Vancouver’s Bunting Coady Architects has gone global.
Last week the firm, which is known for its sustainable designs, merged with Toronto’s B+H, a worldwide architecture and design firm with offices in Vancouver, China, India, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates and Vietnam.
“Their position of leadership in British Columbia strengthens our presence on the West Coast and reinforces our standing as a leading force in Canadian design,” said B+H CEO Bill Nankivell.
The new practice, to be located on Alberni Street, will be called B+H BuntingCoady and will also be home to B+H CHIL Design.
In 2002, Bunting Coady designed Canada’s first LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold building.
Founder and CEO Teresa Coady has been the driving force behind such projects as the Vancouver Port Authority head office and Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s Cloverdale campus.
“It’s fabulous news,” Coady said of the merger. “Now we are the centre of excellence for sustainability in an international group.
“It, we believe, will be the first all-Canadian international architecture practice that will be able to compete with the … big American firms out there. That’s the game plan.”
For Bunting Coady, the merger is a leap into the international architecture scene after 18 years of focusing on the West Coast.
Coady founded the business with an idea to create environmentally sustainable “living breathing buildings” before they were widely accepted.
“I think if we’d known what the challenges were then we might not have done it,” laughed Coady. “But we didn’t know what we were up against.”
The company has since expanded to 60 employees and has won more than 50 international awards. It’s also the only architectural practice to have won the BOMA Earth award four times. In 2008, Coady was given an RBC Canadian Woman Entrepreneur Award. Even though she no longer controls every aspect of her business, Coady said she has “free reign” over her Vancouver office and is keen to take her sustainable thoughts worldwide. “It’s kind of like I’m starting all over again.”