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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April 24, 2014

Westbank Salon Series: Chris Phillips Recap

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Yesterday evening, Chris Phillips — founding partner of Phillips Farevaag Smallenberg Landscape Architects (now PFS Studio) — was our salon’s guest speaker.

In his dialogue exchange with exhibition curator Trevor Boddy, he spoke about Vancouver’s longstanding connection to nature and how the 2010 Vancouver Olympics was a defining moment for him, seeing citizens interact with the downtown core’s public realm. In Phillips’ eyes, the future of the public realm lies in repurposing existing urban spaces.

It was great to see our first salon speaker Leslie Van Duzer in the audience, supporting Phillips, as well as Geoffrey Erickson, the nephew of Arthur Erickson.

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Congratulations to Aaron Petruic, who was this week’s #gwerksalon winner! His question focused on regional landscape architecture identity and its implications in regard to city and community-building.

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Our next salon is Tuesday April 29, 2014 with Scot Hein, the Senior Urban Designer leading the City of Vancouver’s Urban Design Studio. RSVP Now!!

Keep on tweeting those city-building questions to @gwerkca with the hashtag #gwerksalon! We’ll be picking a winner to continue the conversation with exhibition curator Trevor Boddy, Hein and other guests at ORU following the next Tuesday’s salon.

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