Danish firm designs UBC’s $560-million, 1,500-bed student residence

For its largest-ever student housing complex project in decades, the University of British Columbia (UBC) has enlisted a prominent international architectural firm from Denmark to lead the design work.

The first phase of the redevelopment of St. John’s College at the UBC Vancouver campus is designed by Copenhagen-based 3XN, which has designed notable projects such as the Museum of Liverpool, new International Olympic Committee headquarters in Laussane, Quay Quarter Tower in Sydney, and the United Nations City and National Aquarium Denmark in Copenhagen.

Vancouver-based Ryder Architecture is serving as the local architect of record for the project, with the landscape architectural design led by Vancouver-based Hapa Collaborative.

The Government of British Columbia confirmed its support in August 2024 for the first phase of the new Lower Mall Student Residence, providing $300 million toward the total cost of $560 million, with the university covering the remaining balance.

Built in the late 1990s, St. John’s College is situated at 2111 Lower Mall — a 6.2-acre lot framed by Northwest Marine Drive to the west, University Boulevard to the north, Lower Mall and the existing Ponderosa Commons Residence to the east, and the existing Marine Drive Residence to the south.

And now, newly released architectural renderings and project details reveal that the existing low-rise St. John’s College buildings and grounds will be replaced with six new structures, including a prototype eight-storey lightwood frame and mass-timber hybrid building, a nine-storey building, two 11-storey buildings, a 13-storey building, and a 22-storey concrete tower.

Site of the existing St. John’s College at 2111 Lower Mall at the UBC Vancouver campus, the future site of the Lower Mall Student Residence. (Google Maps)

Construction of St. John’s College at 2111 Lower Mall at the UBC Vancouver campus in the 1990s. (UBC)

Construction of St. John’s College at 2111 Lower Mall at the UBC Vancouver campus in the 1990s. (UBC)

Existing condition:

Site of the existing St. John’s College at 2111 Lower Mall at the UBC Vancouver campus, the future site of the Lower Mall Student Residence. (Google Maps)

Future condition:

Concept of the new Lower Mall Student Residence at the UBC Vancouver campus. (3XN/Ryder Architecture/UBC)

Altogether, these buildings will contain 1,513 beds of student housing in a mix of unit types, including studio, studio with a kitchen, quad, and two-bedroom units. These beds will be primarily dedicated to graduate students, with 175 beds designated as one-for-one replacements for St. John’s College.

The tallest buildings — including the 22-storey tower — are located on the eastern half of the development site, closest to Lower Mall. The three buildings on the eastern half of the site share a large interconnected base podium reaching up to two storeys — containing a 10,500-sq-ft, 250-seat dining hall on the ground level, as well as a fitness gym, multipurpose rooms, event spaces, and other amenities in the second and basement levels.

Building 2, the 22-storey tower, will also feature the spectacular student amenity of a 1,100 sq. ft. “Sky Lounge” indoor space on the top floor, providing spectacular panoramic westward views of the Strait of Georgia and Vancouver Island.

Some buildings will have mixed uses within the ground levels, including about 3,100 sq. ft. of office space on the ground level of Building 3 and a 5,000 sq. ft. childcare facility for 37 kids on the ground level of Building 4 along the southern edge of the site.

All six buildings are oriented around a large landscaped courtyard, providing student residents with ample outdoor amenity space, including the “grove” shady treed area with pathways and seating and the “glade” open grassy area.

Concept of the new Lower Mall Student Residence at the UBC Vancouver campus. (Hapa Collaborative/UBC)

Concept of the new Lower Mall Student Residence at the UBC Vancouver campus. (3XN/Ryder Architecture/UBC)

Concept of the new Lower Mall Student Residence at the UBC Vancouver campus. (3XN/Ryder Architecture/UBC)

Concept of the new Lower Mall Student Residence at the UBC Vancouver campus. (3XN/Ryder Architecture/UBC)

The centrepiece of the courtyard and overall project is the preservation and reuse of the heritage campus fire hall.

In November 2024, the 1926-built fire hall structure was carefully dismantled into separate movable sections and relocated from its 98-year-old location next to the Leonard S. Klinck Building on the West Mall.

The separated structural sections were lifted from the foundation and transported to a temporary storage location, where they were shrink-wrapped for their permanent relocation to the Lower Mall development site later this decade.

