Completion of the Alliance Francaise Vancouver Centre Culturel Project
RAM is excited to announce the completion of the Alliance Francaise Vancouver (AFV) Culturel Centre project!
In 2015, Alliance Francaise Vancouver (AFV) launched a project to build a new facility, recognizing the need for a new headquarters to accommodate the growing francophone community in the region. The previous 8,500-square-foot building, constructed in 1968, could no longer support the increasing demand for AFV’s educational, cultural, and community services.
AFV aimed to redevelop its long-held home into a more modern and inspiring space to learn about French culture, maximizing the building potential of its lot at 6161 Cambie St. As the local chapter of the world’s largest international Francophone cultural association, this project aligned perfectly with their global vision.
The new Centre Culturel is a hybrid mass timber structure that uses concrete, masonry, steel and glass, in coordination with mass timber elements to achieve a premium architectural finish. The building features a 4 story atrium at it’s heart, which provides a grand entrance, and contains a custom floating staircase, and decorative millwork to stunning effect. The Centre Culturel is part of BC’s Mass Timber action plan, and has received funding incentives to showcase BC mass timber. The timber package was manufactured by Kalesnikoff and installed by Seagate Mass Timber Inc., both leaders in BC’s mass timber industry. By employing mass timber in exposed columns, ceilings and decorative beams throughout, the result is a visually stunning open concept design.
The hybrid structure posed many accuracy challenges for the building team. Each connection between building material types needed to be exactly located to allow other parts of the pre-manufactured structure to fit. As such, the project experienced significant delays in the groundwork, structural and masonry stages. RAM worked with the project team to complete these scopes and bring additional labour to site as needed. The challenge of routing mechanical through an exposed structure presented a particular problem for the mechanical designers. They had little opportunity to change routing, and very small tolerances for error.
RAM provided Owner’s Representative services to the project to help the Owner navigate a complex and challenging building project. This work touched many facets, but at its core was to build the working relationship amongst all parties and ensure the Owner’s goals were met. RAM used its trades network to supplement labour and shorten project durations. Our team also conducted a full commercial review of the project to provide transparency to all matters relating to contract administration.
RAM also played a key Quality Assurance role on the project by ensuring that effective quality control was taking place. This effort included guiding the protection of finished work, continuity and integrity of the building envelope, placement of architectural concrete, finishing of the Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT). RAM helped ensure the finished quality at turnover matched the Owner’s expectations.
This project underscores the importance of design coordination and value engineering during the design development phase, particularly for mass timber projects. The exposed structure design requires meticulous consideration of each building component in relation to the others, necessitating a master builder’s approach to achieve high architectural value. Additionally, the Centre Culturel emphasizes the significance of selecting an appropriate project delivery model that safeguards the Owner’s interests.
The Centre Culturel will serve as the hub of Francophone culture in Vancouver, offering French language classes to students from across the Lower Mainland, supporting Canada’s official language on the West Coast, and fostering a vibrant community of Francophones from around the world. This landmark project highlights RAM’s project delivery expertise in mass timber projects, providing exceptional value to the client and playing an integral role in delivering this stunning facility. The Centre Culturel stands as a point of pride for RAM in the years ahead.
