IBI GROUP GROWS INTO NEW OFFICE SPACE
The Calgary office of IBI Group has relocated its 120 employees to the spacious fifth floor of the Meredith Block overlooking Memorial Drive.
Having all of its staff under one roof ensures clients get an integrated approach to projects, including land planners, architects, landscape architects, urban and interior designers and civil engineers.
IBI Group was founded in 1974 with offices in Vancouver and Toronto. The Calgary office opened in 1977, and is today part of a worldwide company comprising 2,500 employees in 64 offices.
The Vancouver office, which has a strong history in designing residential towers, has collaborated with the local office on a number of projects here. They include The Guardian twin tower project by Hon Towers adjacent to Arriva in Victoria Park; Parkside at Riverfront for Anthem Properties; the Arthur Erickson-designed Concord, under construction for Concord Pacific at Eau Claire, and the 34-storey Park Point by Qualex Landmark on 12th Avenue across from Memorial Park.
Under construction is the bcIMC/QuadReal complex, on the former Alberta Boot site, at 5th Street and 10th Avenue S.W., that will house a Marriott Hotel and rental apartment tower.
Farther east on 10th Avenue, at 1st Street S.E., a development permit application has been filed for One Tower, a 33-storey apartment block for Strategic Group.
Multi-family is another strong design practice for Keith Sallaway, director architecture for Calgary, and his team; three projects for Remington in Quarry Park and Mark 101 in Sage Hill for Shane Homes.
HomeSpace (formerly Calgary Community Land Trust) supplies affordable housing for vulnerable Calgarians and contracted IBI for four completed projects and two others now in the design stage.
Within Calgary it is involved in renovating community and recreational facilities for the City of Calgary as well as designing a new fire station in Tuscany and fire station and fire headquarters in Highfield. Experience in emergency services design also led to a new centre in Kananaskis for Alberta Infrastructure and a new recreation centre in Lake Louise.
It is encouraging to see lots in University Research Park across from Brentwood LRT filling up. The latest addition is a new headquarters building for Computer Modelling Group, a 90,000-square-foot design — build project with Remington Development.
Stephen Shawcross, director of planning for IBI, is also busy with the university’s West Campus lands, the 1,000-acre Church Lands for bcIMC across from Cross Iron Mills and as a leading expert in flood damage reduction work is writing the national guidelines for estimating potential flow damage.
NEWS AND NOTES
Jim Button at Village Brewery has joined forces with Bow Valley Ranche Historical Society to come up with a new beer to celebrate Alberta’s 112th birthday. Patrick Burns’ image is on bottles of The Senator, a limited single-batch Belgian White IPA featuring our world-class barley.