CHANCELLOR BOULEVARD

A once in a lifetime project that continually pushed the boundaries of possible and challenged our team to think far outside the box.

Historic terrazzo installation

The installation of the terrazzo surfaces for this project took place over the course of nearly 4 years. The floors were started in July of 2021 and inspired by a 5″X5″ sample left at D’arcy Jones Architectural office. The contractor, Postle Design & Build, reached out to the SD team to discuss the project back in December 2019, little did we know what we were getting ourselves into.

The “Friedman House” has architectural significance as it was an early example of west coast modernism, and was designed by Frederic Lasserre, Architect and founding director of the UBC School of Architecture. It was also Cornelia Oberlander’s first residential landscape architectural project.

More information about the historic Friedman house here.

Chancellor Design Details

There are so many facets to this project, that it needs to be broken down into categories. Documenting the various parts is ongoing, and will be updated with more videos to come.

White Terrazzo Flooring

Approximately 4500 sq/ft of white terrazzo that utilized #2 white aggregate and Ti02 for whitening.

Terrazzo Island

The monolithic island matches the flooring and sits precisely on the brass divider strips.

Interior Terrazzo Tiles

The bathrooms all utilized waterproofed liners with floating tiles that seamlessly match the cast in place terrazzo floors.

Exterior Terrazzo

Large precast slabs were created and mitred in place to create the look of massive seamless slabs of terrazzo.

Interior Polished Concrete

Both cast in place floors and precast tiles to match were utilized in the cabana, basement floor, steam room and stairs.

Exterior Concrete

Sharp crisp edges were required on all the concrete for Chancellor. Wood working techniques for used to make sure all surfaces had flat planes, as reveals and joining surfaces showed inconsistent surfaces.

The Terrazzo flooring challenges.

It's all about the details in modern home design. Virtually ever room threw a new challenge at us. From reveals, to inlays, to height tolerances, the level of precision needed was on another level.

New placement methods

The white terrazzo was poured with a cementitious base and lightened as much as possible using Titanium Dioxide. Density of aggregate was very important to the client. The SD team developed an installation method that used old world techniques with and new technology. Finished heights were very important, therefore new techniques were invented on the fly to ensure the terrazzo was machined to within tolerances.

Router sleds were built with levelling feet and cuts were made close to finished height. This meant that once the groove was removed, the team slowed down and in most cases changed to a less aggressive diamond abrasive.

Finished to new standards

Finished heights were very important, therefore new techniques were invented on the fly to ensure the terrazzo was machined to within tolerances.

Router sleds were built with levelling feet, and cuts were made in the terrazzo that go within 2mm of finished height. This meant that once the groove was removed, the team slowed down and in most cases changed to a less aggressive diamond abrasive.

Once the cuts were removed, further mapping was done with lasers, to guide the team and make sure the floor stayed as flat as possible. In the case of the large monolithic island, the floor needed to be better than 1/16″ over 10ft, tolerances that are pretty tight for a terrazzo floor.