The Atrium, office building in Victoria, Canada

November 16, 2010 Category: Commercial Building, Office

The Atrium, was designed by D’Ambrosio Architecture + Urbanism, that located Victoria, Canada. in a LEED Gold-targeted building actively engages its civic context. To reintegrate this block of the city into the urban fabric, the Atrium complements Victoria’s historical downtown by taking a mid-rise form, built to the street walls.

A transparent ground floor, housing cafes and restaurants, invites people to walk past, look in, and stay a while. Rain gardens edging the site, a first in Victoria, catch and clean polluted street run-off, and soften the cityscape. At the centre of the building, a wood-lined atrium is connected to the street by a seven-storey vitrine and serves as a semi-public urban room.

As a speculative office building, the design provides large, flexible floor plates in a high-quality office environment that has attracted premium tenants. In this context, the atrium, which might at first seem to sacrifice leasable area, adds critical value. It increases the desirability of interior offices by providing them with daylight and views. Its dynamic volume succeeds as entrance hall and meeting space, while invisibly serving as a return air plenum in a high-efficiency environmental control system.

The Atrium, office building design by D'Ambrosio Architecture + Urbanism