PAI Insight: Incorporating Theatres into New Developments
Designing and renovating theatres has been a focus of Proscenium since 1996 when our firm started. In recent years, we have been approached by multiple clients who want to design theatres that are incorporated into new developments. Often this results in having a theatre on ground level (at grade) with a residential or mixed-use building attached. When handled correctly we think this is a great
Designing Ballet BC’s New Home
We are excited to be working with Ballet BC with the design of their future home on Granville Island! Our team is currently working with the dance company to renovate the space at 1286 Cartwright St, formerly occupied by Arts Umbrella. The project includes new administration and dance rehearsal spaces. Over the holidays the company announced the news: Following more than a decade at Scotiabank
PAI Highlight: 1235 Marine Drive
We are pleased to be moving forward in the design phase with our project at 1235 Marine Drive in North Vancouver! This Mixed-Use project on the vibrant Marine Drive corridor consists of one floor of Commercial Retail and three stories of market residential condos ranging from one to two bedrooms. Some great design features include: A widened pedestrian sidewalk and added seating to encourage
MEC Vancouver wins CaGBC Award for New Construction
We are so pleased to receive the 2021 Canadian Green Building Award for New Construction for MEC Vancouver! Thank you to Canada Green Building Council for recognizing the project. Hugh Cochlin will be giving a presentation on the building's many green features along with Roland Charneux next week, September 28th at 9am PST. CaGBC Awards Lunch ‘n’ Learn: New Construction Tuesday, September 28th; 9-10 am
PAI Insight: Evolving Space Needs for Industrial/Office Buildings
Our projects like The Yukon (2021) and 750 SW Marine Drive (ongoing) have highlighted some recent changes in space needs of our clients. We'd like to share some insights on the mixed-use building typology of industrial/office buildings and how we're navigating those changes. MEC Head Office (2014) Covid-19 Impacts on Workplace Design The increasing capabilities of remote work and employee's desire for flexible
MEC Vancouver wins the BC Wood Design Award 2020
On July 14th, WoodWORKS! BC announced MEC Vancouver is the winner of the BC Wood Design Awards (2020) for Commercial buildings! We are so glad to receive this award and thank you to our great project team for all their hard work on this inspiring, sustainable project. IN THE NEWS: Canadian Architect Journal of Commerce The building has also been spotlighted a Case Study publication
Skewed off the Grid: Elenore on Fifth
The design of Elenore on Fifth, a distinct mixed-use commercial and residential building completed in 2020, was driven by the site's unique parameters and the identity of the vibrant lower Main Street neighbourhood. STEPPING DOWN THE HILL Located on 5th and Main, the site is about halfway down the hill between Broadway and 2nd Avenue. The area has a history of small, light industrial uses
PAI Feature: Cook Street Plaza
Cook Street Plaza is a comprehensive mixed-use development in the City of Victoria, currently under construction. The vision for the project was to supply a range of market and below-market housing options and locally supportive commercial space for a walkable, thriving urban area with excellent access to transportation options. The scale of the site allows a holistic approach to the public realm; landscaped mews forming
MEC’s newest Head Office
New flooring is being laid at MEC's new head office, the third our firm will have completed for the company (1999, 2014 and 2021). Following a transfer of ownership, MEC gave up its former head office in 2020 and engaged Proscenium to do a basic tenant improvement for a new space on Great Northern Way. The new, smaller footprint office is a clean shell and
NEWS: PAI named Associate Architect for new mass-timber office
Proscenium is excited to announce our involvement in T3 Mount Pleasant, a new mass-timber office building in Vancouver. Standing for "timber, transit and technology," T3 Mount Pleasant will be a 10-storey, 196,000 sq ft office building geared towards tech and creative industry tenants. PAI will be acting as Associate Architect to DLR Group in this project developed by the Houston-based Hines and local developer PC Urban.
750 SW Marine Drive approved by Urban Design Panel
Another milestone moment for our project at 750 Southwest Marine Drive, which has full support from the Design Panel held last week. THE PROJECT The proposed building for Chard Development is an eight-storey, mixed-use building between Oak St. and Cambie St. in Vancouver’s South Marpole district. It is located on the southeast corner of Marine and Aisne Street, walking distance from the Marine Drive Skytrain
Study for a Local Kollel
Earlier this year, we developed a study for a new community centre building for a local Kollel. There are some great features about this project that we want to share with you! WELCOMING FROM ALL SIDES The Kollel is located on a site that faces the street on the west and backs onto the Arbutus Greenway on the east. The greenway is an ongoing City
MEC Vancouver in the Press
MEC Vancouver Flagship store seems to be the talk of the town! It's great to see the project get some recognition for its various sustainable elements, from mass timber design to rainwater recycling. ArchDaily Wood Design & Building Magazine, 2020: Print and Online: "Expressing a brand’s outdoor-friendly philosophy by building with wood" Think Wood Blog: "Biophilic Brands: Can Wood and Nature Boost the Bottom Line?"
