Well it has been a long time since a Vancouver update, hasn't it?
January 15th was a beautiful sunny winter day in Vancouver and so I headed out with my camera to take a walk downtown.
L'Hermitage ( mixed-use condo, hotel, social housing, grocery store, and retail, Robson and Richards)
Raffles on Robson (mixed-use condo and retail, Robson and Cambie)
TV Towers (2 towers, mixed-use condo and retail, Robson and Cambie)
Atelier (mixed-use condo, retail, office, daycare, Robson and Homer)
H+H (mixed-use condo and retail, Homer and Helmcken)
Yaletown Brewing Office Addition (Mainland and Helmcken)
Renos on an office bldg at Homer and Nelson
The Donovan (condo, Richards and Nelson)
1022 Living (mixed-use condo and office, Seymour and Nelson)
Dolce & Vita (2 towers, mixed-use condo and retail, Seymour and Smithe)
Capitol Residences (mixed-use condo, music school, and retail, Seymour and Robson)
Ritz-Carlton (600ft twisting tower, mixed-use hotel-condo, Georgia and Bute)
Shangri-La (650ft tower, city’s tallest, mixed-use hotel-condo-retail-gallery, Georgia and Thurlow)
Flatiron (mixed-use condo and retail, Pender and Melville)
North elevation as seen from West Pender St.
The Ritz (mixed-use condo and retail, Pender and Bute)
The Coast Hotel (Hotel, Pender and Bute)
Jameson House (Norman Foster-designed mixed-use condo and office tower, Pender and Howe)
Fairmont Pacific Rim (mixed-use hotel and condo, Burrard and Cordova)
Vancouver Convention Centre Expansion (Burrard and Canada Place Way
?)
Canada Line Waterfront Station (Granville and Cordova)
(I had my camera on panorama mode and thus the vertical horizontal distortion)
Woodwards (2 towers, mixed-use condo, Simon Fraser University campus, office, retail, and social housing, West Hastings and Abbot)
33 Pender (condos, Pender and Abbot)
Espana (2 towers, mixed-use condo and retail, beside the Stadium-Chinatown SkyTrain stn)
Bowman Lofts (?) (Beatty and West Pender)
Cooper's Quay (4 towers, condos, Cambie Bridgehead)
Olympic Village (16 buildings, mixed-use condo, retail, community centre, social housing, senior’s housing, marina, streetcar line, grocery store, etc., etc., Southeast False Creek)
Foundry (condos, Southeast False Creek)
The Rise (mixed-use condo and large-format retail, Cambie and 7th)
Crossroads (mixed-use office, condo, restaurants, large-format, retail, Cambie and West Broadway)
Stella (mixed-use condo and large format retail (auto dealership), 12th and Kingsway)
One Kingsway (mixed-use community centre, retail, and rental apartments, Kingsway and 7th)
Now walking back along Broadway to Cambie and then down to the Olympic Village.
West Broadway and Main Street, looking North.
West Broadway at Quebec street, looking west. The SkyTrain Millennium Line will be extended in phases under Broadway to the University of British Columbia (UBC) over the next 12 years. Central Braodway is ahead and it is the second densest concentration of jobs in British Columbia after the downtown core.
Looking south up Quebec street. The articulated diesel bus is part of the #99 B-Line bus rapid transit line that runs along Broadway out to UBC from the major transit hub at Commercial Drive and East Broadway. The #99 B-Line exclusively uses 120-passenger articulated diesel buses with as little as two or three minutes of headway. It currently carries in excess of 70,000 passengers per day and it will be replaced in phases by construction of the above-mentioned extension of the SkyTrain Millennium Line next decade.
Looking north down Quebec street for a glimpse of part of the downtown core.
West Broadway and Cambie Street looking south, just north of City Hall. The enormous construction project is part of the new SkyTrain Canada Line that will connect the city of Vancouver to its southern neighbour Richmond and to the Vancouver International Airport.
Looking north along Cambie Street towards downtown Vancouver. The pit in front is part of the abovementioned SkyTrain Canada Line.
