Willoughby Town Centre: Creating a vibrant gateway for Langley, BC

Willoughby Town Centre is situated in the vibrant and growing Township of Langley.  Willoughby has a variety of existing restaurants, grocery stores, and retail. The area was targeted by the municipality as fundamental to local development, and the Township of Langley’s urban planners were firm in their intention to make it a lively, walkable area.

After realizing the potential of other developments in Willoughby Town Centre, Qualico and Chow & Li wanted to create a mixed-use project to serve as a programmatic pillar of Langley’s suburban centre, contributing to the neighbourhood’s development.

This mixed-use development fronts Willoughby Town Centre Drive, the main access road and ‘gateway’ to the centre of town. The project needed to provide a diversity of functions to address the corresponding local building codes.

The high-profile location also provided the opportunity to set a shining example of how a fundamental piece of design can escalate future developments in the area.

Given the pivotal gateway location, our team was required to be creative and nimble in their architectural response, while empowering the building codes themselves to make significant contributions to the design of the project.

Our team built a strong relationship with our development partners, Qualico and Chow & Li. We also maintained constant communication with the client to make sure their needs were being realized. In turn, this built trust in our collaboration.

This development promotes the Township of Langley’s urban planning goals by enhancing pedestrian walkability and local vibrancy and provides a prominent gateway to the community. The project features 91 residential units, 19 commercial retail units, a streetscape-fronting restaurant, and a two-storey office space.

Our Commercial & Mixed-Use team designed the building front to feature many material changes, volumes that push-outward and pull-inward, and cantilevered spaces. As a result, the building front varies in depth rather than being a single surface and presents a colourful face with an abundance of material choices.

In further support of urban vibrancy, our team placed the residential and office parking below grade. This move reduced vehicle presence and enhanced the neighbourhood’s walkability. Additionally, the team worked attentively to retain all of the street’s mature trees, existing sidewalks, and an existing water feature.

As one contractor told our project team, he was proud to be a part of a project that was a colourful, active, and vibrant participant in an important area of Langley’s community.

Ultimately, Willoughby Town Centre has strengthened and expanded the diversity of the community by adding a modern and contemporary piece of urban design, one that can be used as a model for future developments in the area. Since its completion, Willoughby Town Centre has sold the majority of its residential units, identified nearly all of its commercial tenants, and is poised to provide gateway vibrancy to Langley’s town centre for years to come.