400 West Georgia Street

Urban Design Panel

Design Concept

Design Concept

The project site is located in a transitioning, evolving and re-emerging district along West Georgia Street (a key ceremonial street) and also serves as part of a “gateway” to downtown Vancouver’s Central Business District when approaching from False Creek to the east.

The building is conceived as playful aggregation of “reflective” yet transparent stacked boxes. Each box contains 4 floors and its width is roughly equivalent to its height. The multiple orientations of the stacked boxes capture the sweeping views of the surrounding city while the spaces in between the cubes are filled with greenery whose vertical orientation binds the otherwise scattered massing.

From the interiors, the 3-dimensionality of the greenery is a striking presence that closes the distance with the mountainous backdrop. The character of the work space is designed to be open, fluid, flexible, but also diverse. Unlike the first corporate towers with curtain walls and open plans in the 1950s, the new, tech-oriented work environment elicits collaboration, creativity, and spontaneity. Here, the boxes create natural compartments within a continuous floorplate, allowing offices to be variously partitioned while also staying close to the façade. The floors and ceilings of the cantilevering portions are glazed to visually link the garden, the offices, and the street below. The resulting diversity of spaces is complimented by the diversity of views, whose orientation is not only horizontal, but also vertical.

West Georgia Street is rapidly developing into a ceremonial street aligned with many significant buildings. Within walking distance of the site, the street hosts large-scale athletic, institutional, commercial, and cultural facilities, all of which are representative projects of their periods. The location of 400 West Georgia Street is privileged for being in the center of this transformation, and for this reason seeks to respond to the wealth of architecture and contribute to the pedestrian scale through combining dynamic massing with dense greenery.

400 West Georgia Street | Urban Design Panel74

Design Concept

Warehouse Typology

Industry - Art- Workplace

YaletownVancouver, 1887

Centre PompidouParis, 1971

FacebookMenlo Park, 2016

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WAREHOUSE TYPOLOGY

industry - art - workplace

FACEBOOK, MENLO PARK, 2016CENTRE POMPIDOU, PARIS, 1971YALETOWN, VANCOUVER, 1887

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WAREHOUSE TYPOLOGY

industry - art - workplace

FACEBOOK, MENLO PARK, 2016CENTRE POMPIDOU, PARIS, 1971YALETOWN, VANCOUVER, 1887

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WAREHOUSE TYPOLOGY

industry - art - workplace

FACEBOOK, MENLO PARK, 2016CENTRE POMPIDOU, PARIS, 1971YALETOWN, VANCOUVER, 1887

75

Design Concept

Blurred Icons

Tamed Nature

Andy Goldsworthy Jeff Koons

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BLURRED ICONS

tamed nature

JEFF KOONSANDY GOLDSWORTHY

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BLURRED ICONS

tamed nature

JEFF KOONSANDY GOLDSWORTHY

400 West Georgia Street | Urban Design Panel76

Design Concept

Architectural Façade

Texture

Transparency

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Design Concept

Vegetation

400 West Georgia Street | Urban Design Panel78

Design Concept

Architectural Façade

Texture

Planked Roof Deck

Example of expanded mesh to be used at exterior and interior ceiling

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Design Concept

Architectural Façade

Visual Transparency

400 West Georgia Street | Urban Design Panel80

Design Concept

Architectural Façade

Vegetation - Living Wall

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Design Concept

Architectural Façade

Vegetation - Tree Planters

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Design Concept

Concept Façade

1. Elevation diagram: consistent floor heights 2. Elevation diagram: constant glazing units

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Design Concept

Glass Wall

Elevation (Front) Elevation (Side) Section

400 West Georgia Street | Urban Design Panel84

Design Concept

Balcony Concept

Vegetated niches with interior presence

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PLAN

vegetal niches

85

Design Concept

Wet Moss Wall

Trickling water and reflecting pool frames serene urban plaza

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STREET VIEW

wet moss wall

Building entry at corner of West Georgia and Homer Streets

400 West Georgia Street | Urban Design Panel86

Design Concept

Living Wall

1. Solid wall

Punch windows 1200x1600

Mechanical louvers 350x1850

2.

Hydroponic wall (openings where required)

3.

Organic expanded mesh design

Expanded mesh façade to allow growth of living wall Living wall growing on expanded mesh façade

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Design Concept

Elevation Section

Living Wall Section

400 West Georgia Street | Urban Design Panel88

Design Concept

Stacked Campus Concept

Co-existance of Intimacy and Openess

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STACKED CAMPUS CONCEPT

intimacy and openness

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Design Concept

Interior Concept

Compartmentalized and Continuous

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400 West Georgia Street | Urban Design Panel90

Design Concept

Interior Concept Views

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INTERIOR VIEW

reflecting pool

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INTERIOR VIEW

panoramic loungeView to exterior from office

Glass floor

Panoramic lounge

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Design Concept

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INTERIOR VIEW

glass ceiling & glass floor

Glass ceiling and glass floor

400 West Georgia Street | Urban Design Panel92

Design Concept

Formal Strategy

Aggregation of boxes to reduce building scale

Multi-directional boxes - Library side

Reference Telus cantilever

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TELUS SIDE

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LIBRARY SIDE

multi-directional boxes

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Design Concept

Urban Strategy

Multi-directionality enhances centrality of West Georgia Street

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400 West Georgia Street | Urban Design Panel94

Design Concept

Structural Concept: stacked box frames

Structural Bracing: pragmatic and "arbitrary"

Structural Diagram: circular core and cogwheel

Structural Concept

Cantilevering steel boxes off circular core

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STRUCTURAL CONCEPT

stacked box frames

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STRUCTURAL DIAGRAM

circular core and cogwheel

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STRUCTURAL BRACING

pragmatic and “arbitrary”

The proposed building will be utilizing a concrete core with structural steel beams and steel decking c/w concrete topping. The steel construction seemed better suited to the architectural design and provides the desirable aesthetic of seeing the buildings structure visible through the transparent exterior glazing. The “truss” elements are cantilevering from 6 large column supports extending up through the entire building resulting in large open / column free interior spaces allowing flexible internal office planning configurations.

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Design Concept

Homer Street view looking upwards

400 West Georgia Street | Urban Design Panel96

Design Concept

Nature as Artefact

Lush greenery binds abstract boxes

Day

Noguchi Lamp

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Design Concept

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NATURE & ARTIFACT

vegetated niches

Night

Noguchi Lamp