Pier West

Background

Designed to revitalize New Westminster’s waterfront scene, Bosa Development's Pier West project brings with it multiple transformational developments. Shaped by Hossein Amanat, a world-renowned architect, these developments will include two residential towers, a two-acre addition to the surrounding Pier Park, a building with childcare and retail services, and improved pedestrian and biking access. All of which will have close proximity to iconic views of the Fraser River.

With such features, the Pier West project is sure to attract a lot of attention. However, the main visual draw is likely to be the two residential towers. The two buildings will stand at differing heights, with one being 43 stories and the other 53 stories. This will make the latter tower the tallest structure on a waterfront for Metro Vancouver so far, which is an impressive achievement. But what will draw attention the most is the design of the two buildings. Inspired by New Westminster’s riverside and the surrounding community, the design will give both towers fin extensions on their corner windows and balconies that expand the higher up they are on each building. The end result will give the buildings a wavy appearance that is reminiscent of moving water.

It will also serve as a lasting reminder of how close the towers are to the Fraser River. Because of that proximity and the fact that the Fraser River has flooded before, Bosa Development was concerned about the potential risk for water ingress.

Solution

Having worked successfully with Kryton in the past, Bosa Development was confident that Kryton’s KIM admixture would be the perfect concrete waterproofing protection for their Pier West project. With its ability to enable concrete to form interlocking crystals in the presence of water, KIM would give the project’s concrete a way to block out water on its own without the need for waterproofing membranes, which come with a time-consuming and labor-intensive application process.

At the same time, KIM would grant the Pier West project’s ready-mix supplier, Graestone Ready Mix Inc., the opportunity to maximize their concrete mix’s performance simply by adding KIM to the mix during batching. It was a key consideration for the company as they were already using a high-performance self-consolidating concrete mix, which would help the raft slab of the Pier West towers properly encase the reinforcing rebar. And with KIM, their concrete would perform even better, protecting the towers from water and ensuring the structures remained permanently watertight in all the desired areas.

Keeping that in mind, Graestone Ready Mix Inc. helped pour the towers’ raft slab in place using the self-consolidating concrete mix with sections of KIM added.

It was an effort that kept the construction team for the Pier West towers confident for the project’s success and allowed them to work swiftly toward their 2023 completion date.