Bing Thom re-imagines downtown Vancouver

MT @rdtvan: Bing re-imagines #downtownVancouver http://t.co/W4h9TXU8Vx #rdtvan http://t.co/ioZirDl557 pic.twitter.com/dipdZwWywm

— Bing Thom Architects (@BTArchitects) July 4, 2015

— @gwerkca Salon Series: Andrew Yan @BTArchitects Sunday, 11 May 4:00 PM q's, live tweets #gwerkSalon

RT @1sidewalkballet: Andy from @BTArchitects to give next #Gesamtkunstwerk talk on Sunday, May 11. http://t.co/V74g7zF9zp

— Bing Thom Architects (@BTArchitects) May 9, 2014

Tweets about "#gwerkSalon"

From ARCADE — Trevor Boddy on Bing Thom: (Curving) Lines of Thought

The Vancouver architecture practice of Bing Thom has over the past two years received the highest possible accolades from its Canadian colleagues: the 2010 Royal Architectural Institute of Canada’s award for top architectural firm, and in 2011, the R.A.I.C. Gold Medal went to Thom personally for his lifetime of achievement in design. The reason for this attention is that in an architectural landscape that rewards bland competency over creative innovation, the works of Bing Thom stand out. Bing Thom’s work is unpredictable, and in times when public and campus architecture evermore resemble beltway branch offices, predictability reigns king. While large corporate firms reliably deliver the high-end of generically urbane and green public building commissions, Bing Thom gets the strange but wonderful work—or more accurately, he makes it strange and wonderful. Read more: (Curving) Lines of Thought | ARCADE | Dialogue on Design

From BT | A | Works — Independent and Chain Bookstores (and Public Libraries) in the City of Vancouver

Click the image for the interactive map of Independent and Chain Bookstores Stores with Public Libraries in the City of Vancouver.

With Frances Bula’s recent Vancouver magazine article on the City’s bookstore scene, she looks at the various reasons behind Vancouver’s lack of a large independent destination flagship bookstore like Powell’s Books in Portland, Elliot Bay Books in Seattle, Strand Books in New York City. or Munro’s Books in Victoria. She also looks at the overall challenges of operating an independent bookstore in the City of Vancouver and what does it take to survive and thrive in a changing climate of shifting reading habits, disruptive technologies, and ever increasing retail rents. The answers seems to be hinged on a tale of entrepreneurial guile, a mixture of specialization and co-marketing/merchandising, customer service and a dose of luck with real estate. While there are many aspects of a Murder/Mystery when it comes to the fate of the independent bookstore (RIP Duthie’s) in the City of Vancouver, independent bookstores seem to best succeed when they pick a tone and a niche in the 50 shades of grey in the City’s population of readers and booklovers.BT | A | Works » Flotillas, Not Flagships: Independent and Chain Bookstores (and Public Libraries) in the City of Vancouver

From BT | A | Works — The Sociology of Caffeine in Vancouver

BTAworks is the architectural and urban research and development division for Bing Thom Architects.The above interactive map provides the locations of the independent coffee and teahouses in the City of Vancouver used in the study.

The task of documenting the independent purveyors of caffeine in the City of Vancouver has been a far more complicated task than analyzing major coffee chains. These complications come as a combination of hard technical challenges of mining and mapping raw business license data with the softer subjectivities of what qualifies as an “independent” coffee and tea house. This analysis not only includes caffeine in the form of coffee, but, to reflect the multicultural fabric of this city, include those who also sell tea beverages including, of course, Bubble Tea Cafes. In this collection, the sociology of caffeine in Vancouver also reflects the cultural buzz found in this City. More at: BT | A | Works » The Independent Purveyors of Caffeine in the City of Vancouver

From The Architect's Newspaper — Bing in the Burbs

PHOTO SASAKI ASSOCIATES

Ellen Dunham-Jones and June Williamson put the phrase “retrofitting suburbia” into the urbanist lexicon back in 2008, when they published a book about a movement to turn dying malls and car-choked strips into mixed-use, walkable places. Slowed by the recession, the movement roared back into view in Maryland this month. On February 13, the owners of a huge 1960s apartment and strip retail complex in Silver Spring unveiled a master plan by Bing Thom Architects and Sasaki Associates for an ambitious redevelopment of the 27-acre site. 

Under the new master plan, the complex, called The Blairs, would gain 10 new buildings of up to 200 feet in height. Its current stock of 1,400 apartments would double. Four-hundred-and-fifty-thousand square feet of new commercial space would be added. The large parking lot at its heart would be replaced by a series of parks weaving through the property; these would also negotiate a steep grade change that now effectively splits the eastern and western halves of the complex.Read more: Bing in the Burbs - The Architect's Newspaper