Cactus Club opened their 23rd
and largest restaurant to date with the
lighting of the Olympic Cauldron at the
iconic Jack Poole Plaza.

The occasion also marked Cactus Clubs’ 25th Anniversary and celebrated their recent Gold Award as Best Casual Chain in Vancouver Magazine’s annual restaurant awards.
The project is also currently featured
in Wallpaper Magazine’s April Travel News.

The new flagship location overlooks stunning Coal Harbour and features a “sea-to-sky” terrace with retractable glass wall for open air dining, allowing panoramic views of the North Shore Mountains and Stanley Park.

Russell Acton will be presenting the work of the firm as part of the Carleton University Azrieli School of Architecture & Urbanism Forum Lecture series in Ottawa at the National Gallery of Canada on March 11th.

On March 15th, Russell will be a member of the jury for the 2013 Sustainable Architecture and Green Building Awards that will be judged on March 15th in Ottawa.

The Cactus Club at English Bay is the October cover story for Canadian Architect magazine.

The newest restaurant in the Cactus Club collection has been exactingly placed within a highly complex, spectacular urban oceanfront location at English Bay.

The form of the building is distinctly linear, running parallel to the seawall promenade to provide sweeping views out to English Bay and creating a vibrant dialogue between diners, passersby and beach goers.

The restaurant is organized in striated bands that reflect the surrounding order of ocean, beach, logs laid end-to-end, seawall promenade, and the neighbouring historic English Bay bathhouse. Low-iron, triple-glazing ensures crystal-clear views while providing superior acoustic separation
from passing traffic.

Coloured glass panels – featuring the deep yellow, orange and red hues associated with fiery English Bay sunsets – accentuate the building in the landscape.

Cactus Club English Bay >
view Canadian Architect article >

The University of British Columbia has selected Acton Ostry Architects, in collaboration with MacLennan Jaunkalns Miller Architects, for the new $37 million UBC Aquatic Centre replacement project.

The new 79,000 sf aquatic facility will replace the existing, outdated facility that has reached the end of it operational life and which can no longer meets the needs of the growing University community. The new aquatic centre will include a 50m competition pool, 25m recreational lap pool, leisure pool and other amenities such as hot tub, sauna, change rooms and multi-purpose spaces.

The facility will be designed to a minimum LEED Gold standard and is scheduled for completion in 2015.

Acton Ostry Architects and Read Jones Christoffersen’s seismic design solution for the UBC Biological Sciences Complex will be featured at the DX Seismic Design Exhibition being held from September 13 to November 9 at the Design Exchange in Toronto.

The exhibition features innovative solutions that surpass conventional approaches to seismic design when unparalleled synchronicity and creative collaboration takes place between architects and engineers.

For the Biological Sciences Complex, three massive T-shaped concrete buttresses were introduced to the exterior of the existing building. The buttresses are clad with laminated glass panels, printed with botanical and zoological images,
that are illuminated at night.

Other work on display includes: ARUP’s and Renzo Piano’s Hermès Building in Tokyo, Daniel Libeskind’s Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco, and Cast Connex’s World Trade Center 3 in New York.

Biological Sciences Complex >

Construction is currently underway for a new, $11.6 million Senior School building for York House School – Vancouver’s renowned, independent day school for girls. The new building will act as an entry portal for the York House School campus and will feature a dramatic, soaring, skylit student lounge and crossroads space.

Academic areas will feature progressive,
state-of-the-art, collaborative learning and teaching environments.

The 3,345 sm facility is scheduled for completion in August 2013.

Acton Ostry Architects is featured in the summer issue of Architecture Leaders Today’s magazine.

View full article >

The mandate of the publication is to present cutting-edge professionals whose innovative projects are part of todays international architecture dialogue. The feature article highlights the firm’s beginnings and two recent projects at the University of British Columbia: Sauder School of Business and the Biological Sciences Complex.

The Hillel Student Centre at UBC and
Cactus Club Sumas Way both received
awards from the Masonry Institute of
British Columbia at their awards gala held
May 17th.

Hillel Student Centre was honoured with
an Award of Excellence and Cactus Club
Sumas Way was recognized with an
Award of Merit.

The Masonry Institute of British
Columbia awards program is held every
three years to recognize design
excellence for British Columbia projects
that feature brick, block and stone.

The Biological Sciences Complex renewal at UBC has received a prestigious Canadian Green Building Award presented through Sustainable Architecture & Building Magazine.

The LEED Gold Biological Sciences Complex was one of only seven projects nationwide that received awards from a total of fifty-six submissions.

The jury commented, “As a renovation this project set the design team the more challenging goal of revitalizing an unprepossessing existing building. Most striking was the use of an innovative solar tracking daylighting system, a courageous application of a new technology…”

The project will be published in the July/August issue of SABMag.

SABMagazine Article >
Biological Sciences Complex >

The Klemtu Ferry Terminal was a double-winner at the Northern BC Building Awards, taking home the Community Institutional category Excellence Award, as well as the Judge’s Choice Award for best in
show overall winner.

Acton Ostry collaborated with BC Ferries and the Kitasoo/Xai’xais to integrate and express the culture of the Kitasoo/Xai’xais First Nations people throughout the project. Elements of the project include a gateway canoe, waiting building, welcome pole, salmon wind vane, Spirit Bear Lodge sign and concrete lock-block walls embedded with relief sculptures of salmon and herring.

Earlier this year the Klemtu Ferry Terminal project received a Premier’s Award for Innovation and Excellence.

Klemtu Ferry Terminal >

The results are in for Vancouver Magazine’s 23rd Annual Restaurant Awards and Cactus Club Cafe has been awarded Gold for Best Casual Chain 2012.

