{"id":3999,"date":"2017-09-06T12:36:40","date_gmt":"2017-09-06T12:36:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.alucobondusa.com\/blog\/?p=3999"},"modified":"2025-09-05T14:59:16","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T14:59:16","slug":"leed-gold-elementary-school-blends-into-vancouver-urban-fabric-with-alucobond-plus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alucobondusa.com\/blog\/leed-gold-elementary-school-blends-into-vancouver-urban-fabric-with-alucobond-plus\/","title":{"rendered":"Elementary School Blends Into Vancouver Urban Fabric With ALUCOBOND PLUS"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Crosstown
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Architecture can often become a product of its environment, responding to community needs while blending into an already established environment. In the case of Crosstown Elementary School, its creation was in response to Vancouver\u2019s imminent need for more primary education facilities. The result is a four-story structure that blends seamlessly into the \u201curban fabric\u201d of the Canadian cityscape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Highlights<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The school responds to its urban surroundings with a fresh white and charcoal fa\u00e7ade with vibrant louvers and pops of colors throughout the exterior. The southern portion of the fa\u00e7ade, along Expo Boulevard, features extruding blocks of color that indicate interior reading nooks. While the eastern portion of the fa\u00e7ade features two distinct elements, one white, one grey, that identify the main entrance to the school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The interior features 22 classrooms, a full-size gymnasium, a centralized stairway, and various multipurpose communicative spaces.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Project Name<\/strong>: Crosstown Elementary School

Location<\/strong>: Vancouver, BC, Canada<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ALUCOBOND\u00ae PLUS<\/strong>: Bone White, Platinum Mica, Dusty Charcoal, Custom Blue Ice Satin, Custom Carat Amber Satin, Custom Sunset Satin

Architect<\/strong>: Francl Architecture

Fabricator\/Installer<\/strong>: Keith Panel Systems

General Contractor:<\/strong> ITC Construction Group

Alissa Reed and Michael Elkan (copyright below image)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The Project<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Crosstown Elementary School is the first urban school to be built by the Vancouver School Board (VSB) in a decade. Francl Architecture<\/a> designed the \u201cnon-traditional\u201d school as they refer to it. The structure accommodates over 500 children from Kindergarten through seventh grade. The building is connected to an existing daycare and a residential high-rise, and interestingly built upon a below ground parking structure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Crosstown
photography \u00a9 Michael Elkan<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Design<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

The school responds to its urban surroundings with a fresh white and charcoal fa\u00e7ade with vibrant louvers and pops of colors throughout the exterior. The southern portion of the fa\u00e7ade, along Expo Boulevard, features extruding blocks of color that indicate interior reading nooks. While the eastern portion of the fa\u00e7ade features two distinct elements, one white, one grey, that identify the main entrance to the school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Crosstown
photography \u00a9 Alissa Reed<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The exterior utilized six ALUCOBOND\u00ae PLUS finishes in Bone White, Platinum Mica, Dusty Charcoal, and three custom colors; Blue Ice Satin, Carat Amber Satin and Sunset Satin. The panels were fabricated and installed by Keith Panel Systems<\/a> utilizing their ventilated rainscreen System B. The architects at Francl Architecture describe, \u201cThe colored panels and sunshades add a playful element, contrasting with the surrounding neutral-toned residential towers and the often grey, rainy skies common to the Pacific Northwest.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Crosstown
photography \u00a9 Michael Elkan<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These same color accents are utilized throughout the interior as well. The interior features 22 classrooms, a full-size gymnasium, a centralized stairway, and various multipurpose communicative spaces. The bright interior is consistently hit with a surge of natural light.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Crosstown
photography \u00a9 Alissa Reed<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fabrication<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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General contractors at ITC Construction Group<\/a> explain, \u201cThe first portion of construction required the full structural and seismic upgrading of the existing parkade to ensure it could support the new structure\u2026the parkade remained fully-operational throughout the entire construction process.\u201d These seismic upgrades under the National Building Code (NBC) have been a bigger project by the Vancouver government since 2001 to replace or revamp structures throughout the city to bring them up to code.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The building immediately attracts attention with its bold use of color variations throughout the fa\u00e7ade. Its design creates a beacon for young minds to converge and signifies the bright future of the students within. The architects note, \u201cBeyond being a direct reaction to the lack of color utilized throughout the City, it is also meant to enhance the learning environment which influences children every day.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

information courtesy of Francl Architecture, ITC Construction Group and Keith Panel Systems
photography \u00a9 Alissa Reed and Michael Elkan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Architecture can often become a product of its environment, responding to community needs while blending into an already established environment. In the case of Crosstown Elementary School, its creation was in response to Vancouver\u2019s imminent need for more primary education facilities. The result is a four-story structure that blends seamlessly into the \u201curban fabric\u201d of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"no","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[28,48,153,29,118,41,86,141,49,232],"class_list":["post-3999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-case-studies","tag-architecture","tag-building","tag-custom-colors","tag-design","tag-education","tag-educational","tag-fabrication","tag-facades","tag-sustainability","tag-urban-design"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alucobondusa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alucobondusa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alucobondusa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alucobondusa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alucobondusa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3999"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.alucobondusa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3999\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7573,"href":"https:\/\/www.alucobondusa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3999\/revisions\/7573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alucobondusa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alucobondusa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alucobondusa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}