Columbia Containers Office

Additional Info

Award Winner : Metric Modular

Architectural Excellence : Columbia Containers specializes in trans-loading grain from railcars to ocean containers at Port Metro Vancouver. When they required a new office building on Port land, Britco was able to help.

There are current guidelines in place to ensure that any new buildings added to Port land have low glare exterior lighting and landscaping incorporated into the design. We were able to accommodate these requirements with stylish rock and shrub arrangements and low lighting.

The building is set in direct relation to the size of the property and within the minimum required setbacks. An exterior deck, along with the North facing windows, provide an exceptional ocean view.

The design included 7 offices, 3 washrooms (including one wheelchair accessible washroom), an entrance lobby, 28 workstations, a server room and a janitorial supply storage area. Britco optimized the design to achieve the “open space” inside the office to allow for additional work space to be added as the company grows.

Cost Energy Effectiveness : With special transport permits to the dock we were able to maximize design of the modules and achieve a much more cost-effective install.

As mentioned, the site was extremely tight, but having the modules 90% complete and using minimal construction aids and equipment, modular was the perfect solution to minimizing the amount of work required on site.

Occupied Date : 7/22/2016

Production Start Date : 4/14/2016

Project Location City : Vancouver

Project Location State Name : British Columbia

Technical Innovation : The site was extremely tight with very minimal space to work around once foundation was in place. As such, this project would have been nearly impossible to build using traditional stick-built methods. This also posed numerous design challenges that we were able to overcome, including room for the landscaping and parking lot.

Crane setting also posed a challenge due to the surrounding power lines, so a team from Hydro Line Guide (Certified) was brought in to monitor the crane setting to ensure that we were always clear of potentially hitting the high voltage lines.

We found that proper survey of the site was key to our success in order to have the building set in place to maximize the use of site but stay within the setbacks as governed by the Port of Vancouver.

The high-efficiency HVAC equipment and the light sensor system improved the energy efficiency of the building.

Total Square Feet : 5760