We don’t have to tell you how interesting it is to construct a building from scratch, but to build it over top of another building without manipulating that existing building is a feat. Our professionals, using their skills as solution-providers and innovative thinkers, can make anything work, and they gladly accepted the challenge knowing that it meant allowing the client to turn their dreams into a reality.

Take an 11-story 1927 Heritage Building that is the existing Old Stock Exchange in downtown Vancouver. Now imagine the client asking you to build a 375-foot tower (31-stories) with seven levels of underground parking around and on top of it while retaining the structure, façade and key interior features. It’s like taking a cardboard box and placing it directly over another box.

With zero room to maneuver around the outskirts of the building perimeter due to space limitations and neighbors almost attached, our preplanning and coordination expertise would be essential. Our challenge was wrapping the new tower from ground level to the roof on the existing heritage building by all three sides of the façade and then extending it over the top and up towards the sky. The result is a tower wrapped in curtainwall that has distinct vertical mullions giving the impression of a pinstriped business suit, made to look like it is sitting on top of the heritage building. Adding to the uniqueness of the entire project was our ability to work collaboratively with our partners to restore the main lobby and elevator lobby with Italian plaster and an art floor paying tribute to the history of the Old Stock Exchange.