The 8 East Broadway tower aims to supply high tech office space in Mount Pleasant. The neighbourhood is a changing due to tech and biotech office interest in the central working location, putting pressure on existing industrial zoned lands to the north.

Sited two blocks away from the future Main Street Skytrain station, offices in the building are close to transit, along a major bike route on Ontario Street, and along a commercial arterial street densifying over the next ten years.

Massing of the building is constrained by a shallow site and Queen Elizabeth Park view cone above that caps the building at twelve storeys. The design organises the building into three blocks, two prominently on the corner of Broadway and Ontario, and a third set back on Broadway to match the streetwall of adjacent future buildings.

On the ground floor, the office lobby faces Broadway, flanked by three floors of retail and a café on the corner. Steep grades of 12% along Ontario Street are softened by seating and steps at the café.

Ten floors of office above are designed to operate passively for low energy use and carbon emissions to comply with Vancouver’s green rezonings policy. This is achieved through triple glazed windows to reduce heating and cooling. All-electric mechanical equipment makes the building net-zero carbon ready, using no combustion of fuels.