Our Vancouver studio on West Hastings
Started in a converted warehouse, still obsessed with raw materials
Look, we didn't start this practice in some fancy high-rise office. Our first studio was literally in a 1920s warehouse in East Van – exposed beams, brick walls, the whole deal. That space taught me more about architecture than any textbook ever could.
I'm Sarah Jandral, and yeah, I named the firm after myself because my grandfather was an actual blacksmith in Alberta. Growing up around his forge, watching him shape metal with heat and force... there's something about that honesty of material that stuck with me. No pretense, no hiding – just steel being steel.
These days, everyone's chasing the next glass-and-white-minimalist thing. Which is fine, I guess. But we're more interested in buildings that tell a story. Vancouver's full of incredible industrial structures from the early 1900s – warehouses, factories, rail buildings – and they're getting torn down left and right. That's where we come in.
Our Philosophy
Heritage Isn't Just Old Stuff
We're not preservationists in the traditional sense. We don't want buildings frozen in time like museum pieces. Industrial heritage should be lived in, worked in, adapted. The rivets and steel beams aren't there to look at – they're there to use. Our job's figuring out how a 100-year-old structure can work for today without losing its soul.
Steel Doesn't Lie
There's this trend in architecture where everything's hidden – MEP in the ceiling, structure covered up, joints concealed. Not our style. When we use steel, you see it. When there's a connection, it's visible. Buildings should be honest about what holds them up. Plus, exposed steel just looks better as it ages. Those rust patterns? That's character you can't fake.
Function Over Fashion
We've turned down projects because clients wanted something that'd look good on Instagram but would be a nightmare to actually inhabit. A building needs to work – for the people inside it, for its neighborhood, for the climate we've got here on the coast. If it doesn't function properly, I don't care how pretty the renderings are.
Context Matters
Every site has a story – what was there before, what's around it now, how people move through the space. We spend weeks just walking the neighborhood, talking to locals, digging through city archives. A building in Gastown shouldn't look like it belongs in Yaletown. Each project needs to respond to where it actually is, not where we wish it was.
How We Actually Work
Forget the typical architect routine where you get three meetings and a set of drawings. We're hands-on, sometimes annoyingly so. Site visits aren't optional – they're constant. We'll be there during demo, during framing, during finishing. Our contractor relationships are long-term because we've learned that good design happens through collaboration, not dictation.
Materials selection? We go to the suppliers with you. We touch the steel, look at the welds, talk about patina and weathering. I've had clients joke that we care more about the building than they do, and honestly... they might be right.
Our team's small on purpose – currently seven of us in the studio. Everyone gets involved in every project to some degree. The intern might catch something the senior designer missed. We sketch on whiteboards more than we work in CAD. Coffee consumption's probably unhealthy. But the work's solid.
The Team
Small studio, big ideas, zero egos
Sarah Jandral
Principal Architect
M.Arch UBC, 15 years obsessing over industrial design. Still can't walk past a building without analyzing the structure.
Marcus Chen
Senior Designer
Structural engineer turned architect. If it involves steel connections or load calculations, he's your guy. Builds furniture in his spare time.
Elena Kowalski
Heritage Specialist
Knows more about Vancouver's industrial history than most historians. Spends weekends photographing abandoned warehouses. We're worried, but grateful.
Got a project that needs some honest design?
Whether it's a century-old warehouse or a new steel-frame structure, let's talk about what's actually possible.
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