Credit Suisse Real Estate Asset Management has received the green light from the City of Vancouver to construct what will be one of Canada’s tallest sustainable office towers, the real-estate giant announced August 12.
The $200 million project will target LEED Platinum status, the Canada Green Building Council’s highest designation.
The 31-storey office building will called The Exchange and will be designed by Harry Gugger, the internationally renowned architect behind Beijing’s Bird’s Nest Stadium and the Tate Modern Gallery in London.
Credit Suisse said the building will use half the energy of a traditional office building of a comparable size, which will result in savings for tenants.
Green features of the project will include:
- storm water retention and reuse;
- hydronic heating and cooling;
- geo-exchange thermal regulators;
- solar thermal panels;
- triple-glazed curtain wall envelope;
- solar shade louvres; and
- low-flow fixtures.
The project is set to be located at Howe and Pender on the site of the Old Stock Exchange building and will be Credit Suisse’s first “ground-up” development outside Switzerland.
As part of the project, the Old Stock Exchange building will be renovated and restored, making it Canada’s first LEED Platinum heritage conversion.
Credit Suisse has a 260-building real-estate portfolio worldwide, which the organization said has been greenhouse gas-neutral since 2010.
