Sophisticated Style in Yaletown

Written by Lin Stranberg

This month’s cover location is a gorgeous Yaletown loft conversion that epitomizes contemporary urban style, full of sophisticated, design-forward elements and innovative touches. The loft is in a restored heritage building, a former warehouse originally constructed in 1928. It’s just been freshly renovated by Greater Vancouver’s Troico Home Solutions, based in Vancouver and Coquitlam, and what a great job they did!

The loft, close to everything in the heart of Yaletown, has authentic heritage architectural details like massive rough-cut fir beams, exposed concrete walls and over-height ceilings. The challenge was to combine them with the cutting-edge design and décor elements the owner envisioned.

“We love this kind of work,” said Michael Richter, Troico’s owner. “We’re particularly proud of the innovative new products we were able to use as part of the project. For example, the cabinet material is a raw distressed wood product from Belgium that we used for the first time, and it turned out to be excellent. We’ll absolutely use it again. We used concrete-coloured quartz to harmonize with the exposed concrete in the space. Concrete is porous and quartz is much easier for ongoing maintenance – spills and that sort of thing.

“We’re really proud of the custom touches we included to make this renovation a success. So much of the product selection was one-of-a-kind and specific to this unusual space, like the colour matching we did for the beams. This type of higher-end, design-forward custom project serves as a valuable research and development resource that we can then apply to our midrange projects.”

Troico’s innovations soon become part of their standard product offering on the more typical jobs they do, like standard condos and single-or multi-family homes .“The early adopters pave the way to the mainstream,” Michael said.

With their own electrical, plumbing, kitchen and bathroom units as well as the custom cabinetry and fine millwork done by Troico Manufacturing, they have taken in-house capabilities to the max. They have a dedicated staff of award-winning designers and accomplished tradespeople. Michael told us that several cost-plus contractors in the area have tried to emulate them, but they arrived at fixed pricing first and have managed to refine it over many years and hundreds of projects.

“We pioneered the fixed pricing process,” Michael said, “and we do almost everything in-house except for highly specialized trade work, like railings or garage doors. That enables us to exert better control over the project. We need to be responsive and we can’t do that when we’re subcontracting. There are simply no provisions for overages! Our systems keep us on-budget and our in-house staff helps get the project completed on time.”

The Yaletown reno was a bespoke job, yet we’re confident this award-winning group takes pride in bringing the same level of quality and innovation to all their projects, including the projects they take on during their biannual promotional periods. Troico promotions are on in spring and fall every year from April 1 – June 30 and September 1 – November 30 .

For more information or to take advantage of the promotions: www.troico.ca