Places that foster community and belonging.
Introduction ― 4
Selected Projects ― 8
Our Team ― 42
Front Cover: Arbutus Court, Bonnis, Vancouver
Left: Workshop, Mondivan, Vancouver
―
Gentle heights, big impacts.
Providing intelligent and bespoke solutions for the ‘Missing Middle’ sites, while creating places with strong identities . Our low- and mid-rise development projects focus on delivering the most opportunities for owners and end users, with a context-focused approach and a design expertise dedicated to this intermediate scale.
Architecture that creates places and stories.
Neighborhood integration, with a dedication to creating desirable public and private amenities, is one of the many aspects of efficient and elegant design. Low- and mid-rise development projects have the opportunity to express a unique architectural language and create tailored, human scaled spaces where communities and businesses thrive.
The Shannon Estate project includes indoor and outdoor amenity spaces to foster community amongst residents.
←
The Workshop offers many connections to the outdoors—designed to enrich the daily experience of building inhabitants as well as to cultivate a new public life within the industrial laneways of Mount Pleasant.
― Low- & Mid-rise Development
Selected Projects
Arbutus Court
Vancouver, British Columbia
Client: Bonnis Properties
Size: 6,600 square metres (71,000 square feet)
Completion Date: Ongoing
Sustainability: TEDI Target = 23.6 kWh/m²/year; TEUI
Target = 97 kWh/m²/year; GHGI Target = 1 kgCO 2 e/ m²/year; WUI Target = 4.2 m³/m²/year
Arbutus Court exemplifies an approach to increased residential density that is connected with the identification of ‘place’.
Arbutus Court
←
An appropriate urban response that creates both low-rise, single-family style homes and street facing commercial activation.
Providing new homes for a diverse, lower income community in a way that instills permanence and civic value.
The project aspires to encourage community amongst residents, enhance the public realm and active mobility.
Oslo
Burnaby, British Columbia
Client: Eighth Avenue Development
Size: 9,332 square metres (100,444 square feet)
Completion Date: 2020
― WHAT IT IS
A low-rise residential project fostering community through thoughtful design.
The oversized balconies, and overall propertions ensure livable, versatile spaces.
→ By committing to modularity, the design achieves a hamonious blend of scalability and craftsmanship.
A clever combination of Scandinavian-inspired living with Ericksoninspired architecture.
↑
The building’s proportions subtly echo Arthur Erickson’s nearby legacy at Simon Fraser University.
←
The four and six storey wood frame buidings are exceeding code requirements for energy performance.
→
The central plaza with amenities encourages both spontaneous and planned interactions.
Shannon Estate
Vancouver, British Columbia
Client: Wall Financial
Size: 71,117 square metres (765,494 square feet)
Completion Date: 2019
Sustainability: LEED Gold Registered
Awards:
Heritage Award of Honour, City of Vancouver, 2017
Award of Excellence—Low-rise Award, Masonry Institute of British Columbia, 2019
A holistic approach to heritage conservation, community improvement, density, and sustainability.
Originally completed in 1925 by sugar baron B.T. Rogers, Shannon Estate is one of Vancouver’s premier heritage sites.Honouring this important historic site, we developed a master plan around the heritage assets, balancing open space with the introduction of 600 homes to the property
Unique 10-acre site, with a Beaux-Arts mansion, elaborate Italianate gardens, a gate house, and coach house.
↑ Besides the Manor, the Gatehouse and Coach House are the other two heritage buildings on site that were restored.
← Integrating a quiet design, the new multi-family residences blend into the historical context and reflect the adjacent neighbourhood.
→
20% of the homes are adaptable and barrier free, allowing residents to age-in-place.
Shannon Estate
Ivy on the Park
Vancouver, British Columbia
Client: Wall Financial
Size: 20,534 square metres (221,025 square feet)
Completion Date: 2021
a 22-storey tower, a mid-rise block and townhomes The communal courtyard offers residents a variety of outdoor spaces to enjoy
― WHAT IT IS A timeless, contemporary residential development that evokes a sense of calm, drawing in its natural setting.
Clockwise from Top Right: Ivy on the Park sits at the edge of Pacific Spirit Park and Khorana Park and Playground. The project combines
Townhomes with a simple building geometry to create a clear, calm, and timeless language that complements its natural setting.
Ivy on the Park
Located in Westbrook Place, the University of British Columbia’s largest neighbourhood, the project is connected to nearby campus amenities while at the edge of the forest.
The elegant tower expression complements the mid-rise block and the townhomes, offering a contrasting backdrop that creates cohesion between them. →
The central courtyard between the three building typologies offers ample green spaces and playground for families.
Workshop
Vancouver, British Columbia
Client: Mondivan Group
Size: 5,415 square meters (58,300 square feet)
Completion Date: 2022
Sustainability: BC Energy Step Code 2
Awards: Design Excellence Award in the Commercial Category, Architecture Foundation of British Columbia (AFBC), 2023
Design Awards—Architecture—Honorable Mention, AIA Canada Society, 2023
― WHAT IT IS
Reimagining office and industry in a post-industrial neighbourhood by connecting to context and activating a new public realm.
We worked closely with the client to develop a solution that is refined and contextual—referencing the industrial past and character of the area yet incorporating a modern sensibility.
