SOKANA
Client
Kerkhoff Develop-Build
Area
310,000 sq ft
Address
270 Riverside Drive, Penticton, BC
Status
Complete
Project Overview
Ten years after poor soils thwarted a rezoning for towers, Kerkhoff acquired this site and chose Formosis to develop the 270 Riverside Drive project in Penticton into six storey apartments on an accelerated schedule.
The success of this project centred on Formosis' ability to work at pace, adapting to constraints as they arose, finding design alternatives to building size, early development permit and tendering deadlines, and adapting to a site constrained by soils and restrictive rezoning.
Design of this building began with the vision of homes gathered around a common roof deck featuring a pool and all the Okanagan amenities, with great views out to the rolling hills around Penticton. Poor bearing capacity of the riverbed soils kept the building light, six storeys and light wood framing over parking, so the design leans into the horizontal lines of hillsides and grape trellises around the Penticton valley. Apartments wrap around the common amenity deck, with the south side open to sun and views. Coppery metal accent cladding wraps around the upper residential.
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With high water table, the parking must all be above ground, and concealing that parking is one of the project's largest challenges and accomplishments. Along Riverside Drive and Wylie Blvd, two storeys of concrete apartments present to the street as townhomes, and cover two storeys of parking. Along the south, a public trail proposed by this development is landscaped and the building is screened by vines and trees. Placing a secondary lobby and resident bike amenities along this south trail activates it and opens the blank parking facade at a human scale.
Now in the process of construction, the building rises as one of the tallest on Penticton's skyline and takes prominence from the adjacent Okanagan River Channel, and its position at the north-west gateway to town.
Sokana was an example of a highly collaborative project, and through the process built extremely strong relationships with the Kerkhoff team, and a range of excellent consultants from vDZ landcape, Kor structural, Williams Engineering, Nemetz electrical, McElhanney civil and Camphora code consulting.