800 Yates, "Atrium"

Victoria, Canada

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800 Yates, "Atrium"

Victoria, Canada

Firm

D'Ambrosio architecture + urbanism

Type

Commercial › Office Retail

YEAR

2010

The 800 Yates/ Atrium is a 200,000 SF office building that prioritized urban fit, sustainability, and occupant well being.
The public realm is bolstered with cafés, restaurants and shops along the three bounding streets and the perimeter of the internal atrium. Rain gardens ring the site, catching and cleaning polluted run-off, softening the cityscape and buffering the sidewalk from traffic. Inside and out, the complex attracts visitors from the offices above and the surrounding downtown as casual meeting spot.
Management programs the main floor, space for non-commercial and cultural events. The building has become a well- known venue that attracts performing arts organizations as well as charitable groups. ‘The Atrium’, as it is known locally, has hosted music concerts and festivals, fund- raising dinners and conferences.
The design team, collaborating with a visual artist, produced a number of pieces for the project. This included a mural on the hoarding surrounding the construction site, called ‘Prelude’; the stone floor mosaic of the atrium with two large salvaged-wood sculptures, called ‘Interlude’; and ‘Coda’, the deconstructed and collaged pieces of the hoarding panels now hanging as finished artworks throughout the building.
Overhead, innovative custom wood trusses support a 7,200 SF skylight. Panelized hemlock grilles sweep around the atrium’s curving walls, and cedar soffits overhanging the street bring warmth and definition to the sidewalk.
The seven-storey atrium functions as the building’s return- air plenum and allows daylight into the heart of the structure. Conditioned air is delivered near the floor, so the air requires less cooling. Convection draws the air to heat-generating occupants and equipment, where it’s needed. As the air warms, it rises naturally to exhaust through the ceiling. Displacement ventilation uses less energy to deliver higher quality air more quietly, and is a key component in the building’s LEED Gold-certified environmental strategies.

Team:
F. D'Ambrosio
G. Damant
J. Brown
M. Cencich
M. Culham
J. Harvey
T. Kopeck
K. Logan
J. Marinus
R. Nykolaishen
T. Ogden
E. Sangster
M. Zupan