Award

J UNE 2015 | 69 Marine Gateway RENDERINGS COURTESY PERKINS+WILL The retail podium is adorned in dis- tinctive terracotta. "We prioritized different areas and saved a bit on the insulated metal panel and paid a bit more on the terracotta," Bragg explains. "We took from one budget to pay for the other, but what it does is it puts the podium materials at a very high level; we're using materials that are equal or better than some of the projects you see in downtown Vancouver." The stakeholders' vision of an engag- ing public realm offered landscape architect Peter Liaw of PWL a most wel- come opportunity to design eye-catch- ing spaces that are also culturally and historically relevant. "The challenge is to design something that is not just for the Canada Line sta- tion, but for the neighbourhood as well," says Liaw. "We're trying to create some- thing that goes beyond the property lines of the project – it's not just beautifying a site, it's tying the past with the present." To that end, passersby will notice a 1936 street car map etched into the concrete of the south plaza, just out- side the bus loop, a water feature on the High Street that recalls the nearby Fraser River and an extensive pub- lic art contribution that relates to the adjacent river and the industrial past of the area. "We didn't want to do just a tradi- tional green roof with no kind of pat- terning," Liaw adds, "so the design behind that was taking the map of the Vancouver area, where you can see it from a bird's-eye view, and then winding through the [street] grid pattern will be granular material of different sizes that will symbolize the Fraser River." But as keen as PCI and its partners were to make a visual splash on the sky - line, they were just as keen to make Marine Gateway sustainable, beyond simply measuring up to the LEED Gold standard. "When we detailed the wall systems, we were looking at true effective values for the thermal performance as opposed to where some projects are looking at theoretical values," Bragg explains. "We want this to truly perform so that the users get the benefits of all the moves that are made. It'll be a great project for the test of time." Juck adds: "We were constantly striv- ing to provide the most environmentally sustainable, yet cost-effective solutions. For example, the food store tenant's cooling systems, which traditionally are mechanically separate air cooled systems, were required to be water cooled with connections to the main central plant, allowing waste heat from the tenant's refrigeration systems to be reclaimed by the entire complex." Ultimately, though, impressive as Marine Gateway's mix of style and sus- tainability is, what also excites Bragg most is the impact it will have on this evolving neighbourhood. "I think one of the real standout features is the mix of the features themselves and how they all support one another," he says. "Because of that mix of uses, we have a scenario where there will be people on the site 24 hours a day – that's going to have a huge impact on south Vancouver." A MottElectric.indd 1 15-05-04 11:54 AM

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