Architizer Home
Architizer Homepage Projects People Firms Products A+ Awards
LOGIN    REGISTER

Log into Architizer

cancel
 
Login
Forgot your password? Register
News Jobs Competitions
back

Architizer News

A BIG New Tower For Vancouver

July 16, 2012


“Beach and Howe St.” by BIG; All images, courtesy the architects

BIG, one of the newest contenders for the starchitect’s mantle, and one of the most prolific, has unveiled its design for a new 49-story mixed-use tower in downtown Vancouver. The tower’s form, simple yet subtly captivating, is the result of the site-based concept that generated it.

The building will be located at the intersection of Beach and Howe Streets, at the downtown end of the Granville Bridge. In order to ensure the safety of residents and that a nearby park kept its access to sunlight, the tower had to be pulled back thirty feet from the bridge, squeezing it into a narrow triangular wedge. The restricted siting of the building prompted BIG founder Bjarke Ingels to claim the Flatiron Building, the famous triangular tower and perhaps the world’s first skyscraper, as a precedent. (Not the first time Bjarke has invoked the peculiar forms and singular typologies wrought by “Manhattanism”.)

However, unlike the Flatiron Building, BIG’s new tower–which, when built, will be Vancouver’s fourth largest building–clears its impediments as it rises above the bridge, allowing it to expand from the inefficient triangular plan at its base, to an optimal rectangular plan at the top. This creates a large, if gradual, cantilever over surrounding public space. Ingels compares the resulting shape to a curtain being drawn back, “welcoming people as they enter the city from the bridge.”

The massing of the building appears quite different from various vantage points—from one side, elegantly sweeping, and from another dangerously unbalanced and ready to topple—meaning that opinions on the tower will be just as heterogeneous as it moves toward approvals.


user image

by AJ Artemel

posted in Uncategorized

tagged beach and howe, BIG, bjarke ingels group, Canada, cantilever, vancouver

more articles by AJ Artemel


previous legocolosseum4

Constructing The World’s First &...

next med_01_-a-world-around-disney-christoph-sillem-jpg

A Photographer Finds An Empty French V...

previous next
Architizer News
  • Glass That Saves You Energy And Money?

    Guardian SunGuard’s latest glass the Neutral 78/65
  • 2013 Solar Decathlon's Exciting Collaboration

    Resource Furniture teams up with university students
  • Foldable Origami Furniture

    How flatpack can get even flatter
  • A Look At Miele Through The Ages

    From retro wooden washers to Brilliant White kitchens
  • Enjoy The Great Outdoors

    A Sydney Opera House-Inspired Camper

Search

search
  • A+
  • Competition
  • Debate
  • editor's pick
  • exhibitions
  • first look
  • Heritage
  • Money Shot
  • New Projects
  • news
  • Product
  • sustainable design
  • top ten
Follow Us:
 

A+ Awards: Latest News

  • 10 Richard Meier Drawings To Get You Scr..., more June 07 2013
  • See LOT-EK, JDS Architects, And More A+ ..., more May 30 2013
  • Reflect On These 8 Mirrored Facades!, more May 28 2013
  • “This Is Blowing My Mind!”: ..., more May 21 2013
  • A Roundup Of Architizer A+ Relevance Awa..., more May 20 2013
Featured Projects
Maiden Tower
Maiden Tower
marte marte architects
Metropolis Center
Metropolis Center
Bureau XII
High School Jean Lurçat
High School Jean Lurçat
Mikou Studio
Interior for Students
Interior for Students
Ruetemple
Flying Desk
Flying Desk
Urban Office
Apartment LA
Apartment LA
David Guerra Arquitetura e..

Blogroll

  • A Daily Dose of Architecture
  • abitare
  • ARCH’IT
  • ArchDaily
  • ArchiExpo
  • Archinect
  • Architect Magazine
  • Architect’s Newspaper
  • Architectural Record
  • ARTCO LLC Blog
  • Azure
  • Baumeister
  • BLDGBLOG
  • Blueprint Magazine
  • Building Design
  • Cool Hunting
  • Coolboom
  • Curbed
  • Death By Architecture
  • Design + Build
  • Design Observer
  • Detail
  • DWELL
  • Flavorwire
  • Freshome
  • Guardian Architecture
  • Hochparterre
  • I.D. Magazine
  • Inhabitat
  • KOLLECTIF.NET
  • Metropolis Magazine
  • NY Times – Arts & Design
  • Remodelista
  • Repeat. No Repeat.
  • Surface Magazine
  • Talkitect
  • Trend Hunter
  • Urbanverse
  • Wallpaper
Advertise|FAQ|About Architizer|Privacy Policy|Terms of Use|Contact|Invite
Copyright © 2009 Architizer LLC. All rights reserved. Copyright Policy