Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/292860
practice at the top of their game," explains Sutherland. Nowhere is DIALOG's diversity and influence more obvious than in Vancouver, where 40 years' of history has touched almost every major site from Granville Island and the CBC development to Vancouver's last piece of developable waterfront – Concord Pacific's Northeast False Creek. It is clear that a signature esthetic or style is unheard of at DIALOG , because it would mark the antithesis of the collaborative process. "Every project is completely unique," says Alan Boniface, Vancouver managing principal and an early principal with HBBH. "This is important in place-making because we want to create buildings and places [that are] unique to where we are. We don't believe in slapping a look on a place." Granville Island is a stunning example of place- making and of the longevity that typifies thoughtful design. HBBH's Norm Hotson and Joost Bakker were engaged in the mid-70s to create a plan for the then industrial peninsula under the broad mandate to create "a place of public interest." Essential to the Granville Island project was a diverse and meaningful mix of uses and preserva- tion of the property's old timber buildings, which were inventoried and explored to fully understand their composition. "We recycled the majority of the buildings, and worked hard to respect the original industrial architecture in the mix of wood and metal cladding," says Bakker, now a Vancouver principal with DIALOG. Even the street design pays tribute to the island's industrial roots. Today, Granv ille Island sees approximately 12-million visitors a year, making it Canada's most visited man-made landmark. Its tenant mix preserves a sense of local flavour that defines Vancouver. "The localness is actually its success and that continues to this day," says Bakker. When it comes to the international market, the company first stretched its wings between 2001 and 2002 when Boniface took the company's reputation and approach overseas to market its success in China and the U.S. "Vancouver is a unique place that is recognized worldwide," says Bakker. "It is a dense, walkable, transit-oriented experiment, and so I went to those places overseas and told people I'd learned my trade in Vancouver and here were some ideas." DIALOG's projects in San Francisco, Portland, New York and Memphis proved the company's expertise in city-making. Downtown rejuvenation and mixed-use development projects went beyond a "knock-down and fill-the-gap" approach, and looked at longevity and beauty through social engineering. A case in point is the Crosstown mixed-use, vertical urban village in Memphis that turned a derelict 1927 Sears warehouse building into a thriving neighbour- hood hub. The 10-storey building is being trans- formed into a live-work project with residential on top, office, educational and light industrial in the middle, and retail including markets and an artists' group on the lower floor. "It's just wild," says Boniface. "It exemplifies the amazing, grassroots fabric of people in what may otherwise be viewed as a depressed city." The firm has also completed mixed-use and dense residential tower projects in Beijing, China, which led Chinese companies working in Vancouver to seek DIALOG based on those projects. "The firm has built some incredible history in Canada and abroad," says Boniface. "It is the idea of creating something more than a building or a plan. It is innate to who we are." Boundless procurement options (P3 being the most significant) have presented an interesting learning curve for DIALOG, as has the increased use of technol- ogy like building information modelling (BIM). BIM essentially gives DIALOG's approach a tangible, visual, three-dimensional expression. "It allows us to see the building and all its systems in all dimensions, so we can see all of the work together," says Sutherland. "We think the new technology direction is fantastic because it is very much in alignment with what we are trying to do." The industry has also taken on a tremendous amount of subspecialization that sees projects approached area by area by a team of people, rather than by a lone architect as it was a decade ago. Some of the company's most innovative projects stem from its sustainability and resiliency initiatives, which aim to revolutionize the way buildings deal with and resist environmental pressures, now and in the future. "Although we are advocates of having good clear benchmarks like LEED and Living Building Challenge, we don't start with that," says Craig Applegath, Toronto principal and urban resilience and regenerative design expert. Each design is pared down to three specific objectives: minimum or zero carbon, optimal water conservation and minimal or zero ecological harm. "We also look for opportunities to regenerate," he says. The firm's work on the York Regional Forest Stewardship & Education Centre will see the development of an education centre that integrates with the ecosystem it showcases and meets the requirements for LEED Platinum and the Living Building Challenge. The simple, elegant structure will reuse all of its water and make its own power – all without the use of materials on the Living Building Challenge's red list, which excludes items sometimes taken for granted in the construction industry. The resiliency concept encapsulates regenerative design, but is also about "holding the fort," says Applegath. "But what are we holding it for? What are we hoping for in the future?" Applegath asks. "It's not about hardening or protecting [the buildings] from storms, but what to do if a shock knocks out the power in half a city? How is your operation impacted?" The firm is in the midst of a number of resiliency projects (most of which are confidential in nature) that integrate this component of the work in the same multi-disciplinary fashion the firm is known for. Additional photos and information on DIALOG's current projects can be seen on the Award iPad edition. n Above: Granville Island, Vancouver, B.C. DIALOG's design for the seminal Granville Island project forever changed the city's urban landscape. Left: The Mark, Vancouver, B.C. Below: The CBC development, Vancouver, B.C. AprIL 2014 /9 DIALOG p08-09DIALOG.indd 9 14-04-02 4:43 PM