ARCHITECTURAL FOCUS
ONE BEAR MOUNTAIN, BC
REINVENTING WITHOUT DEMOLISHING
Developed by 360 Pacifica and Terracap, and designed by ACDF Architecture in collaboration with Zeidler Architecture, the One Bear Mountain project in Langford, British Columbia, Canada, presented a rare challenge: realizing an ambitious residential development on a site marked by a massive concrete structure abandoned years earlier by another group of developers. While the original plan envisioned two facing towers, the architects instead opted for a new concept— one better adapted to the context and infused with a renewed vision for the site.
ACDF approached the project with a clear conviction: rather than demolish and start over, it was essential to preserve and reinvent.
“ Demolishing the concrete structure would have been the easiest solution, but also the most costly from an environmental perspective,” says Maxime Frappier, partner at ACDF.“ Our first instinct was to see this structure not as a constraint, but as an opportunity.”
By working precisely within the existing grid, respecting the placement of columns and the structural lines inherited from the original design, the team minimized changes, thereby reducing the project’ s carbon footprint and breathing new life into the dormant podium.
Architecture and materiality This complete redesign also provided an opportunity to rethink the massing. Instead of replicating the rigid, frontal geometry of the original concept, the architects envisioned soft, curving forms inspired by the undulating lines of the nearby golf course, and the natural contours of the surrounding mountains, particularly Mount Finlayson.
“ We wanted the tower to embrace its landscape rather than dominate it— to be read as an extension of the site’ s natural lines,” Frappier explains.
This blur-the-limits approach softens the building’ s visual presence, reduces its perceived scale within the neighbourhood, and creates an organic silhouette that blends seamlessly into the landscape.
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