Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/1010276
AUGUST 2018 | 71 City Centre 2 PHOTOGRAPHY BY WAISMAN PHOTO/COURTESY WENSLEY ARCHITECTURE LTD. City Centre 2 by PETER STENNING T hird underway, five more to go: that's one way to describe the suc- cessful completion of the latest phase of Lark's Group's grand plan for an emerging Health and Technology District focusing on health, science, business and innovation, just north of Surrey Memorial Hospital in B.C. This latest phase consisted of City Centre 2, a 185,000-square-foot, 12-storey LEED Gold-certified office building. The boldly-designed struc- ture of glazing and metal panel studded with horizontal and vertical sunshade detailing and framed by unbroken hori- zontal and vertical composite aluminum panelling includes a 4,000-square-foot cafeteria, a 6,000-square-foot rooftop garden terrace, and green space with a multi-level deck and walking path, as well as a fully equipped fitness centre and amenities for employees. The building, which was designed by Wensley Architecture Ltd. and con- structed by Lark in a design-build delivery method, is also mixed-use, with ground level retail, significant teaching space, and over 375 parking stalls in a multi-floor parkade. Lark is developing the District "in anticipation of the rapidly growing health and technology sector in B.C.," and City Centre 2 is located adjacent to City Centre 1, which was completed in 2014, shares a similar design esthetic, and today houses more than 90 medi- cal professional clinics, several health agencies, and research groups (the new building is being sold as strata units mostly to health and tech start-ups, medical companies and health-care specialists; currently, Safe Software occupies the top five floors). Neil Banich, principal for Wensley Architecture and design lead for the project, says, "We designed City Centre 1 and 2 simultaneously from a basic foot- print perspective because they occupied the same piece of property, and by the time the first building was under con- struction, we were fully focused on 2." Banich regards City Centre 1 "as among other things, a really cool entry- way to what will eventually catalyze innovation in health and technology sectors here in B.C. It certainly set the tone for City Centre 2, which is a simi- lar but simpler design." Banich's colleague, Wensley princi- pal Joel Smith, adds, "the challenge was how to create a sister building using many of the same materials yet distin- guish it from the other, and this was achieved by manipulating the build- ing form. City Centre's form is a vertical slab format with a defining triangular wing feature; City Centre 2 is a tower without that triangular feature but echoed by v-shaped columns at the entrance." Interestingly, the triangu- lar motif will be carried over to City Centre 3, which as of July was in the 10:53 AM