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08_Cordova Parkade
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The Cardova Parkade incorporates pieces of surrounding historic architecture while offering modern amenities aimed to help revitalize downtown Vancouver.
The city of Vancouver commissioned Henriquez Partners Architects to renovate and extend a parkade that once provided parking for customers of Woodward’s, the former Canadian department store. Located in the east side of downtown, the new structure, Cardova Parkade, is part of a project to revitalize the downtown area. The challenge to the architects was to be sensitive to the historic 20th-century architecture of the surrounding area, while providing modern amenities.
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The 345,000-square-foot concrete structure straddles Trounce Alley as two mid-block buildings—one on Water Street, a main thoroughfare, and the other on Cordova Street, directly across from the former Woodward’s building. The original design included a theater and retail space; the city of Vancouver is negotiating the future use of the space, and has considered converting it to an entertainment complex and possibly a bowling venue.
Concrete shear walls, usually found in the center of parking structures, compose the perimeter of the parkade to accommodate a central light well that opens the interior of the garage to natural daylighting, and a green filtration bed that cleans storm water run-off. As homage to the surrounding historic buildings, the exterior screen is latticed granite and steel, inspired by 19th-century train stations. Fragments of the old bridges from the Woodward’s Parkade have been incorporated into the new building designed to revitalize downtown Vancouver in the 21st-century.
Formal name of building:
Cordova Parkade
Location: Vancouver, British Columbia
Completion Date: November, 2004
Total project cost: $28 million
Owner: City of Vancouver
Architect:
Henriquez Partners Architects
402 West Pender Street
Vancouver, British Columbia V6B 1T6
Tel 604 687 5681
Fax 604 687 8530
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