CRMR approached Systemic in 2016 to create a project that would solve the owner’s housing needs for its hospitality staff.  Prior to this development, the staff of Buffalo Mountain Lodge was housed in two dated houses that occupied the project site.  Our goal with the project was to create a clean, functional and visually compelling place for CRMR to house its staff members.

The high density of the project compelled Systemic to mass the project in a manner that did not present a monolithic wall of buildings on Banff Avenue.  Presentation of a proper façade to the street is a key component of the Town of Banff’s Planning Guidelines. To achieve this we divided the program into two separate buildings.  The long axes of these buildings area aligned in a perpendicular manner to Banff Avenue.  This allowed us to create a central courtyard that functions as an internal amenity space for the project. 

The gable ends of the buildings facing the street and the rear lane are treated with an elevated level of timber detailing, as required by the Town of Banff.  Exposed wood structure, knife plate timber connections, rafter ends, and similar elements have been included in the design to create a composition that is visually appropriate for the project’s context. 

Due to the sensitivities of extended construction periods within Banff National Park, CRMR elected to use a modular steel container system to fabricate the living units off-site in Calgary and transport them into the Park.  Systemic worked with Chandos Construction Limited on this project, and the entire project is unitized as per standard shipping container parameters.   

​

All images of the completed project on this page courtesy

Jason Dziver