Exterior night view of elevated train station from below.

Brentwood Town Centre Station

Location: Burnaby, B.C.
Architect: Perkins&Will
Completion: 2002
Photo credit: Nic Lehoux

Size
2,045 square metres

Owner
TransLink

Structural Engineer
Fast + Epp

Engineered Wood Fabricator
Mercer Mass Timber LLC

Structural systems
Hybrid / Other
Low rise
Post + beam
Prefabricated

Project materials
Glue-laminated timber (Glulam)
Nail-laminated timber (NLT)

First of its kind double curved wood canopy station

The double-curved wood canopy and futuristic form of Brentwood Town Centre Station makes it an iconic structure on the Burnaby skyline.

NLT and glulam form primary structure

The first in a series of innovative transit station designs to incorporate wood, Brentwood Town Centre Station is an iconic structure on Metro Vancouver’s Millennium Line, with its double-curved futuristic form levitating above Lougheed Highway. Its sleek, canoe-like design foreshadowed the thoroughly modern, state-of-the-art town centre in Burnaby, the city immediately to the east of Vancouver.

The structure’s hybrid-timber design is the result of digital technology applied to tried-and-true traditional materials. The two curved nail-laminated timber (NLT) canopies, supported by glue-laminated timber (glulam) ribs, are connected via a structural gutter to steel cross-bracing and V-shaped steel struts to form the primary structure to which the glazing is fastened. More station designs followed this precedent-setting project, incorporating mass timber or other wood products in various architecturally expressive shapes and forms.

Photo credit: Tae Ik Hwang

Case study: Wood in transportation

A case study and video regarding structural design and transportation featuring the Brentwood Town Centre Station, Canada Line Stations and the Kingsway Pedestrian Bridge.

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