I love Vancouver!
This phrase resonates with the teams I have the joy of working with each day. I feel tremendously fortunate to live in a time and place where there is such a strong sense of alignment between our skills, talents and abilities, and the problems, needs and opportunities surrounding us. This is one of those moments I believe we will look back on years from now and more fully appreciate the strength of vision, change and growth.
At LSW Architects, we are seeing this play out through continued momentum and interest in new development on the waterfront, our urban core and nodes of development across the county. While we continue to face challenges in terms of construction costs and a shortage of some skilled labor categories, these challenges are creating opportunities. We are exploring new methods and materials to expedite project schedules and provide flexibility to address a dynamic construction market. We continue to build stronger and more collaborative relationships with contractors, building a shared sense of service to our shared clients. Across all project types (multi-family housing, office, retail and education), we continue to see energy and financial capacity to move projects forward. Lastly, we are having more conversations with clients that elevate beyond basic form and function and into topics around community impact, diversity and intentional experiences.
Riff_ Creative has found a niche as a full-service creative agency providing strategy, design and development services for maturing start-ups and established businesses seeking to reinvent themselves. The pipeline is growing with those locally launched businesses that are targeting to scale nationally. New talent moving here is seeing Vancouver as a place of innovation and creative opportunity. Additionally, start-ups are exposing the increased challenge of an increased demand for flexible workspaces that can scale and change as dynamically as the businesses do. Fortunately, Vancouver is blessed with a rich supply of existing buildings prime for redevelopment and talented local developers thinking creatively on how to adapt their business model.
Lastly, at Ryd (Rethink Your Drive), we get a front row seat to the shifting development and real estate market. We often get some of the first calls when businesses are growing or moving, as the topic of employee parking is a driving factor for decision making process. We also see the tension of a community in transition from an absolute dependency on the single occupant vehicle to other mobility options. We are seeing high interest in the commuter assistance services as well as marketing on the vehicles. Some key challenges to continued growth, vibrancy and resiliency of our real estate market will be our community’s ability to provide mobility options that meet the needs of our lowest wage earners and next generation of residents.
In closing, from my perspective, our community is a place of potential and possibilities, a place worth your affection and dedication.
Casey Wyckoff is a principal with LSW Architects. He can be reached at Casey@lsw-architects.com.