UBC MacLeod: A Seismic Test Case
https://www.youtube.com/embed/JDRk9iZ--Bs Our ongoing major renovation of The MacLeod Building, the electrical and computer engineering building at UBC, involves a complete gutting down of the building to its basic structural elements. Necessary seismic upgrades are driving the renovation, which has provided an opportunity to reconstruct the building to evolve its approach to 21st Century learning. As part of the assessment, there was consideration given to not
Virtual “Open House” is live for 750 SW Marine Drive!
Browse the video walkthrough of our proposed project at Southwest Marine Drive! The eight-storey building currently in for rezoning includes office, light industrial and at-grade retail uses. Visit Site https://vimeo.com/511751220
242 West 6th Site Visit
This beautiful heritage house at 242 West 6th is coming together, with the roof complete, windows in, and the shingle cladding being installed. The renovation/restoration project is about 80% built, with estimated completion for Spring 2021. The project will really come together over the next couple months as attention is turned to tiling, millwork, painting, site work and landscaping. The project converts The
1235 Marine Drive goes in for development permit
We are excited to announce that 1235 Marine Drive, a new four-storey residential/commercial project in North Vancouver has gone in for development permit. The new project on the North Shore is a contemporary expression of the history of Marine Drive and its rich ship building past, historically an early industrial neighbourhood constructed of brick, steel and wood. We researched local building typology and expression circa
Sustainability in Design
Sustainable urban design is about more than innovation, it's about survival. On October 31st, the UN-Habitat (a UN program for sustainable urban development) released its 2020 report on World Cities, as mentioned by this article in ArchDaily. A central issue highlighted in the report is sustainable urban development. More people than ever before are living in cities, and reducing their carbon footprint will be a
Join us at the Wood Solutions Conference
On November 18th, Proscenium's Hugh Cochlin (Principal) will be speaking at the annual Wood Solutions Conference (November 16-20) hosted by Wood WORKS! BC. This year all the sessions will be virtual. Hugh's session, "The Material is the Message," looks at the connection between material and brand for commercial projects, with the new timber-frame MEC Vancouver building as an example. He will dive into the
2020 Excellence in Commercial Wood Design
We are thrilled to receive this award for MEC Edmonton Brewery District in Edmonton! WOOD WORKS! Alberta / the Canadian Wood Council jury provided these comments on the building: "Wood was used for structural and accent finishing pieces and the jury felt that this choice makes the project stand out. It is going above and beyond in a retail experience when customers are allowed to
UBC MacLeod underway
Out at UBC, we're excited to see the renovation of the MacLeod building deep in progress! This gutting and renovation project on the electrical computer engineering faculty building is taking the building down to its basic structural elements to rebuild/reprogram/refresh for 21st century teaching. We're at that exciting turnaround point where we see the vision start to come to life...
Danish Construction Companies tour MEC Flagship Store Site
We were delighted to take several Danish Construction Companies on a tour of our project.
MEC’s new Vancouver flagship store set to open this fall!
Excerpted from The Daily Hive by Kenneth Chan... "Designed by Proscenium Architecture & Interiors (PAI), the new store — a wood building using cross-laminated timber panels — is aiming for a LEED Gold green building standard. PAI is also behind the design of MEC’s office headquarters in the False Creek Flats, and three newer store locations in North Vancouver, Kelowna, and Edmonton." Early-June 2019 construction of
The Pipe Shop Phase 2 Progress
Phase 2 of the Pipe Shop Venue is progressing with visible progress as installation of the acoustic ceiling panels are well underway.
The Vancouver Sun reports on our project “The Yukon”
Chard adding more light industrial space in Vancouver's Mount Pleasant The Yukon is a four-storey, 49,000-sq.-ft. strata office and light industrial building being built on the former site of the 3 Vets outdoor equipment store. EVAN DUGGAN Updated: May 15, 2019 Vancouver Sun Another strata office/light industrial building is under construction in Vancouver’s Mount Pleasant neighbourhood. And while the project will be a welcome addition
