Repositioning a Vancouver office precinct with a cutting-edge timber tower
A 16-storey hybrid mass timber tower is the cornerstone of this exciting revitalization of Bentall Centre, one of downtown Vancouver's premier office precincts. Adamson Associates is the Executive Architect overseeing the renewal project, which encompasses the proposed new building – known as Burrard Exchange – as well as a series of strategic enhancements throughout the complex.
Designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox, the new tower will employ the latest timber building innovations and reaffirms Bentall Centre as a home for leading-edge businesses. Burrard Exchange will replace an existing parkade and feature some of the largest floor plates available in the city – up to 30,000 sf – along with a variety of outdoor amenity spaces. The building’s design will include terraces, loggias, a generous roof deck, and vibrant public plaza at grade. This highly sustainable structure will also boast super-efficient curtain wall systems and advanced site-wide integration of services.
Each intervention on the site is sensitive to the complex’s original architecture. Repositioning work, led by McKinley Studio, brings new life to the existing below-grade amenity and retail spaces. The project is envisaged to better organize the entire site – a full city block – into a more cohesive whole that emphasizes true sustainability, urban integration, and promotes the transformation of the workplace in the 21st century.