Tapered Towers for Vancouver
Canadian architecture practice Henriquez Partners has designed a series of ten towers for a new suburban development in Vancouver. The mixed-use project was made for developer Westbank to create a new 4.5 million-square-foot residential community for the city. Dubbed Oakridge, the towers will include housing, office and retail as a contemporary architecture for the Pacific Northwest.
Besides 10 residential towers the redevelopment will include three mid-rise buildings for commercial and office uses, as well as a performing arts academy, library, senior center, childcare facility and mall. The design will bring these diverse functions together around a comprehensive programming and sustainability plan.
Henriquez Partners’ neighborhood development plan includes an energy system for heating and cooling that will capture heat and draw from geothermal wells. The system aims to reduce the typical amount of greenhouse gas emissions by over 68 per cent. Made to be a “fully-integrated vessel of culture within the city of Vancouver”, the project will also include on-site solar energy and a water savings program that will use on-site water sources for almost all irrigation grey water uses.
The project combines commercial, residential, communal areas and green spaces through the different buildings on site.
The complex can rightfully be called an exemplary model of modern “sustainable urbanism” architecture and Vancouver has a chance to once again confirm its honorary title of one of the most comfortable and human-oriented cities not only in the Pacific Northwest, but also in the world.
The Oakridge Redevelopment is slated for completion in 2027.
Henriquez Partners
