Mundell House
Set in the heart of the Wesbrook Place neighbourhood, Mundell House is a 6 storey wood-frame faculty and staff rental building with 136 apartments and a healthy mix of options for everyone – with studios, 1-bedroom, 2-bedroom, 3-bedroom and 4-bedroom homes.
The building design deviates from the traditional horseshoe shape, introducing variety to Birney Avenue. It is conceptualized as two buildings connected with an upper-level penthouse bridge. The breezeway into a courtyard below is connected to Scholar’s Greenway and Mundell Park, prioritizing pedestrian connectivity to neighbourhood features. The bike storage room has direct access to the greenway, enhancing neighbourhood accessibility for alternate forms of transportation. Mundell House was the first building to holistically integrate dwelling and interconnectedness to Wesbrook’s network of greenways and parks, setting the standard for livability.
With the idea of being a community-first property, Mundell House was the first rental building to include its own communal bicycle repair room with fixtures and a full amenity room at UBC. It also has a large private courtyard with barbecues that overlooks Mundell Park for further gathering space. It also has its own guest suite, which is available for reservations for all Village Gate Homes residents.
Sustainable living takes centre stage at Mundell House as a REAP Gold-certified building with energy-efficient windows and appliances, programmable thermostats, and an energy-recovery ventilation system. Mundell House was featured as part of an airtightness testing demonstration project, which is a regulatory requirement for residential and non-residential construction projects in BC. Airtightness in a building helps reduce operational costs, greenhouse gas emissions, airborne contaminants, and noise pollution, improving quality of life and eco-friendliness.
Mundell House was funded in part through a $44.2M Rental Construction Financing Initiative (RCFi) low-interest loan from the Canadian government through the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). This program helps increase supply during the housing shortage in Canada.
