Stantec, a global leader in sustainable design and engineering, recently announced the winner of the third annual ideaXchange design challenge. The internal design competition, sponsored by Stantec’s Workplace & Office sector, brings together multidisciplinary teams to explore solutions to the built environment’s most pressing challenges while experimenting with new technology-forward design approaches.
This year’s challenge, From Office to Ecosystem: Reimagining Urban Placemaking, invited participants to rethink underutilized office buildings, transforming them into dynamic, mixed-use ecosystems that better reflect how people work, live, and connect.
In the spirit of experimental design approaches, competition organizers encouraged teams to use a variety of generative AI tools to create their final presentation assets, as well as apply AI to the design process at their own discretion. The seven projects submitted demonstrated exciting new use-cases and workflows for AI-integrated design, and creative solutions that will inform Stantec’s approach to real project work in the coming years.
And the winner is…
The winner of the 2026 ideaXchange competition is Creative Exchange LA. Selected by a six-member jury of Stantec leaders, the project explored how to give a second life to a one million-square-foot Class B office tower, located in Los Angeles’ Fashion District, with a struggling 30 percent occupancy rate.
The design began with a strategic ‘selective demolition’ approach, removing 48 percent of the existing building and replacing it with a terraced mid-rise volume. With the possibility for new programming opportunities, the resulting 650,000-square-foot building would see a 90 percent occupancy rate, thanks to its ability to achieve full-day activation.
The ground level becomes a permeable mixed-use podium with multiple entrances, positioned based on real-world traffic data, and an internal Paseo lined with fine-grain commercial units. Moving up the terraced portion of the building, workplace office floors make up 56 percent of the total floor space, with flexible layouts and high-bay ceilings that meet the needs of the modern workplace. Finally, the demolition of a large portion of the upper tower volume reduces the floorplate size, making it well suited for residential layouts and amenity spaces shared with commercial tenants.
The project team also found innovative ways to implement operational sustainability into the design. Integrated photovoltaic façade panels provide renewable onsite energy, materials from demolition are salvaged and reused in the new construction, and a rainwater harvesting system further reduces dependence on municipal infrastructure. Live statistics on the building’s performance would also be available to residents through a free app, raising awareness about what resource consumption looks like in real time.
The project team behind Creative Exchange LA includes: Fauzan Mirza (team captain), Avery Vuong, Guershom Kitsa, Renee Relf, Tori Romano, and Wessam Bou-Saleh, alongside Gillian Chang (technology advisor) and Matt Leach (design advisor).
Learn more about how Stantec is designing flexible and high-performing workplaces.
About Stantec
Stantec empowers clients, people, and communities to rise to the world’s greatest challenges at a time when the world faces more unprecedented concerns than ever before.
We are a global leader in sustainable engineering, architecture, and environmental consulting. Our professionals deliver the expertise, technology, and innovation communities need to manage aging infrastructure, demographic and population changes, the energy transition, and more.
Today’s communities transcend geographic borders. At Stantec, community means everyone with an interest in the work that we do—from our project teams and industry colleagues to our clients and the people our work impacts. The diverse perspectives of our partners and interested parties drive us to think beyond what’s previously been done on critical issues like climate change, digital transformation, and future-proofing our cities and infrastructure.
We are designers, engineers, scientists, project managers, and strategic advisors. We innovate at the intersection of community, creativity, and client relationships to advance communities everywhere, so that together we can redefine what’s possible.
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Media Contact
Matias Bessai
Stantec Media Relations
Ph: (416) 542-6041
matias.bessai@stantec.com