Emily Carr University seeks to return to Granville Island building in a big way | Daily Hive

Emily Carr University seeks to return to former campus building on Granville Island in a big way

Future arts and innovation hub; former north building of Emily Carr University of Art and Design, as seen in July 2025. (Kenneth Chan)

Emily Carr University of Art + Design (ECUAD) is proposing a major homecoming to Granville Island, nearly a decade after relocating its campus to a new purpose-built complex off the island.

As part of a partnership led by The Narrow Group — a Vancouver-based company known for its network of artist spaces, restaurants, and lounges — ECUAD announced today that its proposal has been shortlisted by the bidding process launched by CMHC Granville Island, the organization that manages the site. The plan aims to repurpose the historic 125,000 sq. ft. building at 1399 Johnston St. into a new creative and cultural hub.

Up until 2017, it served as the north building of the ECUAD campus on Granville Island, before the university’s move to its current home on Great Northern Way in the False Creek Flats. In 2021, Arts Umbrella took over ECUAD’s former south building across the street, continuing the area’s long-standing connection to arts education and creativity.

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For years, CMHC Granville Island has been looking for an operator to transform this building into an “Arts and Innovation Hub.”

granville island emily carr university ecuad north building

Former north building of Emily Carr University of Art and Design at Granville Island. (CMHC Granville Island)

Future arts and innovation hub; former north building of Emily Carr University of Art and Design, as seen in July 2025. (Kenneth Chan)

To achieve this, ECUAD and The Narrow Group state their proposal involves renovating the building to enable a university operations expansion offering new arts and innovation programs, workshops, and community education, provide new affordable artist studio spaces for both emerging and experienced artists, and create new retail and small business opportunities, including galleries, a cafe, a restaurant, and an arts supplies store.

There would also be event space for performances, exhibitions, and community gatherings, and dedicated areas for Indigenous cultural programming and workshops. This includes creating a dedicated theatre venue.

These uses are intended to create a lively, accessible building that invites the public inside, contrasting with its former configuration as a private, enclosed educational facility.

Former north building of Emily Carr University of Art and Design at Granville Island. (CMHC Granville Island)

The proponents describe a reimagined building that is “vibrant from morning to night,” with ECUAD’s programs and The Narrow Group’s artists and business tenants providing Granville Island with additional activity during the daytime. In the evening, the building would be a venue for community gatherings, cultural events, and private rentals, effectively supporting the local events industry.

It is suggested that there would be hundreds of open studios throughout the building, where visitors can interact directly with artists, observe their creative process, and purchase original works.

Moreover, the walls of the building’s covered outdoor corridors would become a canvas for ever-changing murals.

“This is a once-in-a-century opportunity to celebrate Emily Carr University’s past, present and future. By having Canada’s premier arts and design institution expand its public programs and arts innovation strategy to Granville Island, we’re opening the door for new opportunities, partnerships, and community engagement, while ensuring arts education remains accessible to everyone,” said Trish Kelly, president of ECUAD, in a statement.

David Duprey, CEO of The Narrow Group, added, “Our vision is to create a space that honours the history of Granville Island while ensuring it thrives with new energy… The goal is to create an animated and interactive experience throughout the building where visitors are drawn to a never-ending labyrinth of art, music, dance, food and drink — and most of all: fun. We believe that this multi-use format will provide long-term economic support to Granville Island.”

Future arts and innovation hub; former north building of Emily Carr University of Art and Design, as seen in July 2025. (Kenneth Chan)

If selected, this will be The Narrow Group’s largest project to date. The company states that it currently owns, operates, or is partnered in over 170,000 sq. ft. of artist space across Vancouver, providing creative working space for over 400 artists and making it one of the largest artist space operators in British Columbia.

ECUAD’s campus was previously located on Granville Island from 1980 to 2017. It is now located at a modern 286,000 sq. ft. building it owns, situated next to SkyTrain’s future Great Northern Way-Emily Carr Station.

ECUAD and The Narrow Group have noted that they will present the next stage of their proposal to CMHC Granville Island later this month.

In an interview with Daily Hive Urbanized this past summer, Thomas Lancaster, the General Manager of CMHC Granville Island, said his organization’s 2024-launched procurement process for repurposing the building received seven “really good” expressions of interest. That number was later narrowed down to a shortlist of two proposals, whose proponents — not publicly identified at the time — were then invited to take part in the detailed Request for Proposals (RFP) stage.

He also noted at the time that finding a new tenant that enables public access to the building would be ideal, as opposed to ECUAD’s previous enclosed, private use.

CMHC Granville Island is hoping to have a selected proponent and finalized lease by early 2026, which would then lead to the tenant-led upgrades of the aging facility.

Lancaster also acknowledged that since ECUAD’s departure, CMHC Granville Island has been seeking to fill the void left behind — not only in the use of the former campus spaces, but also in the youthful energy the university brought to the island. ECUAD had an enrolment of about 4,000 students, many of whom supported and worked at Granville Island’s businesses and arts organizations during their studies.

Future site of the new market building and elevator/staircase and observation deck tower; Granville Island, as of July 2025. (Kenneth Chan)

He noted that CMHC Granville Island is now aiming to advance more of the components of the Granville Island 2040 master plan, created in 2017, which envisions converting ECUAD’s former north building into an “Arts and Innovation Hub.” That plan calls for spaces for artists, makers, and inventors, along with public amenities such as a state-of-the-art auditorium, gallery, cafe, and restaurant facilities. The proposal by ECUAD and The Narrow Group appears to align closely with this original vision, checking the boxes outlined in the long-term strategy for the building’s future use.

Another major component in the 2040 master plan now being prioritized for implementation is a significant mixed-use development on a large under-utilized parcel located between the east side of the Granville Street Bridge and ECUAD’s former south building (now Arts Umbrella). This includes a substantial new additional market building to provide CMHC Granville Island with more leasing revenue, an elevator and staircase tower connection to the Granville Street Bridge’s new Granville Connector pedestrian and cycling pathways, an observation deck attraction, and an underground parkade.

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