Stantec’s newest head office in Edmonton is the tallest building in Western Canada, at 69 stories. [Photo: Courtesy of Stantec]
PROJECT: Stantec headquarters LOCATION: Edmonton, Alberta SIZE: 1.3 million square feet STORIES: 66 functional floors (69 stories tall) COMPLETION: 2018 ARCHITECT: Stantec ENGINEERS: Stantec GENERAL CONTRACTOR: PCL Construction
With 22,000 employees working in 230 locations, the team at global design firm Stantec brought a wealth of expertise to the drawing table when they set out to create the company’s new head office. The office is in Stantec’s hometown: Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. And the building is a grand gesture—a love letter to the city that fostered the company’s growth. At 69 stories, it’s the tallest building in Western Canada and sure to define Edmonton’s skyline for generations to come.
What were your priorities in designing this space?
The space had to reflect who Stantec is as a company and accommodate employees from across the globe, while supporting our commitment to sustainability as a showpiece for our design services. Our headquarters needed to be flexible to accommodate various meetings and client events and encourage collaboration and creativity.
How is sustainability incorporated?
The tower’s holistic sustainable design is targeting LEED Gold Core and Shell certification (exterior). The Stantec office is targeting LEED version 4 Silver Commercial Interiors certification (interior) as well as two-star Fitwel certification for health and wellness.
Stantec Tower includes strategies for energy efficiency, a 35% reduction in water usage, recycled and local material selection, and significant consideration for indoor air quality with low emitting material selections. That will also support the health and well-being outcomes being pursued.
[Photo: Courtesy of Stantec]
What role does the building play in revitalizing Edmonton?
Stantec is proud to play a large role in transforming Edmonton, revitalizing downtown. We have considered how we can support revitalization, including partnering with the city to create a downtown bike network for our more than 1,500 employees and others to get to work on two wheels. We are also committed to the health and well-being strategies applied to our own office. This project demonstrates our team’s passion for working hard to make a difference in the communities we serve and call home.
What stands out to you most about this building’s design?
Stantec Tower introduces a number of unique features for office space in Edmonton. A dedicated multi-faith prayer room is a comfortable and quiet space, shielded from public view and able to be reserved for private use by employees for activities such as meditation, prayer, and mental recharge. A dedicated lactation room can increase productivity and understanding that a breastfeeding-friendly workplace impacts an employed mother’s intention to continue breastfeeding after returning to work. Gender-neutral washrooms offer an inclusive workplace environment. An open community staircase encourages stair usage. And the floorplates are also modeled as open concept workspaces with minimal offices to encourage collaboration.
What was the most challenging part of this project?
In only four years, Stantec Tower matured from a mere concept—a dream—into a ground-breaking, sky-piercing building in the heart of Edmonton’s bustling ICE District. The journey was one of perseverance, passion, and resilience. Not only did we have to work hard to keep the project on track budget-wise, we faced a hard deadline of expiring leases in our old spaces.
How does the building reflect the values and mission of Stantec?
Stantec employees are extremely proud of our new headquarters, a project that positively reflects the talent, innovation, and creativity of our team members. The Stantec team was excited to demonstrate our creativity in our own space. Normally, we are working for clients, bringing their vision to life. We were able to bring hundreds of employees from across our company into this project. The team worked more than 145,500 hours on making our dream space into a reality.
Stantec Tower is an exemplar of projects we proudly design and the talent we have in our company. The tower is eye-catching, sustainable, innovative, community-minded, and highly functional. It’s also a striking example of collaboration.
