Fast + Epp building a new home office

Exterior rendering of the new Fast + Epp headquarters in Vancouver (FAS)

Shovels are in the ground as construction begins for a new four-storey mass timber home office in Vancouver, B.C. for structural engineering specialists Fast + Epp.

After 30 years in their current Kitsilano location, the firm has outgrown its existing office building and has decided to relocate closer to transit to reduce employee commute times.

Located at 7^th and Yukon St. in Vancouver near the Broadway/Cambie Skytrain transit nexus, the new materials-efficient building design will feature:

• a pre-fabricated, hybrid mass timber and steel superstructure
• electro-chromatic glass – a remote controlled, variable tint glazing system that optimizes shading and reduces energy costs
• CLT firewall prefabricated with exterior finishes
• Tectonus – an earthquake-resistance technology with innovative Resilient Slip Friction Joints that effectively dissipates energy and does not require post-event maintenance. Tectonus technology will anchor the CLT shearwalls and will be a first in North America.

“The entire Fast + Epp team is really proud of this new office design. It’s allowing us to experiment with features and structure that are at the forefront of what we do as a firm, and gives us the freedom to be practical and thoughtful, yet also adventurous,” said Paul Fast of Fast + Epp in a company release.

Rendering of the new four-story mass timber/steel hybrid structure. (FAS)

The new facility has been designed collaboratively with F2A Architects (base building) and HCMA (interiors), and the anticipated move in is expected for the spring of 2020.