Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/331457
Anvil Centre & Office Tower by Jessica Krippendorf A nvil Centre has reinvented the neighbourhood at Columbia and Eighth Streets in New West- minster, B.C., with a design that simul- taneously celebrates the past and en- thusiastically embraces the future. The four-storey, 84,000-square-foot civic centre podium with 137,000-square- foot office tower is a community-driven, esthetically-inspiring entity that unites people, history and the arts. When it opens its doors to the public this fall, the civic centre will include a 350-seat theatre, conference and meet- ing space, art studios, an art gallery, tourist information centre, the city's museum and archives, and the Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame. The nine-storey Anvil Office Tower rises above the civic centre with the entire assembly resting on three levels of underground parking. Every detail of the project's design and build has ref lected tremendous hours of discussion between the com- munity and stakeholders, says Lisa Spitale, chief administrative officer for the City of New Westminster. Even t he projec t 's name wa s inspired by the anvil's unique place in New Westminster's history as a symbol of craftsmanship and strength, recall- ing the city's proud roots as one of the province's original industrial centres. Spitale says Anvil Centre was funded by a secondary casino fund earmarked for municipal projects that promote tourism and economic development. "We are quite fortunate to have it," she says, "and to be able to work through what we needed to have in a building, how to maximize its use, how to con- tribute to downtown revitalization, and how to add to the economic base downtown." The building's design was a col- laborative effor t bet ween Musson Cattell Mackey Partnership and Hughes Condon Marler Architects ( HCMA). Roger Hughes, founding partner with HCMA, says combining a multi-storey office tower with the civic facility was a complex design problem, not only because the structure and core of the office passed through the four levels of the Anvil Centre, but also because each entity required its own unique identity. "To achieve this, the four-storey podium that houses the civic functions is expressed as a three-storey limestone ribbon floating one-storey above grade, open at the street level to facilitate and reinforce the public domain," he says. The City wanted an iconic, signature building that would respond to neigh- bourhood context and still be contem- porary, says Spitale. "There was a lot of discussion whether it should look heritage because there are important heritage buildings on the street," she explains. "We decided this building should pay tribute to that, but look for- ward into the future." The design team chose a combina- tion of glass, steel and limestone that pulls the design together, while lining through with the average cornice height of the surrounding heritage buildings. The limestone features a distinctive character and appearance in each stone, some of which contain fossils. A custom colour distribution layout for the stone provides a mosaic appearance through- out the exterior and interior. Black brick wraps around on the exterior – a nod to turn of the century Edwardian typical red brick. Within the Anvil Centre, the team from PUBLIC completed the designs for the New Westminster Museum & Archives and Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame. Principal Susan Mayor notes, "The permanent exhibits convey the quirky 'up and down' drama of New "We can have people flow in and out of the building, and that is what this project is about. It is about people and energy, what they create and how they enliven the street. The building is really a place where people can be inside, and spill outside and come together." – Lisa Spitale, chief administrative officer, City of New Westminster courtesy Musson cattell Mackey PartnershiP june 2014 /65 Anvil Centre & Office Tower Alpha Mech Anvil.indd 1 14-05-23 8:52 AM p.64-67Anvil Centre.indd 65 14-06-03 9:55 AM