Downtown Vancouver Updates - Page 205

Yume-sama · #**4081** Posted **Aug 1, 2009, 4:50 AM**

Its ideal, but very few realities are actually idyllic.

geoff's two cents · #**4082** Posted **Aug 1, 2009, 6:48 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yume-sama

Its ideal, but very few realities are actually idyllic.

Now that's what I call a catch-all excuse. Anyway, sooner or later, the mods are going to call this trolling, so I'll let this alone for now.

entheosfog · #**4083** Posted **Aug 1, 2009, 7:06 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by hollywoodnorth

Ground breaks for Vancouver housing for homeless
Last Updated: Tuesday, July 28, 2009 | 5:02 PM PT Comments33Recommend20
CBC News
The six-storey Station Street Housing Project will not be far from the Main Street SkyTrain station.The six-storey Station Street Housing Project will not be far from the Main Street SkyTrain station. (CBC)

Construction begins soon on an 80-bed supportive housing development for the homeless and those at risk of homelessness, the first of 14 to be funded by the province but owned by the City of Vancouver.

B.C. Housing Minister Rich Coleman and Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson were among those who broke ground Tuesday for the six-storey Station Street Housing Project, not far from the Main Street SkyTrain station.

"Today's groundbreaking for Station Street is quite frankly an important step to helping people who are homeless on our streets today towards … getting out of homelessness, or being at risk of homelessness, in Vancouver to actually moving them to supports and being helped to turn their lives around," said Coleman.

Robertson was elected last year with the goal to end homelessness in the city as his top priority.

"It's another important piece of the puzzle. We need thousands of units to be constructed in Vancouver to address the scale of the problem. This is a great next step though," said Robertson.

The province will pick up most of the $21-million construction cost. The city has donated the land. The PHS Community Services Society will operate it.

Coleman said more groundbreakings will be coming in the next few months.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbi...ver-homeless-housing-groundbreaking.html

there is full on ground clearing going on at the site now

So does this project fit into the empty space that's there right now or is the burnt-out building being demo'd as well?

hollywoodnorth · #**4084** Posted **Aug 1, 2009, 11:15 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by entheosfog

So does this project fit into the empty space that's there right now or is the burnt-out building being demo'd as well?

the cleared space closest to the Ivanhoe

flight_from_kamakura · #**4085** Posted **Aug 1, 2009, 5:16 PM**

argh. this should be built out in marpole or something, concentrating these folks there even more is just so 1990s. still, at least it's not on hastings...

osirisboy · #**4086** Posted **Aug 1, 2009, 5:26 PM**

thats exactly what i was thinking. its just yet another retarded location for social housing.

deasine · #**4087** Posted **Aug 1, 2009, 5:47 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by flight_from_kamakura

argh. this should be built out in marpole or something, concentrating these folks there even more is just so 1990s. still, at least it's not on hastings...

Well you know, many of them prefer living in the DTES, as shown in a program by Global.

flight_from_kamakura · #**4088** Posted **Aug 1, 2009, 7:17 PM**

good old global. i'm actually half convinced that the powers that be are more comfortable with a containment effort sure to be successful than they are in actually making substantial efforts that could potentially. ayaa. anyway, if you're reading this thread geoff meggs, take a look at this:

http://books.google.com/books?id=G16HVxg...e&q=kleiman%20%22high%20point%22&f=false

SpongeG · #**4089** Posted **Aug 1, 2009, 8:29 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yume-sama

Though unfortunately you'd have a hard time selling an entire condo building with no parking.

People do go places, they may not drive around the city much, but there are some places worth driving to, if you wanted to say... *gasp* Leave Vancouver for a little bit.

but don't most people in the market already own a car? everyone I know owns a car before buying a condo

if i lived downtown i would just use zip or something and as most in the west end say - there is stuff east of granville?

Yume-sama · #**4090** Posted **Aug 1, 2009, 8:43 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by SpongeG

but don't most people in the market already own a car? everyone I know owns a car before buying a condo

if i lived downtown i would just use zip or something and as most in the west end say - there is stuff east of granville?

Yes, in general people who are buying expensive condos all own cars. Which is why you need a parking space to actually market the thing for sale.

