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We all know that buildings don't always turn out like the renderings. Last-minute changes and real-life materials can all cause discrepancies between the vision and reality of a project. In our Flash Forward Friday feature, we take a look at how different projects stack up.
In a city dominated by residential construction, the prospect of a Kohn Pedersen Fox-designed office tower was welcome news to architecture and skyscraper enthusiasts in 2011. Even better, at 36 storeys and 143 metres, the MNP Tower at 1021 West Hastings would become the second tallest office building in Vancouver. When Oxford Properties released renderings of their proposed project, they showed a slender and curvilinear tower enveloped in a smooth curtain wall skin.
Built on one of the last available sites within the city's business core, the tower's striking form establishes a complementary relationship with its older neighbours, particularly the 1920s Art Deco Marine Building and the Guinness Tower, a rectilinear office block from the 1960s. At ground level, the building supports a vibrant streetscape with a curved lobby opening onto a sun-kissed public plaza. The incorporation of the historical University Club that long occupied the site ensures the continuation of the brick and stone streetwall along West Hastings.
The finished building, designed in collaboration with local practice Musson Cattell Mackey Partnership, executed the vision with precision, flouting the value engineering that often cheapens the quality of the cladding or structural composition of many developments across Canada. The building has gone on to receive praise from several significant organizations, taking home a City of Vancouver Urban Design Award, two 2016 Commercial Real Estate Awards of Excellence for Office Development and Tenant Improvement, and the Lieutenant Governor Merit Award from the Architectural Institute of British Columbia. MNP Tower has become a new landmark on the Vancouver skyline, finding its place in the city without disrupting the architectural old guard that remains a prominent part of the urban fabric.
