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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Philosophy
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April 09, 2014

#GwerkSalon Winner: Lance Sy

Last night was the launch of our Westbank Salon Series, which kicked off with Leslie Van Duzer, the Director of the School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture at the University of British Columbia.

The Q&A portion of the evening included #gwerksalon contest questions posed on Twitter by those interested in city-building and design. Congratulations to Lance Sy (pictured below with Trevor Boddy), the first winner of our #gwerksalon contest! His question was: “How do you conceive of + envision the #Gwerk #totaldesign philosophy playing out in a specifically #Vancouver context?”

After the salon, he joined Boddy, Van Duzer and guests at ORU at the Fairmont Pacific Rim for a continued conversation over dinner. Fittingly, Lance is a prospective architecture student who just received admission to UBC’s School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture.

Keep on tweeting your questions to us at @gwerkca using the hashtag #gwerksalon — we’ll pick not only a winner, but a few questions to be answered during the Q&A!

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Thank you to everyone who attended last night, making it a great success and the perfect way to jumpstart dialogue around city-building and design.

For those who could not make it, there is another salon on Tuesday April 15 with Larry Beasley, the former Co-Director of Planning for the City of Vancouver. Click to register here.

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