Downtown Vancouver Updates - Page 56

officedweller · #**1101** Posted **Mar 10, 2008, 7:46 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by flight_from_kamakura

for emery barnes, do you know if the planned size of the lot is the full 4 hectares they planned back in 2002?

As far as I know - the only buildings left on the block will be the seniors' home and the co-op.

Quote:

as for the lucie may brown park, do you know if the city already has control of the land?

I think the City does own the land. A building was cleared from the site a while back - can't remember what it looked like though. The office building mid-blcok is not part of the park site (the city required an analysis when R&R was built to show a skinny building could still fit on the office block site without being too close to R&R.)

jlousa · #**1102** Posted **Mar 10, 2008, 7:01 PM**

Social housing/non-market housing scheduled to go up at 1308 Seymour St roughly at Drake. No mention on # of units. Can't recall if this was one of the buildings annouced by the province earlier, anyone know?

Just found it, it is one of the previously annouced 12 sites.

jlousa · #**1103** Posted **Mar 10, 2008, 8:18 PM**

Mondays update, some hard details on the GM office tower.

800 Griffiths Way,
22 Storeys, 4 levels u/g parking.
27,847M2, 416 Parking stalls,
CRU on main level. Start 09

Firenze daycare.
14,000sqft. Will be a 2 storey addition atop existing parkade.
Will incorporate green roof, and playground. Start Aug/08.

Guess that answers the question about the lack of space for the school and the daycare.

flight_from_kamakura · #**1104** Posted **Mar 10, 2008, 8:30 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by officedweller

As far as I know - the only buildings left on the block will be the seniors' home and the co-op.

awesome! if this is the case, it's the best possible news.

Quote:

The office building mid-block is not part of the park site (the city required an analysis when R&R was built to show a skinny building could still fit on the office block site without being too close to R&R.)

interesting to hear. the office block you mean must be that one that used to have awesome indie sort of places upstairs, and scratch records at the ground level. and i guess you mean a tower block on the lot adjacent to (ie. south of) the building. if that's the case, it would mean that the city owns 3 lots, and maybe the lucie mae brown lot which would make for a 4 lot site. fascinating.

i spent about an hour going through everything i could find online about the parks board's eventual plans for the site and i just couldn't find anything with a city imprimatur on it. this brings me to the conclusion that you made in your first response - that the city's really got nothing planned for this. in fact, per the draft master plan, they've got the downtown zone far down the list in the parkland acquisition/development queue, behind fairview, sefc, marpole, the westend, and a bunch of other places. all this seems to suggest that they'll be sitting on this for a while.

thanks again for the info!!

officedweller · #**1105** Posted **Mar 10, 2008, 10:26 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by flight_from_kamakura

interesting to hear. the office block you mean must be that one that used to have awesome indie sort of places upstairs, and scratch records at the ground level. and i guess you mean a tower block on the lot adjacent to (ie. south of) the building. if that's the case, it would mean that the city owns 3 lots, and maybe the lucie mae brown lot which would make for a 4 lot site. fascinating.

The City owns the land from the office block to the corner as far as I know - the empty lot with the small grove of trees, Lucy Mae site, empty lot and corner building.

LeftCoaster · #**1106** Posted **Mar 11, 2008, 10:13 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by phesto

The lighting effect is back on at The Melville.

Also, an update on the Amacon tower at 1133 Melville: Amacon is still pursuing an office tower on the site...but is targetting mid-2010 for demolition of the existing building (they are still doing short-term leases in the building until early 2010). With the long-delayed policy changes from the Metro core jobs study, as well as the fall election, Amacon was told it would be a lengthy rezoning process, and instead they are going to wait it out. The bizarre part is that it looks like they are going to let the 2 floors of residential remain vacant, rather than spend the money to upgrade them for a two year rental period. Seems a waste of housing space in such a prime spot...

The good news is that they are still interested in pursuing a taller tower on the site (Raggedy posted a couple of development options a while back), pending the outcome of the recommendations with regards to height and density relaxations in the metro core study.

Don't know how this skipped through unnoticed... this is great news. I thought this proposal was kinda dead in the water. Raggedy you heard any news regarding the tower too?

