Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
“There was something drawing me to this project, states Vance Harris, Principal Architect of DIALOG.
“I had to try it, and I had to convince others that it was doable. For me, it’s been transformational. Absolutely transformational.”
Vancouver House—a 515-foot, 53-story mixed-use development designed by DIALOGUE and BIG for Westbank Project Corp. and completed in 2020, but recently photographed—reinterprets the tower on a podium in response to a uniquely challenging site.
“Architecturally, the Beach and Howe tower will introduce a new building typology to the Vancouver skyline and will create a dramatic gateway to downtown Vancouver that speaks to the emerging creative economy in the city,” stated Ian Gillespie, President of Westbank at the offset of the project.
Located on the corner of Howe and Beach next to the Granville Street Bridge in downtown Vancouver, the project, which contains 600 residential units, has become the city’s fourth tallest buildings.
This neighbourhood-scaled project is comprised of four highly crafted buildings at the north end of the Granville Bridge.
The tower takes its shape after the site’s complex urban conditions aiming to optimize the conditions for its future inhabitants in the air as well as on the street level, gaining its form in response to site constraints, shape shifting from a triangle at its base to a rectangle 500 feet above the bridge.
This movement turns the inefficient triangle into an optimal rectangular floor plate, increasing the desirable spaces for living at its top, while freeing up a generous public space at its base.
The resultant silhouette has a unique appearance that changes from every angle and resembles a curtain being drawn aside, welcoming people as they enter the city from the bridge.
On its east and west facades, the skyscraper has a gridded appearance created by the regularly spaced balconies with incremental setbacks that give the east façade a pixilated appearance, while the underside of its overhang features box-shaped balconies.
At its base, the footprint of the tower is conditioned by concerns for two significant neighboring elements, including a 30-meter setback from the Granville bridge which ensures that no residents will have windows and balconies in the middle of heavy traffic as well as concerns for sunlight to an adjacent park which limits how far south the building can be constructed.
This new neighborhood is comprised of three intimately-scaled triangular buildings that provide spaces for working, shopping, and leisure.
The tower’s podium is a mixed-use urban village with three triangular blocks that are composed of intimately-scaled spaces for working, shopping, and leisure which face onto public plazas and pathways.
Project: Vancouver House
Architects of Record: DIALOG
DIALOG Design Team: Vance Harris, Sara Remocker, Joost Bakker, and Marion LaRue
Design Architects: BIG
Collaborators: Integral Group, PFS Studio, Buro Happold, Glotman Simpson, James KM Cheng Architects, LMDG, Nemetz & Associates, HLB Lighting Design, and BVDA
Facade Engineers, Morrison Hershfield, ICON Pacific
Client: Westbank Project Corp.