The judges noted that Cactus has separated itself from the casual-fine-dining pack and with more splashy locations in the works joked, “the city’s best chain is making a full-court press toward world domination.”

The latest addition by Acton Ostry to the Cactus collection recently opened at the stunning beachside location at
English Bay in Vancouver.

Acton Ostry Architects are featured in Vectorworks’ Notable Users this month.

Acton Ostry use Vectorworks computer-aided design software program as their design tool of choice. The aesthetic quality of drawings is of utmost importance and Vectorworks allows technical, accurate, and consistently beautiful drawings to be achieved through the detailed control and instant visualization of line work.

Full story at Vectorworks >

Two Acton Ostry projects, King David High School and the Sauder School of Business, are featured in a video about the use of wood in educational projects that was produced by naturally:wood and Forestry Innovation Investment.

Healthy, durable and naturally beautiful, the use of wood enhances learning environments both physically and psychologically.

People spend as much as 90 per cent of their time inside buildings, and for children, adolescents and an increasing number of young adults, most of this time is spent either at home or in school. It is clear that the design of indoor environments is of critical importance to human health — an intuitive conclusion that is now supported by an increasing body of scientific evidence.

Watch the video on YouTube >

Vancouver city council approved Acton Ostry’s rezoning application for a 19-storey residential tower and multi-use complex to be located at East Broadway and Kingsway
in Mount Pleasant.

Mayor Gregor Robertson said in a statement issued following council’s decision that the project fits with the Mount Pleasant community plan, and meets council’s goals for transit-oriented development.

“Transit-oriented development is a top priority for this council and a key piece for our city right now, and this site sits on one of the busiest transit nodes in B.C,”
Robertson told council.

The project now enters the design phase. Construction is scheduled to start in 2013.

Members of the business community, donors, faculty, students and alumni gathered last night for a special Open House celebration, marking the completion of the final phase of the $70M project.

The final phase of the project reinforces the School’s mandate of innovative learning through the inclusion of a wide variety of high tech and state-of-the-art teaching and learning spaces. Transparency and lightness experienced throughout the building reaches its pinnacle in the new floor-to-ceiling glazed conference centre. The penthouse, clad with a varying pattern of clear, translucent and opaque glass panels, acts as a beacon signalling the renewal of the School.

Sauder School of Business >

The Klemtu Ferry Terminal project has been selected as a finalist for this year’s Regional Premier’s Innovation and Excellence Awards. Selected by the adjudicators from 118 nominations, the finalists come from a range of different ministries and organizations across the BC Public Service.

The new ferry terminal located in Klemtu, a small remote community off the West Coast of BC officially opened last fall with a ceremony hosted by the Kitasoo/Xai’xais First Nation. Acton Ostry Architects collaborated on the project as part of an extensive team of engineers, contractors and government agencies, including the Kitasoo/Xai’xais First Nation; SNC‐Lavalin Inc.; BC Ferry Services; and Infrastructure Canada.

Klemtu Ferry Terminal >

Russell Acton will take part in the informative and engaging panel discussion on February 9th from 10:30 am to 12:30 pm as part of this year’s BUILDEX Vancouver Conference.

The panel will consist of leading Vancouver architects Peter Cardew, Walter Francl, Michael Green and Bruce Carscadden (moderator). The discussion will raise the question of the way architecture shapes our lives and communities in countless ways, if architecture is a vital agent for social change and ultimately if architecture matters.

Sauder School of Business >

The Vancouver Chinese Evangelical Free Church has been featured on the world’s most visited architecture website ArchDaily.

The church draws a congregation of the faithful from across the Greater Vancouver Region. The church is much more than a place of worship for the people; it is also a home for the community. The transitional sequence from an uninspiring external context to an internal one of communion and contemplation is a guiding principal of the design. The sanctuary is the spiritual heart of the religious house and community. The soaring baptistery articulates its symbolic purpose and spiritual function adjacent to the sanctuary.

Vancouver Chinese Evangelical Free Church >

The Japan 2 x 4 Home Builders Association consists of wood frame building contractors, building material suppliers and architectural firms. The Association chose to feature the Ucluelet Community Centre in their monthly publication because of the project’s expansive use of wood.

Wood was used throughout the project for its beauty, versatility and economy. Wood is also the construction material with which the community has a close connection through its pioneering past and close ties to the forest industry. Overly complex framing geometries have been minimized to achieve an efficient building envelope system. The building utilizes primarily standard 2×6 wood-frame construction with the taller walls at the performance hall being 2×10 studs.

Ucluelet Community Centre >

The new Klemtu ferry terminal officially opened with a powerful ceremony hosted by the Kitasoo/Xai’xais First Nations peoples that reside in the remote village of Klemtu on Swindle Island. The project includes a new waiting building, berth, ramp, vehicle compound and road improvements to the site.

Many nations travelled to Klemtu to celebrate the opening with Kitasoo/Xai’Xais who hosted a fabulous feast for the hundreds of guests and visitors.

Acton Ostry Architects collaborated with BC Ferries and the Kitasoo/Xai’xais to integrate and express the unique culture of the Kitasoo/Xai’xais First Nations people throughout the project. Iconographical elements of the project include: a gateway canoe that tells the legend of the creation of Klemtu; a waiting building evocative of a traditional longhouse; a welcome pole by famed master carver Tom Hunt; a salmon wind vane; a tourism sign for Spirit Bear Lodge; and, concrete lock-block walls embedded with relief sculptures of salmon and herring.

Klemtu Ferry Terminal >