RE melville: I have noticed the light on for the last few weeks too, its been on every night now for a while. I wonder why it was shut down for a bit.

officedweller · #**1107** Posted **Mar 11, 2008, 10:33 PM**

Here's a pic of the waterproofing repairs at Robson Square - the tents are where they chopped down the trees a while back (pic by me March 11th):

yogiderek · #**1108** Posted **Mar 12, 2008, 9:54 PM**

They are about to start the demolition of the buildings where West Pender place is about to rise. Noticed the school is permanently closed and a demolition company has set up some fencing. Pender street really has gone under a fantastic change over the last few years.

nathan6969 · #**1109** Posted **Mar 13, 2008, 1:23 AM**

^^Their ad in the paper last week said it was 95% sold out already...i'm surprised this ones been moving along so quickly.

raggedy13 · #**1110** Posted **Mar 13, 2008, 2:45 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by LeftCoaster

I thought this proposal was kinda dead in the water. Raggedy you heard any news regarding the tower too?

Nothing really more than what phesto said. I know the latest design of it was apparently (at least somewhat) inspired by One Madison Park (a condo) in NYC though. It's quite a change in direction from the original cantilevered concept.

I'm glad that info about it has been circulating around to other forum members. Seems more likely to become a reality now, even if we do have to wait for awhile.

SFUVancouver · #**1111** Posted **Mar 13, 2008, 6:50 AM**

Crossroads

My photo, taken March 11th, 2008

Cooper's Quay Precinct

My photo, taken March 12th, 2008

Olympic Village

My photo, taken March 12th, 2008

My photo, taken March 12th, 2008

Foundry

My photo, taken March 12th, 2008

Vancouver Hilton (Robson and Cambie)

My photo, taken March 12th, 2008

Raffles on Robson

My photo, taken March 12th, 2008

officedweller · #**1112** Posted **Mar 13, 2008, 7:42 AM**

Thanks.
The Hilton seems to be stuck in the late 80s. The UDP minutes I think called for some simplification of the detailing - hopefully it'll make it better.
Note the use of granite on the columns flanking the corner entrance (only one is covered so far) - Better than average finishing.

excel · #**1113** Posted **Mar 13, 2008, 8:33 AM**

What is the construction timeline for the Hilton again?

giallo · #**1114** Posted **Mar 13, 2008, 10:32 AM**

Yeah, the Hilton looks awful. Hopefully, there will be some big changes to the colour and crown.

Hed Kandi · #**1115** Posted **Mar 13, 2008, 11:27 AM**

What is with all the architectural monstrosities in this city?

I should quit my job and take over as head of the UDP.

I would let absolutely none of these abonimations pass.

jlousa · #**1116** Posted **Mar 13, 2008, 4:49 PM**

I like the Hilton design. I think we suffer from an abudance of quality products and sometime expect way too much.
I really like how Coopers Quay turned out. Much better then I imagined.

flight_from_kamakura · #**1117** Posted **Mar 13, 2008, 5:06 PM**

awesome pics sfuvancouver, thanks for those.

it's nice to see how that robson/cambie corner is being built out, but jesus christ, that hilton render is utterly despicable. i pray that they're forced to make significant changes. great hotel site though.

SFUVancouver · #**1118** Posted **Mar 13, 2008, 5:46 PM**

Thanks for the feedback about the photos.

I think the model for the Hilton looks better than their render, which is overly dark. The remarkable thing is how much the TV Tower at Cambie and Robson will loom over the Hilton. Based on the context model the Hilton will be about 40% shorter than the adjacent TV Towers tower.

Hed Kandi · #**1119** Posted **Mar 13, 2008, 6:59 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by jlousa

I like the Hilton design. I think we suffer from an abudance of quality products and sometime expect way too much.
I really like how Coopers Quay turned out. Much better then I imagined.

Abundance of quality products? Are we living in the same city?

Vancouver has a miniscule amount of great projects (Jameson House, Sheraton Wall Center, Bentall 5, and the Ritz Carlton).

We have an abundance of mediocre cookie cutter buildings designed by overweight architects with erectile disfunctions.

officedweller · #**1120** Posted **Mar 13, 2008, 7:05 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by SFUVancouver

The remarkable thing is how much the TV Tower at Cambie and Robson will loom over the Hilton. Based on the context model the Hilton will be about 40% shorter than the adjacent TV Towers tower.

That's because of two different view cones -

This one limits the Hilton, but not TV Towers:

This one hits both: