Category: Architecture & Art
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When Fear Gets in the Way of Doing Things Better
In January 2015, the new Vancouver Building Code came into effect. It came as no surprise as the document had been available for review for some time prior to its enactment. Still, contractors, developers and clients scrambled to get their projects into the city before the end of 2014 to avoid having to meet the…
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Value Engineering: The Edit in Your Back Pocket
When we design we invest a great deal of imagination, skill and time developing something that not only clients will like but also that we can be proud of. We are aware of budgets and limits to the extent we can deviate from the norm but we still try, have to try, to push for…
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Carnarvon Street Documentary – Part Three – Demolition
Part Three of our documentary on our Carnarvon Street project is ready for your viewing. Let us know your thoughts.
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Carnarvon Street – Part Two – Connection
View the second part of our documentary on the Carnarvon Street, Vancouver project, Connection. We look forward to your comments.
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Carnarvon Street – Part One: Respecting the Past
View the first part of our documentary on the Carnarvon Street, Vancouver project. We look forward to your comments.
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Size Doesn’t Matter: It is how you use it.
Recently there has been a significant amount of conversation regarding the increase in the size of newly constructed single family houses in the Greater Vancouver Area. It is not a new conversation. Many Architects, designers, contractors, neighbours and real estate agents are weighing in on the continued increase in the scale of new houses. Neighbours…
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Once Again at the threshold: New Westminster and Halifax
2014 saw the grand opening of two prominent civic buildings exhibiting contemporary and dynamic Architecture on opposite sides of the country: The Anvil Centre in downtown New Westminster, British Columbia and the Halifax Central Library in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The timing and forward thinking Architecture of these openings are certainly not the only thing these…
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Respecting Our Past While Building Our Future
At Billard Architecture we have a modern bent. I had the fortune of starting in Architecture in 1985 with a small firm, Sperry & Associates, in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, we specialized in modern design. Our projects, both single family homes and civic buildings, were on the edge of the push for new expression in the…
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The “How?” in getting the best New West Secondary School: A question of Project Delivery
Following my blog on the idea of designing the New Westminster Secondary School as a tower instead of the standard rambling low-rise form of school to deal with the site constraints, there has been a tremendous amount of response. The resounding commentary has been not regarding “why?” but “how?” do we get this to happen.…