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Case Study

Telus Garden

Year Completed

2016

Capital Cost

$750M

Total Size

1,000,000 sqft.

About This Project

With 10,000 square feet of green rooftop, a state-of-the-art district energy system, and a glass pavilion that catches eyes and rainwater, Telus Garden unites sustainability and aesthetics—an architectural standout spanning an entire block in downtown Vancouver.

Designed by Henriquez Partners Architects, Telus Garden features two main buildings: a 22-storey office tower and a 47-storey residential tower, both of which are LEED certified. When it opened in 2015, the office tower was the first building in Vancouver to earn LEED Platinum certification. The residential tower, opened in 2016, is certified LEED Gold.

Telus Garden’s focal point, a curved glass pavilion that arches above the sidewalk along Georgia Street, was constructed using custom steel, glass, and glulam beams, all manufactured by local experts. The pavilion captures rainwater, which is then used to irrigate the rooftop gardens—all six of them.

High atop the office tower, 300 solar panels provide the buildings with up to 65,000 kilowatt hours of electricity per year. It’s Vancouver’s largest solar array. Meanwhile the district energy system draws its heat from the company’s Seymour Street data centre. All said, Telus Garden’s sustainable design means it consumes 80% less on-grid energy than a conventional building of comparable size.

Scope of services

Sound isolation is a common acoustical problem in many mixed-use buildings. Outdoor noise can transmit indoors, and airborne and structure-borne noise can transfer between residences, commercial spaces, and common areas, like gyms and pools. Controlling this noise requires careful and detailed consideration. For Telus Garden, BKL’s project engineers provided comprehensive acoustical engineering services, establishing acoustical design guidelines for

  • ambient noise, including noise from HVAC systems and traffic;
  • sound isolation, including transmission loss and speech privacy; and
  • room acoustics and reverberation time in open-plan and cellular offices, and common areas.

The team reviewed mechanical and electrical equipment, and designed noise control and vibration isolation for air handlers, HVAC, elevators, generators, plumbing, and the cooling tower. BKL also performed site visits, conducted testing in a mock-up suite, reviewed shop drawings, and provided acoustical partition design and sound transmission class reviews.

BKL also designed the internal acoustics for the television studio and support space that occupies almost 10,000 square feet of the office tower’s second floor. Addressing the needs of acoustically disparate spaces including an encoding room, an audio suite, editing suites, meeting areas, and an open-plan office with 18 workstations, BKL worked with the interior designer, omb, to optimize sound isolation for noise-sensitive areas, like the studio and audio suite, while ensuring an appropriate level of speech privacy among individual workspaces in the open-plan office.

Project benefits

For its unique architecture and green innovations, Telus Garden has made its mark on Vancouver. The buildings have won numerous design awards and have set new standards for sustainability with LEED Platinum certification.

BKL’s acousticians used their experience solving the acoustical problems presented by mixed-use buildings and green design features to provide top-notch acoustical design for this unique project.

The People Behind Our Work

Our Technical Leads

  • Paul Marks
    Paul Marks

    M.Sc., MIOA

    Vice President, Project Delivery

    Paul Marks

    Paul Marks, M.Sc., MIOA

    Vice President, Project Delivery

    Paul Marks joined BKL in 2013. He is a full corporate member of the UK Institute of Acoustics and the Canadian Acoustical Association. He has over 20 years’ experience in the measurement, analysis, and assessment of noise, vibration, and acoustical matters and is a former member of the technical advisory team working with the UK government on noise and statutory nuisance issues. During this time, Paul has undertaken major projects within Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

    He has experience in a wide range of multi-disciplinary environmental assessment projects including highway, rail, and air transportation infrastructure, mixed-use and brownfield regeneration schemes, renewable energy facilities, and power generation plants.

    Paul also has experience in a broad range of building and architectural noise assessment projects including the design of residential, office, educational, and commercial buildings. He has also undertaken acoustical studies for major infrastructure developments including work in the design of appropriate sound-fields for room-spaces in multi-occupancy buildings, including atriums and performance spaces. His work regularly involves close liaison with other acoustical engineers, planning consultants, architects, designers, and a variety of specialist environmental consultants.

    Paul is an experienced expert witness within the UK and has a broad experience of planning, licensing and statutory nuisance proceedings as well as being responsible for the successful design of a variety of impact mitigation measures including detailed engineering solutions, lay-out design, and administrative regimes where it has been necessary to closely liaise with clients, designers, and regulatory bodies in order to provide developments in accordance with sustainable principles.

  • Katrina Scherebnyj
    Katrina Scherebnyj

    M.A.Sc., P.Eng., MIOA

    Technical Director, Building Acoustics

    Katrina Scherebnyj

    Katrina Scherebnyj, M.A.Sc., P.Eng., MIOA

    Technical Director, Building Acoustics

    Katrina Scherebnyj started consulting in acoustics in 2007 in England and joined BKL in 2014. Her experience covers architectural acoustics, mechanical noise control, and environmental noise control, and she has worked on major projects in Canada, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

    In architectural acoustics, Katrina has worked on a range of new builds and refurbishment projects including schools, universities and higher education facilities, hospitals and healthcare facilities, performance spaces, cinemas, laboratories, office buildings, hotels, and residential buildings. She has provided acoustical design services in relation to sound insulation, room acoustics, and noise control.

    Katrina was a co-author of Music Accommodation in Secondary Schools: A Design Guide, published for the UK Department for Education in 2010. Researching the guide, she carried out acoustical measurements in the music departments of several schools and interviewed music teachers and students on the suitability of their music spaces.

