1444 Alberni | 138M | 48fl, 43fl | Proposed
 

From RENX.ca, Property Biz Canada, Evan Duggan, Oct 3 2017:

https://renx.ca/worlds-tallest-passi...ers-vancouver/

World’s tallest Passive House towers planned in Vancouver

A pair of developers are planning to build the world’s tallest Passive House structure in Vancouver.

Landa Global Properties and Asia Standard Americas have submitted a rezoning application for a two-tower rental home and condo development at 1400 Alberni Street in downtown Vancouver.

Passive House is a green building standard developed in Germany that boosts energy efficiency and comfort, and it reduces a building’s greenhouse gas emissions. There are about 1,150 Passive House buildings worldwide.

...


The two new towers in downtown Vancouver will climb to 48 and 43 storeys, respectively, and will include 450 homes, including 129 rental units, and a daycare, said Kevin Cheung, Landa’s CEO.

...

Cheung said the project was designed in partnership by New York-based Robert A.M. Stern Architects and Vancouver firm Musson Cattle Mackey Partnership.

Image from RENX.ca, Courtesy Landa/Asia Standard:
https://renx.ca/wp-content/uploads/2...veHouse300.jpg

Pretty cool to see a Passive House development of that scale.

And although the design isn't overly inspiring it certainly does have a New York feel to it, partially explained by the NYC firm + Passive House requirements (i.e. substantially less glazing).

Info from the application
 

http://rezoning.vancouver.ca/applica...ing-01_000.jpg

Link to Appplication
http://rezoning.vancouver.ca/applica...cola/index.htm

Link to Pre-App Open House info
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=15080

Floor counts remain the same, however heights have been altered from:
West Tower 403 ft to 405 ft
East Tower 453 ft to 442 ft

The unit counts have been reduced from:
495 (362 market - 133 market rental) to
443 (314 market - 129 market rental)

FSR has been increased from:
14.71 to 14.95

From VancouverMarket.ca:


http://www.vancouvermarket.ca/wp-con...-Alberni_1.jpg
http://www.vancouvermarket.ca/2017/1...in-two-towers/

I don't see a lot of amenity space in the podium plans (other than daycare):
http://rezoning.vancouver.ca/applica...FloorPlans.pdf

This is upper-mid tower:
http://www.vancouvermarket.ca/wp-con...-Alberni_5.jpg
http://www.vancouvermarket.ca/2017/1...in-two-towers/

This shows the closure of Nicola for the pocket park:

https://i.imgur.com/eXLiBVl.png
http://rezoning.vancouver.ca/applica...cola/index.htm

This shows the materials - Stone!:
https://i.imgur.com/2nVi8SS.png
http://rezoning.vancouver.ca/applica...cola/index.htm

Architect is Robert Stern? Yikes, haven't heard that name creep up since PoMo DIED.

Give this design to some regressive American city... they will be an embarrassment here

Yeah, PoMo surrounded by glass condos. They will stand out even more so, and I don't think in a good way.

how can you claim something is passive house when the north and south facades of each tower are treated equally? shouldn't aspect and solar gain affect how the buildings' openings are considered?

It'll be shaded on all sides - i.e. small windows on all sides.

***********


I don't mind it.

Likewise, the retention of older historic buildings that vary the mix of architectural styles.

I'm generally no fan of postmodernism, but the Stern-designed Water's Edge development in West Vancouver isn't the worst thing in the world (although below-par for something produced by a 'Starchitect'):

https://i.imgur.com/cWEKmJr.jpg?1

https://i.imgur.com/K6vZQHV.jpg?1
Source for both images

Dleung is giving me an inferiority complex. I thought these towers were sophisticated looking. At least good enough for Vancouver.

The towers will be a nice counterweight to all the boring glass stuff in Vancouver.

Tate, Aquilini, Telus Garden, Peter Wall Mansion, etc are all embarrassments. We have plenty of other examples.
1444 Alberni will serve as a much needed reminder that not all residential buildings need to be grey on grey bland spandrel piles.

Robert Stern's One St Thomas in Toronto is probably one of the nicest towers in the country.

http://i.imgur.com/dr0XDFb.jpg
Image Credit

Tbh, that's exactly what I fear.

Love it!!! It'll look great here

Local examples by Rafii are Eden and Mondrian
- although those have painted concrete exteriors.

False dichotomy. We just need to design better modern buildings. Move forward, not backward.

He's just a troll with no real knowledge of anything. I ignore anything he says most of the time. :)

I think these towers will look fantastic and like so many others have said, they bring something different to the very glass-heavy cityscape. Buildings of this style also age much better than modern glass towers.

I think you guys are looking at the wrong Robert Stern projects to compare this to.

Given the prices these will command, it's better to take a look at 520 Park Ave, 220 Central Park South, and 15 Central Park West in terms of interior/exterior treatments with regards to higher end Ramsa projects

I'm sure these will sell well to the demographic targeted given their desires for limestone houses in the westside

I think they're sophisticated-looking and good enough for Vancouver, for what it's worth. They have a "big city" almost "New Yorkish" feeling to them, IMO.:)

Agreed, nice break from the sea-foam spandrel but I agree with others here that they have a very American and dated look to them.

So many examples of this in the 90's and not sure why this regressive "New York" look is being embraced here, couldn't be further from a West Coast aesthetic and miles from most of the proposed designs immediately surrounding this project like The Alberni, the Bing Thom proposal at Bidwell and Alberni, and the Cardero. A "New York" look is totally out of synch with Coal Harbour which I thought was meant to embrace and mirror the look and feel of the surrounding water, mountains and forests.

If you hate postmodernism you're just not going to like the design of this project, no matter how well executed.