The building provides generous spaces for both office and industrial uses in the heart of the Mount Pleasant, a neighbourhood that blends a residential and light industrial past with an emerging digital and technology employment sector.
Clockwise from Top Left:
Each floor offers a highly flexible open area that maximizes daylight, expansive landscaped patios are directly accessible from the offices, and large planted areas which provide a visual amenity while capturing and filtering rainwater on site.
Left:
900 Granville
Vancouver, British Columbia
Client: Bonnis Properties
Size: 95,820 square feet (8,900 square meters)
Completion Date: 2024
A four-storey mixed-use building with ground level retail space and three levels of institutional and office spaces above. This Page: The material palette is a thoughtful nod to the past and rich heritage of the Granville Street’s area.
Clockwise from Top Left:
While being respectful to the existing urban context, scale, and street wall, dynamic horizontal screening adds a fresh aesthetic to this block of Granville Street. Ground-level retail draws energy to–and from–the street, while the upper levels cater to diverse office needs.
Clockwise from Top Left:
The outdoor terrace on the Level 3 laneway side; Interior classroom with abundant natural light; The laneway is reimagined as an active urban edge, with thoughtful materiality that invites public engagement and enriches the user experience.
The design celebrates structural clarity and visual interest, creating a landmark that elevates expectations for the area.
Fifteen-foot modular bays maximize flexibility for retail configurations, while horizontal screening elements on the façade add depth and privacy.
A bold and optimistic reinvestment that reinterprets the culture of the entertainment district.
Vancouver, British Columbia
Client: Modern Green Development Ltd.
Size: 17,361 square metres (186,872 square feet)
Completion Date: 2013
Sustainability: Residential Environmental Assessment Program (REAP) Gold Certifie— University of British Columbia
―
WHAT IT IS A mid-rise residential project that showcases innovative and sustainable design strategies.
YU consists of 106 homes with a mix of townhouses and 1 to 3 bedroom apartments.
Townhouses along the north and south edge of the site create a pedestrian scale street frontage.
Existing mature trees and topography have been retained to allow for a natural water management.
↑
The courtyard and circulation corridors create communal spaces and allows for cross ventilation, daylight and views for all units.
←
The high-performance envelope provides a durable building energy efficiency.
→
The central courtyard offers generous vegetated beds, irrigated by retained rainwater.
Dockside Green Redevelopment
Victoria, British Columbia
Client: Windmill West, VanCity Enterprises
Size: Synergy 16,600 square metres (178,680 square feet), Balance 14,420 square metres (155,215 square feet),
Inspiration 1,874 square metres (20,160 square feet)
Completion Date: 2009
Sustainability: LEED Neighbourhood Development Platinum, LEED Platinum Certified (Residential)
Clockwise from Top Right: Located on 15 acres of former industrial land at the waterfront, Balance includs two residential towers with a common underground parking structure, Inspiration offers a two-storey retail and office component, and Synergy comprised of four mixed-use buildings of varying heights, including waterfront townhouses.
― WHAT IT IS A mix-use sustainable community development on 15 acres of former industrial land.
Dockside Green Redevelopment
Clockwise from Top Left:
Each floor offers a highly flexible open area that maximizes daylight, expansive landscaped patios are directly accessible from the offices, and large planted areas which provide a visual amenity while capturing and filtering rainwater on site.
The building provide generous spaces for both office and industrial uses in the heart of the Mount Pleasant, a neighbourhood that blends a residential and light industrial past with an emerging digital and technology employment sector.
Left:
Vancouver, British Columbia
Client: Concord Pacific
Size: 11,520 square meters (124,000 square feet)
Completion Date: 2009
― WHAT IT IS
Ninety homes over seven stories combines cutting-edge urban living with a heritagefriendly design in Vancouver’s Gastown neighbourhood.
The Smart development is a mixed-use urban infill project that defines a new building typology for Vancouver’s
Gastown area.
The geometry and exterior access allow natural light and ventilation from both ends of every suite, and semi-public greenspaces are provided.
Clockwise from left: Shared and private green spaces create a variety of opportunities for urban respite; Smart is conceived as a contemporary interpretation of the surrounding heritage buildings; Arranged in a U-shape around a southfacing green courtyard, the building plan is designed to maximize livability.
― Low- & mid-rise Development
Our Team
Our Team
Ryan Bragg
Aik Ablimit
Alysia Baldwin
Daisy Lei
Aaron Knorr
Shauna Bryce
Cillian Collins
Kathy Wardle
Adrian Watson
Kaz Bremner
Rufina Wu
Eli Woipin
Josuha Rudd
Alex Buss
Since 1935, we’ve believed that design has the power to make the world a better, more beautiful place.
That’s why clients and communities on nearly every continent partner with us to design healthy, happy places in which to live, learn, work, play, and heal. We’re passionate about human-centered design, and committed to creating a positive impact in people’s lives through sustainability, resilience, well-being, diversity, inclusion, and research. In fact, Fast Company named us one of the World’s Most Innovative Companies in Architecture. Our global team of 2,700 creatives and critical thinkers provides integrated services in architecture, interior design, landscape architecture, and more. Our partners include Danish architects Schmidt Hammer Lassen; retail strategy and design consultancy Portland; sustainable transportation planning consultancy Nelson\Nygaard; and luxury hospitality design firm Pierre-Yves Rochon (PYR).
For more information, contact:
aaron.knorr@perkinswill.com