GESAMTKUNSTWERK

Westbank has built a practice around long-term commitments to artistry, sustainability and city-building. These commitments underlie an orientation towards projects like Woodwards, Vancouver House, Mirvish Village, Telus Garden and Oakridge – catalysts for larger change that go beyond the borders of the projects themselves. We are here to create. To provoke. To ignite. We are the vehicle for a new movement of cultural expression.

As the practice matures, we have become more ambitious. With every new project reflecting our commitment to the philosophy behind Gesamkunstwerk, or in our recent work the Japanese philosophy behind layering, the net effect is that our work becomes much more complex and far-reaching.

The core of Westbank’s mission is to create a body of work with a high degree of artistry that helps foster more equitable and beautiful cities. Westbank is active across Canada and in the United States, with projects including luxury residential, Five Star hotels, retail, office, rental, district energy systems, affordable housing initiatives and public art. Established in 1992, we are one of North America’s leading developers, with offices in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Seattle, Shanghai, Beijing, Taiwan, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Shenzhen and over 25 billion dollars of projects completed or under development.

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September 18, 2015

TELUS Garden officially opens

TELUS Garden’s 22-storey, 450,000-square-foot office tower, designed by Henriquez Partners Architects and developed by Westbank, is officially Vancouver’s first LEED Platinum certified office tower with the distinction of the highest LEED score card ever to the Canada Green Building Council.

One of the standout sustainable features of the development is the innovative district energy system nested inside the building. This system will permit CO2 emissions reductions by over a million kg per year. By recapturing heat from TELUS data centres housed onsite, it allows the new headquarters to reduce its conventional energy demand for heating and cooling by over 80 percent.

Of all the building features that contribute to the LEED Platinum certification, the district energy system alone makes the building the most energy efficient piece of real estate in Vancouver.
– Ian Gillespie

An impressive district energy system captures and transfers heat from the company’s massive data centre on Seymour Street into the complex’s new office and residential towers. It will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by one million kilograms annually, which is equivalent to planting 25,000 trees per year.

On the rooftop, approximately 300 solar panels will generate approximately 65,000 kilowatt hours of electricity per year, reducing the building’s reliance on drawing power from the grid.