CACTUS CLUB BY ACTON OSTRY ARCHITECTS

Located on the edge of the Vancouver Business District, with views of the harbour and North Shore Mountains, the new 20,000-square-foot Cactus Club Coal Harbour four-level flagship restaurant weaves together interior design, architecture and urban design by framing the iconic Jack Poole Plaza that houses the Olympic Cauldron.

Embedded into the green roof of the LMN Architects-designed Vancouver Convention Center on the harbour-front, the new 7,350 square foot restaurant, with expansive wrap-around terraces. The restaurant also employs a green roof, which is accessible by both stairs and a glass-sided elevator.

Relaxed dining chain Cactus Club recently celebrated the opening of their largest venue to date - Cactus Club Coal Harbour in Vancouver. The 20,000 sq ft outlet offers more than double the average interior space for the chain’s units and offers arguably the most breathtaking view of any of the 23 venues.

Internally the décor takes inspiration from its local context, with slate flooring and low stratified stone walls, the materiality of which, architects Acton Ostry explain, ‘echoes the Canadian West Coast landscape and establishes a sense of belonging for patrons and employees alike’.

Butcher-block tables can be found throughout, countered by rich brown leather seating and lit by a floating display of hand-blown glass lights. During the day, natural light flows in through the sloping glass roof and walls, enriching the space within.

A generous outside terrace is also available for patrons who wish to enjoy the view in an open-air venue. Stepped terraces within offer intimate seating arrangement and semi-private dining spaces are kept separate with thin metal veils.

A shot of colour is injected through tangerine sofas near the washrooms for repose and carefully selected artworks line the walls, including Graham Gillmore and Andy Warhol.

“The level of quality that Cactus Club demands in terms of design and materiality allows us to work with very high-quality materials. You will also find the level of comfort in any one of their restaurants is equal across the collection,” said Mark Ostry, Principal of Acton Ostry Architects.

Location: Vancouver, British Columbia

Architect: Acton Ostry Architects

Area restaurant: 20,000 square feet

Area patio: 1,300 square feet

Year: 2013

Photo: Michael Elkan

CHEVALIER MORALES ARCHITECTES WINS PIERREFONDS LIBRARY COMPETITION

The winning project in the architecture competition for the Pierrefonds Library was unveiled. Among the four submitted by the finalist firms, the jury chose the concept developed by Chevalier Morales architectes and DMA architectes.

Pierrefonds-Roxboro has endorsed the Montreal architectural firm chosen in a design competition established to pick the firm that would carry out an $18.4-million expansion and renovation of its main public library.

This project is part of the Programme de rénovation, d'agrandissement et de construction des bibliothèques publiques de Montréal (RAC) de l'Entente sur le développement culturel de Montréal.

The project is part of the Programme de rénovation d’agrandissement et de construction des bibliothèques publiques de Montréal (RAC) de l’Entente sur le développement culturel de Montréal.

The borough will now begin plans to allow for the renovation of its main public library, located at 13555 Pierrefonds Blvd. The project will include a 2,316-square-metre extension of the existing building.

The jury, presided by Mr. Jacques Plante, Architect and Associate Professor at Université Laval, author of numerous architecture books, and including Phyllis Lambert, the founding director of the Canadian Centre for Architecture, underlined the uniqueness and originality of the winning concept.

GLOBE AND MAIL CENTRE BY DIAMOND SCHMITT ARCHITECTS

The 500,000-square-foot Globe and Mail Centre will be the new home of Canada’s national newspaper and will anchor the emerging St. Lawrence neighbourhood as a hub of urban activity and corporate offices.

The tower occupies a block defined by King Street East, Front Street East, Berkeley and Princess Streets, with a public midblock connection between King and Front with retail amenities at grade. A high-performance building envelope and advanced glazing system supplies the energy-efficient LEED Gold candidate tower with daylighting deep into the core.

The 17-storey building presents a sequential stacking of alternate-sized floor plates interlaid with terraces that give the structure a distinctive and contemporary profile. Ten-foot-high windows offer views to the waterfront and city skyline. The media company will occupy Levels 13 through 17 connected by a convenience stair.

The building’s core design allows for flexible workspace configurations to meet current and future needs of a dynamic 24/7 work environment. Level 17 has 15-foot ceilings and floor-to-ceiling vision glass and a 300-seat multipurpose room with adjacent direct roof terrace access.

“The Globe and Mail employees are excited to have the opportunity to move to new offices that will better enable us to create the high quality content and award-winning journalism our customers expect,” said The Globe and Mail Publisher and CEO Phillip Crawley.

“The Globe and Mail Centre will be a symbol of the rapid evolution of The Globe as a multimedia business, as we take advantage of digital delivery platforms and drive culture change.” The building is set to break ground in October with occupancy scheduled for 2016.

Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Architects: Diamond Schmitt Architects

Project Team: Donald Schmitt, David Dow, Michael Lukasik, Branka Gazibara, Steven Bondar, Dale McDowell

Area: 500,000 square foot

LEED: Gold (candidate)

Client: First Gulf

ART GALLERY OF ALBERTA BY RANDALL STOUT ARCHITECTS

The new Art Gallery of Alberta was conceived as an engaging and stimulating center for contemporary art in Edmonton.

Celebrating its prominent location on Sir Winston Churchill Square, the main civic and arts public square in the city, the project represents the museum’s commitment to enhancing the public’s experience of the visual arts.

From the beginning of the design competition, the design team was focused on designing a project that would formally and philosophically extend out into the community.

The museum’s public spaces are reinvented in a language of sinuous stainless steel surfaces, peeling off of one another, creating opportunities for generous views and natural light within the building.

Wall and ceiling become one fluid surface which captures the spatial volume of the building and guides the public flow through entry points, wrapping event and gathering spaces, and leading up to the galleries.

As destinations, the gallery boxes read solid and neutral against the light, dancing forms of the public space. Transparent glazing planes and reflective metal surfaces animate the building, exposing the activities within and engaging people and art at multiple levels on both the interior and exterior.

Selected to reflect Edmonton’s dramatic weather patterns and the extreme contrast of the long days of summer and the short days of winter, these materials create a dynamic quality that allow the building to transform along with its natural surroundings.

Not only does the building change throughout the day, it changes from season to season. Crafted of patinaed zinc (mined and manufactured in Canada), stainless steel, and high performance glazing, the building will have a timeless appearance and extraordinary durability in the northern climate.

A massive ribbon of stainless steel wraps around and through the building serving both functional and visual architectural elements. Dubbed "The Borealis", this represents the northern lights, a frequent phenomenon of the Edmonton night sky.

The sleek curving borealis is paneled using Angel Hair Stainless Steel surface. This surface treatment gives the building its muted glow, reducing and nearly eliminating any harsh glare from the sun.

Location: Edmonton, Canada

Architect: Randall Stout Architects

Structure System: Concrete+Steel Frame

Area: 7,800 m2

Extent: 5 stories

Year: 2010

Client: The Art Gallery of Alberta