West Broadway experiences a major bottleneck at Cambie street due to the SkyTrain Canada Line construction. It goes from a total of six lanes down to two. The bus-only lanes are forefitted in the intersection and the buses must merge with regular traffic. The bus to the left is one of our new 77-passenger electric trolley buses.
Because of the construction on Cambie it is easier to walk a block east or west of the street when heading north towards the Cambie Street Bridge and downtown. This is at Yukon and 7th. The second building to the left is called The Rise and it is a mixed-use building housing three large format retailers (Home Depot, Winners clothing, and Save on Foods), and a number of rental condos on the upper floors. The building further ahead on the left is also a new building. It houses two large format retailers, Canadian Tire and Best Buy.
Another shot of The Rise.
Ivy is being encouraged to grow up a blank cement wall of the Canadian Tire building. Every new building is expected to have a landscaping plan and the developer pays for the public realm improvements associated with construction of a new building. Some of these improvements include new wider sidewalks, new street trees, etc.
Looking south along Cambie Street. The Rise is on the left and the new public realm it is supplying is taking shape. In the centre up the street is the Canada Line construction. The building on the right is called Crossroads and it is a mixed-use building incorporating a medium-sized office building that will be the corporate headquarters for Yoga wear maker Lululemon, 88 condos, a Whole Foods grocery store, a Royal Bank, and a number of restaurants.
The Cambie Street Bridge is down to two lanes from its previous six in order to make room for the construction of the Canada Line. Pedestrian and cycling access is unaffected.
Looking east at Second Avenue and Cambie towards the Olympic Village construction precinct in Southeast False Creek (SEFC). Most of the Olympic Village surrounding SEFC neighbourhood will be built to about the same approximate height as the building on the right in this photo, which is about 90 feet in height. There will be a number of buildings that reach slightly taller and others, obviously, will be shorter.
Another shot of the Southeast False Creek neighourbood, this time looking east from the Cambie Street Bridge deck. The brick building on the right is being restored and converted to lofts. A streetcar line, Vancouver's first in more than 50 years, will run down First, below, and connect to SkyTrain to the east and Granville Island to the west. Additional phases are planned.
A couple of shots of the Olympic Village showing the mass of cranes.
These folks (below) across False Creek in Yaletown are getting some new neighbours to the east of the Cambie Street Bridge.
These new towers are being built by Concord Pacific in the Cooper’s Quay precinct. Behind them is BC Place, home of the BC Lions football franchise and the site of the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2010 Winter Olympics.
Things are moving along for the Olympic Village itself. Construction continued through the worst of winter without disruption. The weather is fine again, the snow has melted, and the first flowers are starting to bud. It has become a pretty busy place. 12 tower construction cranes are building the 16 buildings, the first of which is about three storeys above ground. The remainder is all below- or at- grade.
The following several shots of the new man-made marine habitat island. The very small bay to the left is where the daylighted stream will empty into False Creek. There are dozens of streams running under Vancouver, all of which were filled in or buried in sewers more than a hundred years ago. One is being daylighted and deeply integrated into the landscaping of the Olympic Village. The elementary school will be right beside it and children can be expected to play on its banks and run across its pedestrian bridges.
The new Seawall features separated pedestrian and bicycle/wheeled vehicle paths, a number of boardwalks that feature recovered wood from the old industrial piers on the site, and an inlet with pedestrian bridge adjacent a piazza and the community centre. A marina for non-motorized boats (Dragon Boat war canoes, kayaks, etc.) will be adjacent.
All photos were taken by me on January 15th, 2008.
My photos ( SFUVancouver in SSP | Vancouverite in SSC )[/QUOTE]
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I should also add that the viewcones and the shape of our skyline was designed as a rounded bubble, not to exceed the mountain tips from primarily False Creek and southern view locations. The above photo was most likely taken from Jericho Beach or Spanish Bank, a skyline outlook that the people responsible for the current height limits did not consider.
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