The fire hall was built and opened just a year after the first academic and administrative buildings on the campus opened in 1925, making it an important part of UBC’s history.

Since 1982, after more modern fire hall facilities opened, the structure was used by the Departments of Art History and Visual Art & Theory as office and studio space. It was painted bright red in the 1990s, partly to remind the public of its existence and advocate for it to be saved from demolition. The fire hall was relocated to make way for the current construction project of expanding the Sauder School of Business.

At its future permanent home within the new Lower Mall Student Residence, the fire hall will be repurposed into a single-level, 1,900-sq-ft indoor amenity space, with a multipurpose room, lounge with seating, and a dining room with a kitchen.

Previous condition of the old UBC fire hall at its original location of 2038 West Mall, before its relocation. (Google Maps)

November 2024 relocation process of the old UBC fire hall structure to a temporary storage location. (Sachintha Wickramasinghe/UBC)

November 2024 relocation process of the old UBC fire hall structure to a temporary storage location. (Sachintha Wickramasinghe/UBC)

November 2024 relocation process of the old UBC fire hall structure to a temporary storage location. (Sachintha Wickramasinghe/UBC)

Concept of the new Lower Mall Student Residence at the UBC Vancouver campus. (3XN/Ryder Architecture/UBC)

Concept of the new Lower Mall Student Residence at the UBC Vancouver campus. (3XN/Ryder Architecture/UBC)

Concept of the new Lower Mall Student Residence at the UBC Vancouver campus. (3XN/Ryder Architecture/UBC)

On the westernmost end of the development site, next to Northwest Marine Drive, existing mature trees will be retained, with an effort to restore this “forest” area. Along the University Boulevard and Lower Mall frontages, there will be a plaza, landscaping treatment, and pathways providing open access into the courtyard and fire hall.

“The vision for UBC Lower Mall Phase 1 is to create a new residential community that strengthens connections across campus while celebrating its unique site conditions — where city and forest meet. The design brief identifies six key ambitions: to complete the pedestrian realm of University Boulevard, define meaningful community spaces, connect student residences, build on the site’s social and physical foundations, support a diverse graduate community, and bring the forest edge into the everyday experience,” reads the architect’s design rationale.

“By splitting and shifting the courtyard, we create two distinct but interconnected spaces: a public square that activates University Boulevard and a woodland courtyard that opens to the forest edge along South Street. This simple move structures the entire project — bridging city and nature, enhancing movement, and shaping a vibrant new graduate community… the edges are activated, the ground floor is porous and inclusive, the courtyards support both social life and calm retreat, and the architecture respectfully blends with the landscape design and surrounding nature.”

The architectural design of the buildings follows UBC’s established approach over the past 25 years of using relatively simple, standardized forms and motifs for campus buildings, including its student residences. However, this project introduces a modest increase in visual variety through the use of differing exterior colours, materials, and textures across the buildings.

All buildings will generate a combined total floor area of over 637,000 sq. ft.

The project is expected to see final permit approval in November 2025, enabling initial construction work to begin in January 2026.

Building 4, Building 5, and Building 6 within the western half of the site, including the prototype mass-timber building and the repurposed fire hall, will be ready by Fall 2028. Building 1, Building 2, and Building 3 within the eastern half of the development site, including the 22-storey tower and dining hall, are expected to reach completion and occupancy in Fall 2029.

Unspecified future phases of the Lower Mall precinct could add additional first-year, upper-year, and graduate student beds.

Phased completion/occupancy strategy; concept of the new Lower Mall Student Residence at the UBC Vancouver campus. (3XN/Ryder Architecture/UBC)

Currently, the UBC Vancouver campus offers about 14,100 student residence beds, including the completion of the second and final phase of the Brock Commons residence in Summer 2024, which provided 280 beds.

According to the university, despite its major investments in building new additional on-campus student residences, the waitlist for student housing at UBC Vancouver has increased from 3,200 to over 8,000 students at the summer peak over the past 15 years.

In 2023, the university told Daily Hive Urbanized it intends to build 4,800 new student residence beds over the next 10 to 15 years at an estimated cost of $1.4 billion, including 4,300 at the Vancouver campus and 500 at the Okanagan campus. This includes the new Lower Mall Student Residence and the future major redevelopment of the aging structures of the Place Vanier Residence with new replacement and expanded student housing capacity.