Central City

Location: Surrey, B.C

Architect: Bing Thom Architects, now Revery Architecture

Completion: 2003

Photo credit: Nic Lehoux

Size
7,896 square metres

Owner
Blackwood Partners Management Corporation

Structural Engineer
Fast + Epp

Structural systems
Hybrid / Other
Post + beam

Project materials
Glue-laminated timber (Glulam)
Parallel strand lumber (PSL)
Solid-sawn heavy timber

Species
Douglas-fir

Atrium, galleria and façade designs push the boundaries of what’s possible with wood

Timber steals the show in this 2003 turning-point project in the province’s fastest growing city.

Expressive uses of wood tie form and function together.
The atrium roof features a geometric wood space frame constructed from 3,700 Douglas-fir peeler cores—making full use of a by-product of the plywood industry.
Parallel strand lumber (PSL) mullion columns support the atrium’s lower glazing and the concrete canopy above it—unique in a large and complex façade.

Wood provides warmth and expression to combined shopping centre, commercial office space and university

Three distinct timber structural systems are used for the atrium, galleria and façade of this combined shopping centre, commercial office space and university—giving warmth and expression to an otherwise concrete, steel and glass building.

The atrium roof features a geometric wood space frame constructed from 3,700 Douglas-fir peeler cores—making full use of a by-product of the plywood industry. Varying clusters of Douglas-fir logs, turned and tapered, branch from reinforced concrete columns.

Upon entering the building, visitors’ eyes are immediately drawn to the atrium’s expressive web of 3-D timber, reminiscent of a child’s Tinkertoy construction set. Large PSL mullion columns support the atrium’s lower glazing as well as the concrete canopy above it, something unique in a façade so large and complex.

The 2,200-square-metre galleria roof—a freeform skeletal structure consisting of 20 individual 3-D composite timber-and-steel cable trusses—covers a serpentine-shaped, five-storey-high vaulted space.

All in all, the atrium, galleria, and façade designs not only push the boundaries of what’s possible with wood, but serve as a civic statement, emblematic of the City of Surrey’s official motto: the future lives here.