SpongeG · #**4091** Posted **Aug 1, 2009, 9:36 PM**

i mean i know people who moved in and after a few years they sold their cars too but it would be more value to have a space for resale at least

djh · #**4092** Posted **Aug 1, 2009, 9:58 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by SpongeG

i mean i know people who moved in and after a few years they sold their cars too but it would be more value to have a space for resale at least

Bottom line is: Living in the *West End*, for 100 units it is reasonable to have 100 resident parking spaces. If there are shared cars in the building, 100 or less is reasonable. In another less "livable" community where transit is not so accessible or amenities are further away than in the West End, I would expect more residential parking spaces. The city should be setting standards of 1:1 OR LESS for downtown developments, to encourage car sharing and help developers bring down the overhead on construction, thus helping to facilitate at least some market-priced suites in each building.
I know I am just an anecdotal evidence, but I've never owned my own car in Vancouver, have owned a condo for almost all the time I've been here on the edge of downtown, and am a car-sharer. I'm not typical in that I don't need to commute long distances with a car, but my wife uses the bus to get to work or walks or occasionally bikes. Yes, nice options if you can get them. Having said that, in our loft, on a typical day there are unused cars sitting in almost half of the car spaces every work day, so most people don't really *need* a car on a daily basis - car sharing would be perfect for our condo, so we would be fine with 1:1 or less car spaces IF there were sufficient car sharing vehicles in the building. And many of my peers are in the same position - they live within the Broadway Corridor or closer to downtown, on easy access to major transit routes, and either don't use a car every day, or would be happy to have easy access to Zipcars/CAN.

Yume-sama · #**4093** Posted **Aug 1, 2009, 10:02 PM**

I own two parking spaces, and don't have a car in Vancouver

I've had offers to rent one for a few hundred a month.

It adds value to a unit, if it didn't there wouldn't be people lining up to pay $20,000 - $25,000 extra per spot. Heck, one building in Calgary was charging $50k extra.

entheosfog · #**4094** Posted **Aug 2, 2009, 2:02 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by hollywoodnorth

the cleared space closest to the Ivanhoe

Ahh gotcha thanks!

eduardo88 · #**4095** Posted **Aug 2, 2009, 3:40 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yume-sama

I own two parking spaces, and don't have a car in Vancouver

I've had offers to rent one for a few hundred a month.

It adds value to a unit, if it didn't there wouldn't be people lining up to pay $20,000 - $25,000 extra per spot. Heck, one building in Calgary was charging $50k extra.

Yeah, when I still lived in Vancouver we had 4 parking spots (we bought two units and joined them together), so we'd rent one out for a few hundred a month...it was nice having that extra cash

Metro-One · #**4096** Posted **Aug 3, 2009, 3:34 AM**

Knowing how much downtown Vancouver condo owners like to pretend that they live in a rural area with no lights or noise (essentially being the world's largest NIMBYs), i think i just found their dream tower...

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=172111

Architype · #**4097** Posted **Aug 4, 2009, 3:58 AM**

I'm not sure if anything about this proposal at Bidwell & Davie has been posted, but I found this article interesting:

Quote:

Some residents of the West End don't want a new 20-storey building proposed for a key location near English Bay. But the West End Residents Association says height is not the problem.

Brent Granby, president of WERA, believes residents against the project don't realize a 20-storey building has always been legal at the corner of Bidwell and Davie under current zoning.

Henriquez Partners Architects and property owner Millennium English Bay Properties Ltd. want the city to approve rezoning that would allow a building with a larger base.

Article: Tall building plan worries West Enders

Also, here is the architect's webpage on it:
http://henriquezpartners.com/2009/03/27/a-culturally-sustainable-tower/
Here is the city PDF file:
http://vancouver.ca/commsvcs/planning/re...201-1215bidwell/documents/elevations.pdf

Canadian Mind · #**4098** Posted **Aug 4, 2009, 4:20 AM**

It was posted somewhere before. For the life of me I can't understand why they are against it. It's shorter than other towers around it already.

jlousa · #**4099** Posted **Aug 4, 2009, 8:45 AM**

Looks like the Rolston "Jenga Building" might be going ahead quicker then even I thought.

raggedy13 · #**4100** Posted **Aug 4, 2009, 8:58 AM**

Thanks for the info, Jlousa. Looks promising. However, I'm not so sure if I'm a fan of that setback halfway up the building. It kind of takes away from the otherwise uniform "jenga" effect. Perhaps my opinion will change once I see a proper rendering of it though.