CENTURY GROUP / SURREY CITY DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION 3 Civic Plaza
SURREY, BRITISH COLUMBIA
RISING TO 52 STOREYS AND HOME TO WESTERN CANADA’S FIRST MARRIOTT AUTOGRAPH COLLECTION HOTEL, 3 CIVIC PLAZA IS SET TO LEAVE ITS MARK AS THE FINAL PIECE TO THE CITY OF SURREY’S NEW CIVIC PLAZA.
The tallest tower south of the Fraser River, 3 Civic Plaza features 353 residential units, a 144-room hotel, a rooftop garden, state-of-the-art fitness facility, and a sweeping ‘great room’-style central lobby that unites the building’s many uses. 3 Civic Plaza has been innovatively designed to complement its surroundings while adding an iconic quality to Surrey’s emerging City Centre. Establishing a vision for the project was very much a forward-thinking exercise: not simply a matter of responding to the existing context of the area, but to envision the Civic Plaza of the future. Part of the unique challenge in this was to determine a mix of uses that 72
would appropriately respond not only to the existing City Centre, but to what the City Centre will be years from now. The particular challenge of structurallydifferent uses was addressed through a unique solution: an innovative external concrete shear wall with distinctive window openings. The building element allowed for flexibility in planning the configuration of space, circulation, and structure to best suit each use. And this is but one of the project’s unique features. In addition, the integration of natural ventilation, hydronic heating, and connection to a district energy system improve human comfort and are sustainable design strategies.