Bruce Knapp, Managing Principal, B+H Architects Inc.

An alumnus of UBC’s School of Architecture, Bruce Knapp has recently been called to helm the Vancouver practice of B+H Architects Inc.

After some notable internal shifts – including B+H’s 2010 acquisition of Vancouver’s Bunting Coady Architects, and a rebranding of the Vancouver practice last fall – B+H’s Vancouver shop is primed for a change again, and the global architecture firm is betting that B.C.-born-and-bred Knapp is just the man for the job.

What have your first few months at B+H Architects been like?
It’s been terrific. I joined in early September. We’ve won a terrific new project for a shipbuilding training centre at Camosun College in Victoria that is part of the national shipbuilding program – and that’s about $29 million. So I’m just getting my head around what we’ve got and the people that we’ve got. Right now we’re working on 50 projects in architecture and about 60 projects with our hotel group. We’re active in British Columbia and across the Prairies as well. We also do some work in China and Singapore, particularly on large commercial and hospital projects.

You’re an architect who has been brought into a management position. What exactly does your role entail?
In our organization I’m called the managing principal, which means that I lead the team here in Vancouver. I primarily look after finding and maintaining clients and making sure the quality of our practice is as high as it can be. I also look after making sure that our clients are getting the best of what B+H can offer across our entire company, with offices from Vancouver to the Far East to the Middle East, in terms of forward thinking and leading-edge knowledge around the kinds of buildings that we do for people.

The Vancouver practice of B+H recently went through a very public rebranding, changing from B+H Bunting Coady to B+H Architects. What practical changes are coming with that?
Well, that was all in the works before I arrived, putting them all under one roof was already done. But I think the reason that I was brought on and what excited me about this was to get the synergies and efficiencies going. That doesn’t happen overnight, but we’ve got such an interesting bundle of skills and people.

Sustainable buildings play an important role in B.C.’s architectural scene. Is that going to continue to be the case for your clients?
This firm in Vancouver was built on a very strong sustainable platform and that’s a terrific legacy for me to work with. Now most of our clients are quite aware of the world of green design, but their challenge is how to make business sense of what their options are – and they have many. So we find that the big thing that we’re talking about with clients now is around the return on investment for green initiatives and how they can be leaders in the cities that they work in and what their options are.

As we all know, real estate sales have slowed recently. What effect would you say that has on B+H, if any?
Vancouver is sitting in a very enviable position right now – more office towers than ever, more development than we’ve seen for years. Yet, the market is precarious. We’re seeing a little bit of a slowdown in some areas and a little waiting in others. What that means for us is that projects that we were going to start right away are being moved to mid 2013. If we’re working, then construction is happening a year later. I think everybody in construction is watching the architects and the architects are watching the developers and the cities to see whether the pace of development is what everybody has expected. Things are looking okay right now.

What would you say defines Vancouver’s architecture?
I think we’re renowned around the world for a confident and exuberant approach to urban design. Densification is the big issue in Vancouver – doing more with the land that we’ve got because it’s very expensive, whether it’s lane housing, whether it’s increased densities in the Cambie Street area – those kinds of things are the impacts that most people are going to be concerned about and start to watch for. That seems to be the kind of Vancouver that is being developed. And really it’s the envy of anybody that I talk to elsewhere.

You were born in New Westminster and graduated from UBC’s architecture program. What has kept you in the Lower Mainland all of these years?
I was entrepreneurial from a young age. As soon as I got into UBC I started doing design work on my own with graphics and marketing and branding. I was so busy meeting people and becoming a young businessman – that kept me here. I did a stint in Powell River for a couple of years, but mostly to get some work experience. Things have flourished here, though I wasn’t from here originally.

How long has playing jazz trumpet been a hobby of yours?
Interesting story: I played trumpet in band like lots of other kids. I gave it up in grade 12 and I think I sold my trumpet in a garage sale for $35. At the age of 45 a friend came over for dinner and said, “You play the trumpet, right? Why don’t you take it up and play it again?” I said that I had two kids, I’m too busy and I’m not going to buy a $2,000 trumpet that I can’t play. That was on a Tuesday. By Saturday I was at Northwest Music on Main Street. Two years later I was playing at a jazz bar in New York.