    Katrina has extensive experience modelling internal sound fields and has carried out numerous models of performance spaces, lecture theatres, and other spaces where acoustical design is critical. She also has experience modelling outdoor noise propagation and has constructed and reviewed noise models for Columbia Containers in Vancouver, BC Children’s and Women’s Hospitals, the Pinnacle (once planned to be London’s tallest building), Crossrail, and other transportation projects.

    Katrina is a member of the Canadian Acoustical Association and the Institute of Acoustics (UK).

  • Trevor Cheng
    Trevor Cheng

    P.Eng., MIOA

    Managing Specialist Acoustical Consultant

    Trevor Cheng

    Trevor Cheng, P.Eng., MIOA

    Managing Specialist Acoustical Consultant

    Trevor Cheng holds a bachelor of applied science (engineering physics) from University of British Columbia and joined BKL in January 2016, with experience in environmental and architectural acoustics, as well as condition monitoring, and machine vibration analysis and diagnostics.

    With BKL, Trevor has primarily been involved in transportation, commercial, industrial, and infrastructure projects. His work experience includes measuring baseline noise conditions, predicting future noise environments, assessing noise impact, and offering mitigation measures where appropriate.

    Trevor also has experience in architectural acoustics, working on hospitals, performance spaces, and multipurpose buildings. He is proficient in measuring noise insulation performance, reviewing building designs, and predicting noise levels from HVAC equipment.

    Prior to joining BKL, Trevor worked in London, UK, on a wide variety of projects ranging from large-scale architectural renovations to major airport improvement works. He has unique experience in measuring and assessing noise and vibration in buildings from underground rail sources.

    He also has experience using sound level meters by Brüel & Kjær, Norsonic, and Larson Davis, and software tools such as Cadna/A. He is familiar with ASTC/AIIC testing and using acoustic software including Insul, SONarchitect, and EASE for indoor noise predictions.

    Trevor is a member of the Institute of Acoustics (IOA) in the UK.

  • Henning Schlechtriem
    Henning Schlechtriem

    M.Sc.

    Managing Specialist Acoustical Consultant

    Henning Schlechtriem

    Henning Schlechtriem, M.Sc.

    Managing Specialist Acoustical Consultant

    Henning Schlechtriem, M.Sc., joined BKL in February 2020. He has 8 years of international project experience working as professional acoustical consultant in the design and assessment of residential and non-residential buildings.

    Henning has a Master’s Degree in Acoustics with Environmental Applications and a Bachelor’s Degree in Civil Engineering with specialization in building physics and acoustics. His professional expertise focuses on the fields of architectural and environmental acoustics. He is a proficient with software such as Odeon, SoundPLAN, STRUTT, Insul, Rhino+Grasshopper, Max/MSP, and with measurement equipment from Brüel And Kjær, NTi and Norsonic.

    He has worked together with architects, investors, municipalities, as well as structural and mechanical engineers, covering a wide range of projects including office, residential, and mixed-use buildings, hotels, hospitals, schools, and cultural venues. His work has involved the acoustical design and on-site assessment of room acoustics, sound insulation including flanking transmission, environmental noise and noise from building services.

    Henning has given presentations to architects and technical planners to share his knowledge about the acoustical design of masonry, concrete and lightweight constructions, timber-concrete hybrid buildings and general acoustical challenges during the design of buildings.

    He is a member of Deutsche Gesellschaft für Akustik, the German Association of Acoustics (DEGA) and is an Approved Assessor for Acoustics and Building Physics at the Chamber of Engineers in NRW and Hessen (Germany).

  • Andrew Williamson
    Andrew Williamson

    P.Eng., B.S.M.E.

    Specialist Acoustical Consultant

    Andrew Williamson

    Andrew Williamson, P.Eng., B.S.M.E.

    Specialist Acoustical Consultant

    A graduate of the University of Victoria, Andrew Williamson holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and has practiced as an acoustical consultant in BC for over two decades. He joined BKL in 2023.

    During his career, Andrew has worked on numerous projects involving environmental noise assessments, building noise and vibration control, and architectural acoustics. As a project manager, Andrew has led acoustics teams on a variety of projects across sectors including cultural and recreation, education and research, health care, industrial, commercial, and residential.

    Andrew has attended public meetings, open houses, and government-sponsored working groups to present and discuss technical information with the public, municipal councils, and members of the government and other organizations. In addition, Andrew has acted as an expert witness in BC Supreme Court and participated in a joint review panel hearing for the environmental assessment of a major infrastructure project.

    Andrew is a Professional Engineer registered with Engineers and Geoscientists BC.

  • Joonas Niinivaara
    Joonas Niinivaara

    M.Sc.

    Specialist Acoustical Consultant

    Joonas Niinivaara

    Joonas Niinivaara, M.Sc.

    Specialist Acoustical Consultant

    Joonas Niinivaara has practiced as an acoustical consultant since 2007 and joined BKL in May 2019. During his career, Joonas has conducted extensive acoustical measurements, assessments, and mitigation treatments on a variety of community, commercial, and residential projects in both Europe and Canada.

    In 2017, Joonas co-authored multiple publications for the Canadian Acoustical Association on the acoustical performance of wood-frame double-shear wall assemblies and laminated drywall assemblies in concrete frame buildings. He has also presented papers on acoustical design in modern offices buildings to the Baltic Nordic Acoustic Group.

    Joonas has recently worked under the TARION Builder Bulletin 19R program for multi-occupancy buildings. In this, he has assisted project design teams, general contractors, and subtrades to achieve adequate acoustical conditions for all occupants by minimizing noise-related warranty claim risks from integrated building systems, while also maximizing acoustical privacy between adjacencies.

    As a professional acoustician, Joonas has a particular interest in room acoustics related to concert halls, rehearsal rooms, and music facilities. He is proficient with ray-tracing computational software including ODEON, EASE, Pottorff AIM, and Insul software.