PROFILE

The Hulbert Group of Companies is an internationally recognized organization of planners, architects, and related professionals with its head office in West Vancouver, Canada.  The original firm was established in 1974 by Richard E. Hulbert to provide professional services to private and public sector clients.

Professional Services

Our services are grouped into three major disciplines:

Planning/Urban Design
Architecture
Communication

Planning/Urban Design

We are better planners because, as architects, we are able to anticipate the realization of our planning efforts.  The Hulbert Group of Companies has planned developments ranging from compact plans for small groupings of homes to the master planning stage of the total re-development of Vancouver's Expo '86 site, including 12 million square feet of residential and commercial space in 42 towers, a $2.5 billion undertaking.  The development was awarded the grand award as the Pacific Rim's finest new community development at an international property and building conference held in San Francisco. 

We were also the chief architects and urban designers during the comprehensive rezoning phase for all three phases of the Coal Harbour waterfront development for Marathon Developments Inc.  This 2500-unit, mixed-use urban residential neighbourhood in Downtown Vancouver includes 2 million square feet of commercial development.  The first phase of this development was named the Best Master Planned Community at the Urban development Institute's Awards for Excellence in Urban Development.

The Vancouver Port Corporation commissioned us to master plan 3 million square feet of central waterfront, including a cruise ship terminal, hotel and office tower as well as a water-based transportation terminal and public-use heliport.

Offshore work includes the $600 million internationally acclaimed resort community of Sanctuary Cove in Australia, complete with homes, hotel, marinas, commercial and recreational amenities.

Urban design experience includes rehabilitating the city center of Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, and developing design guidelines for the City of Parksville on Vancouver Island.

Architecture

As seasoned architects with worldwide expertise in accommodation, planning and design, our experience includes residential, low and high-rise mixed use architecture as well as hotel, recreational, timeshare, casinos, commercial, and institutional architecture.  We have been the executive architects and planners for a number of integrated mixed-use resort developments throughout the Asia-Pacific region.  Examples of our work in Canada include landmark low-rise and high-rise housing developments, a three-storey retail restaurant complex at Robson and Thurlow Streets in Vancouver and the Forintek research facility at the University of British Columbia.

Communication

Communication is the cornerstone of our services.  Our technical and personal skills expedite our projects' communication tasks.  We write widely about our clients' projects, and both private and public sector clients have engaged us to prepare and present information to obtain funding or assist in the marketing of our designs.

Planning/Urban Design

The key to successful planning is implementation.  The key to successful implementation is communication.  Our resume will attest to the fact that we have extensive experience in environmental and community planning analysis and programming, land use and subdivision planning, planning and design guidelines, amenity packaging and experience with a variety of markets.  In addition, you will note that we have earned much recognition of our work.

So, what sets us apart from our competition?  It is our ability to recognize the ultimate objective, which is to see individual homes/facilities to the consumer, or individual land parcels to developers.  Before the consumer or developer is "sold", there are a number of other people and approving authorities that must be "sold" along the way.  We see our task as one of orchestrating the process of implementation leading from acceptance by the owner through approval by the various regulatory agencies, construction by the building and ultimately to occupancy the consumer.

As architects and planners, we have the ability to anticipate the effects of our site planning and guidelines writing on the final product.  Our approach combines sound planning with an understanding of the basic design requirements of the marketplace and an ability to anticipate the effect of the built environment on them.

Our approach to problem solving involves optimizing planning requirements, i.e., developing individual optimal solutions.

These ideal solutions would be overlaid, together with a site constraints analysis.  We then develop two or three alternatives for the overall plan.  This would then be discussed with the overall development team and a final solution would be chosen with their input.

Our approach would necessarily involve the local planning authority at the beginning of the process and throughout, as appropriate.

We see our role as one of providing viable alternatives that can be reviewed and modified.  Successful planning is a team effort.