Quote:
Originally Posted by scryer
COV is definitely one of the worst offenders of excluding midrise construction in the Lower Mainland. The advantage that the other municipalities have is that their lands weren't hyper developed within a short amount of time (I'm thinking way back when Vancouver was sprawling like crazy just after Point Grey was amalgamated) so they have a lot more flexibility with their land to create mid-rise developments without as much displacement as the COV would. The other emerging metro Vancouver municipalities also get the huge advantage of learning from COV's mistakes.
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Actually, The City of Vancouver develops more mid-rise units than any other municipality. At least, they did from 2011-2016, the most recent period you'll find data for. Statistics Canada publish a cross-tab of dwelling type by period built. If you look at 'apartments in a building that is fewer than 5 storeys' then Vancouver saw 3,640 dwellings added. The next municipality was Surrey, with 3,215. Burnaby and Richmond each saw just over 1,600 built.
When it comes to taller buildings - five or more storeys (like Olympic Village, but obviously also towers) then the City of Vancouver is even more ahead of all the other municipalities. There were 9,975 units built between 2011 and 2016, while Richmond saw 3,480 completed, Burnaby 3,720, Coquitlam 2,125 and Surrey 1,905. Obviously some municipalities have seen more built in the current cycle, but probably not dramatically more than in these numbers.
Quote:
Originally Posted by scryer
I just think the COV is a little narrow-minded when it comes to the design of midrises because a lot of the midrises that are currently being designed fall under the 'contemporary modern box' architectural style. Or atleast they get the most publicitiy. Midrises can be designed to actually suit a diverse amount of neighbourhoods; in fact I think that treated wood can be used in midrises up to 6 floors (please, someone correct me here) before needing to adhere to additional construction codes. This would open up the opportunity to use diverse construction materials instead of being forced to stick to expensive ones. Currently we are just seeing a lot of modern box midrises in COV, which is great, but there are also lots of examples of other architectural styles out there as well. This thread is to try and open up new ideas and feelings towards midrises as becoming a significant part of the housing solution.
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The design of the buildings is almost always up to the developers. They chose the architect and the there are very few parts of Vancouver where there are any sort of design guidelines to force any particular style. Some architects have quite retro styled townhomes, and we've seen a few retro towers proposed (but not many developed). Contemporary designs are apparently more popular with developers, presumably because they believe they sell more easily. Materials are increasingly driven by performance - both in terms of energy and durability. Buildings can be woodframe up to six floors, and higher if they use laminated panel construction. There will be more of those in future, but the structural requirements that follow with that form of construction will almost certainly mean they'll be contemporary looking.