Chief Leonard George

This nine-story social housing building for First Nations residents, named for the late Chief Leonard George of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation, integrates prefabricated cross-laminated timber floors and mass timber envelope panels, with a concrete core and parkade.

The 81-unit building is Canada’s first tall timber Passive House building for the BC Indigenous Housing Society, and has achieved a 75% reduction in embodied and operational carbon. It was efficiently errected with prefabricated components produced off-site, this approach reduced the project’s environmental footprint and community impact during construction. The façade reflects a woven cedar basket, in celebration of traditional Coast Salish basketry, one of the oldest art forms on the Northwest Coast.