Project Tag: Retail

Arbutus Centre Redevelopment

The redevelopment of the Arbutus Centre Shopping Plaza resulted in a highly mixed-use urban village. The new buildings incorporate major retail uses including a supermarket, liquor store, and banking at ground level, a neighbourhood house facility, dance studios, and more, paired with a significant number of new rental and social housing units above – all sharing an underground parkade. Shepherding both the first two phases from rezoning to development permit, we reconciled complex programmatic demands into a form that celebrates the street-level experience with active street edges and a new plaza space.

Each residential portion is focused around a highly-landscaped courtyard space and both buildings provide shared rooftop patios for residents. Projects like the Arbutus Centre Redevelopment showcase the interplay with the public realm and careful attention to the public/private transition.

For Arbutus Centre Phase 1 and 2, Adrian Politano was co-designer, working on design development and entitlement documentation.

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Lot P

The project is located in the Mount Pleasant Creative District, near the Great Northern Way-Emily Carr SkyTrain station and the Great Northern Way Campus shared by UBC, SFU, BCIT, and Emily Carr University of Art + Design. This emerging district is ideal for transit-oriented mixed-use development, including housing, workspace, retail, and public space.

The redevelopment, in consultation with Host Nations, contributes to the “Cultural Ribbon” concept proposed in the Broadway Plan, showcasing Coast Salish peoples’ history and culture. The proposed development integrates active ground-level retail commercial use, a podium containing office workspace and an amenity rooftop, four residential towers of mixed tenure including hotel, secured market rental, below-market rental, and strata live-work dwellings with below grade vehicle and bicycle parking.

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Howe Renovation

Building on the opportunities presented by both the existing architectural character and the surrounding site conditions, the following interventions help improve the public realm, tenant experience and the overall building safety and security:

The ‘Tongue’ – a new stone cladded canopy structure extends from sidewalk into the interior lobby to bring improved finishing, lighting and connection between building and street

The ‘Screen’ – a new painted aluminum picket screen that runs the length of the upper parking level, referencing the geometry of the existing building columns with a variety of angled shapes that ‘ripple’ along the building face

The ‘Welcome Mat’ – new paving and landscape treatments provides a more inviting interface with the sidewalk.

The ‘Wrap’ – a new painted gradient mural that wraps around the building from its frontage down to the lane, with its geometry referencing the angled form of building columns, to improve the pedestrian experience and deter vandalism

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