates from the stainless-steel framing.
During those transitions of light, two facades begin to glow, while the other two sides fade to darkness.
The entrance is designed with a long, dramatic colonnade purposefully misaligned, providing Vancouver-based artist, Lyse Lemieux, with a blank canvas upon which to pay homage to the site and its history.
She subsequently developed a mosaic composition of nine figures, each more than 20 feet in height.
Each of the columns faces in a different direction and features a different personage, creating a sense of movement and delivering a strong contribution to the neighborhood, the public realm, and the city.
The columns also transition into the fully glazed lobby and remain the main actors that animate the space’s minimal, simple, and toned-down design, featuring black brick walls, in a grid pattern and stainless-steel finishes.
As ACDF states, The Pacific solidifies the firm’s transition to a mindful approach that is more efficient, inclusive, and contributory in transitioning towards the development of the future.
“While the allure of traditional skyscrapers often fades with closer proximity, we created a ‘fifth façade’ for The Pacific in the form of vertical views provided through strategically positioned design elements,” says Frappier.
“You can look up from the street level and discover a new skyscraper language in the form of new relationships between pedestrians and the building.”
“From the beginning of the design process, we focused on developing a tower whose contribution would extend from the skyline right down to the micro-level,” says Frappier.
“Our intention was to positively impact the animation of the area at street level by establishing meaningful connections between the building, pedestrians, and residents. Lyse Lemieux’s extraordinary artwork on the ground floor colonnade succeeds in capturing the essence of that intent.”
Project: The Grosvenor Pacific Tower
Architects: ACDF Architecture, IBI Group
Designer Team: Maxime-Alexis Frappier, Joan Renaud, Martin Bruckner, Beth Deckert, Veronica Lalli, Honor Roan, Neil Melendez, Laurence Le Beux, Josiane Crampé, and Martin Champagne
General Contractor: Ledcor Group
Structural Engineers: DIALOG Structural
Mechanical, Electrical, Fire Suppression & LEED Engineers: INTEGRAL Group
Interior Designers: Square One
Landscape Architects: Durante Kreuk Ltd.
Heritage Consultants: Robert Lemon Architect
Artist: Lyse Lemieux
Client: Grosvenor
Photographers: Adrien Williams, Provoke Studio
