95 Nelson Street / Fire Hall #8

Location

Vancouver, BC 

Client

City of Vancouver

Size

20,764 SQM

Sustainability Features

Targeting Passive House and LEED Gold Certification 

The project includes Fire Hall No. 8, a childcare facility, and a 28-storey residential tower delivering much-needed social housing. To integrate multiple, highly specialized uses within a tightly constrained site was one of the greatest opportunities to think outside the box.

The fire hall is structurally separated as a post-disaster building while sharing a common below-grade footprint with the adjacent development. Fronting Beatty Street, the fire hall is oriented to ensure efficient emergency response, with apparatus bays occupying much of the limited frontage. The fire hall’s roof elevation is carefully coordinated with the adjoining childcare facility, allowing it to support an outdoor play area above, which is a solution that maximizes functionality while reinforcing the project’s layered, multi-use approach. The residential tower will consist of housing that cater to families, singles, couples, seniors and people with disabilities, and will be operated by Brightside.  The project is designed to Step Code 4 with energy-efficient heating and cooling. 

Sustainability is a defining driver of the design across all building components. The firehall is targeting Passive House and LEED Gold shadowing, supported by a whole-building life-cycle assessment (LCA) to quantify embodied carbon reduction. Form factor and energy modelling analysis are undertaken starting from the early design stage to enhance sustainability performance.