VANCOUVER — Architectural firm IBI Group is celebrating an iconic Arthur Erickson building that doubles as its headquarters.
IBI Group and the Arthur Erickson Foundation held a fundraiser and gave tours of the Evergreen Building on March 28 to raise awareness both of the foundation’s programs and initiatives and to explain how the Modernist, terraced structure in Vancouver’s downtown Coal Harbour neighbourhood has influenced design in the city and beyond. IBI Group’s studios currently occupy the main and upper floors.
Speakers for a presentation titled, Telling the Evergreen Story, included architecture critic Trevor Brody, esteemed landscape architect Cornelia Hahn Oberlander, IBI Group president David Thom, francl Architects principal Stefan April and former co-director of Vancouver Planning Larry Beasley.
Architect Barry Johns, who was a key design team member for the Evergreen Building as well as a former chancellor of the Royal Architecture Institute of Canada’s College of Fellows, also detailed the design process that went into the iconic structure.
The Evergreen Building, completed in 1980, features a series of stacked landscaped decks and has been saved from demolition and fully preserved through a multi-year effort. It is the first example of 1970s Modernist architecture to be historically designated in western Canada.
Erickson, who died in 2009, was a native of Vancouver and is known not only for the Evergreen Building but for Robson Square, the Simon Fraser University campus, the Canadian Embassy in Washington, D.C., Roy Thomson Square in Toronto and many other buildings across the globe.
Terrace House, a luxury condominium development planned to occupy space adjacent to the Evergreen Building has been designed by architect Shigeru Ban and will be the largest timber hybrid building to date. The design is triangular and will complement the appearance of the Evergreen Building.
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