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
Mass timber hybrid
Post-and-beam

Project materials
Glue-laminated timber
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.

The elevated rapid transit station on Vancouver’s Millennium Line was the first of a series to incorporate wood and the first of its kind in North America.
The striking curved wood canopies and overall canoe-like shape give the futuristic appearance of a station elevated high above a major thoroughfare.
The canopies utilize both traditional materials and digital technology to create a hybrid timber design.

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.

Watch the video / read the case study