Bolstering Canadian Western Bank’s presence in the city’s Financial District, the Vancouver Main Banking Centre and Regional Office provide a high profile and centralized space for CWB’s growing operations throughout the Lower Mainland. The brief for project was two-fold; designing a flagship retail banking centre in the tower podium based on the Banking Centre of the Now Design Guidelines, as well as renovating three stories of corporate and banking centre office space in the tower above. Although each space provided different business functions for CWB, the design directive was to consider them as interconnected parts and interpret the design characteristics of a banking centre into an office environment. This resulted in an approach for the tower that borrowed design gestures from recently completed banking centre projects but introduced new themes, such as biophilia and flexible work environments.

Prior to schematic design, N53 completed test-fits to ensure that the quality of space in the tower aligned with CWB’s people-centered workplace approach, and assisted developing the organization’s initiative to pursue a variety of flexible, unassigned work points and a spatial approach to hybrid working in their corporate properties. Highlights of this design include a generous Welcome Space and interconnected Community Hub and Learning Centre, providing CWB with the capacity to host events and workshops in their suite. N53 also assisted the client team navigate tenant guideline and regulatory challenges of the project, such as the requirement to use a separate suite address for the organization’s growing insurance services while co-locating it with the rest of their office space. The success of the tower project in Vancouver was instrumental in developing CWB’s approach to the design ideals of corporate properties and informed similar office-space renovations in Toronto and Edmonton.