Central City/SFU Surrey
Surrey, BCCentral City is a project born of Surrey’s complex history as an edge city south of Vancouver, whose rapid growth and lack of planning left it without a sense of a city centre. Having identified the need for a large mixed-use development with a significant public sector component, BTA brought together three clients – the provincial government, a university, and an insurance company – to redevelop a declining shopping centre, on top of which was constructed space for the university and an integrated office tower for the insurance company. By combining the activities of the shopping centre and the University, all parties saved significant capital costs, construction costs, and operational costs.
A large civic plaza – the first urban open space in Surrey – marks the entrance to the building. A series of atria organize the building on the inside and bathe the interior with natural light. Heavy timber construction, historically associated with British Columbia, is used here in a contemporary and technologically advanced way. A design-build arrangement allowed the architects to work with a wood fabricator to develop and build three distinct timber systems, including a wood space frame constructed from peeler cores, a waste product from the plywood industry.
Facts
- Client:ICBC Properties
- Type:Institutional, Commercial, Mixed Use, Urban Design
- Size:1,000,000 sq ft
- Budget:$135 million
- Status:Completed 2004
- Architect:Revery Architecture (formerly Bing Thom Architects)
Awards
- Commercial Award of Excellence, Surrey NewCity Design Awards
- Interiors Award of Excellence, Surrey NewCity Design Awards
- Citation Award, Wood Design Awards
- Illuminating Engineering Society Lighting Design Awards
- Marche International des Professionels de l’Immobilier Special Jury Prize
- Lieutenant-Governor of British Columbia Medal in Architecture, AIBC
- Architectural Institute of British Columbia Innovation Award
Central City/SFU Surrey
Surrey, BCCentral City is a project born of Surrey’s complex history as an edge city south of Vancouver, whose rapid growth and lack of planning left it without a sense of a city centre. Having identified the need for a large mixed-use development with a significant public sector component, BTA brought together three clients – the provincial government, a university, and an insurance company – to redevelop a declining shopping centre, on top of which was constructed space for the university and an integrated office tower for the insurance company. By combining the activities of the shopping centre and the University, all parties saved significant capital costs, construction costs, and operational costs.
A large civic plaza – the first urban open space in Surrey – marks the entrance to the building. A series of atria organize the building on the inside and bathe the interior with natural light. Heavy timber construction, historically associated with British Columbia, is used here in a contemporary and technologically advanced way. A design-build arrangement allowed the architects to work with a wood fabricator to develop and build three distinct timber systems, including a wood space frame constructed from peeler cores, a waste product from the plywood industry.
Facts
- ClientICBC Properties
- TypeInstitutional, Commercial, Mixed Use, Urban Design
- Size1,000,000 sq ft
- Budget$135 million
- StatusCompleted 2004
- ArchitectRevery Architecture (formerly Bing Thom Architects)
Awards
- Commercial Award of Excellence, Surrey NewCity Design Awards
- Interiors Award of Excellence, Surrey NewCity Design Awards
- Citation Award, Wood Design Awards
- Illuminating Engineering Society Lighting Design Awards
- Marche International des Professionels de l’Immobilier Special Jury Prize
- Lieutenant-Governor of British Columbia Medal in Architecture, AIBC
- Architectural Institute of British Columbia Innovation Award
The shopping mall, while considered to be in decline, was still generating over 1400 visits per hour, the university would introduce 5000 students, and the office building another 2500 workers. We decided to integrate the different uses as close and as much as we could. We proposed literally ripping the roof off the shopping centre, and then we placed the university classrooms above it.
We created a series of atria to organize the building around. To celebrate and to give distinctive common identity to these spaces we decided to use heavy timber construction - a technique historically associated with British Columbia - in a contemporary, high-tech way that would reflect the technology focus of the university.