I'm not a fan myself but I do appreciate that it's different. The towers themselves won't be that visible on the skyline anyway and the neighbouring towers will be stealing the spotlight.

My understanding of postmodern architecture wouldn't describe these towers. There are a couple of good examples of postmodern office buildings on Granville Street, these seem more like 1930s designs built 90 years later.

They probably won't look like the illustrations for very long, if they keep the materials they're proposing. the Haddington Island stone cladding (which is an andesite from Vancouver Island), is the same stone that City Hall is clad with. There has been a constant, expensive, and still only partially successful effort to stop the building staining.

Yes, not to mention Grace Residence at Richards and Drake. I like some of the concrete towers, provided they have classy, and sometimes ornate exteriors.

A lot of those concrete towers at Joyce/Collingwood area, plus a few downtown, especially those along Nelson street, are way underdesigned and, IMO, plain and even ugly.

it screams money at least, looks like the place you step out of your driven car greeted by a doorman...

More like art deco revival - i.e. being true to the principles and proportions of art deco with a bit of classical thrown in.
(i.e. punched windows instead of an emphasis on vertical lines formed by windows with ornate spandrels below each window)

Then again, there are ridges in the stone spandrels below each window.

http://urbanyvr.com/wp-content/uploa...ower-heght.jpg
Tower profile. Credit: MCM Partnership/Robert A.M. Stern Architects
http://urbanyvr.com/1444-alberni-str...-passive-house

Heck, Vancouver could use a touch of that "Upper East Side" class .....

So long as it doesn't catch on too much. You think glass-and-spandrel is monotonous and ugly, just wait until the entire city looks like a cathedral:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...rk-Jan2005.jpg

Heh heh; yes! However, Vancouver is a relatively small metro, and I doubt there's much risk of that happening here. Nevertheless, a touch of classy elegance would be good, IMO.

I think that these towers are an excellent break from everything else. I do agree that they look "dated" but I think that they look "dated" in a very elegant way. Plus with these towers being surrounded by glass towers all around, I really doubt that these two towers will detract Vancouver from maintaining its style; rather it will add some much needed diversity - architecturally speaking.

Perhaps that's what some architects and planners had hoped for, but the only thing the existing buildings reflect is the cold, soulless nature of that entire neighborhood.

.. the residents will shop at Restoration Hardware instead of InForm...

then why not do something with punched windows thats simple and sublime like this...

https://www.designboom.com/architect...he-hemisphere/

Stern's work isn't post-modern...as pomo always had a touch of irony about it...the stuff is just a boring unimaginative pile of cliche

It's just style preference.

That's why most of the houses on the West Side of Vancouver mimic an arts and crafts style rather than a modernist cube.

I think this is interesting...remember the last time Robert Stern came to town; to design Olympic Village (for Millennium - he had already done Edgewater for Millennium) Vancouver ushered him out of town (the City and the local architectural community if I recall)

So he is back with for Vancouver are some unlikely buildings.....but the developers have smartly thrown a curve to the City...the world's tallest Passive House buildings, which fit all of Vancouver's greenest city plans etc. Much harder to throw it out...again interesting strategy.

But to keep it in perspective, why do people use Robert Stern to design their apartment buildings...because they sell...here is the classic Vanity Fair article on 15 Central Park West https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2...t200809Central

true, but EVERYTHING sells in Vancouver. For me it is embarrassing that we will get significant international publicity for producing the world's largest passive tower complex whereas the design is tremendously unimaginative in its use of hackneyed pseudo-deco...c'mon Vancouver we can do better than this...its like making a Tesla look like Hudson and its a pity

Would you pigeonhole this design as "hackneyed pseudo-deco?" True, it's a variant of a style of postmodern; but is it "pseudo-deco?" To each his own.
I find it rather classy personally, but that's just one opinion. At least it's not more green glass and spandrel, or some post-bizarre pre-modernist hybrid, undefinable, clash-with-everything creation that will date badly. ...IMO

Everything about 432 Park bothers me. I find it very ugly and ridiculous in it's proportions. That's obviously a personal opinion and clearly not shared by everyone, but I far prefer what's being proposed here to that monstrosity.

This will be view from the top floors of these towers.

http://vuosiamaailmalla.fi/blog/wp-c...amaisema12.jpg

I think the difference with OV is that that was on City-owned property meant as a showcase for the City.

But then again, there was the other instance where the Urban Design Panel - higher buildings version - rejected the first design for The Melville, which was a classical style tower similar to Robert Stern designs.

I would hope that the City is now tolerant enough to accept different design styles rather than inadvertently (?) creating a skyline of "sameness".
It's the solid surface buildings that stand out in the skyline.

Model and Open House date
 

I grabbed these at City Hall on Friday:

https://i.imgur.com/ZMVuOnUh.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/3Fnj4JPh.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/TYUOsEFh.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/SgWs3E9h.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/WFj9d8Hh.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/rMR0CBZh.jpg

A friendly reminder that the open house is:

I love it, finally something unique and iconic.

Why is it called passive house?

Same here !! It has a real "big city" (dare I say 'New Yorkish') look and feel to it.

Energy efficiency - (i.e. no active heating or cooling (?))

More po-mo I'd think, which for some would equate to NYC perhaps.

Nope. Excuse me, but it's just that it looks "un-Vancouverish." No green glass; .... and the shape of the buildings have sort of an 'East Side Manhattan' aspect to them......IMO.

What about vancouver house, baptist church, kengo kuma and 1500 west georgia?

Nowhere near unique nor iconic, but still a refreshing contrast to what usually gets built here.

Or just a refresh to the Mondrian project next to Yaletown, which is pretty similar with its po-mo light.

https://goo.gl/maps/2hzJyJem8Ez