It’s made from mass timber. It meets Passivhaus standards. Construction componentry is modular and prefabricated largely using robotic technology. The project addresses Indigenous social housing needs.
No wonder the Chief George Leonard Building was unanimously approved when it came before Vancouver City Council in the spring of 2021.
Located at 1766 Frances St. in the Grandview-Woodland neighbourhood in East Vancouver, the Chief George Leonard Building was designed by Vancouver firm GBL Architects and developed by the non-profit M’akola Development Services.
The nine-storey, 85,500-square-foot affordable housing complex replaces a smaller three-storey, 36-unit social housing project owned by the Vancouver Native Housing Society destroyed by fire back in 2017. GBL describes the building as, “Canada’s first mixed-use tall mass timber Passive House building.”
Construction of the new building features CLT panels for the floor slabs, interior finishes and the façade. A concrete core and steel columns frame the structure and increases its fire resistance. A metal mesh shields the building’s balconies to prevent them from touching the CLT envelope while also reducing thermal bridging.
The combination of Passivhaus standards and utilization of mass timber has reduced operational and embodied carbon by 75 per cent, GBL says.
The Frances Street project provides much-needed quality affordable housing for Vancouver’s Indigenous community. In total, 84 units are available for First Nation Vancouverites in a mix of one, two, three and four-bedroom layouts. At least one-third of the units have been permanently set aside for residents earning less than the BC Housing Income Limit.
The building will also be home to Head Start, “a program where Indigenous children can learn about their culture and language in a supportive space,” says BC Housing.
Particularly striking are the First Nations motif used for the façade installed early this year. It is described by Intelligent City as, “a complex basket weave design and Passive House building envelope with consistent precision, fit, speed and instant water and air tightness.”
The supply and installation of the mass timber envelope system leveraged the product and technology platform from Vancouver-based Intelligent City called Platforms-for-Life™. The company says its Platforms-for-Life factory employs the latest manufacturing technology, including prefabrication robotics, in order to achieve speed, accuracy, cost efficiency and variability. This process integrates mass timber, robotic manufacturing and advanced design engineering with software automation.
“A high degree of automation in our factories means that quality control and precision become a part of the process. In turn, costs are reduced and timelines shortened,” the company says. “Prefabrication and digital pre-construction methods reduce onsite construction times by up to 50 per cent and ensure that every detail is accounted for.”
The basket weave façade complements other elements of the project, such as the landscaping, and the use of alternating pavers around the building which further reference the basket weaving traditions of the native Coast Salish peoples, a group spanning the coastal Pacific Northwest.
A setback at the seventh floor level, described as “where the handle meets the basket body,” opens to an outdoor roof terrace with 360-degree views of the city. At ground level, facilities will reportedly include an external sweat lodge and a child care facility for up to 20 children. A parking lot for up to 25 cars and 96 bicycles is located below grade.
Tours of the Chief George Leonard building took place throughout this past spring as construction proceeded. The official opening and tenancy availability is scheduled for later this year.
John Bleasby is a freelance writer. Send comments and Climate and Construction column ideas to [email protected]
