Vancouver, British Columbia
Program: A five-story, 18,800-square-foot extended-stay hotel in Vancouver's historic Chinatown. Adapted from a 1910 masonry and timber warehouse that once housed the Vancouver Gas Company, the project includes a ground-floor restaurant and three full-floor suites in the existing shell, plus a newly constructed fifth-floor suite with an enclosed courtyard and a roof deck with a lap pool.
Design concept and solution: With an interest in urban densification, Gair Williamson aimed to preserve a part of Chinatown's heritage through a design that reveals each stage in the building's life. The architects retained the masonry shell and inserted three full-floor suites above the lobby. They shrank the width of the light well to gain floor space in the narrow building, using gray stucco for the new expanse of exterior wall. Clad in the same stucco and recessed from street, the new fifth floor forms a "T" with the new wall, so that these additions appear to rise from within the building and differentiate the new from the old. Inside the suites, Gair Williamson inserted balconies into the remaining light well. Sliding glass walls and doors allow guests to either open the balcony to the outdoors or open it to the kitchen, so that it functions as an exposed balcony in the summer and a usable dining area in the winter.
Architect:
Gair Williamson Architects
219 – 209 Carrall Street
Vancouver, BC, Canada
t. 604-648-2626
f. 604-684-2656
www.gwarchitects.ca
Location:135 Keefer Street, Vancouver BC, Canada
Completion Date: December 2009
Total construction cost: $6.5 million
PeopleOwner: Architect: Personnel in architect's firm who should receive special credit: Associate architect(s): Additional Project Designers: Tiphaine Masioneuve-Lebrec, Elizabeth Powell (registered architects) Interior designer: Engineer(s): Mechanical: Jade West Engineering Co. ltd. Electrical: SML Consultants Group ltd. Building Envelope: BC Building Sciences Geotechnical: GEO Pacific Consultant(s): Acoustical: Brown Strachan Associates Security: Citilock Pool Specialist: Stevens Pool Ltd. Hardware: McGregor & Thompson General contractor: Photographer(s): CAD system, project management, or other software used: |
ProductsStructural system: Exterior cladding New Aluminum Panels: Quest Metals New Curtainwall/ Window Wall: Prestige Glazing Roofing Wood Windows New wood framed windows: Jeld Wen Windows Aluminum: Skylights: Glass Handrails: Doors Bi-Folding Aluminum doors: Hardware Interior finishes Paints and stains: Wallcoverings: Furnishings Lighting Conveyance Plumbing Equipment |
