Project Tag: Local

JJ Bean

Featured locations: Bidwell, Cambie, Dunsmuir, False Creek, Fraser, Lonsdale (North Van), Marine Building, St. Clair (Toronto)
Not pictured: Railway, Adelaide (Toronto)

JJ Bean built its brand on providing great service, great coffee and food, and great spaces. To deliver great spaces, each location is unique and responds to the neighbourhood or the building it finds itself in. Our work on ten locations in Vancouver and Toronto makes the history, character, and found condition the inspiration for the design.

Each location seeks to provide a memorable and highly particular experience. From a contemporary interpretation of Art-Deco ornament at the iconic Marine Building to an abstracted walk along a forest hiking trail at the Lonsdale store, each design finds a way to link the interior to local character.

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Vanness

Located near Joyce-Collingwood Skytrain Station, this mixed-use project aims to provide 679 secured rental units (including 35% family housing), a public daycare, vibrant local retail along Vanness Avenue, and a mid-block connection through the site to enhance the neighbourhood’s connectivity.

The architectural expression draws on local features and landmarks to inform the massing and character of the building, with the tapered profile of the twin-tower form invoking a valley opening to the sky as a nod to the way the Expo Skytrain line cuts through the city. Inspired by the public art at Joyce-Collingwood Station, the joyful use of colour throughout the project draws the ground plane elements across Vanness Avenue and into the site to animate the public realm.

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The Green House

Tucked into a grove of trees, along a stream, at the end of a field on a small farm in Gibsons ‘The Green House’ strikes a familiar and modest architectural profile. This small family home is oriented to enjoy the views of the forest and field surrounding it. Entering from the west, the double-height entrance corridor divides the public and private areas of the home.

The private areas to the north enjoy intimate views of the trees and nearby creek while the main gathering and living space on the south has generous glazing and doors out onto the south-facing outdoor patio. Overlooking the living space is a mezzanine with an office and peek-a-boo tree top views from a pair of windows.

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River District OCP

River District, also known as East Fraser Lands, is embedded in layers of rich history, and meaning. Our design for the Waterfront Precinct seeks to unite the community with the Fraser River, making the riverfront an inseparable part of the East Fraser Lands experience. As the ‘soul’ of the project, the Waterfront Precinct includes the pedestrian-oriented High Street (now named River District Crossing), that gently curves towards the water, opening views out to the river, and terminates at a highly active and unique waterfront area.

The precinct contains the tallest buildings in the East Fraser Lands, making it the focal point of the community. All these buildings feature a mix of uses and a variety of housing tenure options including affordable, rental and market housing units. The Community Centre, local shops and services, waterfront retail, riverfront parks and plazas form part of this area and are key components of this vibrant waterfront.

Area 1’s master plan process (OCP and rezoning) has concluded, while Area 3 is currently in-process.

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Strathcona VPL/YWCA

The necá?mat ct Strathcona VPL/YWCA ‘Cause we Care House’ Project is a joint project of the City of Vancouver, the Vancouver Public Library and the YWCA. The building integrates three component parts: a new Library Branch, 21 affordable family housing units, and program space for single mothers and their children operated by the YWCA.

The new Library Branch serves the Downtown Eastside, Strathcona, and Chinatown areas. It provides full library services including a book collection, computers, a children’s programming space, a teen programming space, multipurpose meeting spaces, maker-space, reading areas, and library staff workspace. The project achieved LEED™ Gold Certification.

The architecture was conceived to present a welcoming, double-storey ‘living-room’ open to Hastings Street. The striking faceted glazed library frontage stands out on the block of commercial storefronts to signal its intention to engage with the neighbourhood. A second storey meeting room that is shared by all uses and can be rented by the public is cantilevered over the sidewalk and main entrance to be seen and to project its public function into the street. A neon VPL sign celebrates the local retail signage and character of East Hastings street and its landmarks like the Astoria and Ted Harris Paints. Robust but refined materials, brightly coloured balcony elements and outdoor amenities on the laneway side help to add vibrancy to the area and distinguish the building as a local landmark and community amenity.

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Southlands Residence

The Southlands residence began as a renovation and became a complete reimagining of a house on stilts straddling a ravine in South Vancouver. Divisions between inside and outside dissolve through an open plan that expands outwards through slide-away glass walls, extended eaves, bridges, and decks that all hover above and extend into the landscape. From the main living space above, a glass-enclosed steel stair descends to additional living space suspended over the creek and finally touches down to a water-side platform below a soaring concrete buttress that anchors the home to the site.

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Seaspan Head Office

Housing 390 Employees within an 84,000 sq.ft. state of the art office facility, Seaspan represents an evolution in the design of collaborative work environments. Visually and functionally linked directly to the water-edge operations of Seaspan, the facility allows for operational efficiencies in an ever-changing organization focused on Port-related operations and the National Shipbuilding Strategy.

Sitting on structural piles and cantilevered over the water, the Seaspan fleet passes by appearing to be floating through the building at various vantage points and in particular from the three-storey atrium. Incorporating passive heating and cross-laminated timber, the facility is environmentally focused.

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Harlin

Harlin (River District Parcel 29) is a gateway tower to the waterfront precinct of the River District. It will function as both a conduit and a platform for the emergent urban life of the waterfront area. The courtyard space between Parcel 29 and Parcel 30 to the south will act as an important public space for local residents. We have imagined the building edges and courtyard spaces as moments of interference to the predominant flow of people running north south along river district crossing. Inspired by the river ‘Eddy’ we imagine that the spaces around the building can offer opportunities for people to pause and to gather.

The central public space is a critical gathering area for the neighbourhood, connecting to the future public areas to the south and the future community centre. The central courtyard is characterized by a terraced grassy knoll that offers a unique connectivity to the adjacent building edges adjacent to it. The ‘rippled edges’ of the cast-in-place ribbed façade profile reference the site’s history in the heavy logging industry and proximity to the Fraser River.

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Ardea

Ardea is located in the southwest precinct of Area 2 of the East Fraser Lands. This precinct’s identity draws from its naturalistic setting and the established appeal of the Kerr Street pier. Eight blocks frame a gently curving east-west street envisioned as a richly landscaped pedestrian-friendly environment. Terraced mid-rise blocks frame a series of generous garden spaces opening onto the foreshore and modulate the streetwall along the Kent Avenue corridor.

Ardea sits at the eastern end of Riverwalk Ave and adjacent to the future Kinross Park. It is also bound by the Fraser River and foreshore walkway to the south. The project is envisioned as a series of building pavilions within the landscape. The lush, naturalized landscape is welcomed into the site and abuts each building. The simple rectilinear forms of the buildings are situated as a counter point to this organic landscape.

Visit Ardea by Wesgroup

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The Mark

Winner of UDI’s best urban high rise for 2014, the Mark is a ground-breaking mixed-use urban project characterized by green walls, urban agriculture, green roofs, and a high-performance envelope. Movable sunscreens are featured on the East podium while an integrated daycare and unique angled podiums activate the laneway and street edges.

Public art by Sonny Assu was incorporated as a key design element. Alan Boniface led the design team while Adrian Politano was instrumental in the project’s realization. The project was designed to a LEED Gold Standard.

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