The Nechako Housing Commons is an important new facility and urban landmark on UBC’s beautiful Okanagan campus. The building has been imagined as a simple four-storey linear residential bar perched above the dynamic form of two levels of public space. The two-storey base accommodates shared amenities and ‘commons block’ programs serving the entire campus residence community, which have been conceived to interact with and animate the campus spaces around them. Main entrances and key program areas naturally tie into pedestrian routes and are signalled and animated by façade transparency. The residential bar consists of efficient, yet accommodating residence rooms that frame the campus’ Commons Field to the north and compliment the massing of surrounding existing residences. The shared spaces of the residential bar link upward, joining the project into a single whole.

The facility brings together living space with learning space, including study spaces, retail and recreation spaces, social spaces and administrative spaces for UBC Okanagan’s Student Housing & Hospitality Services (SHHS) staff.  It also includes a 500-seat dining hall, a focal point of the entire campus. The residence provides 220 rooms, including several accessible single room + washroom suites.