WINNER OF A 2023 CANADIAN ARCHITECT AWARD OF EXCELLENCE
The design articulation of how a shared and undervalued community asset has a voice through architectural exploration is so important. In this case, the cut-out pier designed to allow safe swimming—coupled with a series of open and community-responsive spaces including a shaded portal, porches and paths—will create an appropriately scaled, but powerful lakeside public space. — Claire Weisz, juror
I have always enjoyed the romance of walking out on a pier and experiencing that incredible interface between land and water. This project takes the pier typology to a new level, and the architecture allows you to imagine a much wider range of activities on both land and water than what is usually supported by a public pier. The swimming enclosure is particularly wonderful, but the range of events and daily activities imagined and supported by the pier’s architecture is also fantastic. Nelson will be so lucky to have this amazing public amenity. – Michael Heeney, juror
The industries that fuel a community’s growth often isolate it from its best natural assets. In the case of Nelson, BC, boat building and other woodworks-related enterprises—along with the railyards and port that enabled them to flourish—occupied the downtown shorefront along Kootenay Lake in the late 19th and early 20th century. In its manufacturing heyday, Nelson was renowned as the birthplace of the Ladybird, a racing vessel that set the world speed record in 1933. Although the small city’s industrial waterfront subsequently declined, its boom-era infrastructure remains in place, impeding connectivity between the urban core and the lake.
Like the Ladybird, the Nelson Pier project is a community initiative that involves contributions of expertise, supplies, and time from a wide range of stakeholders and volunteers. MBAC, working with SOA as architect of record, leads the redesign of the pier at the terminus of Nelson’s Hall Street, a project whose objective is “to suture city and lake.” Fittingly, the new pier celebrates Nelson’s famously fast old boat: through a Nelson Museum of Art and History outreach program, the Ladybird will be prominently situated on the pier, housed in a glass pavilion.
The existing pier is well situated—Hall Street is one of Nelson’s main urban streets—but was too narrow and mono-functional to be a landmark, four-season community gathering place at the water’s edge. In addition to being a public realm space for strolling and informal gathering, the main, upper section of the new pier can host markets, concerts, weddings and other special events. Its lower section encloses a publicly accessible swim area and allows for boat mooring.
Inspired by how Nelson leveraged its culture of wood manufacturing and wood crafting to design vessels that intensified the joy of being on the water, the design team developed a cantilevered, acutely angled wood canopy as the dynamic focal point that defines the entry to the widened, fully serviced pier and houses programmable space. The canopy has a hybrid wood and steel primary structure, with wood slats that are differently oriented on its inner and outer surfaces. This creates moiré effects when combined with light and induces strategic views and transparencies. Light reflecting off the water adds to the ever-changing interplay of light and shadow.
“As a concept, the new pier is understood as an expanded threshold, creating a series of unfolding experiences between land and water, past and present,” write the designers.
CLIENT The Corporation of the City of Nelson | ARCHITECT TEAM SOA (Architect of Record)—Matthew Stanley; MBAC (Urban Design)—Marc Boutin FRAIC, Nathaniel Wagenaar, Josh TeBokkel, Kalie Widmer, Ashley Ortlieb, Tony Leong, Miriam Navarrete, Fatima Rehman, Richard Cotter MRAIC, Tim Smith MRAIC, Trevor Steckly, Brett Sanderson | STRUCTURAL Fast+Epp, EffiStruc | MECHANICAL/ELECTRICAL Prism Engineering | GEOTECHNICAL Pennco Engineering, Deverney Engineering, SNC Lavalin | ENVIRONMENTAL Mass Environmental | AREA Project Total: 1330m2; Ladybird enclosure: 41m2; Canopy: 260m2 | BUDGET Withheld | STATUS Under Construction | ANTICIPATED COMPLETION March 2024